SQLite prefixes its temp files with `etilqs_`
67 points by av
67 points by av
Daniel Stenberg (the curl maintainer) has a fun collection of emails he has received from users finding his email address in the curl license notice: https://daniel.haxx.se/email/
Subject: Just wanted to say you...
I hope you have a really nice day and that nothing is going wrong in your life. Just know that i don't know what you do or who you are and that I just saw your email address and name somewhere
This one felt wholesome
I hope all is going well for you in Sweden and Curl is running smoothly. Here is Adelaide Curl is not running so smoothly
For those who want to read it as regular wrapped text:
2006-10-31: The default prefix used to be "sqlite_". But then Mcafee started using SQLite in their anti-virus product and it started putting files with the "sqlite" name in the c:/temp folder.
This annoyed many windows users. Those users would then do a Google search for "sqlite", find the telephone numbers of the developers and call to wake them up at night and complain.
For this reason, the default name prefix is changed to be "sqlite" spelled backwards. So the temp files are still identified, but anybody smart enough to figure out the code is also likely smart enough to know that calling the developer will not help get rid of the file.
I love how they've got the entire story in to comment the thing, rather than just 'don't change this' or something.
(Rhetorically:) What else would you use a comment for?
Code itself consists of a formal definition of what it means; communicates "what" to the machine and to future readers. But we can't tell the machine why, and future readers need to know. So yeah: the why goes in the comments.
(And of course when the formalism is too complicated for a human to easily explain, out the "what" there too. But more importantly why.)
As a bonus, now if people search for etilqs they might call up McAfee support instead.
Not that it's likely to actually be McAfee's fault, but they can handle the calls.
Hello, my name is Mr. Snrub. And I come from, uh... someplace far away. Yes, that'll do.
Behind every sign, there’s a story
Great find. Thanks for sharing that tidbit