7 Ridiculous NPM Packages You Won’t Believe Exist

Pointless packages I didn’t even know existed.

Photo by Jalal Kelink on Unsplash

All developers are familiar with npm, after all, it’s the world's largest software directory.

There is no entry barrier when it comes to publishing your own package to npm. Anyone with an npm user account can upload can publish user-scoped npm packages.

It has over one million packages while also offering other tools and services.

This also opens the possibility of people pushing useless and purposeless code, but you’d think that other developers won’t download such packages but that’s not true for some of the weird and pointless packages that I’ll be listing below.

Below are 7 npm packages that are simply ridiculous:

#1. is-odd & is-is-odd

Source: npm

The is-odd package returns true if the given number is odd, and is an integer that does not exceed the JavaScript MAXIMUM_SAFE_INTEGER.

Not only can you achieve the same by not importing this package and simply dividing the given number by 2 to check, but the fact that it almost touched 500k weekly downloads (at the time of writing this article).

In fact, in 2021 May, it even surpassed the 500k mark and has over 160 stars on GitHub.

This package is used as a dependency in other such packages like is-even, which as the name states, returns the opposite of the return value of is-odd.

Similarly, you can find other packages like is-is-odd which returns true only when the function passed is is-odd.

const isOdd **=** require('is-odd');

const isIsOdd = require('is-is-odd');

console.log(isIsOdd(isOdd)); //=> true

console.log(isIsOdd(function() {}));

Packages like is-is-is-odd also exist and I hope you get the pattern now.

#2. owoifyx

This package ‘owoifies’ your messages. It simply means it replaces certain letters and words. You can find the changes in the picture attached below:

Source

You achieve the same using simple regular expressions and string operations, but apparently, 147 developers needed it in the month of June 2021.

The package even has 4 dependencies.

#3. true

Source: npm

This package was published 7 years ago and has clearly stood the test of time as almost 1,000 developers needed this package in March 2021.

This package is used when you need a function that returns the Boolean value true. Sounds stupid, right?

If you are wondering, this is the index.js code of this package.

module.exports = function aJavaScriptPortOfTheUnixUtilityTrueReturnsTheBooleanValueTrue () 
{  
      return true;
};

JavaScript already has built-in boolean values true& false but it took over 30 commits to make this package what it is today.

#4. meaning-of-life

Source: npm

This package aims to answer the most sought-after question: What is the true meaning of life?

And 542 developers sought the answer this week.

It turns out that the meaning is a number and it’s 42.

It is most likely a reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams but you may never know.)

The index.js code of this package:

module*.*exports = 42

#5. Dachshund

Dachshund and meaning-of-life package is created by the same person.

Unlike the other package, this package does provide some level of utility.

Source:npm

It provides with you two functions to replace underscores with dashes and vice-versa.

However, it can be achieved with a few lines of code. All you have to do is create a new file with the name you want and pass our old file in it as the first argument.

#6. none

Source: npm

The package’s name describes exactly what this package is about.

It’s simple, elegant, flexible, and does nothing.

With over 3 dependents and over 1,000 weekly downloads, this package provides this function to you:

var none = function() {};

It even has an entire page worth of documentation, on how it works across many frameworks and doesn’t require configuration.

#7. is-ten-thousand

Source: npm

This package checks if a number is 10,000 or not, something you can do with a simple one-line statement number===10000 .

Not only did this package get 20 downloads, but also has over 28 dependencies which increase its file size to 7kB.

What 28 dependencies this package needs? You may check this index.js file to see for yourself.

You can find similar packages like is-ten and is-hundred. So next time you need to check if a number is a ten, a hundred, or a thousand, you know which packages to install.

Final thoughts

npm is the world’s largest software directory and a critical part of JavaScript frameworks and apps.

With over 1 million packages and no high entry barrier to publishing your own package, you are bound to find stupid packages that do more harm than good and serve no purpose.

However, if you are stuck and searching for solutions online, instead of installing even reliable, tested packages, you should try to see if it can be done with few lines of code.

Check my recent blog discussing how to find solutions to programming errors and logic using the Google search engine. 5 Google Search Techniques To Quickly Find Solutions & Answers Tips and tricks used by pro-developers to find answers within minutes instead of browsing endlessly for hours.javascript.plainenglish.io

I hope you enjoyed this reading article.

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