undefined | Better HN

0 pointsmrweasel1y ago0 comments

Given that API keys are likely to simply be copy-pasted, I don't honestly think this matters all that much.

If you're have the risk to users confusing 0 and O, then you can't use either. Your users aren't going to know that you're running Base32-Crockford and that they'll only encounter 0 and 1, never O, I or L.

We did a "password" generator, for people who made a purchase, but didn't want an account. To view an order they'd then need to enter a code, found in their confirmation email. Those codes where really short, 8 or 10 characters, no 0,1,I,O,L,U,V and all upper case. If the user entered the code in lower case, we'd automatically upper case it. You'd never use these as a real password, but for a temporary order tracking page they pretty much removed all of the input mistakes people could make.

0 comments

notpushkin1y ago

> Given that API keys are likely to simply be copy-pasted, I don't honestly think this matters all that much.

Yeah, I think it’s not that important for API keys particularly. It’s possible that some IDs would be spoken over a phone for example, but it’s probably rare.

> If you're have the risk to users confusing 0 and O, then you can't use either. Your users aren't going to know that you're running Base32-Crockford and that they'll only encounter 0 and 1, never O, I or L.

The way Crockford got around that was, OIL are allowed when decoding the string (and just replaced by 0 and 1 accodringly). So if used mistypes O in place of 0, it’s still going to decode just fine. I think it should work alright for stuff like license keys or “passwords” like in your case (although your solution works too!)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse