1
Apple of 2019 is the Linux of 2000
Last week the laptop I use for macOS development said that there is an XCode update available. I tried to install it but it said that there ...
Nibble Stew
A gathering of development thoughts of Jussi Pakkanen. Some of you may know him as the creator of the Meson build system. jpakkane at gmail dot com
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Visit nibblestew.blogspot.com → RSS feedOn Hacker News Apr 2017 – Mar 2026
Software Engineering 12Programming Languages 7Career & Management 4Tools & Productivity 3Life, Learning & Writing 3Tech Industry & Business 3
2
It's not what programming languages do, it's what they shepherd you to
How many of you have listened, read or taken part in a discussion about programming languages that goes like the following: Person A: "Pro...
3
Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary
In my day job I work as a consultant. Roughly six months ago my current client had a non-negotiable requirement that consultants are not all...
4
Your statement is correct but misses the point
Let's assume that there is a discussion going on on the Internet about programming languages. One of the design points that come up is a gar...
5
A personal story about 10× development
During the last few days there has been an ongoing Twitter storm about 10× developers. And like all the ones before it (and all the future o...
6
Circles do not exist
Many logos, drawings and other graphical designs have the following shape in it. What is this shape? If you thought: "Ah-ha! I'm smart and r...
7
Everything old is new again: memory optimization
At this point in history, AI sociopaths have purchased all the world's RAM in order to run their copyright infringement factories at full bl...
8
What to do with C++ modules?
Note: Everything that follows is purely my personal opinion as an individual. It should not be seen as any sort of policy of the Meson buil...
9
Let's properly analyze an AI article for once
Recently the CEO of Github wrote a blog post called Developers reinvented . It was reposted with various clickbait headings like GitHub CEO...
10
Questions to ask a prospective employer during a job interview
Question : Do developers in your organization have full admin rights on their own computer? Rationale : While blocking admin rights might ma...
11
That time when I accidentally social engineered myself to a film set
I spent the last week in Toronto in the Cpp North conference . It was so much fun just to hang around with people after such a long pause.My...
12
The joys of creating Xcode project files
Meson's Xcode backend was originally written in 2014 or so and was never complete or even sufficiently good for daily use. The main reason f...
13
Writing your own C++ standard library from scratch
The C++ standard library (also know as the STL) is, without a doubt, an astounding piece of work. Its scope, performance and incredible back...
14
Plain C API design, the real world Kobayashi Maru test
Designing APIs is hard. Designing good APIs that future people will not instantly classify as "total crap" is even harder. There are typical...
15
Don’t use environment variables for configuration
Suppose you need to create a function for adding two numbers together in plain C. How would you write it? What sort of an API would it have?...
16
Why don't you just rewrite it in X?
Whenever a new programming language becomes popular its fanpersons start evangelizing its virtues by going to existing projects and filing b...
17
Comparing C and C++ usage and performance with a real world project
The relative performance of C and C++ is the stuff of folk legends and Very Strong Opinions. There are microbenchmarks that can prove differ...
18
Pinebook Pro longer term usage report
I bought a Pinebook Pro in the first batch, and have been using it on and off for several months now. Some people I know wanted to know if ...
19
Short term usability is not the same as long term usability
When designing almost any piece of code or other functionality, the issue of usability often comes up. Most of the time these discussions go...
20
Does C++ still deserve a bad rap?
Traditionally C++ has been seen by many (and you know who you are) as just plain bad: the code is unreadably verbose, error messages are und...
21
A simple makefile is a unicorn
Whenever there is a discussion online about the tools to build software, there is always That One Person that shows up and claims that all b...