Posts that commenters keep linking to, ranked by how many different people have cited them in Hacker News comments. 277 posts.
It's a bit of a silly post, because syntax is the least interesting detail about the language, but, still, I can't stop thinking how Zig gets this detail just right for the class of curly-braced languages, and, well, now you'll have to think about that too.
Personal website of David R Hagen, scientific software engineer
Applying human ergonomics and design principles to syntax highlighting
There is a well-known puzzle based on the premise of an �infinite� grid of resistors connecting adjacent nodes of a square lattice. A small portion of such a grid is illustrated below.
The state of CI platforms is much stronger than it was just a few years ago. Overall, this is a good thing: access to powerful CI platforms enables software developers and companies to ship more reliable software more frequently, which benefits its users/customers. Centralized CI platforms like GitHub Actions, GitLab…
Just kidding. Of course, I have something to say about this. In the company, we look at the art of Homeworld from time to time and bow to the creators of this masterpiece. Once, we talked about how great the background look and how interesting this sketched style is. There is something…some details seem…special to us:
A practical guide to working with AI coding agents without the hype.
Who will take over for us if we don't train the next generation to replace us? A critique of craft, AI, and the legacy of human expertise.
k is a family of concise, fast vector-oriented languages designed by Arthur Whitney . Calling k a “family” is deliberate; there is no single definitive k, but instead a sequence of slightly incompatible versions. If you decide to stick with k, you’ll see mentions of k4 , k5 etc. Exactly what those numbers mean aren’t…
I was recently interviewed for a piece in the Times on why the philosophy of stoicism has become very popular in the Silicon Valley tech crowd. Only a sliver of my thoughts made it into the article, but the question from Nellie Bowles was very stimulating so I wanted to share more of my thoughts.
Its modern version (the reverse mode of automatic differentiation) was first published in 1970 by Seppo Linnainmaa
Ah, Zig . I have a love-hate relationship with this one. A “new” (reading: appeared a couple years ago , already — yes, already ), language with high ambitions. Zig was made to run at low-level, with a simple design to solve many problems C has (macros, allocators, error handling, more powerful types like baked-in…
Databases are global, shared, mutable state. That’s the way it has been since the 1960s, and no amount of NoSQL has changed that. However, most self-respecting developers have got rid of mutable global variables in their code long ago. So why do we tolerate databases as they are?
How early, sustained, supermassive black hole jets carved out cosmic voids, shaped filaments, and generated magnetic fields
On how plummeting battery prices make 24/7 solar power a reality today.
In AI circles, a “centaur” describes a certain kind of machine/human collaboration, in which “decision-support” systems (which the field loves to call “AI”s) are paired with human beings for results that draw upon the strengths of each, such as when a human chess master and a chess-playing computer program collaborate…
Last year, I urged furries to stop using Telegram because it doesn’t actually provide them with any of the privacy guarantees they think it gives them. Instead of improving Telegram’s c…
A blog mostly about Clojure programming
So, I originally planned for this to be on my premium newsletter, but decided it was better to publish on my free one so that you could all enjoy it. If you liked it, please consider subscribing to support my work. Here’s $10 off the first year of annual.
Cross-Site Request Forgery countermeasures can be greatly simplified using request metadata provided by modern browsers.
Flame Graphs vs Tree Maps vs Sunburst explores different hierarchal visualizations by visualizing file system or disk space.
At this summer's HOPE conference, Joshua Aaron spoke about ICEBlock, his iPhone app that allows users to anonymously report ICE sightings within a 5 mile radius, and to get notifications when others report ICE sightings near them. You can see the full talk, and the lively/infuriating Q&A,
Encrypting files with passkeys, using the WebAuthn prf extension and the TypeScript age implementation.
Like you, I'm sick to the back teeth of talking about AI. Like you, I keep getting dragged into discussions of AI. Unlike you‡, I spent the summer writing a book about why I'm sick of writing about AI⹋, which Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish in 2026.
I have updated this article with new data, better code, and friendlier data visualization. You can read the new version here . Th...
Everyone’s been talking about it. JD Vance read it. What does it actually tell us?
Notes from my colleagues on AI-assisted software delivery
