6241
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?...
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 14,541 posts.
6242
TLA+ Action Properties
There’s not a whole lot on TLA+ technique out there: all the resources are either introductions or case studies. Good for people starting out, bad for people past that. I think we need to write more intermediate-level stuff, what Ben Kuhn calls Blub studies. Here’s an attempt at that. Most TLA+ properties are…
6243
Spreadsheet is a software development paradigm
Some pros and cons of using Excel for software development compared to the traditional approach of using a programming language
6244
Signed Char Lotte
“signed char lotte” is a computer program written by Brian Westley and the winner of the “Best Layout” award in the 1990 International Obfuscated C Code Contest. The cleverness of the text is staggering. Superficially it reads as an epistolary exchange between two (possibly former) lovers, Charlotte and Charlie. At…
6245
Golang: Know Your 'Nil'
In Golang, nil is an interesting value. You may be familiar with Go’s philosophy of making the “zero value” meaningful.
6246
Improving Shell Workflows with Fzf
I show how I improved four of my shell workflows to parameter-less commands with the help of fzf.
6247
Nil in Go is typed in theory and sort of untyped in practice
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
6248
Compiling a Lisp to x86_64 (2020)
Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly; Lisper got to sit and wonder, (Y (Y Y))? Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land; Lisper got to tell himself he understand. -- Kurt Vonnegut, modified by Darius Bacon
6249
Down the Golang Nil Rabbit Hole
Edit 2021-03-30: Jeremy Mikkola wrote about some closely related topics back in 2017. Edit 2021-03-31: Chris Siebenmann wrote a response to this post that explains exactly how interface values that are nil are typed. It’s more complicated than I thought! I’m not sure I have another Rust & Postgres blog post in me…
6250
Git email flow vs. GitHub flow
Comparing the Github and Gitlab pull request workflow to the Git built-in email workflow.
6251
Tar is an ill-specified format (2015)
http://invisible-island.net/ autoconf/ Copyright © 2014–2015,2016 by Thomas E. Dickey
6252
No one gives a shit what programming language you use
I’ve had it up to here (gestures at nose level) with the bullshit around programming language elitism. Back when I thought it mattered I was just as bad as the bullshit I’m seeing today…
6253
Why do interviewers ask linked list questions?
A couple years back I gave a talk on researching software history, using “linked list interview questions” as an example topic. Since referring people to a video is less accessible than just writing a blog post, I’ve reproduced the question here. So why do interviewers like to ask linked list questions? If you ask…
6254
How much can a Clojure developer do alone?
A response to a developer weighing Clojure's benefits, explaining the REPL workflow through human-computer interaction and reflecting on individual productivity.
6255
I Hate Git Submodules
Abildskov.io
6256
Developer tools can be magic but instead collect dust
Three research developer tools that made programmers dramatically faster (Reflexion Models, the WhyLine, MatchMaker), and why none still run.
6257
Piano Practice Software Progress
First an apology. I started this project because during the first 9 months of the COVID-19 pandemic business was down to a fraction of what it was before then, and I had a lot of time on my hand. But that has changed now and there is a lot of work in my ‘day job’, so I don’t have a whole lot of time to work on the…
6258
Better Architecture Diagrams for Agile Teams: actionable tips and lessons
From the finding of the diagram’s goal and audience to review checklist
6259
Shitty Software Kills People
How the public healthcare system in Italy is using software to support the vaccination effort is appaling. I’ve spent a good part of the last 30 years trying to convince people that software is imp…
6260
It Doesn't Work
8 AM. Like any other day, I take a quick glance at my GitHub notifications via Octobox.
6261
How to implement a hash table in C
An explanation of how to implement a simple hash table data structure, with code and examples in the C programming language.
6262
A “Better C” Benchmark
An unusual benchmark for programming languages, designed to replace C. Unlike many other benchmarks, this one measures developer productivity and performance.
6263
Speculating the entire x86-64 instruction set in seconds with one weird trick
As cheesy as the title sounds, I promise it cannot beat the cheesiness of the technique I’ll be telling you about in this post. The morning I saw Mark …
6264
Building a full-text search engine in 150 lines of Python code
Full-text search is everywhere. From finding a book on Scribd, a movie on Netflix, toilet paper on Amazon, or anything else on the web through Google (like [how to do your job as a software engineer](https://localghost.dev/2019/09/everything-i-googled-in-a-week-as-a-professional-software-engineer/)), you've searched…
6265
SQLite is not a toy database
Here is why SQLite is a perfect tool for you - whether you are a developer, data analyst, or geek.
6266
Socat – A utility for data transfer between two addresses (2018)
I learned about socat a few years ago and am generally surprised more developers don’t know about it. Maybe I appreciate it all the more…
6267
Emoji Under the Hood
Detailed look into all the machinery involved in rendering Emoji
6268
Comparing Svelte and React
Last year I created Pomodone , a small time tracking application based on the Pomodoro technique of working in 25 minute intervals. It's a pretty basic app; it has a 25 minute timer (that runs in a Web Worker) and saves a history of your "poms" to a small Firebase database. I initially built it using React (well…
6269
My Python testing style guide (2017)
This post is an attempt to catalog some of my practices around testing Python projects. It's not meant to be treated as dogma- I anticipate I'll update this significantly over time.
6270
GeoGuessing with Deep Learning
Applying photo geolocation estimation to the game of GeoGuessr.