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Topics /
Software Engineering
The most popular blog posts about software engineering on Hacker News. 14,531 posts.
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Shitlist Driven Development (2016)
Recently the team I work with completed a project to allow Shopify to run in multiple datacenters . This project was a refactoring project in disguise. When you undertake large refactoring of a code-base with 100s of developers and 100,000s of lines of code, you can’t align by sending an email. The merge-conflicts a…
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CRDTs: The Hard Parts [video]
A talk at Hydra distributed computing conference , online (originally planned to be in Moscow, Russia), 06 Jul 2020
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Why recursive data structures?
In this essay, we are going to look at recursive algorithms, and how sometimes, we can organize an algorithm so that it resembles the data structure it manipulates, and organize a data structure so that it resembles the algorithms that manipulate it.
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7 Databases in 7 Weeks for 2025
7 databases to explore in 2025.
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Python Language Features and Tricks
A list of Python tips and tricks. See how many of them you already know.
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Learn Docker by building a Microservice
Dave Kerr, partner and Head of Engineering at QuantumBlack Labs, McKinsey & Company. Writing on software engineering and agentic AI.
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Not Lisp again (2009)
A blog about computers, functional languages, Lisp, and Scheme.
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Curl’s backdoor threat
-- "Have you ever detected anyone trying to add a backdoor to curl?" -- "Have you ever been pressured by an organization or a person to add suspicious code to curl that you wouldn't otherwise accept?" -- "If a crime syndicate would kidnap your family to force you to comply, what backdoor would you be … Continue…
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Is PostgreSQL good enough?
tldr; you can do jobs, queues, real time change feeds, time series, object store, document store, full text search with PostgreSQL. How to,...
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Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard
2021-11-13 page moved to http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html
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Your data model is your destiny
Your product's core abstractions determine whether new features compound into a moat or just add to a feature list. Here's how to get it right.
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Engineering principles for building financial systems
Best practices and principles to create accurate and reliable software based financial systems.
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I've been working on X11 on jailbroken iOS
A guide on how to compile the X Window System for iOS
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What’s so great about functional programming anyway?
To hear some people talk about functional programming, you’d think they’d joined some kind of cult. They prattle on about how it’s changed the way they think about code. They’ll extol the benefits of purity, at length. And proclaim that they are now able to “reason about their code”—as if all other code is irrational…
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Designing Low Upkeep Software
It's common for me to get excited about a personal project, put a bunch of time into it, and then lose interest. As much as possible, I want these projects to continue working; upkeep isn't fun. What does designing for minimum maintenance look like? The biggest piece is minimizing your dependencies, and limiting them…
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Go Concurrency Distilled
Interactive mini-book on concurrent programming in Go.
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Userscripts Are Fun and Are Still Very Much Relevant
Sharing my thoughts on userscripts, a phenomenon the swept the internet back in the 00s.
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An Opinionated Guide to Xargs
This post has everything you need to know about xargs , an essential tool for shell programming . It's based on my # comments on this "wrong" post:
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Light Table's Numbers, And What's Happening Next
All I can say is “wow”! The response to Light Table has been far more positive and far greater than I could’ve imagined. To put it into perspective, here are some aggregated numbers at the time of this writing:
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A Complete Guide to LLVM for Programming Language Creators
We'll explain the concepts underlying LLVM IR, and how you can use the LLVM C++ API in your programming language's compiler.
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Relicensing with AI-Assisted Rewrite
Exploring the chardet v7.0.0 controversy: Can an AI rewrite legally 'launder' a library from LGPL to MIT?
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How to Write a Spelling Corrector
I figured they, and others, could benefit from an explanation. The full details of an industrial-strength spell corrector are quite complex (you can read a little about it here or here ). But I figured that in the course of a transcontinental plane ride I could write and explain a toy spelling corrector that achieves…
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Zig is hard but worth it
"I learned Zig in a weekend! …Six hours! …6µs!" say the blissful lizards. Followed by something to the effect of, "It’s easy to pick up because the syntax is so simple."
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Performance Matters
Last year I got certified as an EMT. As part of the training I shadowed an ambulance for a day and assisted with each run. For each patient we treated, we had to fill out a patient care report. A patient care report. (source) EMTs are just one part in a long chain. If they transport a patient to a hospital, the…