Best of 2012

The blog posts Hacker News loved most in 2012. 531 posts.

Software Engineering
485

Reading Other People's Code

I really enjoy reading other people’s code, it allows you see how others solve common problems, and sometimes even provide parables on what you shouldn’t do with yours. It also teaches the much needed skill of reading other people’s code. Now, ask yourself two questions: 1. how

496

The Caves of Clojure

Lately I've had an urge to start playing a few games again, namely Nethack and Dwarf Fortress (the latter being triggered by this book ). Aside from being incredibly fun, they also made me want to play around with writing a roguelike game of my own.

501

One sentence per line, please

I give some advice each year in my annual Sphinx tutorial at PyCon . A grateful student asked where I myself had learned the tip. I have done some archæology and finally have an answer. Let me share what I teach them about “semantic linefeeds,” then I will reveal its source — which turns out to have been written when…