Best of 2014

The blog posts Hacker News loved most in 2014. 1,013 posts.

Software Engineering
968

The Firing Squad Problem

In 1957, John Myhill first posed an interesting problem that was closely related to computer programming, but did not require any related background to solve. Dubbed the "firing squad synchronization problem," the puzzle was passed along by word of mouth and first solved by Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy. However…

974

2D gaming using Processing.js

We had a look at some of the basics of making a game using the Processing.js game library, so let's kick it up a notch by just getting down and making our own Super Mario game. When we're done with this part of the tutorial, we'll have a game with koopa troopers, platforms that we can jump up through but not fall down…

979

The Emacs Problem (2005)

The Emacs Problem Stevey's Drunken Blog Rants™ Charles G. pointed out in an email discussion recently: Lisp still doesn't seem like the right language for doing text manipulation, and nothing I've seen from the Emacs libraries is making me think any differently. It sure beats the hell out of Java

985

The Magpie Developer

I’ve often thought that software developers were akin to Magpies, birds notorious for stealing shiny items to decorate their complex nests. Like Magpies, software developers are unusually smart and curious creatures, almost by definition. But we are too easily distracted by shiny new toys and playthings. I no longer