Best of 2020

The blog posts Hacker News loved most in 2020. 994 posts.

Software Engineering
229

Bash $* and $@ (2017)

In Bash, there are two closely related "special parameters" for accessing how the current script was invoked: $* and $@ . For both variables, the behavior is affected by whether or not the variable is enclosed in double quotes. The following table summarizes all cases:

230

On Voice Coding

(contains amazon affiliate links) I have had repetitive stress injury (RSI) flareups on and off for many years. I’ve kept them under control mostly through use of a Kinesis Advantage ergonomic keyboard that I’ve had for fifteen years. However, several months ago, I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome and…

238

Why Not Rust?

I've recently read an article criticizing Rust, and, while it made a bunch of good points, I didn't enjoy it --- it was an easy to argue with piece. In general, I feel that I can't recommend an article criticizing Rust. This is a shame --- confronting drawbacks is important, and debunking low effort/miss informed…