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Tests Don’t Prove Code Is Correct… They Just Agree With It

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The author reflects on the difference between proving algorithm correctness in academia and the reliance on testing in the software industry. While testing can ensure that an application works with specific examples, it cannot guarantee that it functions correctly in all scenarios. The complexity of real-world software is often cited as a reason for this disparity, leading some to liken software behavior to biological processes, which lack predictability. However, the author emphasizes that software is ultimately deterministic, meaning consistent inputs will yield the same outputs. They argue that

Line-based Lisp Editing

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The text discusses the challenges of integrating Lisp, a tree-based programming language, with ed(1), a line-oriented text editor. The author expresses a desire to combine these two "wolves" in their programming identity but acknowledges the difficulties due to their differing structures. Lisp typically requires a more complex syntax with nested parentheses, making it unsuitable for line editing in ed. The author suggests a potential solution: transforming Lisp code into a more line-oriented format by isolating self-contained forms on their own lines, inspired

There Are No Programmers In Star Trek

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The author discusses the evolving landscape of programming, suggesting that it is a temporary phase as artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly assumes programming roles. Drawing from science fiction, particularly "Star Trek," the author notes that characters interact with advanced computers without engaging in programming activities. Instead, users communicate their needs directly to AI, which intuitively understands and executes tasks without requiring coding. The piece highlights that, in many futuristic narratives, technology is depicted as self-sufficient, with programmers becoming obsolete and replaced by roles focused

My trick for getting consistent classification from LLMs

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the evolving landscape of machine learning (ML), particularly in the realm of natural language processing (NLP) and the use of large language models (LLMs). A senior ML engineer expressed frustration on Reddit about their job being reduced to calling APIs from major model providers instead of doing hands-on ML work. Andrew Ng reinforced this notion, stating that training a sentiment classifier is no longer practical when existing APIs can achieve equal or better results quickly and at a low cost. However, the use of

DragonRuby Game Toolkit - Tetris! Link to playable game and GH repo in the comments.

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/ruby

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Technical Debt: Make Developers Happier Now or Pay More Later

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/programming

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Automate all the things with Swift Subprocess

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/programming

Swift is a general-purpose programming language known for its safety, performance, and ease of use, but it has struggled to extend beyond mobile development into broader workflows, particularly in scripting. Historically, scripting in Swift has been challenging and not user-friendly, diminishing its practicality even for simple tasks. However, a new package called swift-subprocess, released recently, aims to address these issues and improve the scripting experience. The article plans to explore what scripting entails, why it's been difficult in Swift, and how

NanoChat – The best ChatGPT that $100 can buy

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The content emphasizes the importance of user feedback and introduces "nanochat," a full-stack implementation of an LLM similar to ChatGPT. It is designed to run efficiently on an 8XH100 node using a script called `speedrun.sh`, which handles the entire process from tokenization to web serving with a user-friendly interface. The script training and inference process takes about 4 hours, costing approximately $100. Users are guided on how to set up a new 8XH100 GPU

Short Ruby Newsletter - edition 152

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/ruby

The summary of the content is as follows: On October 13, 2025, Vladut Cosmin and Lucian Ghinda highlighted several updates and offers for the Ruby community. A promotional discount of 40% is available for Rails Blocks, a library of over 250 UI components for Rails apps, using the code SHORTRUBY until October 31. Recent product launches included Forge by Rails Designer, invoiceBoom by Steven Aguilar, and Fizzy by David Heinemeier Hans

Environment variables are a legacy mess: Let's dive deep into them

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/programming

Programming languages have rapidly evolved, but software development often still relies on outdated interfaces for runtime parametrization using environment variables (envvars). These envvars lack organization and types, existing as a flat global dictionary of strings. They are passed from parent processes to child processes during execution via the execve system call on Linux. While most tools (like Bash and Python) naturally pass the parent environment to children, some, such as the login executable, create a fresh environment. The environment is managed in a static

No science, no startups: The innovation engine we're switching off

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The author invites readers to subscribe to a blog for updates on new posts and emphasizes the importance of understanding science, particularly in the context of the Trump Administration's perceived war on it. The piece highlights that the general media, scientific journals, and universities often fail to effectively communicate what science is, how it operates, and its relevance to everyday life. In the post, the author aims to demystify science by explaining the roles of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists in fostering innovation and

Don't Force Your LLM to Write Terse [Q/Kdb] Code: An Information Theory Argument

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The author discusses the tension between writing terse code and prioritizing accuracy when using large language models (LLMs) for coding in q/kdb+. Traditionally, the q/kdb+ community values concise code; however, the author, influenced by LLM capabilities, argues that clarity and performance take precedence over terseness. An example illustrates the complexity of constructing an identity matrix in both q and Python, with a detailed breakdown of how the Python code works. The author concludes that while LLMs can write

Dutch government takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The Dutch government has taken control of Nexperia, a semiconductor maker owned by China's Wingtech Technology, to secure the availability of essential chips in Europe amid rising global trade tensions. Nexperia, which produces chips for automotive and consumer electronics, is crucial for Europe's technological supply chains. The Dutch government invoked the "Goods Availability Act" to prevent potential shortages of Nexperia's products during emergencies. This decision followed concerns over significant governance issues within Nexperia that threatened its operational continuity and European economic

Blameless Culture in Software Engineering

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The author shares an experience from their first job where they accidentally deleted a staging database, impacting their team's productivity. Instead of facing blame, they participated in a "blameless post-mortem" led by their manager, aimed at understanding the mistake and finding a solution without assigning fault. This experience shaped the author's views on engineering culture, highlighting that mistakes should inform systems, not define individuals. The piece introduces an upcoming webinar focused on "blameless culture," emphasizing that failures are learning opportunities

Fastmail Desktop App

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The content presents an overview of Fastmail, a secure email service, highlighting its features and resources. Key sections include: - **Product Tour**: A brief introduction to Fastmail's offerings. - **Support & Resources**: Access to the Fastmail help center, support contacts, system status updates, and avenues to report security issues. - **Guides**: Instructions on transitioning from other email platforms like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Proton, and HEY, along with tips for achieving inbox

For centuries massive meals amazed visitors to Korea (2019)

Published: 2025-10-13 | Origin: Hacker News

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From Text to Token: How Tokenization Pipelines Work

Published: 2025-10-12 | Origin: /r/programming

Search engines do not process text as whole sentences or individual words; instead, they break down user input into smaller, more abstract elements called tokens. These tokens are generated through a pipeline that includes various stages of cleaning and transformation, which ultimately prepares the text for effective searching. Using the example sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," the process involves steps like lowercasing letters and normalizing characters by removing accents, ensuring consistency in how terms are indexed and searched. This approach allows

<ruby>: The Ruby Annotation element

Published: 2025-10-12 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content provides an overview of web technologies, including HTML (markup language), CSS (styling language), JavaScript (scripting language), and Web APIs (programming interfaces). It encourages learning web development and introduces tools provided by MDN (Mozilla Developer Network). Additionally, it highlights the <ruby> HTML element, which is used for small annotations, often for the pronunciation of East Asian characters. The ruby term originates from a typesetting measurement for legibility. The page states that this feature has

Emacs agent-shell (powered by ACP)

Published: 2025-10-12 | Origin: Hacker News

The author introduces "acp.el," an Emacs Lisp implementation of the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), designed to enhance integration with AI agents in Emacs. After creating a client library to access AI models via chatgpt-shell, the author develops "agent-shell," a native Emacs shell leveraging comint-mode for easier interaction without switching modes. This allows users to communicate with various agents uniformly, improving the user experience by simplifying configuration for different agents. The author notes the high costs associated with developing

Ask HN: What are you working on? (October 2025)

Published: 2025-10-12 | Origin: Hacker News

The content outlines the vision for creating an innovative recipe app aimed at making cooking accessible and successful for beginners. The app will utilize a graph-based system to handle recipes, which facilitates features like multilingual support, customizable settings for individuals with disabilities, and adaptable unit measurements. This design allows for accurate calculations of nutritional information and other metrics by following interconnected data points, making recipes universally applicable across different regions. The app aims to launch a beta version in 2026. Additionally, the author mentions their work on Online