Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Working in large established codebases is a significant challenge for software engineers, as traditional learning avenues like open source or personal projects don’t adequately prepare one for this complexity. After a decade of experience, the author emphasizes a critical mistake engineers often make: ignoring the existing codebase in favor of cleanly implementing new features. This approach leads to fragmentation and inconsistency, which are detrimental in a large codebase. Consistency is crucial; it helps avoid surprises, prevents the codebase from deteriorating, and facilitates

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

A good computer science curriculum at the university level, particularly for aspiring software developers, should focus on fundamental principles that enable adaptability to rapidly changing technologies. Northeastern University is in the process of overhauling its curriculum to address this challenge. The current curriculum emphasizes foundational skills through courses like "Fundamentals of Computer Science," which teaches systematic program design using the design recipe method, encouraging students to break problems into manageable parts before coding. The objective is to foster problem-solving skills and critical thinking about software rather

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The author reflects on their journey from being a new-grad software engineer at Airbnb to co-founding a company called Graphite, which focuses on creating developer tools to enhance software development for other teams. Initially, they enjoyed the thrill of coding and problem-solving, but their passion evolved into building and leading teams. As Graphite expanded, their role shifted from coding to leadership, which involved learning management practices, hiring a leadership coach, and mentoring engineers. The author seeks to articulate the responsibilities of an engineering manager

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the complexities and limitations of Zig's generics, drawing parallels to C++ and cautioning against the idea that other programming languages should adopt Zig's model. It highlights the misconception that Zig's generics are flawless and criticizes the notion that all languages should embrace this approach. While Zig's generics align with its minimalist philosophy and work well within its specific context, this does not mean they are appropriate for all languages, as many do not prioritize simplicity to the same extent. The author

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Tramway SDK (stylized as T̈ra̦m̊ẅa̦ÿ SD̈K) is a graphics package and game engine developed over the past three years. This article argues against mainstream engines like Unity and Godot, citing their high hardware requirements and power consumption. Tramway SDK, in contrast, is lightweight, capable of running on hardware from the last 15 years, and does not require a dedicated graphics card, as it can use software rasterization.

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The document outlines an article titled "Parsing JSON in C & C++: Singleton Tax," which discusses the joy open-source developers experience when users engage with their tools beyond basic examples. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding memory usage patterns and the ability to override default memory allocators when dealing with high-throughput software, like network packet analysis. It includes a breadcrumb trail for navigation on a website and mentions the article's keywords, which are "Tech" and "Less Slow." Additionally, there is a

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses an online compiler designed for HIP and NVIDIA® CUDA® code that can be utilized with WebGPU. The article is authored by Ben Schattinger and mentions that JavaScript is required to use the tool. Additionally, it likely includes some information about the GPU capabilities relevant to the compiler.

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Visual Basic (VB), introduced in 1991, is one of the most popular programming languages but has garnered a poor reputation due to its accessibility for beginners, leading to the proliferation of poorly written "spaghetti code." The initial versions, VB1 to VB3, contributed to this negative perception. However, advancements in VB4, VB5, and VB6 improved the language's capabilities, with VB5 allowing compilation to native system code, which attracted more skilled programmers and resulted in better applications.

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

The author reflects on the differences between robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) following the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2024. They highlight the common misconceptions that equate the two fields, particularly due to advancements in large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. The author addresses a frequent question about why robotics has not advanced as rapidly as AI, emphasizing that sensorimotor tasks in robotics are inherently more complex. They argue that the challenges posed by robotics, exemplified by

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/ruby

Gem Shop is an intentionally vulnerable Ruby on Rails 8 project designed for security education, featuring examples of common vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). It serves as a simple e-commerce platform for users to shop for gemstones, allowing learners to explore security issues within a familiar context. The project is open source and available on the Paraxial.io GitHub. Hands-on labs have proven effective for teaching security to web developers, especially if they are already familiar with Ruby on Rails,

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/ruby

The article by Paweł Dąbrowski discusses the importance and utility of the Rails console for developers working with Rails applications, both in production and development settings. It highlights its role in database interaction and other use cases, and emphasizes the ability to customize the console for improved efficiency. Dąbrowski offers tips to enhance comfort while using the console, such as silencing logs to avoid distractions when debugging with `puts`, and utilizing a special variable `_` to access the last printed result

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) enhances Python debugging capabilities, moving beyond traditional print statements. Key features include conditional breakpoints, real-time variable tracking, and the ability to pause code execution. Setting up debugging involves configuring the launch.json file, which controls how VS Code runs debug sessions using debugpy. This setup allows for environment variable configurations—especially useful for Flask applications—and supports multiple debug configurations for various scenarios. Users can easily switch between configurations via the debug toolbar, and the launch.json file can be

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses the potential impact of generative AI on the software engineering industry over the next decade, highlighting the optimism among venture capitalists about AI replacing costly human coders. It questions the future of software engineering and whether it will lead to extreme productivity gains or significant job displacement. While AI could enhance coding efficiency, the author notes that only about 40% of a software engineer's time is spent on tasks AI can automate. This limitation suggests modest improvements in development speed, bounded by Amdhal

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/ruby

The author reflects on their annual project of updating the Ruby Changes site each December, a task they've undertaken since 2018 to create an annotated changelog of Ruby's syntax, semantics, and core APIs. The 2024 entry, which focuses on Ruby 3.4, involved around 60 hours of work and encompasses over 7,000 words across 30 sections. The author's primary goal is to document all notable changes in each Ruby version, not just the ones they personally favor, emphasizing

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

In the article by Sergey Tselovalnikov, the author discusses the common practice of platform teams in the context of DevOps and the challenges they face. While platform teams can significantly enhance organizational efficiency and value, several subtle "sins" can impede their success. Tselovalnikov, drawing from his experience in platform engineering, outlines these common pitfalls and offers solutions to avoid them, focusing on deeper issues rather than superficial problems like excessive toil. He clarifies the terminology around platform teams, emphasizing their role

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Meta's platforms are designed to promote free expression, despite the challenges that come with allowing billions of voices to be heard. In a 2019 speech, Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that freedom of speech drives societal progress, cautioning against moderating content in ways that reinforce existing power structures. Recently, Meta has acknowledged that efforts to manage content moderation have become overly complex and often counterproductive, leading to excessive censorship and user frustration. To address this, Meta is committing to return to its foundational principle of free expression

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

AFCL (AdminForth Component Library) consists of reusable components designed to streamline the creation of AdminForth applications, ensuring a consistent design and quicker page development. The components adhere to styling standards and theme colors, with an ever-expanding library anticipated for future updates. Key features include: - A **loader prop** that displays a loader when enabled. - A button that functions like a link, utilizing router-link internally. - Customization options for items and selected items via slots, with the ability

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The article by Ivan Shubin discusses the challenges of creating an interactive diagramming app, particularly focusing on implementing connectors in the application Schemio. After initially exploring the use of SVG for building the app, Shubin encounters difficulties with connectors, which are vital for linking objects in a diagram. He highlights the need for these connectors to update dynamically when objects are moved. This requires scanning all objects on the canvas to determine the best attachment points for the connectors, posing a complexity especially in diagrams with numerous elements

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Hyperview allows mobile apps to render screens by fetching Hyperview XML (HXML) content from a server, similar to how web pages are rendered using HTML. HXML is designed to match modern mobile interface patterns, and any HTTP server can host a Hyperview app, which can even be deployed as static XML files. This approach facilitates quick updates and eliminates issues with long app store review times, enabling true continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) for mobile development. Users always access the latest version

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content describes several fundamental concepts in Ruby programming: - **String objects**: Represent and manipulate sequences of bytes, usually as characters. - **Whole numbers**: Can be represented using Ruby's numerical types. - **Arrays**: Ordered, integer-indexed collections that can hold any type of object. - **Hashes**: Dictionary-like structures that store unique keys and their corresponding values. - **Symbols**: Represent names and certain strings within the Ruby interpreter. - **Kernel module**: Included