News Nug
Apple’s new Processor Trace instrument is incredible

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

Apple's new Processor Trace instrument in Xcode addresses common performance issues developers face, such as user complaints about slow apps or battery drain. Unlike traditional profilers like Time Profiler that offer statistical sampling, Processor Trace captures every branching decision made by the code at the CPU level, providing a clear view of the app's execution flow. This tool offers a more comprehensive analysis than Intel's VTune Profiler, which, while advanced, is complex and not optimized for iOS or macOS development, especially

Dyna – Logic Programming for Machine Learning

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: Hacker News

Dyna is a programming language specifically designed for machine learning researchers, building on the concepts of logic programming languages like Datalog and Prolog. It enables flexible execution orders and allows rules within programs to be weighted, which facilitates the expression of complex programs succinctly. For instance, operations such as matrix multiplication and the Fibonacci sequence can be written in just a line of code. Launched in 2004, the Dyna project aims to bridge the gap between non-executable mathematical notation and executable code

Why People Read Assembly

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses the performance of the MurmurHash64A hash function, particularly focusing on its assembly code and optimization opportunities. It notes that while the function itself is effective, there are inefficiencies in how certain operations, like `memcpy`, are handled in different compilers (LLVM and GCC). The author points out that the assembly code generated by LLVM has multiple unnecessary operations that could be streamlined. For instance, it could inline `memcpy` and reduce redundant loads of constants. The article

A Better Vocabulary for Testing

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

The author expresses frustration with the current vocabulary and classification for software testing, arguing that terms such as "unit test" and "integration test" lack clear definitions. The actual behaviors being tested and the methodologies used in end-to-end (E2E) tests are often underspecified, and other types of tests—like stress and load tests—lack a proper framework. The author advocates for a more actionable vocabulary that allows testers to adapt their approaches based on resources. They propose a categorization of tests into

OpenAI Progress

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) over the years, highlighting significant milestones from 2018 to 2025. It features dialogues from various iterations of OpenAI's language models, showcasing their development from GPT-1 to GPT-4. Each model's responses reflect a growing capacity to engage in conversations about AI's implications, ethical considerations, and future advancements. The summary emphasizes the importance of understanding AI's capabilities, potential uses, and alignment with human values as the technology progresses

How to Keep Services Running During Failures?

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

Graceful degradation is a design principle in software applications that allows systems to maintain essential functionality even during failures or heavy traffic. Instead of crashing, a system operates at reduced capacity. For instance, a video streaming service might display a general list of popular videos if its recommendation engine fails, ensuring that video playback continues. Implementing graceful degradation involves strategies like traffic control, failure management, and system health visibility. Rate limiting or request throttling acts like a bouncer, managing incoming requests during high traffic events to

The Peculiar Case of Japanese Web Design

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

In a 2013 blog post by David on Randomwire, he examined the distinctive nature of Japanese web design, contrasting Japan's international reputation for minimalism with its actual online presence, which is characterized by maximalism. Japanese websites often feature vibrant colors, dense text, and numerous images, diverging from the three-color design principle prevalent in other cultures. To investigate this phenomenon further, the author analyzed 2,671 images from popular websites worldwide using AI, revealing distinct web design clusters. Not

Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: Hacker News

The content suggests blocking Reels and Shorts on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube. It also highlights the ability to set scrolling limits on any app through an antiscroll mode, promoting a distraction-free experience by eliminating ads and short video content.

Dicing an Onion, the Mathematically Optimal Way

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: Hacker News

The project discusses the mathematical approach to dicing onions, motivated by widespread curiosity about the topic on platforms like YouTube. Chef J. Kenji López-Alt explored optimal methods for achieving uniform piece sizes in onion dicing. The article describes starting with a halved onion and analyzing the effects of vertical cuts on piece size consistency, using the concept of standard deviation to measure variations in piece sizes. Specifically, it focuses on relative standard deviation, allowing for unitless comparisons of how closely the sizes cluster around

Sebastian Lague: Ray-Traced Glass and Caustics

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

Sure! Please provide the content you'd like me to summarize.

Hello Mac OS X Tiger (2022)

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

In January 2005, a user excitedly upgrades to Mac OS X Tiger and decides to develop apps using Xcode 2.0. However, they struggle to find helpful tutorials online. The user starts a new Cocoa Application project called "Hello Tiger" in Xcode. They modify the main window by adding UI elements like an NSButton and two NSTextField controls, centering the text in one of the fields using the Inspector tool. The user then creates a new object called "MainWindow

Pfeilstorch

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: Hacker News

A Pfeilstorch (German for 'arrow stork') is a white stork that returns to Europe with an arrow or spear embedded in its body after wintering in Africa. Approximately 25 such storks have been documented in Germany as of 2003. The first notable Pfeilstorch, found in 1822 near Klütz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, carried a 75-centimeter spear in its neck and is on display at the University of Rostock. This stork was

Typechecker Zoo

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses a personal project aimed at creating minimal implementations of notable static type systems over the last 50 years. The project involves developing toy versions of programming languages and core type-checking algorithms, starting from simpler systems and advancing to modern dependent types. The implementations will be done in Rust due to its good parser ecosystem and ease of installation, alongside a preference for the contrast between functional languages and a non-functional programming language. This project is intended as a fun side activity, rather than a rigorous introduction to

Branch prediction: Why CPUs can't wait? - namvdo's blog

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: /r/programming

In a blog post on August 15, 2025, the author discusses their exploration of low-level computer fundamentals, focusing on branch prediction in CPUs and its impact on performance. They highlight the LLVM compiler infrastructure, renowned for its optimizations, but emphasize that even the best compiler techniques can be hindered by hardware limitations, specifically unpredictable branches. Poor branch prediction can undermine the advantages gained through LLVM optimizations. The author notes that branch misprediction has a latency cost of around 5 nanoseconds,

PuTTY has a new website

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: Hacker News

PuTTY is a free SSH client for Windows and Unix, featuring an xterm-style terminal emulator. It is primarily developed and maintained by Simon Tatham. Users can access the latest version on the download page or visit the main website for more information.

Best Practices for Building Agentic AI Systems

Published: 2025-08-16 | Origin: Hacker News

The author has been experimenting with AI agents in UserJot, a platform for feedback, roadmaps, and changelogs. The goal is to create sophisticated agent systems that can analyze customer feedback at scale, identify patterns, and automatically generate changelog entries without manual effort. After extensive testing and reverse engineering tools, a basic beta version has been released. Key findings from building these agent systems include the effectiveness of a two-tier structure: Primary Agents manage conversations and task delegation, while Subagents execute specific

Timeout Middleware in Go: Simple in Theory, Complex in Practice

Published: 2025-08-15 | Origin: /r/programming

Timeouts are essential for HTTP servers to manage client resource usage and safeguard against DoS attacks. A developer encountered challenges while trying to implement a longer timeout for a file upload endpoint in Go, realizing that the typical solutions failed silently, which frustrated users and developers alike. The article advocates for building a robust, chainable timeout middleware using Go's middleware pattern. Middleware allows HTTP handlers to be wrapped with additional functionalities, promoting modular, maintainable code and enabling various behaviors before and after the original handler executes,

The future of large files in Git is Git

Published: 2025-08-15 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the challenges Git faces with large files, which can bloat storage, slow down cloning, and disrupt Git forges. In response, GitHub introduced Git LFS in 2015, an extension that addresses these issues but also adds complexities and costs. Concurrently, the Git project has been developing its own strategies for handling large files, particularly through a feature called partial clones, introduced in 2017. Partial clones allow users to skip downloading large files initially, significantly improving cloning speed

Lazy-brush – smooth drawing with mouse or finger

Published: 2025-08-15 | Origin: Hacker News

This JavaScript library enables users to draw smooth curves and straight lines using a mouse, finger, or any pointing device. It includes a feature that requires a minimum distance before the brush moves towards the cursor, allowing for customizable lag. The lag can range from none to infinite. Additionally, users can adjust the size of the brush, though this does not impact the lazy-brush functionality.

OpenBSD is so fast, I had to modify the program slightly to measure itself

Published: 2025-08-15 | Origin: Hacker News

The benchmark conducted by Jann Horn reveals that Linux performs unexpectedly slowly compared to OpenBSD, which is significantly faster. The test involved creating an extra thread while two existing threads created 256 sockets. The author had to modify the program for OpenBSD due to the limited precision of the time utility. While the results from Linux were disappointing, OpenBSD demonstrated superior performance. Although the systems tested were not identical, they were comparable. The author hints that the code contains clues related to performance, and expresses curiosity