4 ms·

Ask HN: What technologies are you guys excited about?

17 points by 7ero 10y ago

gt565k 10y ago
Programming on the go with google glass / digital contact lenses and a virtual keyboard. I think the nanotech will need another decade or 2, and perhaps a break through in battery tech ;), but I can see us getting there in 2-3 decades.
BWStearns 10y ago
I know it's not really new but I've been playing with Erlang (really the whole BEAM family including Elixer and LFE) a little and it seems very interesting. The idea that future performance gains will be achieved through parallelism has been around for a bit but at least from my perspective it seems like the tools to achieve those gains have become significantly more available (not just the technology itself, but the community, books/tutorials, and the lessons learned). Given the amount of logic being offloaded to the client in webapps and the increase in app stores (package manager GUIs with price tags) I'm wondering if there won't be a return of more dedicated desktop apps. I think Spotify, Slack, and other electron/react native style apps may be the opening salvo. They seem to be mostly geared towards allowing offline operation as opposed to enabling distributed applications, but it'd be interesting to see if/how that arises out of people becoming used to native apps again. I could imagine Slack in particular cutting down on its requests to their servers by figuring out a way to make teams opportunistically p2p and updating the server with diffs in larger chunks.
jotux 10y ago
Rust for bare metal firmware, specifically on ARM, as a replacement for C/C++ with static analyzers.
- collyw 10y ago
  Any good resources on where to get started with this style of programming. I am getting bored of the web dev churn and this side of things seems more stable and Rust looks nice.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    The rust book on the website is free and pretty good.
    - collyw 10y ago
      I have been going through that. I was meaning more in an overall context of systems programming concepts I might need to know.
      - StavrosK 10y ago
        Ah, I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with systems programming concepts to help there, sorry.
- w4tson 10y ago
  I'm trying out some embedded rust on arm. Tried using the rump kernel but it was a non starter. Now making headway with the yocto project [0]. I'd be interested to know if you're running rust embedded and if so how easy it is to get started. [0] https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/
  - steveklabnik 10y ago
    https://github.com/rust-embedded https://github.com/rust-embedded is a new organization working through how to improve Rust on embedded.
flukus 10y ago
Docker (and similar), because I think simplifying server admin will be the end of the cloud hype.
fitzwatermellow 10y ago
WebRTC / QUIC. Apps like Google Allo and Duo are just the tip of the spear ;)
csixty4 10y ago
I've been on a Functional Programming kick lately. Wrote an FP library for PHP. Done a little in JavaScript. Kicking the tires on a couple functional-first languages. Looks like Scala may be a good place to settle down & get comfy. Aside from that, I'm thinking it might be time to start the discussion about digital identity & reputation ecosystems again.
- runT1ME 10y ago
  Functional Programming in Scala is probably my favorite tech/coding book ever. It takes you from square one to writing a full fledged, 100% functional, concurrent, IO tool kit. If you didn't think it was possible (or know how) to do functional IO, or FP was helpful or things like databases, webservers etc. definitely check this book out. Scala is a great language too. Easy to get started with, very challenging to master, but the community is great, job opportunities are very good, and I'm having a blast doing it.
  - csixty4 10y ago
    Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out! The community is really what struck me about Scala so far. I'm coming from the WordPress world, where the community is positive & supportive for the most part.
randelramirez 10y ago
Been coding in C# for several years now, I played with F# and it's fun. question though....do you guys think it will be as a popular as C# or Java? you know "first-class" citizen(if I may say so) when it comes to writing business apps(desktop/web/mobile(xamarin-already supported)). :D
- blahfuk 10y ago
  Nope, I think it's much more likely the best features from F# will continue to be ported to C# instead
davidjnelson 10y ago
React, lambda, dynamodb, functional programming.
usgroup 10y ago
Haxe : because it can target web, desktop and mobile with the same code for apps and games , and allows for declarative UI building. eXist-DB : XML DB with baked in app framework. Server side code is in XQuery. Magic for data aggregation API building. PicoLisp : Lisp + declarative Web UI + prolog + distributed DB in one tightly coupled package. Build your next crawler in this to appreciate the magic.
miguelrochefort 10y ago
The Semantic Web
ruler88 10y ago
Proliferation of extremely low-cost devices and propagation of near-free internet connection to those who are currently not connected. The frontiers of technical products have been hyper focused on the few lucky individuals who have the latest iPhone/computer. Once we have more eyeballs on the internet from the late boomer countries, I believe the internet will change to address the needs of the folks who are using free (slow) internet and $20 devices.
effie 10y ago
Nim (language & compiler), because it seems to be the most accessible and enjoyable way to write readable compiled programs. All the power of C including existing libraries accessible through intuitive syntax inspired in Python, Pascal and other familiar languages. http://nim-lang.org/ http://nim-lang.org/
iyn 10y ago
React. Today, because it's awesome, but I'm also exited about its development (like fiber). Relay 2 (not yet released), which claims to introduce a lot of new features (like local state management, think something like flux/redux) and better performance (more details: https://speakerdeck.com/wincent/relay-2-simpler-faster-more-predictable https://speakerdeck.com/wincent/relay-2-simpler-faster-more-...). If the team behind Relay 2 were to deliver even 50% of those claims, it'd be fantastic. Functional programming - I was introduced to it on university, it was ok but I wasn't raving about it. What's funny to me, JS made me love FP and before React I really hated JS and looked at it as a toy language. Scala - I'm only learning it but it's fascinating and learning it broadens my general CS knowledge.
- derricgilling 10y ago
  Scala is definitly a cool language to learn. I like the type safety in statically typed language, and Java is just too verbose. Scala + Play Framework + Akka is solid. We use scala for parts of our pipeline for https://www.moesif.com https://www.moesif.com Docker is definitly up there also with Docker Swarm/Compose, etc. Just a matter of time as Docker Cloud and the whole Container as a Service area is fully matured. I like Kubernetes on Google or Docker Swarm on Azure, but still a ways to go before it's like spinning up a Heroku like instance. They are one of the few companies able to execute very well in getting people to adopt a new technology.
kenmendiola91 10y ago
Excited about the transformation in the recruitment industry through Machine Learning/AI. Employers will get analytics on a candidates fit to the company or job. P.S. I work for http://strategysolutions.com.au http://strategysolutions.com.au
flyx86 10y ago
NixOS, because it fixes the problems Docker tries to build a workaround for.
iLemming 10y ago
Clojure and Clojurescript. Clojure.spec and Generative testing. Om.Next and React Native. Apache Kafka and Docker. Emacs and org-mode.

17 points by 7ero 10y ago

Programming on the go with google glass / digital contact lenses and a virtual keyboard. I think the nanotech will need another decade or 2, and perhaps a break through in battery tech ;), but I can see us getting there in 2-3 decades.

BWStearns 10y ago

I know it's not really new but I've been playing with Erlang (really the whole BEAM family including Elixer and LFE) a little and it seems very interesting. The idea that future performance gains will be achieved through parallelism has been around for a bit but at least from my perspective it seems like the tools to achieve those gains have become significantly more available (not just the technology itself, but the community, books/tutorials, and the lessons learned). Given the amount of logic being offloaded to the client in webapps and the increase in app stores (package manager GUIs with price tags) I'm wondering if there won't be a return of more dedicated desktop apps. I think Spotify, Slack, and other electron/react native style apps may be the opening salvo. They seem to be mostly geared towards allowing offline operation as opposed to enabling distributed applications, but it'd be interesting to see if/how that arises out of people becoming used to native apps again. I could imagine Slack in particular cutting down on its requests to their servers by figuring out a way to make teams opportunistically p2p and updating the server with diffs in larger chunks.

jotux 10y ago

Rust for bare metal firmware, specifically on ARM, as a replacement for C/C++ with static analyzers.

collyw 10y ago
Any good resources on where to get started with this style of programming. I am getting bored of the web dev churn and this side of things seems more stable and Rust looks nice.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  The rust book on the website is free and pretty good.
  - collyw 10y ago
    I have been going through that. I was meaning more in an overall context of systems programming concepts I might need to know.
    - StavrosK 10y ago
      Ah, I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with systems programming concepts to help there, sorry.
w4tson 10y ago
I'm trying out some embedded rust on arm. Tried using the rump kernel but it was a non starter. Now making headway with the yocto project [0]. I'd be interested to know if you're running rust embedded and if so how easy it is to get started. [0] https://www.yoctoproject.org/ https://www.yoctoproject.org/
- steveklabnik 10y ago
  https://github.com/rust-embedded https://github.com/rust-embedded is a new organization working through how to improve Rust on embedded.

flukus 10y ago

Docker (and similar), because I think simplifying server admin will be the end of the cloud hype.

fitzwatermellow 10y ago

WebRTC / QUIC. Apps like Google Allo and Duo are just the tip of the spear ;)

csixty4 10y ago

I've been on a Functional Programming kick lately. Wrote an FP library for PHP. Done a little in JavaScript. Kicking the tires on a couple functional-first languages. Looks like Scala may be a good place to settle down & get comfy. Aside from that, I'm thinking it might be time to start the discussion about digital identity & reputation ecosystems again.

runT1ME 10y ago
Functional Programming in Scala is probably my favorite tech/coding book ever. It takes you from square one to writing a full fledged, 100% functional, concurrent, IO tool kit. If you didn't think it was possible (or know how) to do functional IO, or FP was helpful or things like databases, webservers etc. definitely check this book out. Scala is a great language too. Easy to get started with, very challenging to master, but the community is great, job opportunities are very good, and I'm having a blast doing it.
- csixty4 10y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out! The community is really what struck me about Scala so far. I'm coming from the WordPress world, where the community is positive & supportive for the most part.

randelramirez 10y ago

Been coding in C# for several years now, I played with F# and it's fun. question though....do you guys think it will be as a popular as C# or Java? you know "first-class" citizen(if I may say so) when it comes to writing business apps(desktop/web/mobile(xamarin-already supported)). :D

blahfuk 10y ago
Nope, I think it's much more likely the best features from F# will continue to be ported to C# instead

davidjnelson 10y ago

React, lambda, dynamodb, functional programming.

usgroup 10y ago

Haxe : because it can target web, desktop and mobile with the same code for apps and games , and allows for declarative UI building. eXist-DB : XML DB with baked in app framework. Server side code is in XQuery. Magic for data aggregation API building. PicoLisp : Lisp + declarative Web UI + prolog + distributed DB in one tightly coupled package. Build your next crawler in this to appreciate the magic.

miguelrochefort 10y ago

The Semantic Web

ruler88 10y ago

Proliferation of extremely low-cost devices and propagation of near-free internet connection to those who are currently not connected. The frontiers of technical products have been hyper focused on the few lucky individuals who have the latest iPhone/computer. Once we have more eyeballs on the internet from the late boomer countries, I believe the internet will change to address the needs of the folks who are using free (slow) internet and $20 devices.

effie 10y ago

Nim (language & compiler), because it seems to be the most accessible and enjoyable way to write readable compiled programs. All the power of C including existing libraries accessible through intuitive syntax inspired in Python, Pascal and other familiar languages. http://nim-lang.org/ http://nim-lang.org/

iyn 10y ago

React. Today, because it's awesome, but I'm also exited about its development (like fiber). Relay 2 (not yet released), which claims to introduce a lot of new features (like local state management, think something like flux/redux) and better performance (more details: https://speakerdeck.com/wincent/relay-2-simpler-faster-more-predictable https://speakerdeck.com/wincent/relay-2-simpler-faster-more-...). If the team behind Relay 2 were to deliver even 50% of those claims, it'd be fantastic. Functional programming - I was introduced to it on university, it was ok but I wasn't raving about it. What's funny to me, JS made me love FP and before React I really hated JS and looked at it as a toy language. Scala - I'm only learning it but it's fascinating and learning it broadens my general CS knowledge.

derricgilling 10y ago
Scala is definitly a cool language to learn. I like the type safety in statically typed language, and Java is just too verbose. Scala + Play Framework + Akka is solid. We use scala for parts of our pipeline for https://www.moesif.com https://www.moesif.com Docker is definitly up there also with Docker Swarm/Compose, etc. Just a matter of time as Docker Cloud and the whole Container as a Service area is fully matured. I like Kubernetes on Google or Docker Swarm on Azure, but still a ways to go before it's like spinning up a Heroku like instance. They are one of the few companies able to execute very well in getting people to adopt a new technology.

kenmendiola91 10y ago

Excited about the transformation in the recruitment industry through Machine Learning/AI. Employers will get analytics on a candidates fit to the company or job. P.S. I work for http://strategysolutions.com.au http://strategysolutions.com.au

flyx86 10y ago

NixOS, because it fixes the problems Docker tries to build a workaround for.

iLemming 10y ago

Clojure and Clojurescript. Clojure.spec and Generative testing. Om.Next and React Native. Apache Kafka and Docker. Emacs and org-mode.