4 ms·

Please add 2012 in the title. Also this was previously submitted without comments. The topic was old... but I am glad someone commented on the downsides of imp

Please add 2012 in the title. Also this was previously submitted without comments. The topic was old... but I am glad someone commented on the downsides of implementing your own language/tooling and what happens next to the team; for example: > Also, it took over a year to develop the compiler, during which time the other programmers had to make do with missing features, odd quirks, and numerous bugs. That makes me thing only ultra-flexible teams or huge companies fit the bill into the approach of creating such a technical debt as a compiler can be.

qop 8y ago
Isn't that an obvious thing though? Hell, I was reading the source code to moonscript (compiles to lua) the other day, and you'd be shocked how intelligent some of the components are! Even for such a simple little language. I also think flexibility may not be the best word, but I know like what you're saying. But it's more like cooperation, I think. I once wrote an exploit (for work, legit, no funny stuff) for basically a cnc machine with a php cpanel ui built on to it. Me and two other guys at the time wrote this big kit for it, and the kicker is we had to do it remotely because we had one car between the three of us and we were perpetually broke at that time in our lives. I think the car even got like broken into or something once. Anyways, we were using a diagnostic computer that could read serial data from the machine, ssh-ing into that computer, and iirc there was a buffer overread that we were using to jump the memory out, and just sending each "batch" as a numbered tarball. Thank God that that little computer existed, because that was the ticket for making the whole thing worked. The place was out in the boonies of Charlotte, and public transit wasn't what it is now. The factory only ran two shifts, so this entire setup turns off every night, so we needed to make efficient use of the diagnostic time. It was a mess, but we were all on the same page to reach the goal: hack that damn machine, get paid and get a better gig! We communicated, we helped one another. It was confusing, we had a spiral notebook that we passed around (too lazy to do data entry, too broke to go get a photocopier) with different opcodes and offsets for the cnc. Talk about technical debt, that exploit was the rattiest, grimiest, duct-tapiest, ugliest code I've ever shipped in my life. We got patted on the backs for that job! I remember we set up some garden variety packet filter or something for the php they had and it was a breeze. Getting that exploit working to get them bought in... What a nightmare. Ofc, teams are one of those things. Ymmv. It takes the right people at the right time to make those miracles happen. You just can't recruit that kind of providence, and you can't train (imo) that type of battle-buddy synergistic workmanship. Sometimes it has to be you and your friends to make it work. I should play jak and daxter this weekend...
billpg 8y ago
I think if something was published in the past ten years, adding the year is unnecessary. It is still close enough to "now" to be irrelevant.
- crististm 8y ago
  your last word ruined it...
white-flame 8y ago
It does sound like the programmers were still productive in that time, though. The beneficial features of the custom compiler came iteratively throughout.

qop 8y ago

Isn't that an obvious thing though? Hell, I was reading the source code to moonscript (compiles to lua) the other day, and you'd be shocked how intelligent some of the components are! Even for such a simple little language. I also think flexibility may not be the best word, but I know like what you're saying. But it's more like cooperation, I think. I once wrote an exploit (for work, legit, no funny stuff) for basically a cnc machine with a php cpanel ui built on to it. Me and two other guys at the time wrote this big kit for it, and the kicker is we had to do it remotely because we had one car between the three of us and we were perpetually broke at that time in our lives. I think the car even got like broken into or something once. Anyways, we were using a diagnostic computer that could read serial data from the machine, ssh-ing into that computer, and iirc there was a buffer overread that we were using to jump the memory out, and just sending each "batch" as a numbered tarball. Thank God that that little computer existed, because that was the ticket for making the whole thing worked. The place was out in the boonies of Charlotte, and public transit wasn't what it is now. The factory only ran two shifts, so this entire setup turns off every night, so we needed to make efficient use of the diagnostic time. It was a mess, but we were all on the same page to reach the goal: hack that damn machine, get paid and get a better gig! We communicated, we helped one another. It was confusing, we had a spiral notebook that we passed around (too lazy to do data entry, too broke to go get a photocopier) with different opcodes and offsets for the cnc. Talk about technical debt, that exploit was the rattiest, grimiest, duct-tapiest, ugliest code I've ever shipped in my life. We got patted on the backs for that job! I remember we set up some garden variety packet filter or something for the php they had and it was a breeze. Getting that exploit working to get them bought in... What a nightmare. Ofc, teams are one of those things. Ymmv. It takes the right people at the right time to make those miracles happen. You just can't recruit that kind of providence, and you can't train (imo) that type of battle-buddy synergistic workmanship. Sometimes it has to be you and your friends to make it work. I should play jak and daxter this weekend...

billpg 8y ago

I think if something was published in the past ten years, adding the year is unnecessary. It is still close enough to "now" to be irrelevant.

crististm 8y ago
your last word ruined it...

white-flame 8y ago

It does sound like the programmers were still productive in that time, though. The beneficial features of the custom compiler came iteratively throughout.