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I tend to think of this as an impedance matching[1] (in the EE sense) problem. The best frameworks match the way we think about problems once we've gotten used
by mikewarot 4y ago
I tend to think of this as an impedance matching[1] (in the EE sense) problem. The best frameworks match the way we think about problems once we've gotten used to them. There has to be some give on the part of the programmer, because of Godel's incompleteness theorems.[2]
I whole heartedly agree that we have to minimize extra steps when reviewing code, but you can only push so much of that burden back through space-time to the green field programmer.
For instance, in Pascal, you have to declare everything first. I'm used to that, so it matches my expectations. However, it also sucks because if you're looking in the middle of code the declarations aren't proximal to the first time they're used. There's an expectation that all the code will be read, which was fine in the academic world which gave birth to Pascal, but not in the world of million line systems.
There are tradeoffs that will take decades to get right, simply because we need to have time to gain enough perspective to adjust things collectively, as a profession.
[Edit -- Tweak link format per suggestions below]
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_matching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_matching
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_...
[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error
- Jtsummers 4y agoIs there a reason you deliberately make it hard for people to follow the links you put in your comments?
- mikewarot 4y agoI number them, and space them out to make it easy to select and copy... there's no way to inline hyperlinks here that I'm aware of. Option #1 -- formatted as a code block [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_matching [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error Option 2 -- jumble of links [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_matching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_matching [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_... [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error - Option 3 -- Extra line breaks everywhere [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_matching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_matching [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_... [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error - None of those really seems right [Edit] Sorry, I didn't know about the issues on mobile. it definitely wasn't trying to make it worse on purpose. I added the off by one link to make the examples long enough The 2 biggest problems in computing... Naming things, Cache Invalidation, and off by 1 errors.
- Jtsummers 4y agoNo, but if you didn't put the white space at the front of the line they'd be, you know, links. So people don't have to copy/paste them. Which is sort of the point of hypertext. EDIT: Most of the parent comment wasn't there when I wrote my initial reply. Of the three options, the third is the best of a bad situation since we don't get to cleanly inline links like on Reddit and other places. The first is just inconsiderate, especially to mobile users. The second is, as you noted, a mess especially when there are multiple links. The third lets you keep your original intent (clearly listing each link) while letting them still function as links. Which is better than the first option because it's not disrespectful of other people even if it does add some vertical whitespace.
- wtetzner 4y agoIf you don’t put them in a code block, the URLs are automatically linkified by HN.
- layer8 4y agoI’d also suggest to leave out the hyphens, they are just visual noise.