3 ms·

I'm curious to why HN would be walking such a performance tightrope. I could speculate, but it would be uninformed rambling, so I'd love it if someone more know

I'm curious to why HN would be walking such a performance tightrope. I could speculate, but it would be uninformed rambling, so I'd love it if someone more knowledgeable than I could explain.

TallboyOne 14y ago
I'd also like to know this
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
grinich 14y ago
It's a side project by a couple of guys with full-time jobs, written in an experimental Lisp dialect and running on a single machine.
- akkartik 14y ago
  The last bit is key. HN is served off flat files, and caches state in-memory in global variables. That -- and not cost -- makes it hard to add a second machine.
  - sneak 14y ago
    It also makes it nearly impossible to slowly read one's own comment history, as the "next" pagination links are session data dependent and are garbage collected quite frequently. This is, quite possibly, the worst webapp I use on a regular basis.
    - vacri 14y ago
      Thank you for explaining why the 'unknown link' happens at all. It's terrible - same with when you spend time thinking and formulating a response, only to see it disappear with the same error.
      - TeMPOraL 14y ago
        Back button usually helps in recovering the response.
        akkartik 14y ago
        Yeah, modern browsers are great at not losing form data. When I hit this error I hit back, then reload, then resubmit with full confidence that my comment will be unharmed. So HN doesn't bother me so much. It's the #$%# smartypants webapps that try to reinvent textareas in javascript that piss me off. I'm looking at you, Quora and new Gmail compose.
        csense 14y ago
        > modern browsers are great at not losing form data I wouldn't know. I had a bad experience with a lost webmail ~7 years ago. As a result, I ALWAYS copy form data to the clipboard before hitting Next.
        akkartik 14y ago
        :) Me too.
        TeMPOraL 14y ago
        Me three ;). It's a hard-wired habit now :).
        akkartik 14y ago
        Still and all, you can't help but notice how awesomely rock-solid browser textareas have gotten. I've actually had my laptop run out of charge and unceremoniously die on me in the midst of a humongous comment. Reboot, login, open browser, tabs all pop up -- and there's my comment. It's utterly amazing.
        14y ago
    - moron 14y ago
      Agreed. But we do use it.
    - gbog 14y ago
      > the worst webapp The first and foremost reason for me to consult HN is because it is fast. I am in China, and usualy send time on the web only on my phone, with 3g connection. HN speed beats all other link agregators, blogs, news site, and even goolgle search, and -- most interesting: even fast Chinese sites. I don't know why it is so fast (except when it is dead, obviously), maybe because of this flat-file architecture, which could just make sense. (Git is very fast too, right?) And I think it is interesting that the "make it fast" is a leitmotiv that has been forgotten by so many people, Google firstly, but is still a reason for some (me, at least) to pick this site over that sire.

I'm curious to why HN would be walking such a performance tightrope. I could speculate, but it would be uninformed rambling, so I'd love it if someone more knowledgeable than I could explain.

TallboyOne 14y ago

I'd also like to know this

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

grinich 14y ago

It's a side project by a couple of guys with full-time jobs, written in an experimental Lisp dialect and running on a single machine.

akkartik 14y ago
The last bit is key. HN is served off flat files, and caches state in-memory in global variables. That -- and not cost -- makes it hard to add a second machine.
- sneak 14y ago
  It also makes it nearly impossible to slowly read one's own comment history, as the "next" pagination links are session data dependent and are garbage collected quite frequently. This is, quite possibly, the worst webapp I use on a regular basis.
  - vacri 14y ago
    Thank you for explaining why the 'unknown link' happens at all. It's terrible - same with when you spend time thinking and formulating a response, only to see it disappear with the same error.
    - TeMPOraL 14y ago
      Back button usually helps in recovering the response.
      - akkartik 14y ago
        Yeah, modern browsers are great at not losing form data. When I hit this error I hit back, then reload, then resubmit with full confidence that my comment will be unharmed. So HN doesn't bother me so much. It's the #$%# smartypants webapps that try to reinvent textareas in javascript that piss me off. I'm looking at you, Quora and new Gmail compose.
        csense 14y ago
        > modern browsers are great at not losing form data I wouldn't know. I had a bad experience with a lost webmail ~7 years ago. As a result, I ALWAYS copy form data to the clipboard before hitting Next.
        akkartik 14y ago
        :) Me too.
        TeMPOraL 14y ago
        Me three ;). It's a hard-wired habit now :).
        akkartik 14y ago
        Still and all, you can't help but notice how awesomely rock-solid browser textareas have gotten. I've actually had my laptop run out of charge and unceremoniously die on me in the midst of a humongous comment. Reboot, login, open browser, tabs all pop up -- and there's my comment. It's utterly amazing.
        14y ago
  - moron 14y ago
    Agreed. But we do use it.
  - gbog 14y ago
    > the worst webapp The first and foremost reason for me to consult HN is because it is fast. I am in China, and usualy send time on the web only on my phone, with 3g connection. HN speed beats all other link agregators, blogs, news site, and even goolgle search, and -- most interesting: even fast Chinese sites. I don't know why it is so fast (except when it is dead, obviously), maybe because of this flat-file architecture, which could just make sense. (Git is very fast too, right?) And I think it is interesting that the "make it fast" is a leitmotiv that has been forgotten by so many people, Google firstly, but is still a reason for some (me, at least) to pick this site over that sire.