Chris_Newton

9 ms·

31.
by Chris_Newton 1y ago
IMHO, this overlooks probably the biggest advantage of all: software you can buy once and run locally is predictable . While the modern world of mobile devices and near-permanent fast and reliable connectivity has brought some real advanta
32.
by Chris_Newton 1y ago
Or the current industry favourite, “ X % of our new code is now written by AI!”
33.
by Chris_Newton 1y ago
Linux advocacy often reminds me of a favourite quote from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” I think it’s very promising, if you
34.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I didn’t see the original, but the FP example here looks fairly idiomatic to me. An alternative, which in FP-friendly languages would have almost identical performance, would be to make the shift in objects more explicit: var favorite
35.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I find Literate Programming interesting partly because it’s almost the opposite of the much-advocated “many small functions” style. You could literally be writing a book that explains your program, and the code becomes almost secondary mate
36.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Have you come across Nix Package Versions¹ yet? If you’re looking to work around a recent bug or other unwanted change by installing a slightly older version of some package from nixpkgs, Marcelo Lazaroni built a nice page to help with that
37.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Interesting, I didn't realize that that was an option. As a fellow daily driver of NixOS, you’ve just summed up my biggest problem with it. You can do almost anything, and once you’ve figured out how and why you do it a certain way
38.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
For perspective, I’ve been running NixOS on my main workstation going back a few releases now. When it works, it’s great. I like that I can install (and uninstall) much of the software I use declaratively, so I always have a “clean” base sy
39.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I don't think that's a big problem anymore. ORMs have entered the chat… These sometimes use a lot of dynamic modification, such as adding implicit ID fields or adding properties to navigate a relationship with another type that
40.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I suspect C++ still comes the closest to what you’re asking for today, at least among mainstream programming languages. Matrix dimensions are certainly doable, for example, because templates representing mathematical types like matrices and
41.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Python’s “truthiness” is a cutesy feature that is just an excuse for bugs in your code. It’s opaque/ too magic, exhibits poor readability and endless confusion. Indeed. Relying on truthiness has always felt very un-Pythonic to me, no
42.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I’ve had this debate a few times too. Personally I am in the camp that says you’re talking about two interfaces — your external UI or API, and your internal database schema — so even though you’ll often have a lot of overlap between types r
43.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
You’re right, that’s potentially a correctness issue as well. Ideally we’d have a creation interface that would also perform the pre-existence check atomically, so there would be no need for the separate check in advance and the potential r
44.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
If I were reviewing the original code, the first thing I’d question is the line user.password = await hashPassword(user.password); 1. As a rule, mutations are harder to understand than giving new names to newly defined values. 2. T
45.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Just because using the real characters is unambiguous and has the same size/alignment everywhere. I’d prefer to use those real characters because they are more compact and consistent, but it’s a small thing, so IMHO it’s only worthwhil
46.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I appreciate that there is a barrier to adoption here. On the other hand, we’ve had office software that autocorrects -- and " to their more typographically savvy counterparts for a very long time. In many places, people use modifier k
47.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
It wasn’t so much the code that I found less discoverable with the literate style, more the relevant documentation when reading any given part of the code. I found the linear flow didn’t really lend itself to quickly finding all relevant
48.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Thanks. We did discuss this on HN a few years ago and I added a few comments, starting here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12048693 I continued to work on that project for a while afterwards, but I don’t think my ove
49.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Not necessarily the exact same symbol set, but yes. Nothing too fancy, just using widely recognisable symbols that have been supported by Unicode forever instead of half-baked, ASCII-centric alternatives that date from last century.
50.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
The 20% rest – sidebar for documentation – are not implemented for a reason. The sidebar to show the documentation is just a presentation detail. What I’d really like as a developer is (a) the ability to attach documentation with a specif
51.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
To clarify, I’m not talking about ligatures in programming fonts here. I’d like to use a slightly wider set of Unicode characters, for their designated purposes, as the main and only way to write those ideas. This could include comparison o
52.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
In terms of code it would be great to have integrated tools that show a visual representation "map" of the functions usage and data flow. I agree, though there is a lot of subtlety in this problem. I tried, with very modest succ
53.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Yes, I wrote some literate Haskell professionally a few years back. I think it’s an interesting and useful concept. In my experience, it also fundamentally changed the way I read and wrote code, with both pros and cons. What I’m advocating
54.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I do wish we were more adventurous in how we present our code in editors. As the article says, we seem to be stuck in a rut. Typography in the main editing area is almost always based on a classic monospaced text file. Colours are almost al
55.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
In the UK, I found the relevant setting was present (and had been turned on) for my profile when this came to my attention last week. Curiously, I can no longer find that setting now. Given the UK’s privacy and data protection environment i
56.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
I think of the current generation of AI coding tools as being like a developer with a little bit of experience in almost any tech stack and field of application. If I’m investigating a new field or trying out a new language or library, rela
57.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
SEEKING WORK | Cambridge, UK | Remote preferred (occasional travel OK) Offering hands-on software development and technical leadership services, I specialise in: • Mathematical, scientific and engineering applications • Custom user interfac
58.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
Do we really need multiple users for desktop unix? I find them valuable. For example, I have a workstation that is used for different projects with different clients, as well as administrative work for my own business. I want 100% separat
59.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
SEEKING WORK | Cambridge, UK | Remote preferred (occasional travel OK) Offering hands-on software development and technical leadership services, I specialise in: • Mathematical, scientific and engineering applications • Custom user interfac
60.
by Chris_Newton 2y ago
SEEKING WORK | Cambridge, UK | Remote preferred (occasional travel OK) Offering hands-on software development and technical leadership services, I specialise in: • Mathematical, scientific and engineering applications • Custom user interfac

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