nickm12

8 ms·

61.
by nickm12 1y ago
> The goal of a design document is to convince the reader the design is optimal given the situation. This is a nitpick, but I don't think the goal of a design is to be optimal so much as sufficient . Software systems design, like
62.
by nickm12 1y ago
I don't think that's quite right. CPython dicts only started preserving insertion order in 3.6. There were concerns that other Python implementations might not be able to do this or it would be a performance bottleneck, but by Pyt
63.
by nickm12 1y ago
This is a false analogy. LLMs do not "compile" natural language to high level code in the same way that a compiler or interpreter implements a high-level programming language in terms of machine instructions (or, for that matter,
64.
by nickm12 1y ago
Being a Python superset and being fast are fundamentally in tension. It would be possible, maybe, to have a Python superset where you get the highest performance as long as you avoided the dynamic features of Python. However, I suspect it w
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by nickm12 1y ago
Thank you! The blog post really should hyperlink or define "Infinite Mac" so it stands on its own.
66.
by nickm12 1y ago
Anyone else find the standard "probability yardstick" very misleading on the "unlikely" side? I know the whole point of the article is that English speakers can interpret these phrases differently, but calling a 1-in-3 c
67.
by nickm12 1y ago
> it’s really hard to comment out a line in a JSON file, because you end up with an extra trailing , on the previous line Every other language has figured this one out: just support trailing commas. JSON5 supports comments and trailing
68.
by nickm12 1y ago
As best as I can tell, "An INI critique of TOML" is a subtle parody, not something to take inspiration from.
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by nickm12 2y ago
I don't see much mention in this discussion of how agile development impacts both the rate of bug creation and bug fixes. I only have my personal experience, but I suspect agile both encourages buggier software and longer-lived bugs th
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by nickm12 2y ago
The industry chose the default of "data that is stored in durable storage is probably important". Sorry, I just don't see how that is bad for users when compared to the alternative default of "data that is stored in dura
71.
by nickm12 2y ago
This is fantastic to see! I've used XML off and on since it was the red hot tech of the early 2000s. I wouldn't choose it today for a green field project, but it's still around in so many places, so we definitely need a high-
72.
by nickm12 2y ago
I like this taxonomy, though it is reductive to try to cram programmers into disjoint "tribes". Individual approaches to programming generally combine from all three, though in different proportion to different individuals. Person
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by nickm12 2y ago
Says someone who has never experienced a data loss bug.
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by nickm12 2y ago
Thank you for your efforts in improving Python and especially thank you for helping to set the record straight in such a clear and visible manner. Some of the sibling comments are saying there's "no need to apologize". One wa
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by nickm12 2y ago
buried at the end: there's a planned second edition of Clean Code! Given Bob's intransigence in this conversation, I wonder what he'll change.
76.
by nickm12 2y ago
This was a fun read. I read APoSD for the first time a couple of months ago and found myself nodding enthusiastically as I read. I have a few quibbles, of course, but overall it matches my experience in how to write software that is correct
77.
by nickm12 2y ago
I agree that this is probably a parody, but maybe it's the ravings of someone not right in the head. As a parody, it's not laugh out loud funny, but well-done in the sense that it sits on the border of believably.
78.
by nickm12 2y ago
This is wild. I don't frequent the snack aisle at the supermarket, but I've never heard of any of these flavors (some of them feel distinctly AI-generated). Is Portland, where Cabel lives apparently, a test market for processed fo
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by nickm12 2y ago
Everyone is entitled to scratch their own itch, but this seems like the most useless configuration language I've ever seen. Take the "fixed point" example, where you have a boolean setting which one file says should should be
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by nickm12 2y ago
Maybe things have changed since I last programmed seriously in R nearly 10 years ago, but back then the language had serious design flaws that made it way too easy to write incorrect programs. Conflating scalar and vector types, weak typi
81.
by nickm12 2y ago
Design docs versus prototypes (called "throwaway code" in this post) is a false dichotomy. Both are ways of derisking projects and aligning others on the approach, but they work at different levels each can validate things the oth
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by nickm12 2y ago
Good advice, but I think it should talk more about the distinction between the training objective and the true objective. For classic machine learning problems, like speech recognition or face detection, these were so close that we didn&#x2
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by nickm12 2y ago
There are so many comments in this thread that amount to "it's just a fancy title". With respect, I think these comments (and also the original article) are missing the mark. Generally, the staff+ engineer role is accountable
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by nickm12 2y ago
Yes, very much this, and the article misses this critical job responsibility that distinguishes the sr engineer from the staff engineer levels. One of the responsibilities of a staff+ engineer is to be a high-judgement technical advisor to
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by nickm12 2y ago
This just isn't correct. Along the entire career path from (just out of school) junior engineer to (industry famous) distinguished engineer, the biggest gap in job responsibilities is between the Sr. Eng and Staff/Principal Eng le
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by nickm12 2y ago
Just because a type system is optional doesn't mean it doesn't do anything, it just means that you can control how much checking you get, both in terms of the code that is typechecked and how strictly it is checked. Avoiding some
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by nickm12 2y ago
Recently had to download an app to pay for parking at a public transit center. It made me really grumpy—fortunately I arrived early enough that I could figure that all out, but if the app download rigamarole caused me to miss my train. Not
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by nickm12 2y ago
It doesn't matter what you call your process, you are setting yourself up for failure if you don't (1) clearly understand the problem you are trying to solve (2) think holistically about your solution (and its risks) before you st
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by nickm12 2y ago
This is the answer. Yes, every interviewer will have to provide say whether they are inclined or not inclined for the hire, but the interview debrief is where the hiring decision is made, considering the total experience of all the intervie
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by nickm12 2y ago
It looks like Borgo is to Golang what Typescript is to Javascript. It's kind of ridiculous that Golang would need this, but it actually makes sense to me as something you'd want to use.

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