jimws

Joined 7 years ago

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Sep 30

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This tutorial uses Pascal as the implementation language. Is there a similar tutorial done in a language that is mainstream today? Like Python? Go? Rust?

Comment · 6 years ago

I am one of those who moved from Perl to Python. As a Perl coder I loved writing clever hacks. After a few months of Python I began appreciating simplicity and elegance in code.

Comment · 6 years ago

Take a look at https://github.com/susam/texme. It does not introduce a new Markdown flavor. Just the regular Markdown + support for Latex.

Comment · 6 years ago

> But there is a point where using a simple and elegant tool stops being simple and elegant - it can only be tortured so far outside its intended use-case before it stops being useful.

An alternative tool I've begun to like is TeXMe: https://github.com/susam/texme. It is like Markdeep but minimal--does not support any fancy features. Just plain Markdown and Latex. Very useful for note taking in a file that can publish itself. I don't think I can draw fancy diagrams while taking notes live so I don't need diagrams. So this simple tool serves me well.

Comment · 6 years ago

When a website disappears completely, there is no web server to respond with HTTP 300.

Comment · 6 years ago

Problems like this can be easily caught by linters like eslint or standardjs.

Comment · 7 years ago

These open source groups could surely use a chatbot to log the chats to some place for archival and make the archive searchable, can't they?

By the way, I find IRC/Slack good for real-time support. By nature of being real-time support, some questions get repeated over and over again. The repeition is typically mitigated by adding trivia bots to the channel that can provide answers to frequently asked questions.

The best solution I have seen for archived solutions and to avoid repetition are Stack Overflow (encourage users to post questions on SO with relevant tag) and mailing list with a mailing list archive.

Comment · 7 years ago

Open space offices is another similar fad that I cannot stand. Who wants to be at the constant risk of being interrupted and be distracted by side-channel chatter!

The situation has become so bad that I cannot find many companies I can work for that has not succumbed to this fad. The only workplace that works for me now are the ones where I can work remotely.

Ask HN: Is there any programming language with a Physics-like dimensional types?

3 jimws 7 years ago 3 comments

Comment · 7 years ago

This is something that bothers me a lot. I have traveled to the UK a lot and oh, what a fine nation! I love being in the UK. Good weather, amazing people, great food and drinks!

The literary culture is still very strong in the UK. But what happened to its science and technology landscape? Merely a century ago, it was at the forefront of science and technology. Where did the UK lose its steam? Anyone with historical insights into the UK care to shed more light on this?

Comment · 7 years ago

> Most people don't have side projects.

Do you have any citation to back this up?

My anecdata indicates otherwise. Most people I meet in IT do have side projects. They may not be popular or successful but they exist.

Comment · 7 years ago

I think you can use ".intel_syntax noprefix" with GNU as to assemble Intel assembly.