They do care that the code can compile on their (possibly old) machine. They do care about the ability to include some features and not others (including their ability to not have to make decisions on this if they don't want to). And they certainly want documentation that helps them to achieve their goal (which, again, is to build the software).

The newer tools make substantial inroads in making the developer's life easier. If your software is not of the sort where people download it and try to build it (because it only ships as a closed binary, is entirely internal, etc.) then maybe that makes sense. But until all these fancy gadgets start seriously caring about the use case above, I'm going to stick with autotools.

"Fast enough" will always bug me. "Still ahead of network latency" will always sound like the dog ate your homework. I understand the perils of premature optimization, but not a refusal to optimize.

And I doubt I'm alone.

Really. It amazes me that I still find out about new Linux plugins after years of producing music on the platform. It could not have been easy to compile this; the information is all over the place online.

The ability to filter (!) for compression, saturation, etc. is so great.

None of our existing programming languages were designed for quite the circumstance in which contemporary programming now finds itself; they all address an ergonomic situation in which there are humans and machines (not humans, machines, and LLMs).

It's possible, I suppose that the only PL that makes sense here is the one the LLMs "knows" best, but I sort of doubt that that makes sense over the long term. And I'm repeating myself, but really, it seems to me that a language that was written entirely for the ergonomic situation of human coders without any consideration of LLMs is not addressing the contemporary situation. This is not a precise analogy, but it seems to me a little like the difference between a language that was designed before vs after multicore -- or before vs after the internet.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46207505

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# Comments: 612

Foot is way more my speed. Fast, extremely stable, and (most importantly) barely noticed. When it comes to terminals, the slightest flicker -- the merest bug -- and I'm gone. And that happened to me with both ghostty and alacritty.

I have never seen a language with a better ffi into C than C.

I seem to recall an interview in which he said that he didn't think many of his works should be revived. I hope that's not true, and that his pieces have a long life in repertory.

Well, I am a scholar, and if you mean "Noah clearly did not hide these texts," then yes. Of course, that is ridiculous.

But it's actually a crucial bit of information if you're a humanist scholar. The article doesn't say anything about it, but the question would be: Which tradition recorded this legend about these texts? Almost any answer is important, because one culture trying to legitimate its own literary traditions or those of another through its own myths or those of another is absolute gold. It helps us to understand the way literary and religious syncretism unfolded (or failed to unfold) in the ancient near east and in later epochs . . .

Java remains the only programming language I've ever heard covered in a feature story for NPR.

It is traditional for the EP to visit Rome on the patronal Feast of Saints Peter and Paul and for the Pope to visit Istanbul on the Feast of Saint Andrew, which is apparently when the friendship first formed. My absolute favorite story about Francis is his deciding to send some of the most precious relics in the Vatican to Bartholomew as a gift: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-09/pope-francis... (That sent some people into a fury).

Actually, it's my second favorite story. My favorite story is his insistence that he live in the Vatican guesthouse (and not the Papal apartments). Or perhaps the fact that as archbishop of Buenos Ares he insisted on taking the subway.

The difference is that I tend to to work on pretty high-powered machines (not for graphics or gaming, but for audio).

But the main reason I have this set up is that I find the minimalism . . . calming? It's not entirely distraction free, but I just find it easier to work in a kind of low-stimulation environment. I do occasionally work on way less powerful rigs (and way more powerful servers), and it's nice that the basic tools don't change. But ultimately, I think my fondness for this way of working might be aesthetic.

I've served on PhD defenses where you had uncredentialed people on the committee, but who could not sign off on the degree.

This probably looks different to you if you're a student, because you typically don't see the paperwork that gets sent around afterward. But a diploma is a legal document. There is no "rubber stamping" of anything. Not if the school would like to maintain its accreditation.