End to end validation of complex systems.
Cookie-cutter developers using open source they don't understand to implement mission critical infrastructure for companies that don't understand the internet. Its a recipe for disaster.
Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
111–120 of 364 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#112Measuring how productive software engineers are. If you could solve this problem, you could convince management why engineers need offices, for one.
And which language to use. Even better, which language to use when.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#113Development environments. The amount of time and hassle I've seen lost to getting a working development environment up and running is incredible. Every time I talk to someone who's learning to program I tell them: "Setting up your development environment will be a nightmare. I have been doing this for twenty years and it's STILL a nightmare for me every time I do it. You are not alone." Docker is reasonably good here…
My dream is a "Open in VSCode" button on each GitHub repo that would create a container dev environment (either locally or hosted), and that environment would be ready to run all test, CI, localhost etc. You could trivially create a new environment to test out someones PR or work on a feature branch, etc. If you use hosted environments, then you could connect from any client. If you only have a web browser, then you…
What you are talking about exists, and its fantastic:
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#114Development environments. The amount of time and hassle I've seen lost to getting a working development environment up and running is incredible. Every time I talk to someone who's learning to program I tell them: "Setting up your development environment will be a nightmare. I have been doing this for twenty years and it's STILL a nightmare for me every time I do it. You are not alone." Docker is reasonably good here…
This is my calling. I'm the cofounder of Repl.it and I've dedicated my career to solving this problem.
Simon -- since you're the cocreator of Django, you might get a kick out of this: From loading up a Django environment to adding and rendering the first view takes less than a minute: https://gifs.amasad.repl.co/django.gif
Before starting this company I was a founding engineer on the React Native team where I focused speed of setting up and taking the drudgery out of cross-platform mobile dev. And before that I was a founding engineer at Codecademy where we were attacking the same problem from an education angle.
With Repl.it, however, we're determined to simultaneously solve the "getting started" problem while scaling the environment to allow real work. It's incredibly challenging but we've made great progress. If anyone is interested in working with us, collaborating, or if you're simply passionate about this problem and want to chat then I'd love to hear from you: amjad@repl.it
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#115Development environments. The amount of time and hassle I've seen lost to getting a working development environment up and running is incredible. Every time I talk to someone who's learning to program I tell them: "Setting up your development environment will be a nightmare. I have been doing this for twenty years and it's STILL a nightmare for me every time I do it. You are not alone." Docker is reasonably good here…
This is my calling. I'm the cofounder of Repl.it and I've dedicated my career to solving this problem. Simon -- since you're the cocreator of Django, you might get a kick out of this: From loading up a Django environment to adding and rendering the first view takes less than a minute: https://gifs.amasad.repl.co/django.gif Before starting this company I was a founding engineer on the React Native team where I focused…
I read that comment and thought “repl.it founder’s gonna be in here real quick.” Then I saw your comment with ‘0 minutes ago’ at the top.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#116The singularity. Make software which is capable of making even better software without human intervention.
The question said "that could be actually solved if you could pay an rationally large team of serious hackers a rationally large amount of money for a rationally long period of time." I have a strong suspicion that your answer doesn't fit.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#117Development environments. The amount of time and hassle I've seen lost to getting a working development environment up and running is incredible. Every time I talk to someone who's learning to program I tell them: "Setting up your development environment will be a nightmare. I have been doing this for twenty years and it's STILL a nightmare for me every time I do it. You are not alone." Docker is reasonably good here…
My dream is a "Open in VSCode" button on each GitHub repo that would create a container dev environment (either locally or hosted), and that environment would be ready to run all test, CI, localhost etc. You could trivially create a new environment to test out someones PR or work on a feature branch, etc. If you use hosted environments, then you could connect from any client. If you only have a web browser, then you…
We've made something similar at Repl.it -- we call it "Repl from Repo". It's far from running everything but it can run a lot: https://repl.it/blog/github
We tried to make it as seamless and as low configuration as possible. Our "run on repl.it" badge is currently growing exponentially on GitHub.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#118What matters most is what you want to still be there when the power goes off: data. No amount of processing power matters if you don't have the data. Everyone in the industry focuses too much on the processing side: objects, functions, containers, VMs, k8s, etc. but nobody really gives proper attention to data, its provenance, where it stays and where it goes, etc. I'm not saying engineers don't think about these thi…
SQL and its continued success is a testament to how valuable this approach can be. Could be something here though, as I have found maintaining databases and datasets in a sane way to be difficult, even today.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#119Having my phone as my ultimate CPU, immediately connectable to commodity peripherals (monitor, keyboard, printers) at home, office and on the street. Content would be stored on the phone following the "local fist" principle to favor speed and security. Something like Ubuntu Edge for those who remember it, but with more local storage -- TBs maybe -- more connectivity out of the box.
I envisioned something similar around the time of the 2nd gen touch phones: just plonk your phone into a dock with keyboard, mouse and monitor. I realize now it’ll probably never happen, since the companies making the phones are the same companies that make computers.
Huawei P20 and P30 series, Mate 20 and 30 series do this. Plug a USB-C cable to an external monitor, Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and you have a desktop like experience, with apps opening in Windows like you'd expect on a desktop. This includes a taskbar, pinned apps, resizable windows and more. No extra hardware needed.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single top-priority software engineering problem?
#120Having my phone as my ultimate CPU, immediately connectable to commodity peripherals (monitor, keyboard, printers) at home, office and on the street. Content would be stored on the phone following the "local fist" principle to favor speed and security. Something like Ubuntu Edge for those who remember it, but with more local storage -- TBs maybe -- more connectivity out of the box.
I talk about this all time. Our phones are strong enough, just give me a stupid terminal to plug in to for a keyboard and screen.