Shodan. I used its codebase to learn python and recommend it everyone else.
Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
21–30 of 271 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#22Contrarian answer: Conway's Game of Life in Dyalog APL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9xAKttWgP4
It feels like the logical end state of "clever" code, for better or for worse. Or, alternatively, what happens when a standard library is gigantic but each keyword is 1-2 characters.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#23ripgrep by BurntSushi (https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep)
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#24Peter Norvig's spell checker: https://norvig.com/spell-correct.html
All Norvig's code is nice to read and also often enlightening.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#25Duff's device.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#26One of the most surprisingly clear code bases is LLVM. It’s an old complex beast, yet it’s organized beautifully. I mean, it has a lot of essential complexity but little accidental complexity. That’s usually what I strive for when coding. Complexity is sometimes unavoidable, that’s fine, that’s why it’s essential. However, avoidable complexity should be… well… avoided.
> a lot of essential complexity but little accidental complexity Nice one. I'll copy that.
That's from "The mythical man-month". Old, and some parts are obsolete, but still worth a read as it does have a bunch of good insights.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#27I quite like the FreeBSD src tree, as it comprises both the system kernel as well as the userland applications. The folders are organized similarly to the OS file system hierarchy, which I find helpful for navigating the source tree. I found it accessible to slowly learn how various parts of the OS work under the hood and compound my knowledge faster due to less context shifting, since it’s self-contained in one source tree.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#28One of the most surprisingly clear code bases is LLVM. It’s an old complex beast, yet it’s organized beautifully. I mean, it has a lot of essential complexity but little accidental complexity. That’s usually what I strive for when coding. Complexity is sometimes unavoidable, that’s fine, that’s why it’s essential. However, avoidable complexity should be… well… avoided.
> a lot of essential complexity but little accidental complexity Nice one. I'll copy that.
You might be interested in reading the paper, No Silver Bullet, in which Fred Brooks coined these terms:
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#29Redis used to be fantastic, I felt like I could read C without being particularly versed in it. I don't know if that's true anymore.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#30Shodan. I used its codebase to learn python and recommend it everyone else.
Got a link? I'm not familiar with Shodan and I've done some searching but not found anything immediately obvious