Lua. It has the feel of python but is implemented in like 15k lines of C. Definitely my favorite scripting language.
Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
271–280 of 417 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#272Analog computation. I don't mean just vacuum tubes or even electronics at all. Mechanical analog computing is insane when you get down to it. You have special shapes that move against each other and do calculus . We make these mechanical models as analogs of more complex physical systems. We can turn huge calculations into relatively simple machines. That we can roll two weirdly shaped gears together and get an integ…
I agree. I remember climbing into the turret of the USS Massachusetts and playing with the ranging computer. It was just impressive that a geared device could do pretty complicated math in real time.
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#273Relational modeling. 40+ years old, effective, simple, backed by math. No one wants to learn it anymore though. (I only wish I was being sarcastic.)
Amén!
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#274I don't know if they're "unpopular", but I think the BEAM family of languages, Erlang, Elixir, LFE etc. could be used more. I read more and more problems people have on here and just think that they go away on the BEAM.
My absolute favorite framework I've ever worked with is Akka.NET and how it taught me how to operate against concurrency in a different way. Actor-based infrastructures and other Erlang-inspired concepts are really just wonderful and they need a whole lot more attention, yes!
I worked for a long time with Akka and Scala and share the same sentiment. It packed so much power and yet felt so intuitive. Now every time I pick up a new language I instinctively look for an Actor based framework in it.
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#275GnuPG/PGP and the web of trust[0]. A lot of things I see blockchain being used for today (e.g. NFTs) seems like it would be better solved using standard OpenPGP signatures with no backing chain. Additionally, as machine-generated content proliferates, I think having services use something like the web of trust concept for membership would be super powerful. The problem is, of course, the terrible UX of cryptographic…
GPG is great. It also makes it really easy to encrypt environment dotfiles that safely reside in your source code repository. This is my favorite way of storing sensitive app configs. You don't even need a PGP private key in your keychain to do it. You can use a passphrase.
I’d really like to hear more about this
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#276Magic Wormhole: https://magic-wormhole.io/ An easy and secure file transfer program. I use it almost everyday since I discovered it. Author has a very good video on it at pycon-2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrTqQw0_3c
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Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#277Magic Wormhole: https://magic-wormhole.io/ An easy and secure file transfer program. I use it almost everyday since I discovered it. Author has a very good video on it at pycon-2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrTqQw0_3c
seems like its down
The docs can be used as a guide: https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/welcome.html
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#278Everyone who wants to be a robust developer should get at least a little experience with some non-c-like languages.
Of course someone will reply with a more complete language, but I'll start by throwing out array-based languages, in the form of J: https://www.jsoftware.com/#/
Once you really get your head around composing verbs, really working with arrays, and using exponents on functions, it's mind-expanding.
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#279Bulma is not as widely known and used as it should be. It’s a very capable and easy to use CSS framework.
I just visited bulma.io and couldn't help but notice the sketchy-looking Patreons/GitHub sponsors that Bulma has listed. Lots of casinos are supporting Bulma.
Are these genuine Bulma customers happy to support a product they use, or am I witnessing some new way of money laundering here? What is the Phone Tracking app doing there? I mean, Bulma needs all the support it can get, but what does a casino want from Bulma?
Re: Ask HN: What are some unpopular technologies you wish people knew more about?
#280Magic Wormhole: https://magic-wormhole.io/ An easy and secure file transfer program. I use it almost everyday since I discovered it. Author has a very good video on it at pycon-2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrTqQw0_3c
wormhole-william[1] is a nice version in Go, compatible with the original version, with an easy to install release binary.