LLVM is quite impressive in terms of software architecture. The use of IR decouples everything and allows optimization passes and backend (machine code generation) to be shared across languages. This also hugely lowers the barrier to entry for designing a new language, so we get Rust, Swift, Julia, etc. We're undergoing a kind of mini renaissance in compiled languages at the moment, which I directly attribute to the success of LLVM's design.
Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
31–40 of 83 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#32This will be controversial, but my vote is for Uber. I am constantly surprised at all the nifty features they have tucked away that reveal themselves exactly when you need them. I'm often using it while I'm busy doing something else and I haven't had a moment of frustration yet.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#33The UTF-8 encoding. It's optimal in so many ways it's like a quadruple bank shot. Here's a 1997 paper talking about some of its properties:
https://www.sw.it.aoyama.ac.jp/2012/pub/IUC11-UTF-8.pdf
Between UTF-8 and Unix, Ken Thompson is my engineering hero.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#34Notion (https://www.notion.so/) and Telegram
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#35Basecamp. The level of care that goes into how it feels to use the product is extraordinary and has made my life much better.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#36Notion
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#37Fusion 360! Autodesk did a fantastic job designing it.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#38Datomic, Rich Hickey's postgres killer http://www.dustingetz.com/:datomic-in-four-snippets
yes to Datomic, also the JVM but Smalltalk-80 takes the prize for me.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#39PHPStorm has made me a lot more productive when it comes to building sites.
It has so many amazing plugins and the ability to sync settings AND plugins in combination with VCS allows you to pick up your project from anywhere. With a plugin like Key Promoter X you're well on your way to developing without taking your hands off the keyboard.
Built in terminal is great, no more alt+tabbing and cd'ing to the project directory.
It's only like $9/month on JetBrains
Re: Ask HN: What is the best-designed software you've used?
#40- Unix command line. - Vim's commands and keybingings interface (not the UI).
>Vim's commands and keybingings interface (not the UI).
I recently decided to finally get good at Vim, but the UI, being text-only, can be charitably described as "awful."
Solution: Sublime Text 3 with the NeoVintageous[1] plugin. Takes a beautiful, highly customizable, extensible editor and adds most of the Vim bindings. I can do all of my main development work in a gorgeous editor, and when I have to hop onto an unfamiliar machine, I'm still good at using Vim.