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Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#81

Post by rovr138 »

skydhash wrote: post #25
ajkjk wrote: post #3

I can't believe that in 2025 it is still hard to find documentation for basic functionality in languages as ubiquitous as, say, Python. If I google something simple I get 100 junk sites of garbage (GeeksForGeeks, W3Schools, etc), a bunch of AI-generated crap, a bunch of archaic out-of-date stuff, the official documentation which is a wall of dense text, some tutorials that mention the basics, a bunch of shitty bootca…

> I can't believe that in 2025 it is still hard to find documentation for basic functionality in languages as ubiquitous as, say, Python. That’s why we get familiar with the documentation manual and bookmark the web version. Then there’s offline documentation browsers (dash, devdocs,…). > it is amazing to me that shells still exist in more-or-less the same form Bash and ZSH are quite good for their use cases (running…

In the case of python, it's all built-in. People just don't know their tools.

  $ python
  Python 3.13.2 (main, Mar  6 2025, 08:26:01) [Clang 15.0.0 (clang-1500.3.9.4)] on darwin
  Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
  >>> import os
  >>> help(os)
Same thing happens with so many other things.

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#82

Post by [deleted] »

ajkjk wrote: post #60
jolmg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> also it is amazing to me that shells still exist in more-or-less the same form. dear god can I just get a terminal that runs something like Python directly? There's no reason why you can't set Python to be your shell. Here you go: sudo usermod -s /usr/bin/python $USER su $USER You'll likely find that it's not that great as a shell language. Shell languages are made to be primarily used interactively. With Python, y…

Well I don't mean python, it is obviously not a shell. I just mean something like it.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#83

Post by wormius »

jpitz wrote: post #37
ajkjk wrote: post #3

I can't believe that in 2025 it is still hard to find documentation for basic functionality in languages as ubiquitous as, say, Python. If I google something simple I get 100 junk sites of garbage (GeeksForGeeks, W3Schools, etc), a bunch of AI-generated crap, a bunch of archaic out-of-date stuff, the official documentation which is a wall of dense text, some tutorials that mention the basics, a bunch of shitty bootca…

Like https://xon.sh/ ?

Heh, glad to see it, was gonna post this. Now you have it, do you want to use it. (bluff call time LOL). Being a bit facetious, don't get too offended at the joke, people. But yeah, Xonsh is the "python(ish) shell" option if that's what you want.

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#84

Post by sn9 »

J_McQuade wrote: post #36

Having used Scala and TypeScript a lot for work over the last ~5 years, I think I'm going to say static typing. It's lunacy. Computers mostly don't work in types, my brain usually doesn't work in types, and only a small subset of the problems I work on really work in types. The amount of modern languages that think they can solve everything in the type system boggles my mind.

What problems do you work on?

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#85

Post by ajkjk »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #80
ajkjk wrote: post #3

I can't believe that in 2025 it is still hard to find documentation for basic functionality in languages as ubiquitous as, say, Python. If I google something simple I get 100 junk sites of garbage (GeeksForGeeks, W3Schools, etc), a bunch of AI-generated crap, a bunch of archaic out-of-date stuff, the official documentation which is a wall of dense text, some tutorials that mention the basics, a bunch of shitty bootca…

"also it is amazing to me that shells still exist in more-or-less the same form. dear god can I just get a terminal that runs something like Python directly?" But what does this have to do with programming Is this suggesting that operating a computer via a shell is "programming" (It's possible to administer a computer running UNIX by using a shell, without knowing any programming languages^1) "dear god, can i just ge…

of course operating a computer via a shell is programming...

you can also write shell programs in standalone files!

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#86

Post by ajkjk »

wormius wrote: post #83
jpitz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like https://xon.sh/ ?

Heh, glad to see it, was gonna post this. Now you have it, do you want to use it. (bluff call time LOL). Being a bit facetious, don't get too offended at the joke, people. But yeah, Xonsh is the "python(ish) shell" option if that's what you want.

oh yeah that looks cool

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#87

Post by spiderxxxx »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #50
torial wrote: post #46

Git. Having lived through many cycles of version control systems (VSS, SVN, TFS, Hg), this one has gone on long enough to be replaced with something more intuitive. I think a lot of project complexity is work arounds of inherent Git issues. But I'm just a caveman lawyer.

I switched to fossil for personal projects a few years ago. Documentation and ticket system already there, hosts itself so don't need to bother with github etc. Different collaboration model but so far has worked fine when I've needed to bring other people in.

fossil is great, and I wish more companies used it. It's so simple, has everything you need, documentation, bugs, email alerts, chat, a forum, a wiki. It's all there. Having to go to jira to manage something, confluence for something else, git for source code and bug tracking, it's all a mess, when you can use something like fossil. Yet all I hear when I mention fossil is "never heard of it, not using some toy project, sticking to what I know".

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#88

Post by Gibbon1 »

hackyhacky wrote: post #7

The fact that most new programming services and products are oriented towards C-suite types, and not to the people who actually use them. Most websites looks like [1] or [2] which are full of corporate-friendly buzzwords but don't help me understand what they actually do or how they work. To get a concrete understanding I need to go to github and find repos that actually use the product to even understand what it's f…

Almost 30 years ago National Semiconductor had an early nicely done website that allowed you to search for products, get data sheets, ask questions, find reps and distributors. I used it all the time.

1997-8 one day I bring it up and it's been replaced by a glossy site extolling the value of National Semiconductor stock and lauding the CEO, CFO, and the board members and nothing about the companies actual product. A few months later they added a link to the old site down in the right hand corner.

I've come around to the idea that MBA's shouldn't be allowed to own individual stocks. Only through index funds.

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#89

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

torial wrote: post #46

Git. Having lived through many cycles of version control systems (VSS, SVN, TFS, Hg), this one has gone on long enough to be replaced with something more intuitive. I think a lot of project complexity is work arounds of inherent Git issues. But I'm just a caveman lawyer.

Have you had a chance to try jj? (It's git compatible)

Re: Ask HN: What are your current programming pet peeves?

#90

Post by DamnInteresting »

I dislike the manufactured overcomplexity of web app development nowadays, especially in corporate environments. Maybe I'm just curmudgeonly, but all of that command-line building crap with frameworks and dependencies and auto-reloading browsers--I feel it adds a lot of work for little reward, and introduces a lot more opportunities for problems to arise. All I need is a good text editor and a browser with dev tools, thank you very much. Grumblescoff.
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