One feature I think this excellent resource really needs: offline mode. I'd love to have the whole guide available locally ..
There's an open source link so you can download it from there?
Computer Science Field Guide
31–40 of 53 posts
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#32I love the concept and the goal, but the irony was too much. Right in the introduction, where it is talking about how speed (as an example of program quality) impacts usability, the little calculator widgets don't work for me (iPad mini, 1st gen, with up-to-date iOS, stock Safari). Maybe it is my hardware or my OS, or my browser, but I'm just a dumb user, so I don't know or care. But maybe they just tried to be too fancy and shot themselves in the foot. Or maybe I should just follow their advice and download Chrome. Yeah, I'm sure the answer is to add another browser to my device and let Alphabet spy on me too (bad enough Apple does it, why give them an advantage).
Or maybe "stop breaking the Internet" is just the new "get off my lawn."
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#33Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#34"YAGNI stands for “You ain’t gonna need it” and tells developers to keep things simple and only design and implement the things that you know you are really going to need. It can be tempting to think that in the future you might need feature x and so you may as well already create it now. But remember that requirements are likely to change so chances are that you won’t need it after all." [0]
I work in a platform team in a large multinational and had to laugh about the XKCD. I also was a bit surprised about the one-sided view presented here to unexperienced readers who might not think ahead. I cannot count the number of times I encountered the other side of the story where each team tells me their code is special, different from everybody else. Costing the company lots of money while all they are doing is reimplementing data storage, authentication, image processing algorithms, or feature X for the 10th time. The surprise on their face when we let our generic platform component handle it for them with just a few lines of code is always priceless (usually after such a demonstration they come shopping and start "aha-ing" when we tell them that other feature they now want for free from us is too specific to have in a platform :D)
[0] http://www.csfieldguide.org.nz/SoftwareEngineering.html#agil...
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#35"YAGNI stands for “You ain’t gonna need it” and tells developers to keep things simple and only design and implement the things that you know you are really going to need. It can be tempting to think that in the future you might need feature x and so you may as well already create it now. But remember that requirements are likely to change so chances are that you won’t need it after all." [0] I work in a platform tea…
I was with you until the parenthetical remark, which seems to contradict the point. Platform software is great for getting 80% of the way there; then you can be screwed.
My last company threw away our expensive IP and tried to use off-the-shelf platform stuff. They're struggling now, with a product lacking features, performance and scalability. Funny, that's what the platform promised to deliver!
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#36Really good material here. Particularly liking the dry humou?r here:
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Programmer welfare
Software developers should not work more than 40 hours per week. If they do overtime one week they should not do more overtime the following week. This helps keep software developers happy and makes sure they don’t get overworked.
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many of us now in our 40s started on Commodore 64s, Atari 800s, Apple IIs and similar when we were actually preteens. I think starting relatively young is pretty normal for every generation of programmers actually.
Bit before my time, but that's probably true enough. The big difference is probably accessibility; there are so many less barriers to entry at this point, it seems like people are starting earlier than ever.
It seems that way, but it could just be increased media attention.
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tell that to kids today, and they won't believe you.
Except that so many of them have phones, phablets and tablets. Then they get to school and are handed a Chromebook. No compilers in sight! P.S. My computer science class was split between 12 "green screens" and 12 card punch machines. Yes I'm old ;)
There are, at least, things like Termux (https://termux.com/), on Android. Just for laughs, I've been doing actual work (using git, vim, and Go) in Termux on my Nexus 10. Only two things got in my way: screen size and the inability to have a browser and terminal on screen at once. What's particularly sweet about Termux is that it has an APT-based package manager.
Given the right tools, even something as locked down as an Android tablet can be surprisingly effective development tool.
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#39Url changed from http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/csfieldguide/dev/dev/index.... , which redirects to this.
Hi Dang, I'm Jack (Project lead on CSFG) see my earlier comment about updating to 2.0 today. We wanted to switch the traffic to the latest version of the guide instead of the old one linked. All you are missing out on seeing is all the broken sections :)
Re: Computer Science Field Guide
#40Url changed from http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/csfieldguide/dev/dev/index.... , which redirects to this.
Hi Dang, I'm Jack (Project lead on CSFG) see my earlier comment about updating to 2.0 today. We wanted to switch the traffic to the latest version of the guide instead of the old one linked. All you are missing out on seeing is all the broken sections :)
No problem, but is the URL correct now? If not, let us know at hn@ycombinator.com and we'll change it for you.