Show HN: Send a slack msg with AWS IoT button • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Send a slack msg with AWS IoT button

#11

Post by Rjevski » Sun, Jul 30, 2017, 2:44 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #10

Rjevski wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why would you ever use such an awkward language to do this task?

Perl is actually not a bad choice for matching a Mac address, and invoking some external event. Why would it be awkward?

Well it's more about the language being needlessly complicated and having 10x different ways to do the same thing, not to mention the language (Perl 5 that is - 6 is a different story) lacks essential concepts like object orientation and exceptions (you have to get "shims" like Moose or Try::Tiny from CPAN to fill those gaps). Why would you choose something like this instead of Python or Ruby?

Re: Show HN: Send a slack msg with AWS IoT button

#12

Post by tyingq » Sun, Jul 30, 2017, 2:52 PM UTC

Rjevski wrote: post #11

tyingq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perl is actually not a bad choice for matching a Mac address, and invoking some external event. Why would it be awkward?

Well it's more about the language being needlessly complicated and having 10x different ways to do the same thing, not to mention the language (Perl 5 that is - 6 is a different story) lacks essential concepts like object orientation and exceptions (you have to get "shims" like Moose or Try::Tiny from CPAN to fill those gaps). Why would you choose something like this instead of Python or Ruby?

>lacks essential concepts like object orientation and exceptions

Perl does OO without Moose. There is a tiny bit of boilerplate, but it's essentially bless() and 1 or 2 lines in the constructor.

Try/catch blocks are indeed an add on. The traditional pattern is more golang like, returning an error code, then using Carp or similar for stack traces.

>Why would you choose something like this instead of Python or Ruby?

That might be an interesting discussion for a large codebase, but for something limited in scope like this, I just don't see the problem.

Re: Show HN: Send a slack msg with AWS IoT button

#13

Post by mikegreen » Sun, Jul 30, 2017, 4:25 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #6

egeozcan wrote: post #5

Does anyone know of a similar product with replaceable battery that's not bound to a 3rd party? I can come up with something myself using an Arduino and an arcade-button but I know me. I will never get around to doing it and it will never look as slick.

$12.37 shipped to the US for an ESP8266 with AA battery holder and button style case. Not much feedback though, and the words in the url don't match the product...so it's a bit of a dice roll. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/30-energy-saving-CC2541-ibea...

The quality and consistency of firmware/functionality/hidden stuff on the various 8266's I have leads me to avoid them. I had a pair that phoned home to some Chinese domain and registered all via HTTP, and a quick Wireshark yielded it phoned home for commands. Not on my network... You can pick them up cheaper on ebay, as well.

Re: Show HN: Send a slack msg with AWS IoT button

#14

Post by tyingq » Sun, Jul 30, 2017, 5:12 PM UTC

mikegreen wrote: post #13

tyingq wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$12.37 shipped to the US for an ESP8266 with AA battery holder and button style case. Not much feedback though, and the words in the url don't match the product...so it's a bit of a dice roll. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/30-energy-saving-CC2541-ibea...

The quality and consistency of firmware/functionality/hidden stuff on the various 8266's I have leads me to avoid them. I had a pair that phoned home to some Chinese domain and registered all via HTTP, and a quick Wireshark yielded it phoned home for commands. Not on my network... You can pick them up cheaper on ebay, as well.

Hmm. Something that survives a firmware overwrite?

Re: Show HN: Send a slack msg with AWS IoT button

#15

Post by mikegreen » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 2:34 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #14

mikegreen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quality and consistency of firmware/functionality/hidden stuff on the various 8266's I have leads me to avoid them. I had a pair that phoned home to some Chinese domain and registered all via HTTP, and a quick Wireshark yielded it phoned home for commands. Not on my network... You can pick them up cheaper on ebay, as well.

Hmm. Something that survives a firmware overwrite?

It depends :-) Some seem to have a fall-back or fail-safe that isn't overwritten. Even with flashing known firmware, the reliability of the little guys was questionable. Random lockups and very touchy to power source.