My theory is that they have more people who understand and respect software design in higher management levels compared to other companies. So it’s easier to do good work without constant pressure from the “business” people to take shortcuts.
Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
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Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#12wow there are places like that for real?
i'd say it comes down the maturity of individual engineer or group how they'd approach a problem. some problems are worth spending time most aren't and every problem is not at global scale trust me.
Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#13I was thinking about this the other day, because I'm kicking off a new project. How do big companies start their code base. Do they have 1 person write a platform and everyone builds on top..and then iterate. Or several people contribute to the platform. The example in java being, someone needs to layout some skeleton package structure (a hello world controller, DAO)...?
My previous projects were me coming onto an existing project, or were small enough that I had 50% of the code done before the next person helped out :)
Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#14The design process at Facebook is, to put it charitably, a bit minimal. "Move fast" is taken to mean start writing code immediately, then iterate on that to approach the desired outcome. Developers are rewarded for landing code in production each review period, even if that code provides little benefit, will need to be rewritten, and might even be buggy. In the rush, careful design and testing (which might delay land…
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Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. I worked in infra, so it could also be the difference between working on infra (where stability is valued) and working on product (where shipping fast is valued). When it comes to software design though, the design of your infra is what matters most, since everything else is built on top of it.
I work in infra too (storage) so that's the majority of what I see. If all that PHP/JS stuff on the front end is worse I kind of don't even want to know about it. ;)
What are some critical parts of Facebook written in PHP, if you know?
Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#17Really good overview: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.01715
Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#18A group of early ex-Facebook engineers/directors have recently collaborated with Software Engineering Daily to produce a podcast series about the engineering philosophy behind the core product. I think these talks are a little more raw and direct than you would find from official corporate talking points. https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/category/all-episodes/
I've recently moved all my podcast subcriptions to google podcast and now I am sad that I can't find this one there.
Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#19I didn't know that they spent much time on good design :/
Re: Ask HN: Resources on how Google/Facebook etc. approach software design?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work in infra too (storage) so that's the majority of what I see. If all that PHP/JS stuff on the front end is worse I kind of don't even want to know about it. ;)
What are some critical parts of Facebook written in PHP, if you know?
The entire web fronted, and most site “business logic” is implemented in Hack (sort of PHP, statically typed)