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Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

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Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#361

Post by skohan »

generalk wrote: post #192
ant6n wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can i do Ruby in rails without having to learn Ruby? I like Python, I think.

Oh definitely. I picked up Rails without doing a single line of Ruby beforehand, and I think that's true for many of the Rails devs I know. Knowing Python is a plus, much of the language is gonna make basic sense. For me, the big hurdles early were Blocks, which seem strange at first but make sense, and some of the metaprogramming stuff which you can definitely ignore to start and be just fine.

This was what I did when I was playing with Rails, but I felt like I was missing a lot about the fundamentals of the language. Especially because Ruby has a very free syntax, and steps far away from other languages in terms of syntax, I was able to copy things and make it work, but it was harder for me to really get the language than with many others.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#362

Post by elliottkember »

peteretep wrote: post #307
generalk wrote: post #139

I'm gonna go back a short bit and say, for me? Ruby on Rails. In 2007 I was plugging away at PHP with whatever frameworks were around at the time -- the vast majority of web dev that I saw then was pure procedural scripting down the page, maybe some `include` statements to pull in database functions. Especially in PHP, which encouraged mixing logic and HTML. The consultancy I was with had built custom stuff on top of…

As a Perl programmer I didn’t get the hype of Ruby. Then I wrote my dissertation on it. I still didn’t get it. Python is fine and I see it’s strengths and weaknesses but Ruby is just hipster Perl and doesn’t have Moose. Don’t, as they say on Twitter, “at” me.

I think you’re making the classic mistake of confusing Ruby with Rails.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#363

Post by throw0101a »

535188B17C93743 wrote: post #120
st1x7 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Man... there is way too much deus ex machina at every plot point of that book to give it any credit. If you have the end of the 6th book as a starting point and the end of series that Rowling had in mind as an end, then Deathly Hallows is just connecting those two points using plot conveniences at every single opportunity. Too many fortunate coincidences in a very short period o…

I mean, it's a book about magic... what do you expect?

Brian Sanderson (and others) have written plenty of magic-filled books with more interesting endings. If you want a 'hard magic' system, the one in the Mistborn series is pretty interesting (ingesting and 'burning' particular metals for particular abilities):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson

'Booktuber' Merphy Napier recently did two videos on magic systems in fantasy novels:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcMQk4ltJa0

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd6f3tAOUHk

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#366

Post by csa »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #71

I'm loving my Apple Watch. I wasn't entirely sure yet what to think of the watch as a form factor, given that a phone can do everything it can and more. But there's three interesting aspects that have really added value for me. 1) is health data, in a way a computer or phone just can't do. It tracks things like heartrate that a phone + heartrate strap is too convoluted for, for non-athletes. Plus it's all-day and qui…

All of my friends told me something similar, so I got one.

It just collects dust now.

- The health tracking and gamification of exercise was somewhere between meh and useless for me. I don’t have exercise issues.

- The freedom from the phone has potential, but the ostensible ease of use just isn’t worth the hassle of wearing a watch. I’m ok just pulling out my phone.

- The deep breathing option was probably the app i liked most. Now I just do deep breathing exercises at regular times during the day for, what I assume, are similar effects.

I can certainly imagine that it can improve the quality of life for some (many?) people, but I don’t find myself to be one of these people.

That said, I really wish I did have a profound experience with it. I’m always down for good quality of life improvements.

If anyone has ideas for using the Apple Watch that some people seem to miss, please let me know. I’m willing to give it another go.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#367

Post by phrotoma »

ystad wrote: post #219

Dr Andrew Ng's courses on machine learning and deep learning Beautiful explained lectures. I can't believe what a great instructor he is. I feel he truly embodies the Feynman learning technique.

I still don't _really_ understand why all those matrix multiplications can reliably determine which handwritten digit they've just seen but having implemented it from the ground up in his class I feel like I at least understand the moving parts.

Have you checked out the new stuff he added a while ago? I assume it's just as good but haven't made the time yet.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#368

Post by skohan »

aantix wrote: post #250
generalk wrote: post #139

I'm gonna go back a short bit and say, for me? Ruby on Rails. In 2007 I was plugging away at PHP with whatever frameworks were around at the time -- the vast majority of web dev that I saw then was pure procedural scripting down the page, maybe some `include` statements to pull in database functions. Especially in PHP, which encouraged mixing logic and HTML. The consultancy I was with had built custom stuff on top of…

Cannot agree more. The convention over configuration was brilliant - the implicit mappings made so much more sense. I could look at any given url and imply so much about what route/controller/view code was going to execute. The standardized code organization. ActiveRecord using the column names as data attributes. Was CoverMyMeds written in Rails?

Ironically this is exactly what I don't like so much about Rails. It's such a "batteries included" framework that if you want to do what Rails is good for, it's going to be super easy, but if you want to do something a little bit different a lot of times it feels like you have to almost break Rails to make it work.

To some degree I think it's a matter of taste, but I would much rather start from a blank slate, with a set of sensible tools to build my solution up from scratch, rather than having an almost finished product I have to carve my solution out of.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#369

Post by ipnon »

peteretep wrote: post #307
generalk wrote: post #139

I'm gonna go back a short bit and say, for me? Ruby on Rails. In 2007 I was plugging away at PHP with whatever frameworks were around at the time -- the vast majority of web dev that I saw then was pure procedural scripting down the page, maybe some `include` statements to pull in database functions. Especially in PHP, which encouraged mixing logic and HTML. The consultancy I was with had built custom stuff on top of…

As a Perl programmer I didn’t get the hype of Ruby. Then I wrote my dissertation on it. I still didn’t get it. Python is fine and I see it’s strengths and weaknesses but Ruby is just hipster Perl and doesn’t have Moose. Don’t, as they say on Twitter, “at” me.

Rails seems to land best with those having an Intimate and Arcane Knowledge of the Ye Old Webbe and Its Attendant Developmente.

Re: Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?

#370

Post by tboyd47 »

ant6n wrote: post #173
generalk wrote: post #139

I'm gonna go back a short bit and say, for me? Ruby on Rails. In 2007 I was plugging away at PHP with whatever frameworks were around at the time -- the vast majority of web dev that I saw then was pure procedural scripting down the page, maybe some `include` statements to pull in database functions. Especially in PHP, which encouraged mixing logic and HTML. The consultancy I was with had built custom stuff on top of…

Can i do Ruby in rails without having to learn Ruby? I like Python, I think.

Actually, yes. Contrary to received wisdom, most Rails devs learn Rails before or as they learn Ruby.
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