Automatic system level tests.
Ask HN: What technologies greatly improve the efficiency of development?
81–87 of 87 posts
Re: Ask HN: What technologies greatly improve the efficiency of development?
#82I think automatic code formatters have huge impact. Not just to save time on manually formatting code, they also flag syntax errors; if it doesn’t format on save you know something is wrong. In team context they take away all bike shedding about formatting. Code reviews can focus more on stuff that matters, not just silly formatting tweaks. To me a good formatter is as essential as autocomplete.
Good lord, ESLint is god-sent.
Type checks also catches a lot of run-time errors.
Re: Ask HN: What technologies greatly improve the efficiency of development?
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't it the same for Python?
In the sense that subsequent requests will see the changed code, yes (unless byte code cache is involved). OP is likely referring to the mod_php convention of directly executing PHP scripts by filename/URL while Python/WSGI needs a single entry point. Your directory structure becomes your routing logic.
I use Python, but miss being able to just a .php file in a dir and have it work.
Now to make some small site, I instead end up setting up some WSGI server and doing nginx config to get it visible, upstart config to make it start at boot, and then invariably forget how it’s set up after a few months pass.
Re: Ask HN: What technologies greatly improve the efficiency of development?
#84Maybe "stating the bloomin' obvious", but docker (including docker-compose). Using containers speeds up dev massively, keeps people's envs similar, don't need to install a ton of stuff on your machine. Local behaves similar to CI which behaves similar to prod, etc
Re: Ask HN: What technologies greatly improve the efficiency of development?
#85PHP For all the hate PHP gets, a massive positive of it is entire classes of development friction that just doesn’t exist for it. COMPILE: Slow compile times, nope - it’s interrupted & you can run the code instantly. DEVELOPMENT: Confusing and complex development tooling or middleware, nope - just SFTP a single file to your webroot. So the language / environment you pick to develop in can has massive impact on produc…
I still cant get over its syntax. Otherwise I agree with all your point. It basically kept things simple while every other web development language increase their complexity by 10 to 100x.
Do you dislike C syntax?
Because PHP is basically C with dollar sign $variables.
Re: Ask HN: What technologies greatly improve the efficiency of development?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still cant get over its syntax. Otherwise I agree with all your point. It basically kept things simple while every other web development language increase their complexity by 10 to 100x.
Do you dislike C syntax? Because PHP is basically C with dollar sign $variables.
>Do you dislike C syntax?
Kinds of, yes. And the dollar sign is especially programatic for me as I read lots of financial reports and statements. Part of the reason I dont like Perl as well.
Re: Ask HN: What technologies greatly improve the efficiency of development?
#87A whiteboard in a shared space. Still haven’t found anything that can replicate the impact in a remote setting.
our humble proposition is to not replicate the whiteboard but teach it digital tricks like enhanced legibility, auto-save, digitization (now: save as vector; later: transcribe). in other words: whiteboard in a remote/hybrid setting.
tear it to shreds, please: https://sharetheboard.com