What did you read that was really eye opening in some way?
Please provide a link, if possible.
Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
1–10 of 271 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#2Maybe not revolutionary, but I think this article about static binary translation is a great introduction to the topic:
(see also the "Virtual Machines" book by Smith and Nair, ISBN-13 978-1558609105, if you are interested in this topic).
I can also recommend John Lions' "Commentary on the Sixth Edition Unix Operating System" - https://warsus.github.io/lions-/, Douglas Comer's Xinu (https://xinu.cs.purdue.edu) as well as Niklaus Wirth's "Compiler Construction" (https://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/CompilerConstruction/Compil...) and Project Oberon (http://www.projectoberon.com).
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#3The 8086 Assembly source code of the MikeOS operating system is remarkably readable and easy to understand for such low-level software http://mikeos.sourceforge.net
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#4Well, eye opening was the C++ source code I was able to work with at a previous company, they were an automotive HMI developer company. They had really strict and well planned code structure that just hit a chord with me.
Can't provide source though on that one, as it's a propietary engine. Recently I've enjoyed reading the source code to Sokol, lot's of really good decisions there and I love the minimal C -style structure:
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#5While at Grad school, before taking a course on Systems programming, I spent a few days reading through Redis source code. It felt almost like poetry.. I haven’t had that level of motivation or time to read open source code like that again.. so there may be better examples.. but this was my best…
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#6I don't know if it is the most elegant, or concise, or l33t, but I am in love with Polly https://github.com/App-vNext/Polly
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#7Well, eye opening was the C++ source code I was able to work with at a previous company, they were an automotive HMI developer company. They had really strict and well planned code structure that just hit a chord with me. Can't provide source though on that one, as it's a propietary engine. Recently I've enjoyed reading the source code to Sokol, lot's of really good decisions there and I love the minimal C -style str…
Nix source code is also a pleasure to read through. I was surprised that c++ could be so beautiful and well written.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#8Peter Norvig's spell checker: https://norvig.com/spell-correct.html
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#9One of the most surprisingly clear code bases is LLVM. It’s an old complex beast, yet it’s organized beautifully.
I mean, it has a lot of essential complexity but little accidental complexity.
That’s usually what I strive for when coding. Complexity is sometimes unavoidable, that’s fine, that’s why it’s essential. However, avoidable complexity should be… well… avoided.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best source code you've read?
#10Postgres code is very good, redis as well. Some of the core parts of Linux also totally worth learning from.
I also remember how Qt UI code and docs were a revelation after the nightmare of win32 and related frameworks.
Bellard's original Tinycc was very entertaining and took a while to digest.
Most old and well-maintained projects are worth learning from.
Apart from some local tips and tricks what is more important is understanding that there's nothing special about other people's code.