8Gb laptops are about the only tech still selling. Exec's better think long and hard about that.
Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
71–80 of 264 posts
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#72> Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
If we can insert "some" then Yes.
> use of more advanced algorithms and data structures that use less memory?
I don't think so.
At least at work there is a push to decrease memory usage but the way I've seen it playing out is not using some O(N) data structure instead of O(N lg(N)) per-say but instead replacing `int[]` with `byte[]` or in-lining some fields to remove some indirection costs.
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#73Are there promotion metrics tied to app performance? Or are they tied to deliverables?
Unless that changes we won't see any spike in optimization
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Real, there are so many low hanging fruits for optimization but no one has time to do them. And they don’t incentivize spending your time on it either.
Especially when LLMs are used to generate most of the code anyways in bigcorps
Is there a single example of a successful LLM project apart from Claude Code?
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
They aren’t going away. They are an obvious answer to Microsoft GUI development being in the wilderness for 20 years.
Java has been right there all along like the awkward best friend in a romcom.
It’s funny to me that a lot of the initial dismissal of Swing was “it isn’t native widgets”. Now that’s seen as a positive.
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#76Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#77Some programmers will write more efficient code. At my $dayjob (one of the big tech companies) we're already planning a major goal next year of optimizing server code to reduce RAM requirements, and this is directly in response to the crunch. In practice I expect most optimizations will come from "stop doing stupid stuff" and not "use fancy advanced algorithms." But that's a cynical perspective so don't be cynical li…
“Stop doing stupid stuff” is usually the biggest performance gain in commercial development.
We do stupid stuff as a stopgap to meet a deadline and then stupid stuff stays until it starts being a problem.
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#78Some programmers will write more efficient code. At my $dayjob (one of the big tech companies) we're already planning a major goal next year of optimizing server code to reduce RAM requirements, and this is directly in response to the crunch. In practice I expect most optimizations will come from "stop doing stupid stuff" and not "use fancy advanced algorithms." But that's a cynical perspective so don't be cynical li…
“Stop doing stupid stuff” is usually the biggest performance gain in commercial development. We do stupid stuff as a stopgap to meet a deadline and then stupid stuff stays until it starts being a problem.
There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix. If deadlines are causing those stopgaps, the aggressive deadlines are the root problem.
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Especially when LLMs are used to generate most of the code anyways in bigcorps
Is there a single example of a successful LLM project apart from Claude Code?
If the CEOs are to be believed, then 75% of all new code in Google is AI generated. 46% of GitHub internal code, and roughly 30% across all of Microsoft is AI. Meta expects at least 65%, and snap reported 65% is AI generated.
Its how software is built now in these palces.
Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?
#80If that happens, we will see it in triple-A games first. If some new titles have significant lower hardware specs than expected. If buyers can't afford the hardware anymore, the studios need to adjust. It's definitively possible to scale games down a lot. There are a few AAA games that were "dumbed down" for the Switch 1 (Hogwarts, cyberpunk, ...). And that's a really low-spec device. There are two factors: existing…
I hope we continue local gaming, but my gut tells me we are going to see the opposite. I'd be willing to place a big bet on the new XBox leaning heavily into streaming, like GeForce now. Studios still get to build big, and the consoles get to rent hardware to you now, basically a wet dream for them.
hardware costs must come down or every consumer segment is going to be renting, not owning, everything.