The cloudy layers of modern-day programming • Hacker News Board

Re: The cloudy layers of modern-day programming

#171

Post by mikewarot » Wed, Dec 07, 2022, 9:19 PM UTC

aliqot wrote: post #83

Dave_Rosenthal wrote: post #45

Like many other commenters (of a certain age?), I too have this unsatisfied feeling about a particular kind of modern software development. The kind where you never really dig down and design anything, you just plumb a bunch of stuff together with best practices you find on stack overflow. Many commenters are attributing this problem to the modern high-level tools we now have access to. But I don't think this is the…

Challenge yourself to use stdlib only for a while, or the future. It sounds unrealistic and I'm going to get flamed, but hear me out. It works. Most of my development these days is in reasonably complete languages like go, rust, zig, and various scripting languages, so your mileage may vary if you're writing in something like rune, hare or carbon that is still taking shape. If you think I'm crazy but have a lingering…

I wrote entire systems with Turbo Pascal, and then Delphi out of the box. Many others did the same with Visual Basic 6, or the Microsoft Office 2000 suite with VBA, before the .NET infection took hold and Microsoft lost it's mind.

All before Google, Youtube and Stack Exchange

Re: The cloudy layers of modern-day programming

#172

Post by contingencies » Wed, Dec 07, 2022, 10:02 PM UTC

Dave_Rosenthal wrote: post #45

Like many other commenters (of a certain age?), I too have this unsatisfied feeling about a particular kind of modern software development. The kind where you never really dig down and design anything, you just plumb a bunch of stuff together with best practices you find on stack overflow. Many commenters are attributing this problem to the modern high-level tools we now have access to. But I don't think this is the…

On your hardware tangent vs. cloudgunk...

People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware. - Alan Kay

... via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup

Re: The cloudy layers of modern-day programming

#173

Post by gptadmirer » Wed, Dec 07, 2022, 10:11 PM UTC

rramadass wrote: post #157

gptadmirer wrote: post #56

I am a fullstack web dev, for about 8 years now. These days I am learning Arduino and thinking of learning AVR programming. Is there a career path for this kind of intersection?

Absolutely! But pay may vary because of "market reasons" (whatever that may mean). Some suggestions for your study; 1) Use C/C++ only and nothing else. See my past posts for books full of example code. This will allow you to carry your knowledge across MCU families. 2) Starting with Arduino and moving on to direct AVR programming is a great approach. Get Elliot Williams' book Make: AVR Programming for the latter. 3)…

Thank you for the response. I just got the Make: AVR Programming. Seems very interesting stuffs!

Re: The cloudy layers of modern-day programming

#174

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 07, 2022, 10:29 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #48

somrand0 wrote: post #4

oh yea. using a software framework like django for "rapid application development" gives me a feeling closer to writing configuration files rather than actually "programming" (where "programming" is writing hardcore algorithms). but don't get me wrong, I liked doing that, I got paid to do it. But let's call it for what it is: that python code (django app) was really django framework config. this is a simlar phenomeno…

it's config until you need an option not in the 'language' and then you have to get real dirty

[deleted]

Re: The cloudy layers of modern-day programming

#175

Post by avbanks » Wed, Dec 07, 2022, 11:40 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #93

tester756 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the only way is to complain whole life?

I mean, if you can’t, or don’t want to change your situation, it’s an effective outlet. There’s also more than enough people feeling the same to commiserate, so you’ll never be alone.

"leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness."

Re: The cloudy layers of modern-day programming

#176

Post by somrand0 » Wed, Dec 07, 2022, 11:46 PM UTC

einpoklum wrote: post #50

somrand0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well sure, I completely agree that it's indeed a boon. a HUGE boon. the problem I describe is not a technical one, but a social one. and it's only a problem due to the current way society works. It's only a problem for some people (e.g me); them who are well satisfied by this "status quo" don't see any issue beyond lacking enforcement of IP 'rights' and the need for better DRM, and copy protections, and other things…

> I'm saying that this boon brought about by digital technology is only benefiting a select few. If you mean how most people in the world are under stricter social control with the advent of technology than they were in primitive tribal society (or maybe even middle-age agrarian society), then maybe. But if you mean the benefit from being able to make these copies - then definitely disagree: People get to have tons o…

well, I'm not considering software specifically, but any and all "digital" media; including and without any special focus on software.

I suppose software is the least affected by this alleged "problem". after all, the 'free and open culture' movement spun out[1] of the free (and open) software movements.

[1] citation needed.

Re: The cloudy layers of modern-day programming

#177

Post by Dunedan » Fri, Dec 09, 2022, 8:33 PM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #170

TeMPOraL wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can find cool technical problems anywhere as long as you are willing to take the path less traveled. After doing that a few times, I'm no longer sure if the reward of tackling cool problems to create more robust, better, faster components is worth the stress of missing deadlines. Looking back on what value of better work materializes and what is, per YAGNI, usually wasted, I just had a thought: perhaps the righ…

I am doing this for a particular purpose, though, that no billing system I have seen has. I hate metered API billing, and I don't want to use it. In particular, I don't want a customer running up a $10,000 bill and calling me for a refund. It probably will cost me O($1,000) to give them a refund, between the processing fees and the lost compute, and I will be out that money. Most companies that would ask for a refund…

> I hate metered API billing, and I don't want to use it.

> Instead, I want to do credit-based billing: you buy credits, and when you get to 0 credits, you are cut off (with an auto-refill option for the "metered billing experience," but with strict spending limits). This is, in my opinion, a much better UX than metered billing.

How do your customers feel about that? Have you researched if your customers are comfortable spending their money upfront to buy credits they might only use much later (if ever)? For small amounts of money that might not be a big deal, but if we're talking about thousands of dollars that might look different.