Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 327 posts

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#31

Post by matteason »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #21
matteason wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The bottom of every page is padded so readers can maintain a consistent eyeline. That's a nice little detail, I haven't seen that before

Can you (or archmaster) explain it? I'm not sure I understand what it's for.

It means that you can keep your eyeline focussed on the middle of the viewport (or the top, or wherever's natural for you) as you scroll new content into view. On a regular page, once your scrollbar reaches the bottom you have to start reading down the viewport because there's no more space to scroll. I don't know how much practical difference it would actually make to readability - would be interesting to measure - but I thought it was neat

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#32

Post by bdcravens »

skizm wrote: post #18

Meta point: I'm curious of people's thoughts when OPs in general post "I'm N years old..." or "I'm a blind programmer who..." before posting something unrelated to their life situation. Personally I think this falls into the "girls do not exist on the internet" rule of thumb. No reason to state that you're a girl (or 12 years old or whatever) other than to prime people to look upon your writing with lower standards.…

I don't think it's any worse that appealing to authority ("patio11 said that ....") or referencing that you were in YC. In those cases as well, quality should stand on its own. Even so, I think context helps, and it's not always the same as having lower standards.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#34

Post by SushiHippie »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #21
matteason wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The bottom of every page is padded so readers can maintain a consistent eyeline. That's a nice little detail, I haven't seen that before

Can you (or archmaster) explain it? I'm not sure I understand what it's for.

When you scroll to the bottom while reading text you always only need to look in the middle of the screen when it's padded. Otherwise at the end of the page you would need to look at the bottom of the screen

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#35

Post by archmaster »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #21
matteason wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The bottom of every page is padded so readers can maintain a consistent eyeline. That's a nice little detail, I haven't seen that before

Can you (or archmaster) explain it? I'm not sure I understand what it's for.

When many people read an article on the web, they keep their eyes in one small vertical area on the page and scroll to shift the text (rather than reading the whole visible area and then scrolling to the next "page"). However, when you reach the end of the scroll area, you're suddenly forced to move your eyeline down the page. Adding a bunch of space adds means you can keep scrolling the text to be underneath your eye-area. (sorry for the crufty explanation lol, it's kinda hard to visualize)

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#36

Post by throwaway290 »

balder1991 wrote: post #27
skizm wrote: post #18

Meta point: I'm curious of people's thoughts when OPs in general post "I'm N years old..." or "I'm a blind programmer who..." before posting something unrelated to their life situation. Personally I think this falls into the "girls do not exist on the internet" rule of thumb. No reason to state that you're a girl (or 12 years old or whatever) other than to prime people to look upon your writing with lower standards.…

Maybe in this case it’s a way to avoid too harsh criticism. It’s like, “hey, if I’m missing something I don’t have a degree so don’t take this as an authoritative piece”.

If it serves like a content warning then sure but it's dubious, a lot of outright junk appears here without anything like that-- that's what discussion threads are for:)

and about avoiding negative feedback, well I'm 36 and I don't have a degree... What can I do to avoid harsh criticism? I clearly can't use my age right? (right now I try to ignore it if it's not constructive or try to not become depressed and use it if it is, but overall I don't think this industry is so harsh criticism wise)

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#37

Post by archmaster »

amelius wrote: post #29
archmaster wrote: post #14

Hi! I'm Lexi, I wrote this article/mini-book. There's a classic question of "what happens when you load a website?", but I've always been more interested in "what happens when you run a program?". About 3 months ago, I was really annoyed at myself for not knowing how to answer that question so I decided to teach myself. I taught myself everything else I know in programming, so this should be easy, right? NOPE! Appare…

It's a bit dated but perhaps you should check out Structured Computer Organization by Andrew Tanenbaum.

Oh, thank you for the suggestion! I of course know of Tanenbaum by reputation but I've never read the book.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#38

Post by Cushman »

skizm wrote: post #18

Meta point: I'm curious of people's thoughts when OPs in general post "I'm N years old..." or "I'm a blind programmer who..." before posting something unrelated to their life situation. Personally I think this falls into the "girls do not exist on the internet" rule of thumb. No reason to state that you're a girl (or 12 years old or whatever) other than to prime people to look upon your writing with lower standards.…

Gently: Could we please not? :)

This is a young person who’s new to the community. That’s where communities come from!

Without other comment, this meta thread is pushing the author’s personal statement below the fold. As the grown-ass adults in the room, we can have our judgments, but we should try to make a little space, too.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#39

Post by wholinator2 »

skizm wrote: post #18

Meta point: I'm curious of people's thoughts when OPs in general post "I'm N years old..." or "I'm a blind programmer who..." before posting something unrelated to their life situation. Personally I think this falls into the "girls do not exist on the internet" rule of thumb. No reason to state that you're a girl (or 12 years old or whatever) other than to prime people to look upon your writing with lower standards.…

I think kids tend to do it in traditionally adult spaces just as a buffer from the extreme criticism that can exist online. Saying, "someone wrote a cpu guide" has a lot less impact than saying "a teenage girl wrote a cpu guide". I don't think the individual behind the content is all that important and we have to recognize that we only ever see the kids that tell us they're kids, i could be an 8 year old prodigy for all anyone knows.

Praise is nice, especially when you're young. Stating your young has to dramatically increase praise to criticism ratio in adult spaces like this. No one would care on reddit but we're all old men here lol so the kids stand out. It can be overdone if the person makes the content about themselves instead of the content, or intentionally starts controversy. But this is fine.

Since she states she won a hackathon she's probably a very gifted and motivated young person who is still surrounded with adults telling her she's great, that doesn't mean they're wrong. And sooner or later the adults begin drastically raising the bar for praising you so it's cool for her to get her last couple years out of it.

Re: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs

#40

Post by Bedon292 »

ggambetta wrote: post #4

Very nicely written, and congrats on doing such a deep dive on this kind of topic. These days 17 year olds can get away with "programming" by gluing things they don't understand, but I think they'll eventually hit a ceiling. So what you're doing is super valuable, not for yourself, but for everyone else who will learn from your materials. Well done :) EDIT: now go write an emulator if you haven't already, it's a ton…

Or write an operating system. I remember, a long time ago, starting to work through a book (Operating System Concepts) and covering a lot of similar topics. So this reminded me about it. Although I only remembered the dinosaurs on the cover and had to look up the name.
Post reply on HN