91–100 of 346 posts
I wish every dev would try projects and things completely unrelated to computers. I enjoy being outside. These headlines “projects every dev should try” really annoy me. I try to put in enough effort at work, and that’s tough. But I have been messing with computers for over 20 years now.
Of course nobody said don't go outside or pursue non tech interests.
While writing a text editor, a compiler, an operating system, or a raytracer might make you a better programmer, it won't make you a better software engineer. In fact, it might make you worse at software engineering, because it embodies the disastrous "Not Invented Here" doctrine. Hackers like to obsess about Big-O, data structures, HoTT, and other high-theory stuff, yet the following skills, essential for software e…
Gentlemen, you can't hack in here; this is Hacker News.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the most challenging part is making a text editor that actually works well from a usability perspective. Which has almost nothing to do with data structures and optimization. I've used dozens of text editors. I have never once thought "man, that thing is slow". But I have thought "man, that thing is a bug-ridden, unintuitive piece of garbage" many, many times.
You must not have used Eclipse back in the day
While writing a text editor, a compiler, an operating system, or a raytracer might make you a better programmer, it won't make you a better software engineer. In fact, it might make you worse at software engineering, because it embodies the disastrous "Not Invented Here" doctrine. Hackers like to obsess about Big-O, data structures, HoTT, and other high-theory stuff, yet the following skills, essential for software e…
What if we don't want to be "software engineers"? I'm still not totally convinced that "software engineer" is even a thing , frankly.
While writing a text editor, a compiler, an operating system, or a raytracer might make you a better programmer, it won't make you a better software engineer. In fact, it might make you worse at software engineering, because it embodies the disastrous "Not Invented Here" doctrine. Hackers like to obsess about Big-O, data structures, HoTT, and other high-theory stuff, yet the following skills, essential for software e…
Yea, no thanks.
If I'm going to work on something in my spare time, I am going to work on something that I am interested in and find fun. I generally loathe the dirty work often involved in software engineering and debugging all of these dependencies all the time. It's exhausting. Doing things from scratch puts me in charge.
And I mean, creating a search engine is the ultimate "not invented here" project. I'd just pay for and use Google, Bing, or whatever else API to do things for me. So it doesn't even make sense in the context of your objections.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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I genuinely love your sentiment. We have way too much faux asceticism and way too little self-mockery in this godforsaken industry that pays us all way too much money. Programming is wizardry. But being a professional one (a software engineer) is a ridiculous occupation we're coerced into. We all know this, otherwise Silicon Valley wouldn't have been a universally cathartic show. But GP is completely correct that all…
I guess I was emphasizing GP's point. The profession is the problem. Not the subject matter. I love computers.
For a fun challenge, implement space invaders in Verilog (i.e. purely in hardware)
I would really love to try my hands on something much more physical, like a robot; or a drone with autopilot; maybe accurate simulation of flight dynamics of a spaceplane with programmable GNC parameters? I have a copy of "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" by Bate, Mueller et al and I would love to do something with it this holiday season. I say simulation because all the rest of the stuff seems to cost a lot. I am real…
What do you plan on doing with it? I'd love to hear more about what the book is about and a project you might do.
I would really love to try my hands on something much more physical, like a robot; or a drone with autopilot; maybe accurate simulation of flight dynamics of a spaceplane with programmable GNC parameters? I have a copy of "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" by Bate, Mueller et al and I would love to do something with it this holiday season. I say simulation because all the rest of the stuff seems to cost a lot. I am real…
> I have a copy of "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" by Bate, Mueller et al and I would love to do something with it this holiday season. What do you plan on doing with it? I'd love to hear more about what the book is about and a project you might do.
is the direct link to the Google Books overview with sample pages, table of contents, etc.
While writing a text editor, a compiler, an operating system, or a raytracer might make you a better programmer, it won't make you a better software engineer. In fact, it might make you worse at software engineering, because it embodies the disastrous "Not Invented Here" doctrine. Hackers like to obsess about Big-O, data structures, HoTT, and other high-theory stuff, yet the following skills, essential for software e…
> In that spirit, I offer the following alternative challenge: Create a web search engine. Yea, no thanks. If I'm going to work on something in my spare time, I am going to work on something that I am interested in and find fun. I generally loathe the dirty work often involved in software engineering and debugging all of these dependencies all the time. It's exhausting. Doing things from scratch puts me in charge. An…
Except that none of the established search engines actually does full-text search (anymore). There is no way to prevent those engines from breaking apart and rewriting your query as they see fit. No matter how many quotation marks you put around it, and even if you enable "Verbatim" mode or whatever.
So if you just implement the option to do that (which is actually the default if you leverage a standard FTS library), you already have something that AFAIK you can't get anywhere else. Then you can work on kicking the blogspam out of your index, and before long you will have a search engine of real value for yourself (and possibly others).
Or, you can build a crappy clone of a text editor from the 70s.