frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

A Philosophy of Software Design vs. Clean Code

https://github.com/johnousterhout/aposd-vs-clean-code
3•akbarnama•2d ago

Comments

jll29•2d ago
This is a useful debate.

UB dislikes comments because they may differ from what the code actually does, and JO likes comments because they say some things not explicitly written in the code.

Their two ways can be reconciled as follows: I'd say comments and code co-describe what the developer's intentions are to the human reader, but since the comments are ignored by the machine, only the code has "normative" nature (to use the language of standards/regulations). Ironically, in their debate they both ignore what Knuth considers his greatest accomplishment of his career: literate programming, which is a single view/representation that can be automatically compiled to serve its two audiences: human (LaTeX) and machine (code, obviously no comments needed as they are ignored): literate programming also solves one key point expressed by UB, namely that to understand comments, you must already have understood how the code works. This is not true for literature programming. To paraphrase Knuth quoting Wikipedia:

  "[L]iterate programming provides higher-quality programs, since it forces programmers to explicitly state the thoughts behind the program, making poorly thought-out design decisions more obvious. Knuth also claims that literate programming provides a first-rate documentation system, which is not an add-on, but is grown naturally in the process of exposition of one's thoughts during a program's creation.[10] The resulting documentation allows the author to restart their own thought processes at any later time, and allows other programmers to understand the construction of the program more easily."
Knuth would not like comments or JavaDoc, as both are ways inferior to literate programming, a way that explains the origins, assumptions, design rationale and construction of the method step by step, and therefore explains why the code looks like it looks, from the author's original motivation.

Braincraft challenge – 1000 neurons, 100 seconds, 10 runs, 2 choices, no reward

https://github.com/rougier/braincraft
1•phreeza•40s ago•0 comments

Show HN: A Tetris finesse inspired Vim game

https://www.vimfinesse.com/
1•isomierism•4m ago•0 comments

Marco – All your emails, one place

https://marcoapp.io/blog/marco-an-introduction
1•swyx•9m ago•0 comments

Search Index in 150 Lines of Haskell

https://entropicthoughts.com/search-index-150-lines-haskell
2•Bogdanp•10m ago•0 comments

Show HN: AddVenture – a minimal, fast mental-math game

https://www.add-venture.xyz/
1•sarthaksoni•10m ago•0 comments

Australian lawyer penalised for using AI-generated false citations

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/sep/03/lawyer-caught-using-ai-generated-false-citations-in-c...
1•softveda•12m ago•1 comments

What's the best way to manage and access multiple PostgreSQL instances in K8s?

https://github.com/XiangyuFan17/p6s
1•xiangyufan723•14m ago•1 comments

LLM-eval-simple a simple way to evaluate LLM for your use case

https://grigio.org/llm-eval-simple-a-simple-way-to-evaluate-llm-for-your-use-case/
1•grigio•20m ago•0 comments

I code as a blind and neurodivergent developer

https://medium.com/@tayarndt/how-i-code-as-a-blind-and-neurodivergent-developer-overcoming-challe...
2•ljlolel•24m ago•0 comments

Benchmark for Local LLMs with German "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" Questions

https://github.com/ikiruneo/millionaire-bench
2•thunderbong•24m ago•1 comments

AI is going great for the blind

https://robertkingett.com/posts/6230/
1•ljlolel•24m ago•0 comments

What Football Coaching Taught Me About Software Development

https://talkflow.substack.com/p/what-football-coaching-taught-me
1•moxpal•26m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What are you working on? (Aug 2025)

3•mrishabh09•27m ago•1 comments

Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to add tags and notes on LinkedIn

https://www.circles-extension.com/
1•charlie_ssld•29m ago•0 comments

Dagen H – The Day All of Sweden Switched Driving – 58th Anniversary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H
2•DrScump•31m ago•0 comments

OpenKagi – Custom Lenses and Themes for Kagi Search

https://openkagi.com
1•buster•32m ago•0 comments

Kernel-hack-drill and exploiting CVE-2024-50264 in the Linux kernel

https://a13xp0p0v.github.io/2025/09/02/kernel-hack-drill-and-CVE-2024-50264.html
9•r4um•33m ago•0 comments

Yogic Tapas

https://firstlight.bearblog.dev/normalizing-the-idea-of-yogic-tapas-tuh-puhs/
1•edelwiess•34m ago•1 comments

Show HN: I built a Cold DM tool (450 DMs/day)

https://www.dmpro.ai/
1•jsathianathen•34m ago•0 comments

Photon surfaces extensions for dynamical gravitational collapse

https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01368
2•raattgift•40m ago•0 comments

Apple Knowledge Navigator Video (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umJsITGzXd0
1•jumploops•42m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built an AI that uses a metacognitive loop 2 solve invention problems

https://robw1se.substack.com/p/introducing-the-ai-inventor
1•WiseRob•45m ago•0 comments

Shop Sages

https://www.shopsages.com/
2•mulinsen•46m ago•0 comments

WheelNext and Wheel Variants: An update, and a request for feedback

https://discuss.python.org/t/wheelnext-wheel-variants-an-update-and-a-request-for-feedback/102383
1•Bogdanp•46m ago•0 comments

China has mandated a digital watermark for all AI-generated content

https://www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c_1743654684782215.htm
4•brokebroadbeat•46m ago•0 comments

What are your biggest struggles with creating consistent content?

https://www.scryptify.ai/
1•mccharliesins•51m ago•1 comments

Gitpod is now Ona, moving beyond the IDE

https://ona.com/stories/gitpod-is-now-ona
2•gpi•57m ago•0 comments

Google Chrome at 17 – A history of our browser

https://addyosmani.com/blog/chrome-17th/
2•cyprien_g•57m ago•0 comments

Too much Venture Capital is a disease for startups

https://sophiebakalar.substack.com/p/too-much-capital-is-a-disease
1•vstrien•1h ago•2 comments

The IBM Selectric

https://www.ibm.com/history/selectric
2•jweir•1h ago•0 comments