frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

How async/await works in Python (2021)

https://tenthousandmeters.com/blog/python-behind-the-scenes-12-how-asyncawait-works-in-python/
61•sebg•8mo ago

Comments

quentinp•8mo ago
While it stays at the Python level, https://github.com/AndreLouisCaron/a-tale-of-event-loops really helped me to understand how asyncio and Trio are implemented. I had no idea how sleeps worked before reading that post.
incomingpain•8mo ago
Page didnt load for me.

https://realpython.com/async-io-python/

Multiprocessing all the way!

emmelaich•8mo ago
(2021)

Good article!

punnerud•8mo ago
A more simplified version:

Synchronous code is like a single-lane road where cars (tasks) must travel one after another in perfect sequence. If one car stops for gas (waiting for I/O), every car behind it must stop too. While orderly and predictable, this creates massive traffic jams as tasks wait unnecessarily for others to complete before they can proceed.

Pure asynchronous code (with callbacks) is like dispatching multiple cars onto independent routes with no coordination. Cars move freely without waiting for each other, but they arrive at unpredictable times and following their progress becomes chaotic. It's efficient but creates a complex tangle of paths that becomes hard to maintain.

Async/await combines the best of both approaches with a multi-lane highway system. Cars follow clear, synchronous-looking routes (making code readable), but only wait at strategic "await" exit ramps when truly necessary. When a car needs data, it signals with "await", pulls off the highway temporarily, and other cars continue flowing past. Once its operation completes, it merges back into traffic and continues. This gives you the logical simplicity of synchronous code with the performance benefits of asynchronous execution - cars only wait at crossroads when they must, maximizing throughput while maintaining order.

The genius of async/await is that it lets developers write code that looks sequential while the runtime handles all the complex traffic management under the hood.

explodes•8mo ago
Excellent write up. I appreciate the level of details here showing the history from the days of old, before async/await were even keywords.
bilsbie•8mo ago
How does the GIL come into play here?
punnerud•8mo ago
GIL is like a "red-cap" on the head for the CPU-core running the task, so you would not be able to run true Async without GIL. Have to hand the "red-cap" back, for the next task.

Instead of using a global lock ("red-cap"), Python objects have introduced a specialized reference counting system that distinguishes between "local" references (owned by a single thread) and "shared" references (accessed by multiple threads).

In that way enabling to remove GIL in the long run, now starting with making it optional.

Ghostty's AI Policy

https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/AI_POLICY.md
212•mefengl•3h ago•110 comments

What Has Docker Become?

https://tuananh.net/2026/01/20/what-has-docker-become/
15•tuananh•46m ago•2 comments

I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moBCOEiqiPs
247•codetheweb•7h ago•56 comments

AI Is a Horse (2024)

https://kconner.com/2024/08/02/ai-is-a-horse.html
94•zdw•3d ago•56 comments

Replacing Protobuf with Rust to go 5 times faster

https://pgdog.dev/blog/replace-protobuf-with-rust
69•whiteros_e•4h ago•48 comments

Booting a PC from a Vinyl Record

https://boginjr.com/it/sw/dev/vinyl-boot/
30•yesturi•2h ago•6 comments

The State of Modern AI Text to Speech Systems for Screen Reader Users

https://stuff.interfree.ca/2026/01/05/ai-tts-for-screenreaders.html
28•tuukkao•3h ago•4 comments

Show HN: S2-lite, an open source Stream Store

https://github.com/s2-streamstore/s2
10•shikhar•1d ago•0 comments

Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

https://cannoneyed.com/isometric-nyc/
1029•cannoneyed•20h ago•197 comments

GPTZero finds 100 new hallucinations in NeurIPS 2025 accepted papers

https://gptzero.me/news/neurips/
872•segmenta•22h ago•463 comments

Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/capital-one-buy-fintech-firm-brex-515-billion-deal-20...
318•personjerry•15h ago•263 comments

Proton Spam and the AI Consent Problem

https://dbushell.com/2026/01/22/proton-spam/
251•dbushell•6h ago•149 comments

Why does SSH send 100 packets per keystroke?

https://eieio.games/blog/ssh-sends-100-packets-per-keystroke/
528•eieio•17h ago•281 comments

I was banned from Claude for scaffolding a Claude.md file?

https://hugodaniel.com/posts/claude-code-banned-me/
591•hugodan•18h ago•532 comments

Presence in Death

https://rubinmuseum.org/presence-in-death/
7•tock•1h ago•0 comments

Qwen3-TTS family is now open sourced: Voice design, clone, and generation

https://qwen.ai/blog?id=qwen3tts-0115
636•Palmik•23h ago•201 comments

Variation on Iota

https://www.toolofthought.com/posts/variation-on-iota
5•aebtebeten•4d ago•0 comments

TI-99/4A: Leaning More on the Firmware

https://bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/ti-99-4a-leaning-more-heavily-on-the-firmware/
49•ibobev•4d ago•21 comments

Why I Don't Have Fun With Claude Code

https://brennan.io/2026/01/23/claude-code/
16•ingve•3h ago•7 comments

Show HN: Whosthere: A LAN discovery tool with a modern TUI, written in Go

https://github.com/ramonvermeulen/whosthere
4•rvermeulen98•1h ago•1 comments

Douglas Adams on the English–American cultural divide over "heroes"

https://shreevatsa.net/post/douglas-adams-cultural-divide/
476•speckx•23h ago•479 comments

Your app subscription is now my weekend project

https://rselbach.com/your-sub-is-now-my-weekend-project
409•robteix•4d ago•295 comments

Scaling PostgreSQL to power 800M ChatGPT users

https://openai.com/index/scaling-postgresql/
225•mustaphah•15h ago•100 comments

Bugs Apple Loves

https://www.bugsappleloves.com
750•nhod•10h ago•329 comments

Improving the usability of C libraries in Swift

https://www.swift.org/blog/improving-usability-of-c-libraries-in-swift/
125•timsneath•13h ago•21 comments

Our collective obsession with boredom: Interview with a boredom lab researcher

https://nautil.us/why-the-do-nothing-challenge-doesnt-do-much-for-you-1262005/
10•akakievich•3d ago•3 comments

Writing First, Tooling Second

https://susam.net/writing-first-tooling-second.html
45•blenderob•4d ago•6 comments

Show HN: Txt2plotter – True centerline vectors from Flux.2 for pen plotters

https://github.com/malvarezcastillo/txt2plotter
28•tsanummy•3d ago•7 comments

Why medieval city-builder video games are historically inaccurate (2020)

https://www.leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/why-medieval-city-builder-video-games-are-historic...
163•benbreen•12h ago•104 comments

'Askers' vs. 'Guessers' (2010)

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/2010/05/askers-vs-guessers/340891/
169•BoorishBears•1d ago•119 comments