Hardest Problem in Computer Science: Centering Things
- Nikita Prokopov tl;dr: Nikita discusses the struggles of properly centering text and icons despite the advances of modern CSS. He discusses problems with: (1) font metrics where the bounding box of a text block is not balanced around the cap height. (2) Line heights that complicate centering. (3) Icon fonts that convert icons into text.featured in #507
If Inheritance Is So Bad, Why Does Everyone Use It?
- Hillel Wayne tl;dr: Hillel refers to an essay that says that inheritance is harmful and if possible you should "ban inheritance completely... “A lot of these arguments argue that in practice inheritance has problems. But they don't preclude inheritance working in another context, maybe with a better language syntax. And it doesn't explain why inheritance became so popular in the first place. I want to explore what's fundamentally challenging about inheritance and why we all use it anyway.”featured in #506
My List Of Challenging Software Projects Some Programmers Should Try
- Andrei Ciobanu tl;dr: “The project ideas I am about to suggest are mainly intended for those who are interested in exploring new areas of knowledge. However, it’s important to note that most of these ideas may not be relevant to today’s job market.” List includes lesser known data structures, distributed hash table, scientific calculator, and more.featured in #503
featured in #502
My List Of Challenging Software Projects Some Programmers Should Try
- Andrei Ciobanu tl;dr: “The project ideas I am about to suggest are mainly intended for those who are interested in exploring new areas of knowledge. However, it’s important to note that most of these ideas may not be relevant to today’s job market.” List includes lesser known data structures, distributed hash table, scientific calculator, and more.featured in #502
On Tech Debt: My Rust Library Is Now A CDO
- Armin Ronacher tl;dr: The author describes how they dealt with tech debt in their Rust library caused by a dependency. When the dependency was flagged as insecure by RUSTSEC, users demanded action. Alternatives were unappealing, so the author merged the dependency's code into their own library, effectively "collateralizing" the tech debt and upgrading it from "junk" to "AAA" status.featured in #501
The Demise Of Coding Is Greatly Exaggerated
- Murat Demirbas tl;dr: “Natural language is ambiguous and not suitable for programming. LLMs still need to generate code to get things done. If not inspected carefully, this incurs tech debt at monumental speed of the computers. The natural language prompts are not repeatable/deterministic, they are subject to breaking any time. This makes "natural language programming" unsuitable for even small sized projects, let alone medium to large projects.” Murat also believes that certain tasks require too much expertise to be completed by an LLMs as they stand.featured in #498
featured in #488
Why We Can't Have Nice Software
- Andrew Kelley tl;dr: “The problem with software is that it's too powerful. It creates so much wealth so fast that it's virtually impossible to not distribute it. Think about it: sure, it takes a while to make useful software. But then you make it, and then it's done. It keeps working with no maintenance whatsoever, and just a trickle of electricity to run it.” Andrew discusses the problem this poses on software development.featured in #487
Estimates Are About Time, So Let's Cut To The Chase
- Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya tl;dr: Nicole argues that software engineers, who often estimate tasks using abstract points, should instead estimate directly in units of time. "When we look at large pieces of a product roadmap, we typically need a ballpark understanding of the time and cost." Estimating in time offers clarity and avoids the indirectness of using points as a proxy for time. However, Nicole acknowledges potential pitfalls, such as misuse of time estimates by external parties.featured in #458