lysdexic

@ lysdexic @programming.dev

Posts

439
Comments

601
Joined

3 yr. ago

Moderating

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2y ago

Please Add .gitattributes To Your Git Repository
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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago
For those who want a ready-made set of .gitattribute files you can simply drop on your project, here's this fancy GitHub link.
https://github.com/gitattributes/gitattributes
Once you add a .gitattributes file to your project, make sure you push a commit that re-normalizes all relevant files:

git rm --cached -r . git reset --hard

2y ago

The cost-benefit analysis of developing libraries versus services

From the article:

By library, I mean any software that can be run by the user: shared objects, modules, servers, command line utilities, and others. By service, I mean any software which the user can't run on their own; anything which depends (usually through an API) on a service provider for its functionality.

It looks like the blogger took a page out of Humpty Dumpty's playbook and tried to repurpose familiar keywords that refer to widely established concepts by assigning them entirely different meanings that are used by no one except the author. I'd also go as far as stating these redefinitions make no sense at all.

Perhaps the blogger might even have a point to make, but stumbling upon these semantics screwups is a major turndown, and in my case led me to just stop reading the blog post on the spot.

2y ago

Is there a place where you can request code reviews on opensource software?

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

See also the C4 process RFC

What an unfortunate name.

https://c4model.com/

2y ago

Voyager's 15 Billion Mile Software Update

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

I was thinking of cross posting this to a Fortran community, but it looks like we don’t yet have one.

I'm sure everyone is still in comp.lang.fortran telling all kids to get off their lawns.

2y ago

Voyager's 15 Billion Mile Software Update

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

(...) there’s really nothing here for any competent programmer, even a fresh graduate. It turns out they they update the software by sending the update by radio.

How they send the payload is hardly the hard part of applying a software update. The hard part is stuff that you need to do after you have the payload: ensure the payload is valid, have the infrastructure in place to roll it out without bricking the hardware, be able to roll back faulty changes if some problem occurs after rolling stuff out, etc.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that this stuff is challenging for the majority of competent programmers out there, and they have the luxury of falling back to telling users to reboot or reinstall the app.

2y ago

Announcing .NET Chiseled Containers - .NET Blog

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

From the announcement:

The premise of chiseled containers is that container images are the best deployment vehicle for cloud apps, but that typical images contain far too many components. Instead, we need to slice away all but the essential components. Chiseled container images do that. That helps — a lot — with size and security.

I'm glad that Microsoft is being mindful of how they are delivering .NET container images. However, this announcement feels like a large marketing effort to spin a failure into a win. The need to provide lean container images is as old as Docker itself, and Alpine-based images are synonymous with lean images. A very basic security measure in containerized applications is to not ship stuff you don't need. Microsoft's container images are indeed quite big without no good justification.

It's nice that Microsoft is fixing the problems they've been creating, but I'm baffled by the effort they are making to make believe this is something new or even a new concept.

2y ago

Software Engineer vs Software Developer

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

Taking UK as an example, you can call yourself civil engineer all day long without having to worry any legal consequences because there simply is no such thing as a licensing system for engineers.

Britain's Engineering Council disagrees.

https://www.engc.org.uk/international-activity/access-to-practise-in-the-uk/

2y ago

Software Engineer vs Software Developer

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

That is the work of a software engineer.

To build upon this, we need to keep in mind that at least in some jurisdictions the role of a certified engineer is only required in projects with relevant size, and the responsibility of that engineer is to ensure the project complies with all requirements and therefore be held responsible for any mishap. This means that it's perfectly fine if non-engineers work independently on complex tasks, provided that an engineer attests that their output is fine and takes responsibility in case it isn't and it causes problems.

2y ago

Software Engineer vs Software Developer

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

This really depends on the country you live in.

Not really. There are two aspects to this problem: one is how people assign arbitrary and meaningless titles to themselves, and another is regulatory requirements by jurisdictions to be able to legally assume a role.

I can call myself senior dubstep engineer, and that's perfectly fine. I can't call myself a civil engineer and sign off on a construction project or a permit. No one cares if I'm actually a senior dubstep engineer or if I'm junior at best. In the meantime, you will get in trouble if you try to sign off on a construction project, no matter of how stubborn you are with regards to calling yourself an engineer.

2y ago

Software Engineer vs Software Developer

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

As a former civil engineer who now works in software, “software engineer” irks me. “Engineer” means you’re supposed to be licensed and you have a responsibility for the public good above your responsibility to your employer.

This. I think some people don't understand that titles are not whimsical status symbols and hold actual legal and regulatory meaning. A random guy can hold an engineering degree and not be an engineer, while a random guy with no degree can actually be a engineer if he jumps through all the hoops.

In engineering fields, being a member of a professional engineering body is critical to work in the field, because the main value proposition of these credentials is to prevent incompetent people from working on critical tasks which can potentially have important consequences to society if they are done poorly. For example, people can die if an engineer signs off on a project for a residential building that collapses due to shoddy work. If that happens then the engineers who signed off on the project will be investigated and if they are held responsible not only can they be held criminally responsible for their work but their license will be pulled, which is society's response to ensure this problem won't happen again.

2y ago

Software Engineer vs Software Developer

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

Poorly defined nomenclature. Simple as that. I’m an “automation engineer”, have had many other titles (...)

Anyone can call themselves what they feel like it. However, in some jurisdictions and contexts the title "engineer" does have a specific meaning, consisting of someone who not only has the necessary and sufficient training but also is a member of a specific professional body. These credentials have meaning and those who try to pass themselves off as one without having the certification or credentials might be breaking laws.

2y ago

What's the biggest change you would like to see in computing/tech?

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

Non profit doesn’t mean they earn nothing

You need a valid business model to keep an organization ticking. Staff doesn't live out of hopes and dreams. It's hard enough to get a for-profit software company to stay up. If your starting point is that the company is not focused on getting a profit then it all sounds as hopes and dreams instead of an actual business plan.

2y ago

What's the biggest change you would like to see in computing/tech?

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

I’m not sold on user replaceable phone batteries, but USB-C was a long time coming.

As someone who had a perfectly fine Android smartphone die because its battery went dead, and had to replace it with an off-brand one to keep it ticking... I can assure you that the lack of support for user-replaceable phone batteries is forcing people to throw away perfectly good hardware.

2y ago

Highlights from Git 2.43

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

From the announcement:

Another frequently mentioned feature in this series is Git’s “partial clone” mechanism, which allows interacting with a repository containing a limited subset of its objects.

Has anyone tried partial clones yet? If you did, how was the experience?

2y ago

What's the biggest change you would like to see in computing/tech?

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

There are parallels to be drawn between licensed professionals (like doctors, CPAs, lawyers, civil engineers) that they all have time under a professional and the professional then signs off and bears some responsibility vouching for a trainee.

We need to keep in mind that the main value proposition of these licenses is to bar people from practicing. There is no other purpose.

In some activities this gatekeeping mechanismo is well justified: a doctor who kills people out of incompetence should be prevented from practicing, and so do accountants who embezzle and civil engineers who get people killed by designing and building subpar things.

Your average software developers doesn't handle stuff that gets people killed. Society gains nothing by preventing a software developer from implementing a button in a social network webapp.

2y ago

C++ Shell: a free online compiler

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

I agree, Compiler Explorer is indeed a far better product which single-handedly popularized a killer feature.

2y ago

What's the biggest change you would like to see in computing/tech?

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

As a counter balance to that though, interviewers need to understand what they are hiring for and tailor the questions asked to those requirements.

This does not happen. At all.

Back in reality we have recruiters who can't even spell the name of the teck stacks they are hiring for as a precondition, and asking for impossible qualifications such as years of experience in tech stacks that were released only a few months ago.

From my personal experience, cultural fit and prior experience are far more critical hiring factors, and experience in tech stacks are only relevant in terms of dictating how fast someone can onboard onto a project.

Furthermore, engineering is all about solving problems that you never met before. Experience is important, but you don't assess that with leetcode or trivia questions.

2y ago

What's the biggest change you would like to see in computing/tech?

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lysdexic @programming.dev 2y ago

to add to this, id like standardization of qualification and competencies - kind of like a license so I don’t have to “demonstrate” myself during interviews.

I strongly disagree. There is already a standardization of qualification of competences in the form of cloud vendor certifications. They are all utter bullshit and a huge moneygrab which do nothing to attest someone's experience or competence.

Certifications also validate optimizing for the wrong metric, like validating a "papers, please" attitude towards recruitment instead of actually demonstrate competence, skill, and experience.

Also, certifications validate the parasitic role of a IT recruiter, the likes of which is responsible for barring candidates for not having decades of experience in tech stacks they can't even spell and released just a few months ago. Relying on certifications empower parasitic recruiters to go from clueless filterers to outright gatekeepers, and in the process validate business models of circumventing their own certification requirements.

We already went down this road. It's a disaster. The only need this approach meets is ladder-pulling by incompetent people who paid for irrelevant certifications and have a legal mechanism to prevent extremely incompetent people from practicing, and the latter serves absolutely no purpose on software development.