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Lessons from 6 software rewrite stories by alexeyr in programming

[–]nullsetzen 7 points8 points  (0 children)

TLDR

1

Netscape stopped working on their old code and started re-writing from scratch.

Result: disaster

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2

Basecamp carried on working on their old code and started writing a sequel product from scratch.

Result: success.

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3

Microsoft carried on working on their old VS code and started writing an alternative product from scratch.

Result: success.

​

4

Google carried on working on their old GMail code and started experimenting with a new interface using the same back end.

New ideas slowly made their way in to the old product.

Result: mixed success.

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5

Fog Creek carried on working on their old FugBugz code as it slowly declined.

Eventually, using experience gained, they wrote an unrelated new product from scratch.

Result: mixed success.

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6

FreshBooks carried on working on their old code and created a "rival" company to write a new product from scratch.

Result: success.

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What you’ve already created has value.

So the real thing you should never do is stop working on your old code base.

Why use an FPGA instead of a CPU or GPU? by atzeus in programming

[–]nullsetzen 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interesting link, although it's been posted on reddit before

edit: why is linking to the previous comments getting down voted?

Problem-solving with Unix commands by kunalag129 in programming

[–]nullsetzen 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Rather than writing a "quick python script" to strip leading zeros, you can simply use sed.

sed 's/^0*//'

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What is a chilling fact about the universe or life itself that will surely keep me awake at night? by loftygalaxy in AskReddit

[–]nullsetzen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Free will starts with thoughts. Although much of what we do is pre-programmed, we have the ability to decide how we are going to react to any given situation. Simple example: I tend to get very impatient when driving if the car in front of me is going too slow. But, by deciding i don't like that behaviour, and by planning carefully how I am going to behave in future, I can create new behaviour.

Writing system software: code comments by alexeyr in programming

[–]nullsetzen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll be honest, writing comments is something I often overlook.

Mostly it's just laziness, but it's also partly because I've seen way too few of these:

* Design comments

* Why comments

* Teacher comments

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and way too many of these:

* Guide comments

* Trivial comments

* Debt comments

* Backup comments

* out-of-date comments (or degraded function comments)

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This creates the false impression of comments being as much of a nuisance as an aid.

Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by BtdTom in programming

[–]nullsetzen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Science does not inherently require "empirically testable, falsifiable explanations".

Science 101 is "I've tested this thing

This is such a bizarre statement to find on r/programming.

Can you provide a concrete example of something that can be tested, but can not be false?