Programming

The two key points:

• Meetings, interruptions, review delays, and slow CI pipelines cost more than AI saves. Individual productivity tools can’t fix organisational dysfunction.
• AI amplifies existing engineering culture. Strong quality practices get faster. Weak practices accumulate debt faster.

Does anyone have a favorite diff tool for reviewing lots of code? I'm thinking something along the lines like meld or vimdiff. I don't really need a git client. I'm comfortable with the git CLI. I'm mainly interested in making code reviews a little easier to manage.

I'm reviewing a large code change right now and the web interface sucks. It's slow. It doesn't load all the files at once. Cross referencing files sucks.

I know, I know. "Code changes should be small." I've already voiced that to my team, yet here we are. I'm trying to figure out a way to make this a little less miserable.

I’m experimenting with where I want to host tech blogs, but I put this short one on Write Freely

https://blog.keyboardvagabond.com/michael-dileos-software-and-tech-blog/longhorns-backup-cost-savings-or-not-getting-surprise-bills

tl;dr - my S3 storage costs were at $26/month more than I expected due to Longhorn (storage volume management for kubernetes) making over 5M s3_list_objects calls. Turning off that polling should fix it.

edit - the polling flag didn't fix it. I updated the blog with a new approach from a github issue that blocks network access outside of backup hours.

As a Java engineer in the web development industry for several years now, having heard multiple times that X is good because of SOLID principles or Y is bad because it breaks SOLID principles, and having to memorize the "good" ways to do everything before an interview etc, I find it harder and harder to do when I really start to dive into the real reason I'm doing something in a particular way.

One example is creating an interface for every goddamn class I make because of "loose coupling" when in reality none of these classes are ever going to have an alternative implementation.

Also the more I get into languages like Rust, the more these doubts are increasing and leading me to believe that most of it is just dogma that has gone far beyond its initial motivations and goals and is now just a mindless OOP circlejerk.

There are definitely occasions when these principles do make sense, especially in an OOP environment, and they can also make some design patterns really satisfying and easy.

What are your opinions on this?

Can kids under 10 be possibly taught coding, without even mentioning the word syntax to them ??🤔🤔🤔

From the video description:

Stop recompiling your C code just to change a number. adjust.h is a single-header library that lets you edit variables while your program is running - no rebuilds needed. Just include the header, mark your variables, and watch them update live as you edit your source file. In this video, I'll show you how to set it up and demonstrate why this simple tool can save you time.

Works with any C99 compiler and integrates perfectly with Raylib, ImGui, and other popular libraries. Whether you're tweaking game physics, adjusting graphics parameters, or fine-tuning algorithms, adjust.h will make your life simpler. Zero dependencies, minimal setup, maximum productivity.

I always see the programmer sentiment that "people should not be using excel for (project). It should be a database."

I am guessing by that they mean SQL? I dont know a thing about that except the acronym. The most ive done is a basic linux script and 2 hours of a VBA course. I suck at understanding programming, so id like to understand exactly how one uses a database vs excel. Like whay are the actual steps id have to do?

What could be the best way to introduce the world of computers to a kid, let's say of 6 years old, so that he learns to handle it like a toy and stops dreading it like some esoteric, arcane and recondite machine from some eldritch, enigmatic, cryptic and phantasmal world ?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/52108691

Hi, this is a post for you to rant on your sore points on technology

See I am trying to think of a good project idea one that people actually want solved, is there an app you wished existed, a site u wanted, put it down here and hey what do you know you may just see an ad in some while that now it exists

Qt Creator 18 adds experimental support for Development Containers and many more improvements.

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) has withdrawn its $1.5 million grant proposal to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) due to funding terms forcing a compromise on its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

If you were asked to make an e-commerce website in 2025, what language would you reach for? Show of hands: JavaScript? Go? Pascal? Well, there was at least one taker for that last one: [jns], and he has an hour-long tutorial video showing you how he made it happen.

I’ve been switching from Vim to Helix recently. I did the built-in tutor, and whenever I need to configure something, I look it up in the docs. The problem is, I only find what I already know to look for. Without reading the documentation more broadly, I don’t really know what I can configure in the first place.

So I’m curious, do you sit down and read documentation to understand a tool, or do you just search it when you hit a specific problem?

Hi everyone 👋 I wanted to share a little project I've been working on: rbbasic, a BASIC programming language compiler I'm writing in C++.

The idea is simple — and a bit nostalgic: It's a transcompiler that converts BASIC code into C, then compiles it using GCC into an executable.

🛠️ Current Status

Early alpha stage

Only basic features implemented (closer to a primitive GW-BASIC for now)

Still missing a lot of built-ins and syntax features

Focused on Windows right now — Linux support coming

The long-term dream is something like QB64-lite, maybe focused more on GW-BASIC style

🎯 Goals

See if I can actually build a working BASIC compiler 😅

Recreate the feel of GW-BASIC / QBasic on modern systems

Eventually MIT-licensed and published on GitHub

Mostly a personal hobby project right now — not aiming at mass adoption

Possibly demoing progress soon on my YouTube channel

❓ Why am I doing this?

Honestly... curiosity and love for BASIC. I code mostly in retro-style languages (FreeBASIC, QB45, Euphoria, etc.), so it feels natural to try building my own compiler even if better tools already exist today.

💬 Feedback welcome

I’d love your thoughts, advice, or suggestions. If anyone here has experience writing compilers, transpilers, or retro programming tools, I’d really appreciate hearing about your journey too.

Thanks for reading & happy coding! ✨

I've seen some projects on GitHub (howdy being one of them that came to mind) where there are forks, but when I check the forks out they are either unchanged, or are behind by a few commits. I was wondering why this would happen. It couldn't be for archival purposes, could it?