Links list - 2024-03-30
Hello, and welcome to a new issue of my Links lists! I hope you will enjoy today’s selection.
Code Link to heading
Doing the basic things right Link to heading
A useful post on the importance of doing the basic things of a software project right. The list includes:
- having an up-to-date readme;
- have some devs’ and users’ docs;
- at all times, the main branch should have all tests passing;
- there should be a single command for building and testing;
- zero tolerance for flaky tests.
Speaking from experience, you’d be surprised by how many systems actually fail to respect the last point…
Basic Things
After working on the initial stages of several largish projects, I accumulated a list of things that share the following three properties:
New CSS feature: display: contents
Link to heading
CSS keeps getting more powerful — and complex — with each passing year. The next link is a very well-written article about a new feature: display: contents, which can allow you to “flatten” the DOM layout and pretend you are removing a parent node, while keeping the children.
The article goes into a lot of detail about this new feature, and has many examples to help you understand where this can be useful.
CSS Display Contents
Learn how to use display contents to build more fluid layouts.
Centering stuff with CSS Link to heading
This would be a fun read, if I didn’t have the displeasure of having to deal with all these tiny details more than once in my life. At least the list of examples, which includes things like Windows, GitHub, Slack, Google Maps, Airbnb, YouTube, et al. makes me realize I’m not the only one who has problems with this.
Hardest Problem in Computer Science: Centering Things
Somehow we forgot how to center rectangles and must find our way back
The cost of function calls in modern CPython Link to heading
A deep dive into the CPython interpreter, discussing how expensive function calls really are in modern versions. Very interesting if you enjoy language implementations.
Bonus: the author has a lot of other very interesting articles about CPython internals.
Are Function Calls Still Slow in Python? an Analysis of Recent Optimizations in CPython
How costly it is to call functions and builtins in your python code? Does inlining help? How have the recent CPython releases improved performance in these areas?
Another crazy interview - real this time Link to heading
When a candidate applies to your job posting with this message:
I am the best Node/React developer in San Francisco by far.
…what could go wrong?
The Shortest, Strangest Engineering Interview I’ve Ever Done.
Last Friday I posted a job description for a role I’m hiring for, for my early-stage YC startup, OneText. I’ve had a lot of positive…
Non-programming Link to heading
Colombo: Skylines Link to heading
City planners in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, have created a faithful replica of the city inside the videogame Cities: Skylines. They are using it to help promote improvements in the public transportation system. It is an original approach, and they have an interesting explanation of their methodology and reasons.
GitHub - Team-Watchdog/Colombo-Skylines: A Digital Twin of the City of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Implemented in Cities: Skylines, Based on Real Data. Nearly 1:1 in Terms of Geography and Population.
A digital twin of the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, implemented in Cities: Skylines, based on real data. Nearly 1:1 in terms of geography and population. - team-watchdog/colombo-skylines
Creating a working replica of a Mac Plus Link to heading
A crazy recreation of a Macintosh Plus, starting with creating a perfect model of the original, 3D printing the enclosure, spray-painting it, assembling a screen, building a floppy drive, and using Mini vMac emulator to build something that is a perfect replica of the original. This is either a labor of love, or of insanity, but it’s very fun to read and watch. 🙂
Entirely Accurate 3D-Printed Mac Plus Built in These 29 Painstaking Steps
What could have been a dozen separate videos is instead one 48-minute marvel.