Programming Leftovers
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Stop Saying C/C++
For as long as I can remember, I have heard people say C/C++ when referring to a project written in C and or C++. A lot of programming/developer jobs also refer to C/C++ when they need a programmer who knows either C or C++. To most people who have never touched C or C++ this might not seem like a big deal. However, the problem is that when people say this term (C/C++) they make it seem like C and C++ are similar or closely related programming languages. That is not true. Although C++ was based off of C when it was first created, these two languages have slowly drifted apart over the years to the point where they share less and less in common.
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Read Every Single Error
At Pulumi we read every single error message that our API produces. This is the primary mechanism that led to a 17x YoY reduction in our error rate. You’re probably wondering how reading error messages make them go away.
Doesn’t common wisdom tell us that we need a fancy observability toolchain, or to follow the Google SRE model? I can confidently say that you don’t. I’ll go a step further and state that throughout my career, every system I’ve worked on that relied on aggregate views of errors was a complete dumpster fire. In every team where we instead chose to read all the errors, reliability naturally improved over time.
I offer a concrete process that will drive your error rates down over time with math to back it up.
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The absurd cost of finalizers in Go
The Go programming language makes it easy to call C code. Suppose you have the following C functions: [...]
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As ‘code pollution’ grows, licensing becomes crucial, Grafana expert says
Every time there is an infection point in technological innovations, the licensing dynamic comes up.
With things becoming more open with data, licensing code should be simplified using a specific method, such as a reference file, according to Richard Hartmann (pictured), director of community at Raintank Inc. (dba Grafana Labs).