Programming Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 13, 2023

• Alexandru Nedelcu ☛ December Adventure update, thoughts on Rust

  This is an update to my december adventure, in which I took it upon myself to learn the Rust programming langauge.

• Herman Õunapuu ☛ The simplicity of the modulo operator: how I scaled an inefficient solution on a legacy system

  I had the pleasure of working with a legacy backend system recently. It had plenty of ongoing problems, but one of those was more acute compared to others: the service could not process certain very important events fast enough during peak hours and that was problematic for everyone that relied on those events.

• Sean Conner ☛ Some thoughts on unit testing from inside an assembler

  I've been writing some new 6809 assembly code as well as going back to some existing projects, trying out the “unit test” feature from my 6809 assembler. I will admit that running “unit tests” from the assembler is wonderful! It cuts debugging time since the feedback loop goes from “edit code, assemble, load into emulator, run, edit code” to “edit code, assemble, edit code,” which makes it more likely I'll use the feature. Also nice is that when I'm done with the testing, I change the backend and the testing code is no longer part of the program. Yes, the tests still reside in the source code, but they're ignored if not required.

• Education

  • Rlang ☛ Webinar: Use of R in Japan’s Pharma Industry

    The use of the R programming language has seen exponential growth across industries, with its role being especially pronounced in the pharmaceutical sector. Japan stands out in this growth narrative, thanks in part to the initiatives of the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA). Before diving into the webinar insights, understanding JPMA’s profound influence and contributions is essential.

• Licensing / Legal

  • [Repeat] James Bottomley ☛ Solving the Looming Developer Liability Problem

    Even if you’re a developer with legal leanings like me, you probably haven’t given much thought to the warranty disclaimer and the liability disclaimer that appears in almost every Open Source licence (see sections 14 and 15 of GPLv3). This post is designed to help you understand what they are, why they’re there and why we might need stronger defences in future thanks to a changing legal landscape.

  • Alex Ewerlöf ☛ Lagom SLO

    SLO should be lagom: not too high, not too low.

    When the service level is too low, your service consumer can do their own preparation, share the risk with their consumers, and renegotiate with you.