A small programming language
Paul Graham said “Programming languages teach you not to want what they don’t provide.” He meant that as a negative: programmers using less expressive languages don’t know what they’re missing. But you could also take that as a positive: using a simple language can teach you that you don’t need
Read moreMy ten year quest for concise lambda expressions in Java
My ten-year quest for concise lambda expressions in JavaA mission to hold off the horde of for loops in Java.Photo by Fivos Avgerinos on UnsplashA series of fortunate and unfortunate eventsI started learning Java in 1997. I thought initially Java would be a fad and that Smalltalk would emerge as the victor in
Read moreQuadrature rules and an impossibility theorem
Many numerical integration formulas over a finite interval have the form That is, the integral on the left can be approximated by evaluating the integrand f at particular nodes and taking the weighted sum, and the error is some multiple of a derivative of f evaluated at a point in
Read moreBuilding Production-Ready LLM Apps With LlamaIndex: Recursive Document Agents for Dynamic Retrieval
Combining recursive retrieval and document agents for advanced retrievalContinue reading on Better Programming »
Read moreHow to Make Process Improvement Effective
Avoiding bureaucracyMaze. Image generated by MidJourneyProcess improvement is one of the main tools for Engineering Managers (EM) to manage their team. Delivering commercial software involves overlapping multiple systems, and acting on them effectively improves the team’s environment and results.However, processes can also easily hinder effectiveness. Too much focus on it can
Read moreThe Overflow #192: Ask your data better questions
Welcome to ISSUE #192 of The Overflow! This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams. This week: sign up to get access to the new Stack Overflow search, future-proof proof that you’re from the future, and fall in love with hard
Read moreAccelerating the Cloud: What to Expect When Going Cloud Native
In this fourth article in our Accelerating the Cloud series, we explore what to expect when going cloud native. Continue reading Accelerating the Cloud: What to Expect When Going Cloud Native on SitePoint.
Read moreFighting comment spam at Facebook scale (Ep. 602)
Louis Brandy, VP of Engineering at Rockset, joins us for a deep dive into the architectural similarities across AI, vector search, and real-time analytics, and how they’re all at play in shaping the infrastructure to fight spam. Episode notes: Rockset is a real-time search and analytics database. Explore their docs
Read moreDon’t fool yourself: The team is the unit
Credit: MidjourneyI think it is fair to say that the vast majority of engineering managers have been through the following experience at least once in their careers:At some point in your life, you may have joined a well-functioning team. However, one day, without seeking your opinion, the top leadership decided that
Read moreJigs
In his book The World Beyond Your Head Matthew Crawford talks about jigs literally and metaphorically. A jig in carpentry is something to hold parts in place, such as aligning boards that need to be cut to the same length. Crawford uses the term more generally to describe labor-saving (or
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