Hacker News Reader

open-source-uxon One small program in 15 programming languages [video]

15 programming languages in the video:

- Python

- Lua

- Raku

- Factor

- Racket

- Clojure

- Flix

- Haskell

- C#

- Go

- Haxe

- Crystal

- D

- Nim

- Pascal

open-source-uxon Big effort needed on UK diet to fight ultra-processed food, say health experts

For comparison: the consumption of ultra-processed food in selected European countries were from 2018 [1]

Top European countries with the most household purchases of ultra-processed food:

1. UK 50.7%

2. Germany 46.9%

3. Ireland 45.9

4. Belgium 44.6

5. Finland 40.9

Top European countries with least household purchases of ultra-processed food:

1. Portugal 10.2%

2. Italy 13.4%

3. Greece 13.7%

4. France 14.2

5. Croatia 17.9

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/02/ultra-proces...

open-source-uxon Julia user and developer survey 2023 [pdf]

Some extracts from the survey:

- 1329 online interviews from Julia users (May-July)

- Julia use: 85% in 2022, 88% in 2023

- Users plan more Julia and Rust

- Popular technical features: speed, performance, open source, package manager, multiple dispatch, solve two lang problem, composable

- Most popular non-technical features: free, active developers

- Biggest technical problems: no self-contained binaries, slow compile times

- Julia adoption: not enough Julia users

And more questions...

open-source-uxon I come here not to bury Delphi, but to praise it (2019)

Only the Lazarus video roadmap: https://www.blaisepascalmagazine.eu/roadmap-for-fpc-and-laza...

open-source-uxon I come here not to bury Delphi, but to praise it (2019)

A roadmap for Lazarus just released on 19 Aug 2023 (3 minutes video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQ2LZTzVJQ

open-source-uxon Ask HN: Favorite Educational Channels (For Kids)?

"Horrible Histories is a hit CBBC show that explores the side of history that they don’t teach you about in school! From the Vicious Vikings and Awful Egyptians to the Slimy Stuarts and Terrible Tudors, Horrible Histories covers the funniest, yuckiest and most gruesome bits of history for kids."

https://www.youtube.com/@HorribleHistoriesOfficial/videos

open-source-uxon Greek shipwreck: hi-tech investigation suggests coastguard responsible

"Did this have good enough coverage in the EU, especially the conclusion?"

From the Guardian report:

> "The joint investigation by the Guardian, German public broadcaster ARD/NDR/Funk and Greek investigative outlet Solomon, in collaboration with Forensi" (Forensis is a Berlin-based research agency which investigates human rights violations)

open-source-uxon FreeBSD at 30: Its secrets to success

FreeBSD Journal: FreeBSD 30th Anniversary Special Edition: https://freebsdfoundation.org/past-issues/freebsd-30th-anniv...

open-source-uxon Twitter preventing viewing without logging in

Try nitter.net:

"Nitter is a free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy and performance. The source is available on GitHub at https://github.com/zedeus/nitter"

No need to sign-in to view Twitter.

Instances: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances

open-source-uxon Ask HN: Why did Nim not catch on like Rust did?

"Considering that the Zig Software Foundation not only doesn't have any big corporate backing, but also made an explicit point of always being fully independent"

Zig has a VP of Community and it's important how the role promotes and evangelize the language for developers. Another example: Crystal appointment a new Community Manager recently, and now have developer "ambassadors" - to promotion the Crystal language. It's a shame that Nim has no equivalent role or initiave to grow the language community.

open-source-uxon Why you can't Kickstart a conference

The Context Free YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@contextfree/videos) has a lot of interesting programming languages and interviews. It's a shame that the Kickstart conference was unsuccessful for funding.

I can see why single programming language conferences are often popular. But is a "Programming Languages Festival" too broad for a conference? Are attendees mostly from academic interest?

open-source-uxon Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

"Hackers like dark modes"

Not all programmers like dark mode. Some people with astigmatism have problems with dark mode.

Dark Mode Isn’t ‘Easier on the Eyes’ for Everybody (2019) https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywyqxw/apple-dark-mode-eye-s...

Extract:

> As Gizmodo wrote in 2014, citing research by the Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, at University of British Columbia, white backgrounds act as a "crutch" for astigmatic eyes: "People with astigmatism (approximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white."

open-source-uxon Radio on the TV

The BBC also broadcast radio on...the TV. It's a TV app for "connected TVs": https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/getting-started-...

open-source-uxon Ask HN: A programming language designed to be generated by GPT?

Previous discussion on designing a programming language by AI:

GPT-4 Designed a Programming Language (March 2023) https://lukebechtel.com/blog/gpt4-generating-code

And here is the HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35177857

open-source-uxon New in Brave: vertical tabs, search, VPN, block consent notices, RSS reader

I've been using Firefox for years, but I'm more impressed by Brave (desktop). In fact, Firefox feels stale and have been like that for some time. Features in Brave include: vertical tabs, independent search, a RSS Reader (Firefox previously removed RSS).

open-source-uxon Affinity apps: New 2.1 update

This is more than a minor update. I'm impressed by the improvements. I really like the way screenshots (and animated screenshots) make new features easy to explain.

open-source-uxon 'We're all worse off': Britain is now paying the price to leave the EU

Non-paywall version: https://archive.is/VSDdb

open-source-uxon UK inflation: Food prices rise at fastest rate for 45 years

From article

Inflation in some economies: Harmonised Index Consumer Prices for March 2023:

- UK: 10.1%

- Italy: 8.1

- Germany: 7.8%

- France: 6.6%

- USA: 5.3%

open-source-uxon Exercism – learn programming languages for free

Exercism also has a YouTube channel which include introductions to numerous programming languages: https://www.youtube.com/@exercism_org/videos

Here are some interviews with programming languages creators or contributors: Bjarne Stroustrup (C++), Jose Valim (Elixir)...Go, Gleam, Rust and upcoming with Haskell

https://www.youtube.com/@exercism_org/streams

open-source-uxon Ask HN: Technology/creative books and games for my daughter (7 years)

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is excellent for kids (and adults). There are tutorials for any topic (https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en). A lot of people are not aware that the Raspberry Pi magazines (MagPi) and books are free as PDFs. Or you can purchase printed books or magazines.

- Magazines: https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/issues

- Books: https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/books

Micro:bit

The micro:bit is an even smaller pocket computer for kids. The BBC was a foundation partner, but now a Educational Foundation:

https://microbit.org/

open-source-uxon Bookshop.org survives and thrives in Amazon’s world

Wordery and BooksPlease are the only global free delivery I know of.

awesomebooks is free delivery for UK, but their international delivery is reasonable at £2.99 (+ £1.00 to £4.00 additional items: https://www.awesomebooks.com/help/shipping)

open-source-uxon Amazon to close Book Depository online shop

Book Depository had decent prices with free international shipping to most of the world

wordery.com (based in the UK) also gives free worldwide delivery.

open-source-uxon Fight or Make Nice? Two Books Consider How to Listen and Be Heard

Non-paywall link: https://archive.is/7xMdY

open-source-uxon The Oberon+ Programming Language

Ruby and Julia use the 'end' keyword in code blocks. A bit less noise compared to Pascal's 'begin' and 'end' syntax.

open-source-uxon Show HN: BBC “In Our Time”, categorised by Dewey Decimal, heavy lifting by GPT

Similar to In Our Time is another BBC radio programme called The Forum (from BBC World Service) which explores world history, culture and ideas. Every week an eclectic topic is discussed with three experts in a lively, informative and stimulating discussion. Highly recommended:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004kln9/episodes/downloads

open-source-uxon Ask HN: How do you plan on making money with Open AI API?

Use ChatGPT to assist write or plan a course from 50-80% (or more) is likely a popular option.

Create a syllabus for learning [insert subject] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVxy1QDYapQ

open-source-uxon I've read over 100 coding books. Here's what I learned [video]

Summary using coding books:

1. The perfect book doesn't exist

2. Don't buy loads of books

3. Read thoroughly

4. Pace yourself

5. Understanding beats memorizing

open-source-uxon UK: Excess deaths in 2022 among worst in 50 years

"Data indicates pandemic effects on health and NHS pressures are among the leading explanations."

Relevant charts from the BBC and FT (Financial Times) reveal the pressure on the UK's health service:

- Annual changes in health spending in the UK (BBC): https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/16A6D/production...

- Deep lasting cuts to UK health spending (FT): https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1606223936848629760/...

- Waiting hospital lists (FT): https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1606223967903260673/...

This twitter thread from FT journalist John Burn-Mordoch is an damning and eye-opening look at NHS statistics (Dec 2022):

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1606223922474627073

open-source-uxon Why Google and Apple work to snuff out the mobile web

Firefox released a mobile OS (Firefox OS) in 2013. The aim was to encourage app developers use open technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, open web APIs). Development of Firefox OS stopped in 2015.

At the time I thought that Firefox was wasting resources on development on Firefox OS. But now I think I was wrong. Firefox could see the promise of a PWA (Progressive Web Apps) mobile future, but the tech was clumsy and immature. Perhaps Firefox OS was too early for the technology?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS

open-source-uxon A guided intro to the Free Pascal language

"The 'var' section, magic "Result" variable and begin/end pairs are just from another age...Programming languages have advanced _a lot_ since Pascal was created."

I understand why some programmers dislike Pascal's syntax, but C and C++ are also old and still popular (including for new projects). Syntax and semantics are closely entwined but C and C++ syntax still influence "modern" languages.