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skvark

24 karma · joined September 11, 2016

Currently working on https://githits.com/

Co-founder of https://softlandia.com/

Creator and long-time maintainer of the popular opencv-python package before I agreed to move the project to the official OpenCV org in 2021.

Lately have been doing mostly Python, TypeScript, React and Azure, but I have written a fair share of C#/.NET, Go, C, C++ and even PHP as well in the past.

Other things I like: programming in general, space, rockets, growing chili peppers

Tweets at @skvark.

submissionscomments
skvark··on Ask HN: How do you avoid / get out of LLMs local minima?
Having a separate planning / research phase helps with this. Make the LLM curate a plan by gathering internal and external context. Then execute the plan in another fresh session. Of course if the planning phase itself ends up in the local min then I would just start a new planning session with the learnings.
skvark··on Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time
I think most relevant data that provides best answers lives in GitHub. Sometimes in code, sometimes in issues or discussions. Many libs have their docs there as well. But the information is scattered and not easy to find, and often you need multiple sources to come up with a solution to some problem.
skvark··on Show HN: GitHits – Code example engine for AI agents and devs (Private Beta)
The main reason is that most real blockers are tied to a specific language ecosystem. Even if the high-level ideas transfer across languages, the actual fix usually depends on the language’s APIs, tooling, and conventions. When someone is searching, they typically need something that fits the environment they are working in at the moment.

So the language choice in GitHits mainly steers the system toward code that is immediately usable.

Another part of the story is that finding patterns across languages is a much harder problem. It requires a level of semantic, cross-language search that does not really exist yet in a reliable way. I would love to reach that point, but today the best results come from staying within one ecosystem at a time.

Under the hood, there are several search modes, and not all of them are strictly language specific. The language selection guides the search, but it does not fully constrain it. And at some point, there might be a more generic search mode that is not tied to any single language at all, but that will take more research and iteration.

skvark··on Show HN: GitHits – Code example engine for AI agents and devs (Private Beta)
Thanks! While those languages are not yet "officially" supported, GitHits works with them as well. The results might not be that good as with the ones I have enabled officially since the search and final output is partially steered by the selected language.
skvark··on Flask 2.0
Many projects are dropping support for old Python versions very fast. It's not surprising given the history of the Python 2 -> 3 transition. No one wants to end up in that situation anymore. For example, NumPy has already dropped 3.6 support (3.6 will be EOL later this year).
skvark··on Will Linux phones stay around this time?
I have currently Sony XA2 with Sailfish OS. Just ordered Xperia 10 II so I have it ready when they publish the official version for it. I have been using Sailfish as my daily driver since the original Jolla phone was released in 2013.

The only issue that I might see as a blocker for some users is that the Android layer is not perfect. It does not support Bluetooth properly so pretty much any Android app that connects to some external peripheral like smart watch will not work. Additionally, you might need to install for example microG to run some apps via the Android layer.

skvark··on Soviet TV version of Lord of the Rings rediscovered after 30 years
There exists also a Finnish mini series called "The Hobbits" (1993): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHFKdgjEugs
skvark··on Comparing Svelte and React
RTK Query looks great, I'll check it out.
skvark··on Comparing Svelte and React
Redux Toolkit is great and removes most of the usual Redux boilerplate which seems to be the most often used argument against Redux. Additionally, I usually use a function which uses createEntityAdapter, createSlice and createAsyncThunk methods to create Ducks bundles for each REST API resource automatically. As a result I get all async action creators, reducers and basic selectors for some REST API resource with a couple of lines of code.
skvark··on The Serverless Revolution Has Stalled
Azure Function App development experience is indeed pretty nice at least when using .NET Core. There are some issues, like loading secrets to the local dev environment from Key Vault has to be done manually and easy auth (App Service Authentication) does not work locally.
skvark··on SpaceX Launch: Starlink 12 [video]
If the Falcon 9 landings feel mundane, I would recommend to follow Starship development. Starship SN6 might do a 150 meter hop later today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky5l9ZxsG9M
skvark··on Google suspends some business with Huawei
It was announced in 2017 that China was investing in its own mobile OS based on Sailfish OS (http://www.goodnewsfinland.com/jolla-goes-full-steam-ahead-i...). I don't know what's the status of the project currently. Russia has had similar plans (http://rusletter.com/articles/operating_system_sailfish_from...).
skvark··on Android vendors, don’t kill my app
There is Sailfish OS (https://sailfishos.org/). It's a GNU/Linux and has true multitasking.
skvark··on Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system
iPhone X introduced very similar gestures as seen on Sailfish OS (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208204). They might be a bit alien at first, but once you get used to them, they are in my opinion far more powerful (one-handed use), faster and more intuitive than buttons. I have used Sailfish OS based phones since 2013 as my daily driver and Android/iOS UX feels very clumsy to me.
skvark··on This Is What Python Beginners Have to Deal With
Python's packaging system was and is still sometimes somewhat broken. However, it's getting better: compilation related issues are rarer nowadays thanks to the wheel pre-built package format (https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0491/). Another great thing is the manylinux tag (https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0513/) which allows to create portable packages which are compatible with many distributions + contain all required dependencies. For example, I didn't want to compile anymore OpenCV all the time by myself so I made it available as wheel package in PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/opencv-python