blog/content/links/20200531.md

+++
title = "Links for 2020-05-31"
date = 2020-05-31

[taxonomies]
tags = ["links", "python", "emacs", "post-mortems", "rewrites", "copyleft",
"technical debt", "leading", "microservices", "rust", "cities", "roads",
"stallman"]
+++

Running Things in Python, Emacs, Everything That Can Go Wrong, Why We Believe
that Rewrites Go Right, Copyleft, Analogies for Technical Debt, Leading
Projects, Microservices in Rust, Cities as Roads, Complaining about Stallman.

<!-- more -->

## [The many ways to pass code to Python from the terminal](https://snarky.ca/the-many-ways-to-pass-code-to-python-from-the-terminal/)

This is a curious post. Although I've been using Python for a long time, 
some of those were completely unknowns to me -- for example, making a zip file
and running it directly with the interpreter.

## [Emacs - Productivity Tricks/Hacks](http://www.mycpu.org/emacs-productivity-setup/)

Although I don't usually use Emacs -- I'm a Vim user myself -- I can't stop
myself from sharing a post about Emacs that suggests using Evil, the Vim
keybinds emulation mode.

And the suggestion of using Helm is something that I really need to add on my
Emacs configuration.

## [Postmortems](https://postmortems.info/)

A Discord place for posting things going wrong.

I've been mentioning this for a year already: Most presentations we do, when
we go in public, is to talk about the things the go perfecting fine -- you
just do a build, it will never fail; just write the code, you won't find a
corner case; just create something, everything will be fine -- and that's not
the real life.

Postmortens is a forum exactly for describing things going wrong. And there is
a lot more to learn from things going wrong than from perfect steps that does
not reflect reality.

## [Why do we fall into the rewrite trap?](https://www.justindfuller.com/2020/01/why-do-we-fall-into-the-rewrite-trap/)

Yes, everybody, at this point, heard about the "Refactor, Don't Rewrite". And
this is just more of that.

But there are some things that really caught my eye[^1]: First, "Contempt
Culture", the idea that something is bad because it's old and bad and the new
thing is good because it's new. I mentioned this on my "Things I Learnt The
Hard Way in 30 Years of Software Development", but "right tool for the job" is
mostly a way to push an agenda and the right tool is mostly the tool your team
knows the best.

Also, instead of just going through "Rewrite BAD!", it actually list some
situations when doing a rewrite is the right option -- and I won't spoil, but
it does seems _really_ the right situation.

## [Toward Copyleft Equality for All](https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2020/jan/06/copyleft-equality/)

A lot of the things in this post would be just for me to repeat things I
pointed in other posts: Companies are using the Free Software label just as
marketing, working on new features and charging for it, while leaving the
bugfixing part to the community, for example.

Here, the thing is a bit more complex, and I'm not sure if I can have an
concrete opinion about what is being said. Basically, the idea of 
"copyleft" -- using copyright to make sure the code will still be available
and accessible to everything -- has been been subverted with the "dual
licensing".

In one hand, companies should be able to let the code be available and still
charge for it, but the way they have been using free software seems to be only
as a marketing plot. "Look, it's free software!" but listen to the community,
let them point the destiny of the project, making sure contributing is easy,
nothing of that makes part of those projects.

## [Technical Debt Is like a Tetris Game](https://www.fluentcpp.com/2020/01/17/technical-debt-is-like-a-tetris-game/)

This may be the best Technical Debt analogy I ever seen: It is a game of
Tetris.

In the start, everything is clear and it is simple to fit the pieces. But, if
you don't take the time to clear things from time to time, it will get more
and more chaotic till you lose.

If this isn't an explanation that everyone understands why you need to stop
from just piling up pieces and try to clear the field from time to time, I
really don't know what will.

## [How to Lead a Project - as a Software Engineer](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/how-to-lead-a-project-in-software-development/)

A list of things software engineers should take care when they become project
leaders.

I can attest that the general concept here works, 'cause that's what I did
when I was technical leader in projects.

## [Building a Microservice with Rust](https://medium.com/@diego_pacheco/building-a-microservice-with-rust-957420f196fc)

Ok, the fact that I love Rust may be related to me wanting to share this, but
you have to agree that the post is really complete, showing all the hops and
jumps you need to do to make a microservice in Rust.

## [city roads](https://anvaka.github.io/city-roads/)

This is a cool project: Instead of drawing a city using its geographical
limits, draw it using their roads.

## [Burning the House That Richard Stallman (RMS) Built: An Open Letter to GNU Maintainers Who Opposed RMS](http://techrights.org/2020/05/30/open-letter-to-gnu-maintainers/)

Let's complain about those complaining?

Another one of those "Leave rms alone!" kind of posts. This time, whoever
works for Microsoft -- which is extremely weird for this kind of post for not
calling it Micro$oft -- are the real pirates and who works for Red Hat have as
bad character as them.

Honestly, there is no denying in the work Richard Stallman did to promote free
software. But, at the same time, we can't ignore that, for years, GCC got
stuck on its architecture 'cause any changes were denied and we can't deny
that this "tantrum" in improving GCC is what gave Clang the space it got --
just remember that Apple used GCC to build macOS and iOS binaries. And we
can't ignore that just one day before the pressure for rms to leave the FSF
reached critical levels he was still saying that there was no problem in an
underage girl to have a sexual relationship to an old man.

This kind of though -- "But he did lots, and can say and do whatever he 
wants" -- it's the most pure teenage thought of no worrying about the
consequences. "Oh, look at the consequences in the history of Microsoft
against free software! But don't look on what rms is saying and how his
posture hurts important projects and the community, 'cause he's my friend".

The community has grown up -- not only in numbers, but also in its mental 
age -- and now we are asking when important figures will be hold responsible
for whatever they say and whatever they do.

... and it is really weird for a post like this that attacks Microsoft and
Red Hat, but says absolutely NOTHING about what Google has been doing with the
term "open source".

---

[^1]: ... specially since I saw some things related to this yesterday
  morning...

---

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