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159 lines
7.0 KiB
159 lines
7.0 KiB
4 years ago
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title = "Links for 2020-05-30"
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date = 2020-05-30
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[taxonomies]
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tags = ["links", "python", "emacs", "post-mortems", "rewrites", "copyleft",
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"technical debt", "leading", "microservices", "rust", "cities", "roads",
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"stallman"]
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+++
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Running Things in Python, Emacs, Everything That Can Go Wrong, Why We Believe
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that Rewrites Go Right, Copyleft, Analogies for Technical Debt, Leading
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Projects, Microservices in Rust, Cities as Roads, Complaining about Stallman.
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<!-- more -->
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## [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/)
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This is a curious post. Although I've been using Python for a long time,
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some of those were completely unknowns to me -- for example, making a zip file
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and running it directly with the interpreter.
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## [Emacs - Productivity Tricks/Hacks](http://www.mycpu.org/emacs-productivity-setup/)
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Although I don't usually use Emacs -- I'm a Vim user myself -- I can't stop
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myself from sharing a post about Emacs that suggests using Evil, the Vim
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keybinds emulation mode.
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And the suggestion of using Helm is something that I really need to add on my
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Emacs configuration.
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## [Postmortems](https://postmortems.info/)
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A Discord place for posting things going wrong.
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I've been mentioning this for a year already: Most presentations we do, when
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we go in public, is to talk about the things the go perfecting fine -- you
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just do a build, it will never fail; just write the code, you won't find a
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corner case; just create something, everything will be fine -- and that's not
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the real life.
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Postmortens is a forum exactly for describing things going wrong. And there is
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a lot more to learn from things going wrong than from perfect steps that does
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not reflect reality.
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## [Why do we fall into the rewrite trap?](https://www.justindfuller.com/2020/01/why-do-we-fall-into-the-rewrite-trap/)
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Yes, everybody, at this point, heard about the "Refactor, Don't Rewrite". And
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this is just more of that.
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But there are some things that really caught my eye[^1]: First, "Contempt
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Culture", the idea that something is bad because it's old and bad and the new
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thing is good because it's new. I mentioned this on my "Things I Learnt The
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Hard Way in 30 Years of Software Development", but "right tool for the job" is
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mostly a way to push an agenda and the right tool is mostly the tool your team
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knows the best.
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Also, instead of just going through "Rewrite BAD!", it actually list some
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situations when doing a rewrite is the right option -- and I won't spoil, but
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it does seems _really_ the right situation.
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## [Toward Copyleft Equality for All](https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2020/jan/06/copyleft-equality/)
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A lot of the things in this post would be just for me to repeat things I
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pointed in other posts: Companies are using the Free Software label just as
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marketing, working on new features and charging for it, while leaving the
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bugfixing part to the community, for example.
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Here, the thing is a bit more complex, and I'm not sure if I can have an
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concrete opinion about what is being said. Basically, the idea of
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"copyleft" -- using copyright to make sure the code will still be available
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and accessible to everything -- has been been subverted with the "dual
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licensing".
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In one hand, companies should be able to let the code be available and still
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charge for it, but the way they have been using free software seems to be only
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as a marketing plot. "Look, it's free software!" but listen to the community,
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let them point the destiny of the project, making sure contributing is easy,
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nothing of that makes part of those projects.
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## [Technical Debt Is like a Tetris Game](https://www.fluentcpp.com/2020/01/17/technical-debt-is-like-a-tetris-game/)
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This may be the best Technical Debt analogy I ever seen: It is a game of
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Tetris.
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In the start, everything is clear and it is simple to fit the pieces. But, if
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you don't take the time to clear things from time to time, it will get more
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and more chaotic till you lose.
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If this isn't an explanation that everyone understands why you need to stop
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from just piling up pieces and try to clear the field from time to time, I
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really don't know what will.
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## [How to Lead a Project - as a Software Engineer](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/how-to-lead-a-project-in-software-development/)
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A list of things software engineers should take care when they become project
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leaders.
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I can attest that the general concept here works, 'cause that's what I did
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when I was technical leader in projects.
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## [Building a Microservice with Rust](https://medium.com/@diego_pacheco/building-a-microservice-with-rust-957420f196fc)
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Ok, the fact that I love Rust may be related to me wanting to share this, but
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you have to agree that the post is really complete, showing all the hops and
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jumps you need to do to make a microservice in Rust.
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## [city roads](https://anvaka.github.io/city-roads/)
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This is a cool project: Instead of drawing a city using its geographical
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limits, draw it using their roads.
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## [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/)
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Let's complain about those complaining?
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Another one of those "Leave rms alone!" kind of posts. This time, whoever
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works for Microsoft -- which is extremely weird for this kind of post for not
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calling it Micro$oft -- are the real pirates and who works for Red Hat have as
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bad character as them.
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Honestly, there is no denying in the work Richard Stallman did to promote free
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software. But, at the same time, we can't ignore that, for years, GCC got
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stuck on its architecture 'cause any changes were denied and we can't deny
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that this "tantrum" in improving GCC is what gave Clang the space it got --
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just remember that Apple used GCC to build macOS and iOS binaries. And we
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can't ignore that just one day before the pressure for rms to leave the FSF
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reached critical levels he was still saying that there was no problem in an
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underage girl to have a sexual relationship to an old man.
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This kind of though -- "But he did lots, and can say and do whatever he
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wants" -- it's the most pure teenage thought of no worrying about the
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consequences. "Oh, look at the consequences in the history of Microsoft
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against free software! But don't look on what rms is saying and how his
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posture hurts important projects and the community, 'cause he's my friend".
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The community has grown up -- not only in numbers, but also in its mental
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age -- and now we are asking when important figures will be hold responsible
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for whatever they say and whatever they do.
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... and it is really weird for a post like this that attacks Microsoft and
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Red Hat, but says absolutely NOTHING about what Google has been doing with the
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term "open source".
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---
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[^1]: ... specially since I saw some things related to this yesterday
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morning...
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---
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This post was built with the help of
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* [newsbot](https://mastodon.social/@newsbot)
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* [Ed S](https://mastodon.sdf.org/@EdS)
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* [HN Tooter](https://mastodon.social/@hntooter)
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* [codesections](https://fosstodon.org/@codesections)
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* [Starfish](https://social.linux.pizza/@redstarfish)
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