Top all-time · #5980
Jack Kelly
Personal blog · jackkelly.name/blogprogrammingsystems
Jack Kelly's personal blog at jackkelly.name covers programming and systems. Since 2013, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 24 times, most often “Free Software's Relevance in 2021”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Jack Kelly's posts on autoconf and automake, USB-C travel chargers, and avoiding "just" and "simply" in documentation. One commenter disputes his autoconf advice.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Free Software's Relevance in 20213 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-07-09
- Which Build Tool for a Bootstrappable Project?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-01
What Hacker News says?
> If you add a new source file, you must rerun autoreconf to regenerate your Makefile No you don't: automake generates rules for `Makefile.am -> Makefile.in` (`automake`) and `Makefile.in -> Makefile` (`config.status`). You should just be able to edit `Makefile.am` and run `make`. > Is it really less effort to write Makefile.am than to write a straight Makefile? Wouldn't that be simpler? I don't think so. Not if you…
Comment linking /blog/archives/2024/04/01/which_build_tool_for_a_bootstrappable_project/index.html
on “Autoconf makes me think we stopped evolving too soon”Submitted I'm funding Ladybird because I can't fund Firefox as a story · 268 points
HN discussionI run NixOS on a VPS at work. It currently hosts a noVNC dashboard for monitoring. I didn’t nixify the app yet. I allocated a Debian and ran nixos-infect on it and started from scratch, even though I have done this for two other machines, because I’m still experimenting with the basic setup. I do commit changes to git and fork it on company git. But I don’t redeploy remotely: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/deploy-nix…
Comment linking /blog/archives/2020/08/30/building_and_importing_nixos_amis_on_ec2/
on “NixOS: Declarative Builds and Deployments”Submitted How Copyover MUD Servers Worked as a story · 184 points
HN discussionUSB-C maximalism is great for travel. I personally recommend travelling with a USB-C desktop charger, but use one that accepts a IEC C7 ("figure-8") cable. Then, travel with only the cable corresponding to your destination (or buy one when you get there). That avoids having a wall wart that might not fit in narrow spaces, or whose weight might make it fall out of older sockets. I wrote about it a few years ago; the…
Comment linking /blog/archives/2024/10/06/travel_tip_usb-c_desktop_chargers/index.html
on “I'm a USB-C Maximalist”Submitted A dictionary of single-letter variable names as a story · 110 points
HN discussionThe gp is quibbling about the overuse of the adjectives "just" or the more common "simply" to qualify multiple actions, which are often not simple . See Avoid "Just" and "Simply" in Documentation http://jackkelly.name/blog/archives/2019/09/20/avoid_just_an... Don’t say “simply” in your documentation by Jim Fisher https://www.knowledgeowl.com/blog/posts/dont-say-simply-jim-...
Comment linking /blog/archives/2019/09/20/avoid_just_and_simply_in_documentation/index.html
on “Help! Is This Arabic?”Submitted NixOS and Portable Executables as a story · 53 points
HN discussionSubmitted Imprisoned by the Haskell Toolchain as a story · 46 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Power of Tiny DSLs as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why `Streaming` Is My Favourite Haskell Streaming Library as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Free Software's Relevance in 2021 as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Free Software's Relevance in 2021 as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Text-Mode Games as First Haskell Projects as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Free Software's Relevance in 2021 as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Static Haskell/Reflex Front End App as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Text-Mode Games as First Haskell Projects as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Which Build Tool for a Bootstrappable Project? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Calling Fennel from Haskell Using HsLua as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Road to Amazonka 2.0 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Maddest My Code Made Anyone as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Monoids in the Category of… as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Building and Importing NixOS AMIs on EC2 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Use an OpenPandora as a boot device as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
