Top all-time · #4809
Lars Marius Garshol
Personal blog · garshol.priv.no/blogprogramminghistory
Lars Marius Garshol writes Larsblog, a personal blog at garshol.priv.no about programming and history. Since 2008, 16 different Hacker News readers have linked it 19 times, most often “BNF and EBNF: What are they and how do they work?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-18, and you can follow it by feed.
Personal site of Lars Marius Garshol.
Most-linked posts?
- BNF and EBNF: What are they and how do they work?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-11-23
- What's Wrong with Perl (2002)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-26
- /blog/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-05-19
What Hacker News says?
> ...making such documentation available should be the core demand... not that they necessarily open source their own software... That would work only if companies could be compelled to release complete documentation. E.g., Microsoft even corrupted[1][2] the ISO standardization process to force through standardization of their OOXML (to take the wind out of worldwide efforts around standardization on the existing IS…
Comment linking /blog/154.html
on “The growing image-processor unpleasantness”Submitted Pasteur and the beer of national revenge (2017) as a story · 48 points
HN discussionThe consensus at the time was that one should only use Perl/Tcl for legacy reasons. And that these languages should be replaced with Python. A few examples, there were countless articles like these: 2000 Eric Raymond (!) - Why Python? > It was at this point I realized I was probably leaving Perl behind. ... For anything larger or more complex, I have come to prefer the subtle virtues of Python—and I think you will,…
Comment linking /download/text/perl.html
on “Launching Version 13.1 of Wolfram Language and Mathematica”Submitted Write a Sudoku Solver in Python as a story · 12 points
HN discussionLars Garshol* made a great summary of the particulary interesting points: https://nitter.net/larsga/status/1745837887197745409 * his independent research into Kveik (yeast) and Scandinavian farmhouse brewing detailed on his blog and several books over the last 5 year has been among the most meaningful contribution to beer culture (outside of academic/scientific) work in decades. His blog: https://www.garshol.priv.no…
Comment linking /blog/
on “The origins of the Guinness stout yeast”- mk · 2008-06-25
Submitted On robots, URL design, and bad optimization as a story · 4 points
HN discussion This article is right, but also misleading. Yes, people did drink water. But they preferred to drink beer, and basically they drank beer for thirst if they could. And they did this not just in the Middle Ages, but into the 20th century. I wrote [a blog post]( https://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/433.html ) that goes into this in more detail.
Comment linking /blog/433.html
on “The Myth of Medieval Small Beer (2017)”Submitted What's Wrong with Perl (2002) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAgain this is stuff you're just inventing because you don't know better. > Boiling the water first avoided many spoilation problems that, today, we know how to prevent through other means. You have this backwards. Boiling or near-boiling the water is what's nearly universal now. It was much less common in the past. > Prior to modern knowledge, beer recipies were based on trial and error. Correct. However, all beer i…
Comment linking /blog/409.html
on “Beer on Board in the Age of Sail (2017)”Submitted What's Wrong with Perl as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> Based on what? You certainly haven't given any indication of having read what historians have to say. I am a historian. This is based on 10 years of reading ethnographic archive documentation of what people used to drink on farms, plus of course wide reading of ethnographic and historical literature on this. > Clean water was arguably much more common than it is today because of industrial contamination. Industria…
Comment linking /blog/433.html
on “Beer on Board in the Age of Sail (2017)”Submitted BNF and EBNF: What are they and how do they work? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe dried barley cakes reminded me of ones used for making keptinis beer, which is an Interesting roundabout process. Documented on Lars blog along with other old beer making styles: http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/394.html
Comment linking /blog/394.html
on “The World's Oldest-Known Recipes Decoded”Submitted BNF and EBNF: What are they and how do they work? as a story · 2 points
HN discussiontry this : http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/text/http-tut.html
Comment linking /download/text/http-tut.html
on “Ask HN: best explanation of HTTP request from ground up”Submitted The Mystery of the Pierced Planks as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIf you’re into this kind of thing, I’d like to recommend Historic Brewing Techniques, The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing by Lars Marius Garshol.[1] Absolutely fascinating and practical. It does focus on Norway to a large extent, but covers a little from other north-eastern European countries too. His associated blog is also great reading.[2] The author was really instrumental in the mainstream exposure of kveik yeast…
Comment linking /blog/
on “Recreating Medieval English Ales”Submitted BNF and EBNF: What they are and how they work as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
