Top all-time · #6409
Michael Stillwell
Personal blog · beebo.org/haycorn · on HN as mjsprogramminghistory
Michael Stillwell's personal blog at beebo.org covers programming and history. Since 2009, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 13 times, most often “Tabs and Makefile”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Michael Stillwell's posts on the history of tabs in Makefiles, a Don Knuth interview, and a note on New College's Affair of the Oaks. The comments do not judge the writing itself.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
The personal website of Michael Stillwell.
Most-linked posts?
- Tabs and Makefile8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2018-02-28
What Hacker News says?
Sort of related -- I'm sure this made it to HN when it was new -- is https://beebo.org/haycorn/2015-04-20_tabs-and-makefiles.html .
Comment linking /haycorn/2015-04-20_tabs-and-makefiles.html
on “The Makefile I use with JavaScript projects”Submitted Tabs and Makefile as a story · 20 points
HN discussionI got to take a course on API Design with Joshua Bloch and Charlie Garrod (CMU's 17-480) in the spring. While I don't think the course content is available online, there's a good amount of tactical advice that goes with the talk [1]. The most memorable things to me were an emphasis on user testing to validate your design - we would draft APIs and then interview people and make them try to write code with them; and b…
Comment linking /haycorn/2015-04-20_tabs-and-makefiles.html
on “Ask HN: Suggestions for books about API design?”Submitted Tabs and Makefile as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThe "Tab in column 1" is a known bug. from https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/20292/why... which references https://beebo.org/haycorn/2015-04-20_tabs-and-makefiles.html So I gave up on being smart and just used a fixed pattern (^\t) to indicate rules. Within a few weeks of writing Make, I already had a dozen friends who were using it. So even though I knew that "tab in column 1" was a bad idea, I did…
Comment linking /haycorn/2015-04-20_tabs-and-makefiles.html
on “Learn Makefiles”Submitted Makefile syntax cemented by first dozen users as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI found some Cambridge exam papers from 1899 a while back. I don't have scans, but there's a few of the more interesting/mysterious questions at: http://beebo.org/lately/2001-07-10_cambridge.html I quite like the 2.5 hour "English Essay" for bizarreness: Write an English Essay on one of the following subjects: 1. English country life in the 18th century. 2. The battle of Blenheim. 3. The character of Rachel Lady Cas…
Comment linking /lately/2001-07-10_cambridge.html
on “Harvard's 1899 Entrance Exam [pdf]”Submitted Tabs and Makefile as a story · 2 points
HN discussionUrl changed from https://beebo.org/haycorn/2016-02-24_how-knuth-brushes-his-t... , which points to this. Submitters: HN prefers original sources. If you want to highlight some detail, such as a tooth-brushing algorithm, you can always do so via a comment in the thread.
Comment linking /haycorn/2016-02-24_how-knuth-brushes-his-teeth.html
on “Maths in Science – an interview with Don Knuth (2015)”Submitted Tabs and Makefile (2015) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOff-topic but 'The Affair of the Oaks' came to mind when you mentioned old school construction http://web.archive.org/web/20031121174515/http://www.new.ox.... http://beebo.org/smackerels/new-college.html
Comment linking /smackerels/new-college.html
on “Big Nerd Ranch needs a loan”Submitted Speed of Information Travel to London, 1798–1914 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOh and tangentially, because it's amusing: why does Make use tabs? Because the original Lex was troublesome and it was convenient in the prototype. Then, there were dozens of users and it was too late to change! https://beebo.org/haycorn/2015-04-20_tabs-and-makefiles.html
Comment linking /haycorn/2015-04-20_tabs-and-makefiles.html
on “Knit: Making a Better Make”
