Top all-time · #2295
Patrick Dubroy's blog
Personal blog · dubroy.com · on HN as pdubroyprogrammingdesign
Patrick Dubroy's blog is a personal blog at dubroy.com about programming and design. Since 2007, 35 different Hacker News readers have linked it 64 times, most often “The influence of Self”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-05-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Programmer and researcher, designer of alternate futures. I write here about programming, usability, and interaction design.
Most-linked posts?
- The influence of Self5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2022-11-07
- Cold-blooded software3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2023-12-28
- Make It Happen3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2025-02-11
- Five coding hats3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-02-03
- Bytecode VMs in Surprising Places3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-04-30
- Getting things done in small increments (2022)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-03-21
- Visualizing Packrat Parsing (2021)2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-01-12
- Handling user input with structured concurrency2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-15
- Fast is better than slow2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-05-25
- Design Principles for Metaprogramming2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-12-19
What Hacker News says?
I think most people associate bytecode VMs / interpreters with general-purpose programming languages, but it's a surprisingly useful concept in other contexts. Sometimes bytecode VMs appear in unexpected places! A few that I'm aware of: - eBPF, an extension mechanism in the Linux kernel - DWARF expression language, with interpreters in debuggers like GDB and LLDB - The RAR file format includes a bytecode encoding fo…
Comment linking /blog/bytecode-vms-in-surprising-places/
on “Why SQLite Uses Bytecode”Submitted Cold-blooded software as a story · 558 points
HN discussionI was thinking about the issue of nested code the other day -- isn't it (mostly) an editing environment problem? I mean, if my IDE can detect that a method is pure, couldn't it do a little magic (e.g. provide a different coloured background, some dotted boxes, etc.) and show me the inlined code right there? It doesn't seem wise to architect your codebase around the deficiencies in your tools, since one is (hopefully…
Comment linking /blog/method-length-are-short-methods-actually-worse/
on “John Carmack on Inlined Code (2014)”Submitted Getting things done in small increments (2022) as a story · 233 points
HN discussionOnce you're in the NPM ecosystem, there is a maintenance overhead. See: https://htmx.org/essays/no-build-step/ https://dubroy.com/blog/cold-blooded-software/
Comment linking /blog/cold-blooded-software/
on “Is htmx Just Another JavaScript Framework?”Submitted Garbage collection is useful as a story · 165 points
HN discussionFor sure. This is the number one reason I am switching as many projects as I can to HTMX. https://dubroy.com/blog/cold-blooded-software/ Sibling comments say in so many words, it's no big deal bro, just update. But it is a big deal over time if you have dozens of cold-blooded projects to deal with.
Comment linking /blog/cold-blooded-software/
on “The tragedy of running an old Node project”Submitted Bytecode VMs in Surprising Places as a story · 112 points
HN discussion> I'm still unclear what the standard method for managing these is. If only this was just a documentation issue. Alas, the reason is that there is no standard method. Here's a short practical article on how to install Python packages and get on with your life: http://dubroy.com/blog/so-you-want-to-install-a-python-packa... . For a longer historical perspective of this whole clusterfuck check out http://lucumr.pocoo.…
Comment linking /blog/so-you-want-to-install-a-python-package/
on “WTFM - Write The Freaking Manual”Submitted Five coding hats as a story · 93 points
HN discussionThanks for the kind words :) I also wrote a blog post about some of the decisions that went into the visualizer: https://dubroy.com/blog/visualizing-packrat-parsing/
Comment linking /blog/visualizing-packrat-parsing/
on “Ohm: A user-friendly parsing toolkit for JavaScript and TypeScript”Submitted The influence of Self as a story · 81 points
HN discussionhttps://vorpus.org/blog/notes-on-structured-concurrency-or-g... https://dubroy.com/blog/handling-user-input-with-structured-... The first one is particularly good. Both of those have links to more topics.
Comment linking /blog/handling-user-input-with-structured-concurrency/
on “Rewriting Rust: A Response”Submitted Core dumps, feedback loops, and a game of telephone as a story · 81 points
HN discussionHi HN! I'm the main author of the Ohm Editor, and co-creator and primary maintainer of Ohm itself. Ohm is a user-friendly parsing toolkit for JavaScript/TypeScript. You can find out more at https://ohmjs.org . Anyone interested in the editor might like to check out a blog post I wrote about it a few years ago called "Visualizing Packrat Parsing" ( https://dubroy.com/blog/visualizing-packrat-parsing/ ) Some people al…
Comment linking /blog/visualizing-packrat-parsing/
on “Ohm Editor”Submitted Visualizing Packrat Parsing (2021) as a story · 67 points
HN discussionI prefer this version http://dubroy.com/blog/a-hierarchy-of-needs-for-code/ I don't think either is spot-on, but it is a good way to visualize and remind yourself of what is important in your project. Even the projects themselves have their own hierarchy. Do I care that the one-off crud app the boss asked for to update some reference tables ever reaches the "Enlightened Phase"? Probably not. I don't think I would ge…
Comment linking /blog/a-hierarchy-of-needs-for-code/
on “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs of Software Development”Submitted Five coding hats as a story · 66 points
HN discussionThank-you. The link there gave encouraging Bret Victor [1] vibes about what computing could (still) become: https://dubroy.com/blog/sketches-from-cdg/ [1] Kill Math (2011) - https://worrydream.com/KillMath/
Comment linking /blog/sketches-from-cdg/
on “Make It Happen”Submitted Three ways of handling user input (2022) as a story · 66 points
HN discussionThere's a perfect term for this Patrick Dubroy coined: "cold-blooded software" https://dubroy.com/blog/cold-blooded-software/
Comment linking /blog/cold-blooded-software/
on “Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo”Submitted Three ways of handling user input as a story · 58 points
HN discussion"Cold-blooded software" is a great term for that https://dubroy.com/blog/cold-blooded-software/ (HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46488261 )
Comment linking /blog/cold-blooded-software/
on “Notes on Starting to Use Django”Submitted Are short methods actually worse? as a story · 51 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Study of Tabbed Browsing as a story · 50 points
HN discussionSubmitted On object-oriented programming: "That which obscures my code is bad." as a story · 32 points
HN discussionSubmitted An In-Depth Look at the User Experience of iPhone Safari as a story · 17 points
HN discussionSubmitted Casual programming as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted Visualizing Packrat Parsing as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted Blogging is the hardest “conversation” I’ve ever had as a story · 8 points
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