Top all-time · #4075
Toby Ho
Personal blog · tobyho.comprogrammingweb
Toby Ho's personal blog at tobyho.com covers programming and web. Since 2011, 18 different Hacker News readers have linked it 28 times, most often “What Is This Thing Called Generators?”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Posts on programming language safety, JavaScript prototypal inheritance, and using Backbone.js outside the browser. HN readers link them to separate language safety from runtime safety and to explain JS prototypes.
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.
Most-linked posts?
- /2008/03/30/how-safe-is-your-programming/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-04-21
- What Is This Thing Called Generators?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-06-28
- Functional Programming by Example (JavaScript)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-11-10
- Polymorphism That Just Works2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-06-23
- Javascript Constructors and Prototypes2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-29
What Hacker News says?
That's not what people mean when they refer to the "safety" of a language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_safety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_safety http://tobyho.com/2008/03/30/how-safe-is-your-programming/ The fact that people consider "security releases" for compilers/runtimes to be normal and acceptable is actually extremely alarming to me, but it's different from language safety.
Comment linking /2008/03/30/how-safe-is-your-programming/
on “Seven years of Go”Submitted Javascript Constructors and Prototypes as a story · 52 points
HN discussionIn some ways Python is more liberal but in different areas - Metaclasses, 'magic' methods (hooking into __getattr__ allows some very clever behaviour), operator overloading, control of the abstract syntax tree and doing crazy stuff with imports. Try doing some of that in javascript. You want prototypical inheritance? Here you go: http://tobyho.com/2009/05/23/prototype-inheritence-in/ Monkeypathing? Nothing forbids i…
Comment linking /2009/05/23/prototype-inheritence-in/
on “Django 1.7 RC1”Submitted Fun with Esprima and Static Analysis as a story · 16 points
HN discussionIn case anyone's curious I came across this post about using Backbone for rich command line app: http://tobyho.com/2012/07/19/backbone-charm-text-based-ui Pretty neat, I would never have thought of using it outside the browser.
Comment linking /2012/07/19/backbone-charm-text-based-ui
on “Backbone.js: Hacker's Guide”Submitted Javascript OO Without Constructors as a story · 7 points
HN discussionYou're forcing class based inheritance onto a language that specialises in prototypical inheritance... however, try http://tobyho.com/2010/11/22/javascript-constructors-and/
Comment linking /2010/11/22/javascript-constructors-and/
on “Why JavaScript”Submitted Functional Programming by Example (JavaScript) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionPretty much anything!! Java, C#, Rust, Go, OCaml, Lisp, ... even C++ would be a much better choice. Check this out: http://tobyho.com/2008/03/30/how-safe-is-your-programming/ There also used to be a website that ranked programming languages according to various parameters (which is faster, which is safer) by asking visitors pairwise comparisons (Which is faster - Matlab or C?). I was going to link it but can't find…
Comment linking /2008/03/30/how-safe-is-your-programming/
on “Ask HN: Current state of programming embedded devices?”Submitted Functional programming by example as a story · 2 points
HN discussionwhat are your criteria to be a "safe programming language"? - type safety - memory management - compile time help Here are some options: - http://tobyho.com/2008/03/30/how-safe-is-your-programming/ - http://vita.mil-embedded.com/articles/when-programming-langu...
Comment linking /2008/03/30/how-safe-is-your-programming/
on “Ask HN: What's the safest programming language at the moment?”Submitted Promise-based co-routines in Node.js as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Polymorphism That Just Works as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Null Object for Lists as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Is This Thing Called Generators? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 3 Ways to Discourage Copy-n-Pasting Code in Teaching as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted My js1k Entry: Making Music with the Audio Data API as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Avoiding Javascript this-hell as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Polymorphism That Just Works as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Permalink as a Service as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Much of the Web Actually Work Without JavaScript (2010) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted JS Trailing Comma Remover as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Javascript Source Rewriting and Assertions as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Small.JS as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Generators in Javascript as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Checking for Global Variable Leaks in JS Unit Tests as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Better TDD Workflow via Exclusive Tests in Jasmine and Mocha as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Testem 0.1.0 Released and Screencasts as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
