technical tech talk

a thread for computer things you found

firefox: our js objects are managed by not one but two separate kinds of garbage collectors

firefox: the way you tell them apart is that one of them was written by Canadians https://t.co/D1s0Hj00QE

— Manish (@ManishEarth) January 3, 2023

Normal

in unix

webster word --- looks up the word in an electronic version of Webster's dictionary and returns the definition(s)

i hate learning things like this there should not be a real world

An old program tape with two clearly visible patches, on sections 250 and 260.

The punch card's error, as manifested by the punches, was patched in just the same way a bike tire is patched.

This is why we call it patching when we fix existing software. pic.twitter.com/CAdfGyCWRg

— Jamie Dobson (@JamieDobson) February 26, 2023

next youre gonna tell me theyre called bugs cause insects got caught inside the computer

well....

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-first-computer-bug/

I found this to be kind of interesting

https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2022/11/amazon-1998-distributed-computing-manifesto.html

im going to build a state machine brb

cool

i havent started yet, i did watch a video on how to make a state machine tho, im looking forward to it, i like the name state machine it sounds cool

im honestly not sure about state machines, the benefit is clear but its a lot of code to make a machine and youre adding a new thing to your program, on the other hand a react component with a lot of state side effects and conditions quickly becomes a tangled mess, maybe computers are bad

guess im just gonna finish the machine and see if i like it at least then i will know how to build a machine i will be a machinist

maybe a reducer wouldve been better tho

its a lot of code to make a machine

― lag∞n, Tuesday, September 12, 2023 9:54 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

shd note that xstate does provide a visual editor im assuming for this very reason

im sorry to report ive given up on the state machine, it was ultimately too annoying for me right now, but some day i will make a machine

Just one more state variable bro. Just one more hook and the page will have everything it needs. Just one more state variable please bro. Bro? Add one more state variable please bro pic.twitter.com/kKtAJN2yPV

— atlas (@creatine_cycle) September 27, 2023

shdve made a state machine

poll

its gotta be defaultOptions = []

New GitHub Copilot Research Finds 'Downward Pressure on Code Quality'

The "Coding on Copilot" whitepaper from GitClear sought to investigate the quality and maintainability of AI-assisted code compared to what would have been written by a human. In other words: "Is it more similar to the careful, refined contributions of a Senior Developer, or more akin to the disjointed work of a short-term contractor?"

The answer to that is summarized in this paragraph from the whitepaper's abstract:

"We find disconcerting trends for maintainability. Code churn -- the percentage of lines that are reverted or updated less than two weeks after being authored -- is projected to double in 2024 compared to its 2021, pre-AI baseline. We further find that the percentage of 'added code' and 'copy/pasted code' is increasing in proportion to 'updated,' 'deleted,' and 'moved 'code. In this regard, AI-generated code resembles an itinerant contributor, prone to violate the DRY-ness [don't repeat yourself] of the repos visited."

That serves as a counterpoint to findings of some other studies, including one from GitHub in 2022 that found, for one thing: "developers who used GitHub Copilot completed the task significantly faster -- 55 percent faster than the developers who didn't use GitHub Copilot." That study was noted in the new whitepaper from GitClear, which sells a cloud-based code review tool. In addition to productivity, the GitHub study also measured positive effects in developer satisfaction and conserving mental energy.

https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2024/01/25/copilot-research.aspx

these numbers seem fake to me, am i using copilot wrong lol