Word Aligned
wordaligned.org · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Word Aligned is a programmer's blog about Python, C++, algorithms, and software practice, with an Emacs tip or two.
What HN saysHN links it for the essential Python reading list, the pi seconds estimation trick, and a diagram of language convergence in Programming Nirvana.
39HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
41stories submitted
450story points
3 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Essential Python Reading List3 people · 8 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 2Longest Common Subsequence algorithm in Python2 people · 51 points · first shared 2009 · 1 comments on HN
- 3Power Programming - Decision Trees in C++, Python, Perl, Arc2 people · 13 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 4Accidental Emacs: tips and tricks for the environment vi users love to hate.2 people · 9 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 5When you comment on a comment2 people · 6 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 6Binary Search Revisited2 people · 4 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 7Programming Nirvana, Plan B2 people · 2 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 8Distorted Software2 people · 2 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 9Two Star Programming1 people · 121 points · first shared 2013 · 63 comments on HN
- 10Next permutation: When C++ gets it right1 people · 58 points · first shared 2009 · 17 comments on HN
- 11Why Python Programmers Should Learn Python1 people · 56 points · first shared 2008 · 13 comments on HN
- 12Python on Ice1 people · 30 points · first shared 2009 · 5 comments on HN
- 13My Secret Shame, I Still Use Subversion1 people · 16 points · first shared 2009 · 34 comments on HN
- 14Drawing Chess Positions with Python1 people · 14 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 15Rewriting String.Left()1 people · 12 points · first shared 2008 · 2 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
npsimons · 2013-02-24
Some valid points, but I was hoping for more meat, maybe references to what I call "dark corners" of C++. Take, for instance, writing a simple logging class that can log to multiple places and can be used in place of std::cout. The solution I initially came up with is a variation on http://wordaligned.org/articles/cpp-streambufs, with some manipulator magic thrown in to adjust severity level. Ah, but that's not good enough, you have to pull some interesting gymnastics to ensure order of IOStream initialization: http://accu.org/index.php/journals/264. And after all that, I'm still not sure it works, as looking at the data structures in a debugger looks like garbage (guess why I'm in the debugger in the first place).
All that being said, I still love C++. I'm glad I know it as well as I do so that I can (usually) avoid problems, but even then I run into compiler (or build!) dependent problems that shouldn't be happening. C++ has problems, and we need to address them. I'm happy to say that even though I am stuck with old compilers that have inscrutable template error messages, time moves on and I am aware of this problem being fixed in newer versions of compilers.
sa46 · 2021-12-15
There’s a fun estimation technique from Programming Pearls: pi seconds is a nano century. So, 3.14e7 seconds in a year.
80 bytes/sec * 3.14e7 sec = 2.4e9 bytes
http://wordaligned.org/articles/pi-seconds
emmelaich · 2017-06-11
This convergence (deliberate or not) has been noticed.
I've seen a diagram like this http://wordaligned.org/articles/programming-nirvana-plan-b but with more detail. ie. with C++, Java, Python placed in there somewhere.
(probably in the linked paper, but I can't access it now)
jwallaceparker · 2011-11-01
Yeah here is one for Python:
http://wordaligned.org/articles/essential-python-reading-list