francogt's comments

francogt | 1 year ago | on: Writing a C Compiler: Build a Real Programming Language from Scratch

I see many comments saying that the book implements the C compiler in ocaml. In the introduction the author states that the book actually uses pseudo code so you are actually free to implement it in any language. The only recommendation is that you use a language with pattern matching because the pseudo code makes heavy use of it. The reference implementation is in ocaml.

francogt | 1 year ago | on: Hilary Mantel Reviews “A Life of One's Own/An Experiment in Leisure” (1986)

I read Wolf Hall after I finished Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver, which takes place in late 17 century post Cromwell England. You might enjoy it as well! It’s packed with history.

francogt | 1 year ago | on: Ask HN: What resources do you recommend for learning Haskell?

Haskell Programming from First Principles is probably the best and most exhaustive resource on learning Haskell.

I now refer people to “Effective Haskell” by Rebecca Skinner[0]. It’s well written, modern (published in 2023) and goes into everything you need to know to use haskell in common, real world tasks.

[0] https://pragprog.com/titles/rshaskell/effective-haskell/

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Category Theory Illustrated

> Category theory has virtually zero application to software engineering. > Knowing what a monad is (in the programming sense) has some [practical application]as well.

You’re contradicting yourself. You don’t need to know category theory to use practical abstractions like functors and monads. They are still however category theoretical concepts. If these category theoretical concepts have “some practical application” as you say, then category theory does have application to software engineering.

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Musk Proposes to Proceed with Twitter Deal at $54.20 a Share

I too think these changes weren’t better. Wouldn’t going back on most of these constitute a “better” twitter?

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is an E Ink tablet for reading and writing

Those are replacement tips. I broke the head, leaving the shaft inside the pen and thats what I'm not able to get out. It seems to be a common problem if you look at the reviews:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713VCDPY

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is an E Ink tablet for reading and writing

I’ve had one for many years and found it to be the perfect device to read and take notes on PDFs: 13” screen, super lightweight, easy to send PDFs to it and from it through the app and writing on it feels similar to writing on paper. Unfortunately the pen’s tip broke off and there doesn’t seem to be any way to fix it or buy new ones. It is mostly useless without it.

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Six programming languages I’d like to see

Pluto.jl[1] works like this. It’s a reactive notebook. It’s a really neat project.

[1]https://github.com/fonsp/Pluto.jl

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: I want my next startup to be in space tech. Where do I start?

Might be obvious but check out Delian Asparouhov, founder of Varda Space Industries. Chris Power, founder of Hadrian. If you look them up in spotify there are many interviews that touch on the space industry. Regarding books:

- I really enjoyed Lift-Off by Eric Berger on the early days of SpaceX.

- Shoot for the Moon is another good read on the Apollo program.

- The Case for Space by Robert Zubrin

- Ignition by John D. Clark for a history of liquid rocket propellants

Godspeed

(Edited formatting)

francogt | 3 years ago | on: The Dao of Functional Programming [pdf]

The author’s objective is to teach the category theoretical concepts that get used in FP. This is particularly important in Haskell since it uses some of these concepts (functors, applicatives, monads, etc.) as design patterns.

He’s objective has never been for the reader to learn this and apply it to prove math theorems.

Both set and category theory are foundational systems for mathematics (or attempting to be). Category theory being newer is trending and probably why you get the sense that it’s considered more prestigious. But I’ve never heard anyone claim it is more prestigious.

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: What can you practice every day to improve at programming?

Math. I majored in psychology (very little math relative to STEM) and got into programming after graduating. After 5 years of working as an ML engineer (basically a lot of calculus and linear algebra) I decided to study more abstract math starting with proofs and discrete math. So many things started making sense at a deeper level and became easier. I think discrete math in particular since it’s very important in CS but just like playing an instrument, it just improves your thinking.

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: Why is rust so popular among Crypto?

It’s an incredibly safe language with a very expressive type system, which is good for handling money.

Also, since crypto stuff is relatively new it’s easier to adopt a newer language like Rust. It has been the most loved language on SO survey for some years.

francogt | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?

Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu is about a scientist who decides to dedicate his life to studying ball lightning (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning) when nobody takes it seriously

Lift Off by Eric Berger details early days of SpaceX

francogt | 8 years ago | on: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job

I remember the Functional Programming course you guys taught. Any chance of putting that course in the "Free Course Archives" :)

francogt | 8 years ago | on: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job

Do you accept or plan on accepting international students?

francogt | 9 years ago | on: Launch HN: FloydHub (YC W17) – Heroku for Deep Learning

Thanks for the reply! I just sent you guys an email. Will take a look at what you did for the Self Driving Car Nanodegree.

francogt | 9 years ago | on: Launch HN: FloydHub (YC W17) – Heroku for Deep Learning

I think partnering with MOOCs is a great idea. I've been taking the Deep Learning Foundations Nanodegree from Udacity and thought it would be awesome if we got some sort of discount to try this out. Course developers have been trying to get us AWS credits for a while now. What would be the best way to contact the guys?

francogt | 9 years ago | on: Machine Learning in a Year

I see everyone talking about Andrew Ng's ML course and having some difficulty with octave. Why is no one trying the new ML with Python series by UW on Coursera? It seems pretty well structured.