The Overflow Newsletter #3 – The 36 pieces of code that changed history

by Ryan Donovan on November 1, 2019

October 2019

Welcome to ISSUE #3 of The Overflow, a newsletter by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams of React Training. You can read more about it here.

This week, we have developers discussing ADHD, some surprising facts about the nature of statistics, and a look at the lines of code that changed history.

From the blog

Check out podcast episode #126! stackoverflow.blog
We chat with guests Chloe Condon and Iheanyi Ekechukwu about the pros and cons of being a programmer with ADHD. Plus – giants waves of molten molasses!

My most embarrassing mistakes as a programmer (so far) stackoverflow.blog
“If people learn from their mistakes, I must have a Master’s degree by now.”

Interesting questions

What do you call the phenomenon of false positives outstripping true positives? stats.stackexchange.com
It’s the most accurate statistical tests that you really need to think twice about

How did early spacecraft navigate with such small computers?? space.stackexchange.com
“Mission Control, can you run a calculation for me real quick?”

How can different packages have identical source code? askubuntu.stackexchange.com
Code once, build four times?

How to reduce code duplication when dealing with recursive sum types? stackoverflow.com
“Congratulations, you just rediscovered anamorphisms!”

Links from around the web

The lines of code that changed everything slate.com
75 coders pick the 36 pieces of code that changed the world. You wouldn’t be reading this email without them.

Product management, fast and slow intercom.com
When should you make snap product decisions and when should you noodle on it a while?

Flash memory wear killing older Tesla’s due to excessive data logging: report tomshardware.com
Your beloved Tesla Roadster might need to head to the shop thanks to too much information.

Free for developers free-for.dev
If you’re looking to experiment with new technologies, here’s a great list of free resources and services for developers!

Designing accessible color systems stripe.com
One of the most important aspects of accessibility on the web is colors, which developers often overlook. Here’s a great guide on designing accessible color systems.

Announcing WebAssembly.sh medium.com/wasmer
I know a lot of us probably avoid Assembly like the plague, BUT WebAssembly is pretty dang cool and innovative, and this online WebAssembly Terminal can help you get up and running to understand the power of the language.

Easy concurrency in python pljung.de
Python isn’t normally one’s first choice for concurrent programming, but never fear, though there’s a GIL, there’s a way!

Author

Ryan Donovan is a Content Marketer at Stack Overflow. He's been writing for developers for two decades.

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Comments

Peter Mortensen says:

November 1, 2019 at 6:41 pm

1. The question mark wasn’t included in stackoverflow DOT com/questions/58439124

2. “Python” no matter what, not “python”. The original title was “Easy Concurrency in Python”

en DOT wikipedia DOT org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29

Reply
Jitendra R Kulkarni says:

November 3, 2019 at 5:44 pm

I came to this page by clicking something like “read about 75 lines of code that changed history”. The page it landed is a confusing mess with no real content.
Section 1 “The OVERFLOW” has meta talk about issue 3, the authors and ADHD but no content
Then there is a confusing “From the blog” section.
Then “Interesting Question”
Then “Links from around the web” where I finally (in third pass” noticed the link I came for.
Then “Aithor” “Tags” “Related Articles” Looks like ease of access is lost in an attempt to make the page “interesting”.

Reply
Steven says:

November 4, 2019 at 7:33 am

I have to agree with Jitendra, there is no order to this page at all.

Reply
Robert says:

November 4, 2019 at 8:25 am

> read about 75 lines of code that changed history

Except it’s actually 36 pieces of code, selected by submissions by 75 developers. By Slate, so this is just a pointless 3rd-party link.

Get a grip, SO.

Reply
Nathan Hughes says:

November 4, 2019 at 3:03 pm

i like that the linked article includes the Therac-25. However the description there falls way short when it comes to describing just how negligent this was, and how horrific the suffering of the victims was.

Reply
prune says:

November 4, 2019 at 5:55 pm

Link-only answers are generally discouraged as “low-quality” posts. Perhaps you intended this as a helpful comment?

🙂

Reply