How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go

Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go by lifeisstillgood on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @02:36AM (#5367170)

Could you give a specific example as I am still thinking "random number generator" and want to balance it with your "standard idiom or library that everyone steeped in $lang knows "

Cheers

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Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go by aidos on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @04:41AM (#5367440)

Things like the Counter in python collections. Actually, the python collections library in general. You don't need that stuff to do the job, but it makes the code a lot clearer.

It probably took a couple of months full time in python before I had enough understanding of the std lib to know where to find everything (I sat down and read through a description of most of the functions in there).

There are still plenty of libraries that would have made my life easier if I knew about them. I'm sure there are plenty more.

Having said all that, that's just for example. When it comes to hiring I'd still pick a good experienced developer over a specific language expert for a full time position. For me it's not so much about the understanding of a specific language as it is the appetite for understanding computers / systems in general that makes truely good developers.

Ultimately the task is going to dictate the best type of hire. Short term contract, get a specific expert. Long term hire, find someone who actually enjoys developing software :)

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Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go by philh on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @04:37AM (#5367432)

I dunno how well-known the things I didn't know about are, but an example of me doing it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5113202

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Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go by lifeisstillgood on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @05:49AM (#5367597)

I think there is a fine line between using a library and writin your own to understand better the domain

It's something to do with how critical the library functions are to you / your system. I would never write my own compression software, but I can see why people would just to learn about the trade offs.

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Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go by philh on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @09:36AM (#5368239)

Okay, but if I had known about the alternatives I would have used them, so I'm not sure how that's relevant.

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Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go by lifeisstillgood on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @11:17AM (#5369026)

philosophising really. I guess on the "actually helpful advice" level, I'm all out if the googles cant help.

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Re:How We Went from 30 Servers to 2: Go by jorgeleo on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @07:28AM (#5367789)

I have nothing interesting to say, I just wanted to see how far the left indentation can go

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