maxeonyx

Just adding that JavaScript is also the best at something - running code sandboxed - especially in a web browser. Like SQL for databases, JS has no competition for web development (because the web needs full compatibility, and adding another language doesn't have a good value proposition - just compile to JS) and thus is immensely popular.

Most languages have something they are the best at. SQL is probably THE language with the strongest value proposition - relational databases are even more important and ubiquitous than web browsers. But why doesn't SQL have any competition?

I would love to see an alternative to SQL in the style Jamie suggests. Maybe SQL would immediately not be the best anymore?

However, if you expect that in the future the population will keep growing by orders of magnitude, what does that imply?

A) you're just in an unlikely position

B) the population will rapidly shrink and never recover

C) this is the most "interesting" time in history, and there are so many simulations of it by the people of the far future that we are more likely to exist in this time.

What about integrating (and encouraging users to opt into) peer-to-peer distribution? If I understand correctly, this would work for Guix and Nix.

I'm not using Guix, but if I was I would be happy to do this. I have no data cap on my home internet, and my PC is usually on.

I would also like to know. I think "massive amount of drawbacks" is actually "one not-very-important-in-practice drawback". Which is just that when changing the behaviour of a class, you have to change its API.

I like to think of mutation as a performance optimisation. Correctness first, then optimisation.

Unless performance is a problem, don't ever mutate state.

You're right, it's the same synchronisation/consistency problem at a different scale, which I honestly find pretty mindblowing. However there is one major difference. When you add fault tolerance requirements (which you typically do in distributed databases and web applications, but don't always in multithreaded applications) then it changes the approaches and algorithms.

This is an extremely important result, which I have seen around before. What are the implications and follow-up research?

How about this one. I think you meant to say "I couldn't imagine a more off-topic and unwelcome [...]"

Hi, this is a cool list!

Your caption sounds a bit off in English. Perhaps try "A curated list of awesome repositories with few stargazers but many users".

It's curated, but did you search for repositories using GitHub's API? Or are they ones you are already familiar with?

This would be solved if python used an (OS-specific) cache directory for its .pyc files. I have always disliked .pyc files... here's a concrete reason!

Question: what does python do if it doesn't have write permission in the current working directory? Not write the cache?

Every beach in the world has some sort of rare creature, and locals who would state that fact in pursuit of their agenda. How many space launch sites are there in the world?? If a space launch site can't be built near some random beach in Texas, it can't be built anywhere. I hope SpaceX wins this "battle" - because while the ecological cause is noble, it's far less noble than the next step of humanity's venture into space.

I skimmed this post and I agree with it. But I wouldn't want to actually read it.

"goh-doh" or "goh-doht" The 'o's are pronounced the same.