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  Speed Hashing

A given hash uniquely represents a file, or any arbitrary collection of data. At least in theory. This is a 128-bit MD5 hash you're looking at above, so it can represent at most 2128 unique items, or 340 trillion trillion trillion. In reality the usable space is substantially less; you can start seeing significant collisions once you've filled half the space, but half of an impossibly large number is still impossibly large. Back in 2005, I wondered about the difference between a checksum and...

   Speed hashing,Security,MD5     2012-04-07 10:35:15

  Python internals: adding a new statement to Python

This article is an attempt to better understand how the front-end of Python works. Just reading documentation and source code may be a bit boring, so I’m taking a hands-on approach here: I’m going to add an until statement to Python. All the coding for this article was done against the cutting-edge Py3k branch in the Python Mercurial repository mirror. The until statement Some languages, like Ruby, have an until statement, which is the complement to while (until num == 0 is equi...

   Python,New statement,Research,Addition     2012-03-12 07:32:24

  Python internals: how callables work

[The Python version described in this article is 3.x, more specifically - the 3.3 alpha release of CPython.] The concept of a callable is fundamental in Python. When thinking about what can be "called", the immediately obvious answer is functions. Whether it’s user defined functions (written by you), or builtin functions (most probably implemented in C inside the CPython interpreter), functions were meant to be called, right? Well, there are also methods, but they’re not very ...

   Python,Callable work,Rationale     2012-03-24 05:20:27

  How to read Haskell like Python

Have you ever been in the situation where you need to quickly understand what a piece of code in some unfamiliar language does? If the language looks a lot like what you’re comfortable with, you can usually guess what large amounts of the code does; even if you may not be completely familiar how all the language features work.For Haskell, this is a little more difficult, since Haskell syntax looks very different from traditional languages. But there's no really deep difference here; you j...

   Haskell,Python,Format,Like,Similarity     2011-11-15 08:45:39

  Why Software Is Eating The World

This week, Hewlett-Packard (where I am on the board) announced that it is exploring jettisoning its struggling PC business in favor of investing more heavily in software, where it sees better potential for growth. Meanwhile, Google plans to buy up the cellphone handset maker Motorola Mobility. Both moves surprised the tech world. But both moves are also in line with a trend I've observed, one that makes me optimistic about the future growth of the American and world economies, despite the...

   software,quota,internet world,eat up     2011-08-22 12:06:40

  When and How to Use the Go Channel

Go’s concise structure and powerful native library enable us to hit the ground running easily. It is more efficient than Java or Python when implementing the same functions, especially its concurrent programming, which is very handy and widely admired due to its goroutine and channel. goroutine and channel has much to dig into, and let’s start with channel, which I used to consider narrowly as a message queue to transfer data between gorouti...

   GOLANG,CONTEXT,CHANNEL     2022-09-17 23:06:36

  Python for the Web

Python is the best language in the world for interacting with the web, and I'm going to show you why.This article will give an extremely high level overview of how to use python for the web. There are many ways you can interact with the web using python, and this post will cover all of them. This includes python web scraping, interacting with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and running your own python web site using python server software. There are many ways to do all these thing...

   Python,Web,Interaction,Communication,Network     2011-10-19 14:19:11

  How I Learned to Program Computers

I’ve been asked this question a lot lately, especially after I built YouTube Instant. So, here’s the answer, once and for all, for those who are interested.In short:I learned how to program by building lots of websites.The full story:I learned how to program by working on lots of different website projects starting from a pretty young age. What follows is a full account of all the major websites I’ve built, back to the very first site I made when I was 11 years old. Wha...

   Programming,Computer,Tips,Feross Aboukhadijeh     2011-10-17 10:25:32

  C Macro Tips and Tricks

Preprocessor vs Compiler To properly understand C macros, you must understand how a C program is compiled. In particular, you must understand the different things that happen in the preprocessor and in the compiler. The preprocessor runs first, as the name implies. It performs some simple textual manipulations, such as: Stripping comments. Resolving #include directives and replacing them with the contents of the included file. Evaluating #if and #ifdef directives. Evaluating #defin...

   C,Macro,Preprocessor,Trick     2012-05-01 06:49:05

  How I Learned to Program

Programming is, without a doubt, the most mentally rewarding thing I've ever done. Programming taught me that life should be fun, filled with creativity, and lived to the fullest. Programming taught me that anything is possible; I can do anything I want using only my mind. Programming also taught me that learning is fun. It showed me that the more you know, the more power you have. Programming showed me that a life filled with learning is a life worth living. Programming revealed to me wh...

   Programming,Tips,Write,Practice,Interest     2012-02-04 21:37:12

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