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shellab

24 karma · joined March 28, 2008

Web developer in Madison, WI.

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/andrewshell; my proof: https://keybase.io/andrewshell/sigs/IGMtrf_59i-OxNaujazuh6z_ZCG-uqDqHs5hLwLYRhY ]

submissionscomments
shellab··on Ask HN: Do you use light or dark themes when coding?
I find that a light theme is easier on my eyes, but I also don’t have great vision. For instance I have difficulty driving at night.
shellab··on Ask HN: Would you be interested in a “cyberpunk” inspired news site?
Sure! That sounds great.
shellab··on Ask HN: Which developers do you closely follow?
[Dave Winer](http://scripting.com)
shellab··on Ask HN: Who's your favorite hacker that also writes on e.g. politics or society?
Dave Winer http://scripting.com/
shellab··on Ask HN: How many people pay for Sublime Text 3?
I paid for it and use it every day.
shellab··on A de-centralised network, with chosen usernames. Is it possible?
Email is a de-centralized system where you choose your username. It's just that the fully qualified username includes the domain where it was created.
shellab··on Ask HN: What can be done to fix a dev team that has become complacent?
It sounds like the code might be part of the issue. If code isn't developed in a way that makes refactoring easy then as time goes on the code becomes more complex and it's harder to add even simple features without breaking stuff. You may want to look for a developer who knows how to refactor legacy code. If someone recommends a rewrite it's almost always a bad idea.
shellab··on Ask HN: Why is Apple App store asking password for free apps?
Probably for the same reason you have to enter your password to install stuff on a computer. It's a security layer to make sure only the owner is installing software on the phone.
shellab··on Leave Pricing OFF your homepage
If I'm looking at a SaaS app and consider trying it out, I want to know the pricing before I start so I can evaluate if it's even in the ballpark of possibility. If I don't see a price I typically keep looking for an app that lists pricing up front.
shellab··on Ask HN: What's the best development book you've read?
The book that really helped me was Agile Software Development by Robert Martin. It outlines some of the best principles for writing software that will be high quality and easy to extend and refactor for years to come.
shellab··on Show HN: developing a techmeme alternative.
That's great! What are you powering the site with?
shellab··on Show HN: I've created a third place. (for getting to know HNers)
When editing my profile, I click on "twitter username" or "blog or website url" and it immediately replaces the form with "entering a third place..." and it just sits there.
shellab··on Real programmers don't use frameworks
I understand that there are tradeoffs when you choose to build on a framework. I've written many applications from scratch (without frameworks) then I've written custom frameworks and CMSs for various projects and now I'm looking at existing frameworks as a way to bring in quality code, with features that I would be implementing by hand otherwise.

I've been impressed with CodeIgniter and now I'm working with Kohana because it's still fast, fairly low level and if I want to use the higher level stuff for prototyping I can and then I can refactor down to lower levels easily for performance later on when it's necessary.

There are things that I'd consider to be frameworkish components being built into PHP. For example the filter extension is something where prior to it's inception I had this functionality built into my framework. You could say it's a framework for filtering input.

When you use frameworks that have to use all of the frameworks 'magic' you do get a performance hit. It will almost always be faster to implement your own SQL statements instead of relying on an active record library, especially with complex logic.

You need to balance what you're trying to do with what you're options are. If you're writing a personal app that only you are using and you want it out as soon as possible then some of these frameworks like Ruby on Rails or Symfony would be great. Something to get the code out so you can start using it. If you are really concerned with performance then use something like the Zend Framework where you can reimplement parts for performance and do all your queries by hand.

shellab··on Wisconsin Sucks for Startups
Hey, I'm the organizer of the Madison Php group. We should get together to talk about your project, I might be able to hook you up with some developers. http://php.meetup.com/125
shellab··on Ask YC: Startup school?
I got the invite this morning!