jwmcglynn (u/jwmcglynn)

jwmcglynn commented on Show HN: Hyvector – A fast and modern SVG editor hyvector.com... · Posted by u/jansan

jwmcglynn · 10 months ago

After using it, I think this is a great start. As I mentioned in the previous comment, I really like the UX, and this is specifically about:

- The Pen tool feels intuitive.

- I like how the Objects panel shows previews of each layer.

- It is nice to see clip-path support integrated well, and features such as converting text to outlines, and boolean operations - these seem like rare features.

Here's some critical feedback after using it:

- Keybindings to switch between tools would be useful, and they should be annotated on the tooltips

- I'd like to see zoom/panning supported with Ctrl +/- and panning when holding space and clicking/dragging.

- When editing groups of shapes, it is hard to select individual shapes in the group. Double-clicking switches to the Nodes tool, which is not exactly what I want. I'd like something where double-clicking a group goes into some sort of "Group Isolation" editing mode.

- When using the Pen tool, I'd like to be able to go back to tweak the previous points, such as adjusting the control points, etc.

- Undo in Pen mode does not undo the insertion of points in the path, instead of Undoes operations from before the shape was started.

- Text support seems limited, for example an embedded @font-face did not render correctly. Similarly for filter support. If the editor doesn't support these features I'd expect them to at least be rendered correctly by the browser, but it seems like SVG rendering here is independent.

jwmcglynn commented on Show HN: Hyvector – A fast and modern SVG editor hyvector.com... · Posted by u/jansan

somethingsome · 10 months ago

What's the problem with inkscape? It has some bugs, but otherwise it works quite well

jwmcglynn · 10 months ago

It's been a while since I tried Inkscape, but I downloaded it again to give honest feedback.

For context, I got started with Illustrator 9 as a teenager (this is making me feel dated, it was released in 2000), and I'm very familiar with the Illustrator UX and find it intuitive.

When using Inkscape, the UX just feels slightly off, things like:

- Weird keybindings, e.g. pressing Ctrl +/- does not zoom/unzoom

- The golden path feels buggy. When launching the window is for some reason cropped to the top 1/8th of the screen and needs to be resized, and the artboard is tiny.

- Usability issues, such as selecting paths does not show their outline, and the layers window doesn't show a preview of what's in each layer

- Exported SVGs are needlessly verbose. This looks like it has gotten better but is still there. For example, exporting an SVG with two gradients actually puts four gradients in the file (combining with inheritance).

I'm sure that spending more time with it would help, and Inkscape does seem quite powerful, but UX is a big factor when I adopt new tools and Inkscape is lacking there.

jwmcglynn commented on Show HN: Hyvector – A fast and modern SVG editor hyvector.com... · Posted by u/jansan

jwmcglynn · 10 months ago

Very nice! My side project is a C++ SVG rendering library, and I have never been able to find great SVG editors.

I usually fall back to Illustrator and then clean up the resulting markup, or a text-based editor such as https://www.svgviewer.dev/

Your UX is quite polished, and your tool already supports more features than other ones I've found, good work!

For reference this is my project, https://github.com/jwmcglynn/donner, which has a web-based "editor" (currently just code-based editing) prototype here: https://jwmcglynn.github.io/donner-editor/

SVG is one of those things that has lots of potential but has been impacted by not-so-great tooling, it's my passion and I'm glad to see innovation in the space.

jwmcglynn commented on Sourcegraph is no longer open source github.com/sourcegraph/so... · Posted by u/CAP_NET_ADMIN

sqs · 3 years ago

Sourcegraph CEO here. Sourcegraph is now 2 separate products: code search and Cody (our code AI). Cody remains open source (Apache 2) in the client/cody* directories in the repository, and we're extracting that to a separate 100% OSS repository soon.

Our licensing principle remains to charge companies while making tools for individual devs open source. Very few individual devs (or companies) used the limited-feature open-source variant of code search, so we decided to remove it. Usage of Sourcegraph code search was even more skewed toward our official non-OSS build than in other similar situations like Google Chrome vs. Chromium or VS Code vs. VSCodium. Maintaining 2 variants was a burden on our engineering team that had very little benefit for anyone.

You can see more explanation at https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/issues/53528#issu.... The change was announced in the changelog and in a PR (all of our development occurs in public), and we will have a blog post this week after we separate our big monorepo into 2 repos as planned: the 100% OSS repo for Cody and the non-OSS repo for code search.

You can still use Sourcegraph code search for free on public code at https://sourcegraph.com and on our self-hosted free tier on private code (which means individual devs can still run Sourcegraph code search 100% for free). Customers are not affected at all.

jwmcglynn · 3 years ago

I am one of the few people who used the open source version and really liked it, and I'm disappointed by the changes.

The challenge I had with Sourcegraph is that it's out of reach of developers working on personal projects. There isn't a hosted plan, and for my projects I can't easily open source them due to my employer.

I was really excited when the Sourcegraph App was released, since it allowed me to give Sourcegraph a try on my project without going through the complex self-hosted setup. I went as far as getting scip-clang working with my Bazel-based project, and then tried out the docker-compose setup on my home lab.

Now that code search was removed from the app, and this change, I'm concerned that I won't be able to use Sourcegraph for my personal projects in the future.

This is a missed opportunity. I think individual developers using products for personal projects are powerful advocates, since those developers may convince their employer to purchase the product. If I could I'd gladly pay, but I'm just one person and can't justify $5k/year.

jwmcglynn commented on Ask HN: How to improve as a struggling junior software engineer? · Posted by u/3a2d29

ratww · 4 years ago

Honestly if a junior made a mistake that costed one month, there is some issue with the process and I REALLY hope they're not blaming you for it.

Also, unless the sprint duration is four weeks and there's no dailies, I really can't see a junior being able to delay anything by 1 month in ANY sane company. Unless you're preventing people from working, actively sabotaging things (and skipping code review processes!), I really struggle to see how a Junior Developer would be able to slow a team down like that. If this is happening, that's a huge red flag, and you're not in a good team/company. I really don't think you're the problem.

> When I first joined I struggled to even know how to start things.

That's how it is with new companies. I'm at this for 20 years and at some places it took me six months or more to unravel the massive amount of stupid code and processes before I was productive enough.

> The problem is at this point I have been on the team too long to ask any basic questions, one of the senior engineers even pointed out they shouldn't be helping me with certain processes at this point

I'm a team lead and I ask basic questions all the time. Sometimes to juniors or interns.

What kind of things we're talking about? Opening a PR? Simple programming questions? Opening up tickets in JIRA? This is basic. But deciphering convoluted code or navigating convoluted processes? Using an arcane shitty ticketing system? That's not really basic level anymore. But even if it were, that senior engineer was out of line...

PS: If you think we're being "nice" to you on the replies out of sympathy, it isn't. This is for real. HN is the kind of community that would call anyone on their bullshit.

jwmcglynn · 4 years ago

For asking basic questions all the time, I still do this as a senior engineer. At large companies, this is due to tribal knowledge, and one of the best things that can be done to reduce tribal knowledge is to take notes and make some simple docs.

If you had to ask someone how to open tickets? Create a short doc or wiki with those instructions.

That's a good way for even a junior engineer to start producing value, for established teams they often have tribal knowledge without realizing it.

jwmcglynn commented on Ask HN: How to improve as a struggling junior software engineer? · Posted by u/3a2d29

hiepph · 4 years ago

One of my most valuable lessons, when I was a junior engineer, is asking questions. I was shy, quiet, and trying to carry the weight of the world on my shoulder. But I learned that building software is a community/team game. By asking a question and asking for opinions, I learned a lot from the feedback. Though I'm still shy and quiet (it's my personality and I can't simply get rid of it), now I know how to interact with people within my constraint. That fact doesn't block me from joining tech discussions on forums, asking for feedback or even giving a tech talk to my team.

jwmcglynn · 4 years ago

+1 to this. As a senior engineer, one of the big things I've learned is asking good questions, finding who to ask, and having the confidence to do so.

Junior engineers aren't expected to do this alone, your senior engineers should be there to help you as you learn to do this yourself.

For me, it's still a bit intimidating asking questions to people 2+ levels above me, but the biggest thing I've learned is that those people want to help me. For more senior engineers, it's their job to help you: You're not wasting their time.

jwmcglynn commented on An Experimental Course on Operating Systems web.stanford.edu/class/cs... · Posted by u/jzoch

nafizh · 8 years ago

I have made a list of all the materials needed for this class with amazon links. Hope this helps people who would like to pursue this course from outside Stanford.

1. 1 Raspberry Pi 3 https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-RASPBERRYPI3-MODB-1GB-Mo...

2. 1 1⁄2-sized breadboard https://www.amazon.com/Qunqi-point-Experiment-Breadboard-5-5...

3. 1 4GiB microSD card https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MicroSD-Adapter-MB-ME32GA-AM/...

4. 1 microSD card USB adapter https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Standard-Connector-Smartphone...

5. 1 CP2102 USB TTL adapter w/4 jumper cables https://www.amazon.com/KEDSUM-CP2102-Module-Download-Convert...

6. 10 multicolored LEDs https://www.amazon.com/Multicolor-Flashing-Changing-Electron...

7. 4 100 ohm resistors https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0185FCR66/

8. 4 1k ohm resistors https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CVZ46FM/

9. 10 male-male DuPont jumper cables, 10 female-male DuPont jumper cables

https://www.amazon.com/Haitronic-Multicolored-Breadboard-Ard...

Edit: edited for solderless breadboard link rather than a solderable one.

jwmcglynn · 8 years ago

I saved some money by buying a kit that included most of the parts. I confirmed that this setup works and have already completed assignment 0 with it.

1. Raspberry Pi 3: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CD5VC92

2. CP2102 USB TTL adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072K3Z3TL

3. Breadboard/Cables/LEDs/Resistors kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IH4VJRI

4. microSD card: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001B1AR50

Note that I didn't need a microSD adapter since my laptop already has a SD card port, and the card linked has a microSD-to-SD adapter. Overall, this was $64 vs $98 for the above parts, and it all had free one-day shipping.