MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: What will Software Engineering evolve to?
by lopespm | 2026-02-15 10:01:10+00:00
Yesterday I finished watching an interview with Boris Cherney (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmdLVWMdjOk), where at the end he was asked about productivity tips, and he replied that a couple of years ago he would have answered something prosaic like blocking time, but now his advice it only get Claude Code and learn how to make it automate toil, and multiple claude agents to perform tasks instead of manually writing code.

And there was an observation that the software enginering's maker's schedule is mutating towards a managerial type of schedule, where large focus blocks are being replaced with more context switching .

Boris mentioned that coding is becoming accesible to everyone, and gave an example of a manager that he works with, who now produces code several times every week, after 10 years without coding.

On the other hand, he did mention that he likes to code on the weekend due to its quiet time, ergo focus blocks.

I myself have also been noticed a personal trend where I tend to write prompt or plans to get my agents going in the interludes between meetings and chats, and eventually reach the end of the day with ready made code. I still require bouts of focus time to think hard about problems, but they seem to be slowly decreasing in amount of hours. Regardless, I dont think focus time blocks will go away for good.

My question for you is: do you also see this pattern emerging? Do you think software engineering and managarial roles are slowly merging and the value traditional software engineering is decreasing? How much of the above advices are overindexed on the fact that Boris created Claude Code?
by Joker_vD | 2026-02-15 10:02:33+00:00
Thanks for actually engaging with my argument.

> assuming it’s a function call in the middle of a potentially large call stack with no knowledge of its surroundings.

Most of the decision logic/business logic lives exactly in functions like this, so while I wouldn't claim that 90% of all of the code is like that... it's probably at least 50% or so.

> then isn’t the amount of spilling purely dependent on the function’s number of simultaneous live variables

Yes, and this ties precisely back to my argument: whether or not larger number of GPRs "helps" depends on what kind of code is usually being executed. And most of the code, empirically, doesn't have all that many scalar variables alive simultaneously. And the code that does benefit from more registers (huge unrolled/interleaved computational loops with no function calls or with calls only to intrinsics/inlinable thin wrappers of intrinsics) would benefit even more from using SIMD or even better, being off-loaded to a GPU or the like.

I actually once designed a 256-register fantasy CPU but after playing with it for a while I realised that about 200 of its registers go completely unused, and that's with globals liberally pinned to registers. Which, I guess, explains why Knuth used some idiosyncratic windowing system for his MMIX.
by gozzoo | 2026-02-15 10:02:41+00:00
I'm not sure I agree with this. 10x more tokens means leaaving the agent to work for 10x longer, which may lead to bugs and misintepretation of the intention. Breaking the goal into multiple tasks seems more efficient in terms of tokens and getting close to the desired goal. Of course this means more human involvment, but probably not 10x more.
by ilvez | 2026-02-15 10:03:00+00:00
This kind of generalizations are very organization specific because they rely on preexisting rules set within company. I dismiss every such rule and work that forces me to adjust my daily routine too heavily. Let me choose my best ways to deliver more instead of trying to fit me in the box.

In these cases, I just read the main point behind in this case is "create a way for devs to share context when working with AI".
by retinaros | 2026-02-15 10:04:38+00:00
Very interesting. OAI releases since their router all seem focused on cost cutting/efficiency while anthropic is mostly going the opposite direction spending all budget to overhype their models in media and release neo-hipster (aka normies) ads on taste and on how they wont do ads. The first red flag - beside every time dario speaks - was the popup events with shitty caps overhyped by all ai influencers.

It seems OAI was forced by investors to shift quickly to making money. Anthropic seem to have more time? Might be hard for OAI to keep the pace while focusing on cost
by bigfudge | 2026-02-15 10:04:39+00:00
No. The point here is that Google is not paid for the ads, so are not incentivised to make the service more addictive. This seems obvious: it’s not the ads we have a problem with per se—- it’s the distortion of they attention economy they entail.

Clearly any scheme will not be perfect but these sort of objections either seem to misunderstand the core issue, or to be willfully confusing by raising irrelevant details.
by tjansen | 2026-02-15 10:05:35+00:00
"Agents should work overnight, on commutes, in meetings, asynchronously."

If I read stuff like that, I wonder what the F they are doing. Agents work overnight? On what? Stuck in some loop, trying to figure out how to solve a bug by trial and error because the agent isn't capable of finding the right solution? Nothing good will come out of that. When the agent clearly isn't capable of solving an issue in a reasonable amount of time, it needs help. Quite often, a hint is enough. That, of course, requires the developer to still understand what the agent is doing. Otherwise, most likely, it will sooner or later do something stupid to "solve" the issue. And later, you need to clean up that mess.

If your prompt is good and the agent is capable of implementing it correctly, it will be done in 10 minutes or less. If not, you still need to step in.
by forrestthewoods | 2026-02-15 10:07:07+00:00
Definitely agree that Git is mediocre-at-best VCS tool. This has always been the case. But LLMs are finally forcing the issue. It’s a shame a whole generation programmers has only used Git/GitHub and think it’s good.

Monorepo and large binary file support is TheWay. A good cross-platform virtual file system (VFS) is necessary; a good open source one doesn’t exist today.

Ideally it comes with a copy-on-write system for cross-repo blob caching. But I suppose that’s optional. It lets you commit toolchains for open source projects which is a dream of mine.

Not sure I agree that LSP like features need to be built in. That feels wrong. That’s just a layer on top.

Do think that agent prompts/plans/summaries need to be a first class part of commits/merges. Not sure the full set of features required here.
by pimeys | 2026-02-15 10:08:39+00:00
Oh yeah. We tried to watch Starfleet Academy but... why are they even calling it Star Trek.

Luckily Lower Decks was good, Picard had some good moments and there were a few good episodes in Strange New Worlds too, even though that series didn't really excite me anymore in its latest season.

Voyager's bad episodes are still better than most of the scifi I've watched in the recent years. They are cringe, but in a funny way.
by willis936 | 2026-02-15 10:09:34+00:00
I really like flashpoint but I wish there was a plugin for curation / recommendation. I have an index of games in my head from my childhood and so does my SO. Together we can play the games we know, but have little ability to discriminate between trash and gem. There are simply too many to reasonably pick at random. The old flash sites offered some curation.
by torginus | 2026-02-15 10:10:06+00:00
Tbh, I think Windows' stable ABI/API at all levels + excellent docs is something the open source community could learn from.

Software that is poorly documented, has no stable api, and no way of accepting extensions other than modifying the source, is not very 'free', in the sense, that if I have a good idea, I'll have crazy amounts of trouble getting the change to users even if I manage to decipher and modify the source appropriately.

This approach describes many software projects. If I wanted to change GCC in a way the original authors didn't approve of, I'd have to fork the entire project and lobby the maintainers to include my versions.

If I wanted to change most MS stuff, like Office, I could grab the COM object out of a registry, and override it with mine, just to list one example. Then I could just put the binary on my website, and others would be able to use it.

As for MS not publishing these particular docs - its not like MS doesnt publish tomes on everything, including the kernel. If you're interested in Windows Internals, I recommend the book series of the same name by Pavel Yosifovich, or really anything by him or Mark Rusinovich.

Its also a testament to the solidity of Windows' design that tons of stuff written decades ago is still relevant today.
by anthk | 2026-02-15 10:10:22+00:00
The layout it's close to /sys/doc for 9front/plan9 with guides for Acme, Sam editors (the guide to structural expresions as a tutorial and a guide), the Rc shell, the kernel, the ACID debugger, FS' (several, fossil/venti, cwfs and now GeFS), the security, the compilers, the Rio window system, namespaces, processes and channels, plumbing (something like xdg-open but far easier and more powerful), ... much more than a closed source and propietarty NT implementation, as you get the source for free too under libre licenses. Thus, it makes debugging the system a far easier task. And it's far simpler than Unix itself too.
by pseudohadamard | 2026-02-15 10:11:21+00:00
The point I was trying to make, probably badly, was that there was no need to make TLS 1.3 pretend to be TLS 1.2 going to TCP/443. They could have picked some new port, called it TLS 2.0 (which is what it actually is), and run with that. If QUIC can pick its own port and, by the looks of it, not run into massive problems, there's no reason why TLS 2.0 can't do so too.
by cbdevidal | 2026-02-15 10:11:33+00:00
I used a joystick with a four-way hat that allowed simple and intuitive strafing in all directions along with thrust in four directions from the joystick itself. I got devastating with that combo. Spent hours mastering it.

Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital:
https://ebay.us/m/Hxi8Wh
by wbnns | 2026-02-15 10:12:31+00:00
Hey HN, I built Claude Extender because I wanted a way to run multiple instances of Claude Code (e.g. agents). The core idea: agents are markdown files. The YAML frontmatter defines schedule, tools, cost limits, and notifications. The markdown body is the instruction Claude follows. A daemon runs in the background, spawning claude -p when agents are due.

There are three execution modes:

* Scheduled, cron-based. For example, my daily email triage runs at 6 AM, processes ~50 emails, archives the noise, and sends me a Telegram summary before I wake up.

* Watcher, event-driven. A cheap check script (JS/Python) polls for changes. Only triggers Claude when something actually happened.

* Persistent, long-running sessions with heartbeats, checkpoints, and restart policies.

Tools use MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that you write and control. No plugin marketplace, no third-party code touching your credentials. Cost tracking is first-class. Every run logs its cost in USD. Per-run limits, daily budgets, monthly caps. The daemon pauses everything if you hit your budget. This matters when agents run unsupervised.

Everything is plain text, agent definitions, run logs, memory, cost ledgers. git diff your agents, grep your run history. I'm currently running this on a $5/mo Hetzner VPS.

Requirements: Node.js 20+ and the Claude Code CLI.

Anyhow, hope it's helpful and happy to answer any questions.
by pjmlp | 2026-02-15 10:13:38+00:00
You could have checked his conference talk as well, instead of downplaying the interview.

"Microsoft is Getting Rusty: A Review of Successes and Challenges - Mark Russinovich"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VgptLwP588&t=1903s

The only Microsoft divisions that are still all are into C++ is Windows and XBox, and still, C++/WinRT is now in maintenace, the team has moved into windows-rs, WDK now has Rust bindings available.
by alentred | 2026-02-15 10:14:19+00:00
> Code is context, not a library. Data is the real interface.

I don't *yet* subscribe to the idea of "code is context for AI, not an interface for a human", but I have to admit that the idea sounds feasible. I have many examples of small-to-mid size apps (local use only) where I pretty much didn't even look at the code beyond checking that it doesn't do anything finicky. There, the code doesn't mater because I know that I can always regenerate it from my specs, POC-s, etc. I agree that the paradigm changes completely if you look at code as something temporary that can be thrown away and re-created when the specification changes. I don't know where this leads to and if this is good or not for our industry, but the fact is - it is feasible.

I would never use this paradigm for anything related to production, though. Nope. Never. Not in the foreseeable future anyway.

> Everyone uses their own IDE, prompting style, and workflow.

In my experience with recent models this is still not a good idea: it quickly leads to messy code where neither AI nor human can do anything anymore. Consistency is key. (And abstractions/layers/isolation everywhere, as usual).

IDE - of course. But, at the very least, I would suggest using the same foundation model across the code base, .agent/ dirs with plenty of project documents, reusable prompts, etc.

--

P.S. Still not sure what does the 10AM rule bring, though...
by jeroenhd | 2026-02-15 10:15:14+00:00
If you have enough (V)RAM you can set up Ollama + any of the generation tools here (https://docs.openwebui.com/category/create--edit-images) and hook them into OpenWebUI to get something pretty close to what you'd get on a cloud AI chatbox.

Decently performing models for day to day use cases use at least 6GB VRAM each, though, and even then they're not coming very close to what the cheapest AI websites offer.
by johnisgood | 2026-02-15 10:17:40+00:00
I meant the work laptop you are given through working as a SWE. Are you referring to jobs in IT?

And are you allowed to use your own personal computer (laptop)?

If not, and you have to work on what you have been given, why are people OK with it[1]? In the case of IT jobs?

I cannot imagine being productive without my OS, WM, IDE, configurations and whatnot.

I did work on a desktop in an office before, using their software and it was awful. I could have automated the whole damn thing at home. It was the tax office and obviously I understand why I cannot use their software at home, but for an IT job?

[1] Stupid question, people tolerate much more than this, incl. not getting paid for overtime, being worked to death without a break every day of the week, etc.
by meekaaku | 2026-02-15 10:18:35+00:00
I dont get this idea of breaking big companies up is inherently a good thing.
As a non-American, I think the breakup of AT&T/Bell Labs was a mistake. The world is yet to create a lab as innovative as Bell Labs. Current Google only comes even close with their far out projects(that dont directly make money) such as their quantum computing/deepmind/boston dynamics(when google had them)

Besides, if one does break up google, you wouldnt have those divisions running.

If there are far more opportunities left by the wayside, some one is going to out compete them, ie Slack and Teams
by sokoloff | 2026-02-15 10:18:38+00:00
Ok. I did miss the line where I specifically give advice to OP that they also consider becoming a mentor to a local FRC team as a way for them to begin to learn about robotics.

I thought that I left the dots close enough for people/OP to draw the line, but it seems I missed the mark; good feedback on my lack of clarity; thanks!
by omridan159 | 2026-02-15 10:18:40+00:00
How I made $2.5K in 4 days selling a SaaS boilerplate for OpenClaw wrappers

Remember GPT wrappers in 2023?

A simple chat UI on top of OpenAI's API, slap on a brand, and people were hitting $10K MRR seemingly overnight.

Most of people dismissed it, but now we know it turns out there was real money there for those who moved fast.

The same thing is happening right now with OpenClaw, except the numbers are bigger.

If you check TrustMRR, OpenClaw wrappers are reporting $6K-$32K/mo. Marc Lou (who's done $2M+ from solo products) just tweeted that his entire feed is OpenClaw wrapper launches.

One went from zero to $4,475 in 14 hours.

This is the GPT wrapper wave all over again, but with better models, better tooling, and buyers who now understand what they're paying for.

The problem I kept seeing:
Every wrapper builder was burning 1-2 weeks on the same infrastructure: OAuth, Stripe subscriptions, Docker deployment to the VPS, admin dashboards, easy telegram setup and more.

By the time they shipped, the window had moved.

In a trend like this, speed is everything.

So I built ClawWrapper — A SaaS boilerplate specifically for OpenClaw wrappers.

What's in the box:

- Next.js + TypeScript + Tailwind, fully white-labeled via env vars
- Supabase with Postgres & Google OAuth
- Stripe (subscriptions, webhooks, customer portal)
- Remote Docker deployment over SSH to your VPS
- Caddy with auto HTTPS
- AI model selector
- AES-256 encryption for stored API keys
- Telegram bot integration
- Admin dashboard with user and instance management and more.

The goal is to get you from idea to live product fast while the wave is still building.

I launched it 4 days ago and I made $2,500 in revenue so far, all from organic traffic because of the trend.

Site: [clawwrapper.com]
by anutrix | 2026-02-15 10:20:15+00:00
orjson is a fast, correct JSON library for Python. It benchmarks as the fastest Python library for JSON and is more correct than the standard json library or other third-party libraries. It serializes dataclass, datetime, numpy, and UUID instances natively.
Despite not being 100% compatible, it is often used as replacement of than JSON functions in core Python 3.

As of Jan 29th 2026 (https://github.com/ijl/orjson/commit/d58168733189f82b3fd0c05...) open issue tracker or pull requests has been removed from the orjson repo due to signal-to-noise ratio.

Might be due to high amount of LLM-assisted noisy bug reports and/or PRs that are plagueing various projects on Github. It is unfortunate that even old issues won't be accessible for reference.

What do you guys think?
Show HN: Addictive little browser game involving gravity
by amiralul | 2026-02-15 10:20:52+00:00
A single-file HTML5 canvas application (~1200 lines of JavaScript, no dependencies, less than 50KB in size): in a randomly generated universe, you pilot a ship using Newtonian physics: gravity pulls you in, atmospheric drag slows you down, and you have limited thrust fuel that depletes your score when used. Don't crash! It's a proof of concept, a game created with Claude AI in about 10 minutes (and further enhanced).
by jasode | 2026-02-15 10:22:05+00:00
A related (not duplicate) thread submitted a few hours ago "Evolving Git for the Next Decade (lwn.net)" : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018814

tldr of other article : does not mention new AI/LLM workflows affecting Git. Instead, it's a recap of Patrick Steinhardt (Gitlab) talk at FOSDEM about other Git pain points: SHA256 adoption, lessons from jj jujitsu, large file blobs, confusing UI

As for this thread's topic... several startups are trying to overlay a new "git/Github" type of workflow/versioning platform for LLM coding and AI agents coordination.
by zkmon | 2026-02-15 10:22:41+00:00
Indian carpenters always had a drill with large spindle around which a long rope is wound. A person pulls the rope back and forth spinning the drill. Another person holds the drill in position using a flat wood piece at the top with small hole to hold the drill axle.

Same technique is also used for spinning a wooden churner to get butterfat out of curd. A standing woman would pull the rope back and forth for a few minutes on the long churner stick that is churning the curd in a clay pot placed on the floor.
by rutierut | 2026-02-15 10:22:44+00:00
To be fair, for major features 30m to an hour isn’t out of this world. Browser testing is critical at this point but it _really_ slows down the AI in the last 15% of the process.

I can see overnight for a prototype of a completely new project with a detailed SPEC.md and a project requirements file that it eats up as it goes.
by rekabis | 2026-02-15 10:23:28+00:00
It had almost no workflow overhead. Remember - a data generator has essentially no overhead aside from any rules-based constraint on the data (how realistic it should be, what patterns it needs to have), and the format in which this data is stored (invariably a database). It had no interactions with any part of the main application, the only thing it touched was the database.

This let it be “simple” in terms of how it generated content, with it being “complicated” only in terms of what content it needed to create and its interconnections. Because patient profiles were simple to define, but were completely different than, say, the medications they were prescribed or the appointments that had been scheduled. Or the connections between appointments and prescriptions.

So yeah, generating data is simple, defining what data to be generated and in what patterns was a lot more difficult. Sometimes things that should be related could only be generated in isolation from each other because of how that part of the generation tooling was assembled.

This was almost 100% used by developers and QA. Outside demos had a special DB used by sales with much more consistent data, albeit much smaller. The generator was meant to create _large_ data sets, just not very _pretty_ data sets.
by Kiro | 2026-02-15 10:23:37+00:00
Exactly. The fact that people laugh at the prediction like it's a joke when I and many others have been at 90%+ for a long time makes me question a lot of the takes here. Anyone serious about using LLMs would know it's nothing controversial to have it write most of the code.

And people claiming it's a lie are in for a rough awakening. I'm sure we will see a lot of posters on HN simply being too embarrassed to ever post again when they realize how off they were.
Show HN: Visual state tracking for AI agents in tmux
by accessd | 2026-02-15 10:25:42+00:00
I run multiple Claude Code and Codex sessions in tmux panes. The main annoyance was not knowing when an agent finished or hit a permission prompt without switching to each pane to check.

This plugin hooks into agent lifecycle events and changes pane borders, window titles, and status bar icons to reflect three states: running, needs-input, done. Colors reset when you focus the
pane.

Works with Claude Code and Codex out of the box. Any other agent can integrate by calling a single shell script.
by lefra | 2026-02-15 10:26:00+00:00
Interesting, I can only see the bands when holding my fingers very close to my eye, and _not_ focussing on it. If I hold my fingers far enough to be able to focus, I don't see them. Maybe my eyesight is not good enough. Focussing on a single finger, I see that the border has a green tint to it.

I agree that there's no colour in the fringes, which is unexpected for white light interference.