DEV Community

Hercules Lemke Merscher
Hercules Lemke Merscher

Posted on • Originally published at bitmaybewise.substack.com

1

ABEND dump #15

Hi, and welcome to the first ABEND dump of the year!

Simplicity is Complicated

Recently, I wrote about my perspective on simplicity and a colleague at work shared this talk from Rob Pike — thanks, Taliesin!

In this talk, Rob Pike goes over the decisions made by the Go language developers and how they impact the perceived simplicity of the language. Something that developers tend to praise the language for:

It very much aligns with my thoughts on what I wrote here. Simplicity can hide a lot of complexity.

The Design of C++ , lecture by Bjarne Stroustrup

As I’ve been flexing my language design and type systems muscle lately, I found this enlightening video from 1994, in which the creator of C++ digresses about how it came to be.

My favorite part is when he talks about the work environment. I loved the pragmatism presented here. I’m no academic and designing languages is not what I do for a living, just like Stroustrup mentions back in the day, and seeing that is a big motivator to keep going even if people are saying you’re not doing it correctly or the optimal way. Also, the part about co-existing with other languages is something I’m aiming for with Tsonnet.

Cram tests: a hidden gem of dune

I’ve been writing some OCaml code lately and using dune as the build system.

Dune has support for cram tests and it’s amazing! In this post, @davesnx explains how he’s using cram tests.

The first time I saw and used something similar was using doctests in Elixir 3 years ago, but cram tests are much more versatile. In dune, you can use whichever executable binary. You can make your documentation executable. How cool is that!?

I’ve heard Rust has something like that too. That’s a damn cool idea that all languages should copy, IMHO.

15 Years of Software Engineer Knowledge in 1 hour 30 mins

Rahul distills a lot of good recommendations for software developers. A must-see if you’re just starting your career.


Thanks for reading Bit Maybe Wise! Subscribe to receive new posts.

Image of Checkly

Incident Management 101: What Devs Need to Know in 2025

  • Detect issues before your users do
  • Use synthetic checks for proactive coverage
  • Automate root cause workflows
  • Communicate incidents clearly to your team
  • Learn how to triage, escalate, and resolve faster

Watch session

Top comments (0)

Image of DataStax

Langflow: Simplify AI Agent Building

Langflow is the easiest way to build and deploy AI-powered agents. Try it out for yourself and see why.

Get started for free

👋 Kindness is contagious

Explore a trove of insights in this engaging article, celebrated within our welcoming DEV Community. Developers from every background are invited to join and enhance our shared wisdom.

A genuine "thank you" can truly uplift someone’s day. Feel free to express your gratitude in the comments below!

On DEV, our collective exchange of knowledge lightens the road ahead and strengthens our community bonds. Found something valuable here? A small thank you to the author can make a big difference.

Okay