Spray
Dev tools
debugger
SHOW HN2023
How HN took it
21 positive, 17 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 4 critical, out of 44 comments about the project. Thread score +0.41.
Execution: 8 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 againstIdea: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clean, well-organised code and tidy structure
From 3 comments
First glance through the project and it seem well organized. Kudos! How long have you been programming and what languages did you start off with? I know quite a few developers…
koolba on HNLooks especially clean, consistent and well-modularised, tackling a problem that requires non-trivial knowledge about binary formats and kernel APIs. Many "senior" programmers…
bluetomcat on HNI like reading young programmers' code: It's interesting to see how they design everything with a decently high level of knowledge, but not the years of experience. The author…
HybridCurve on HN
Impressive for a 17-year-old
From 2 comments
I want to only comment that your level of knowledge and maturity at the age of 17 is very impressive. The topics being investigated and exploited are expected at an undergraduate…
smithza on HNWell done. Achieving this at 17 is a rare feat even most supposed senior developers don't achieve and it ranks up there with writing an emulator. It was only in my late 20s I…
SillyUsername on HN
Debuggers are hard to write, so this is good work
From 1 comment
Debuggers are particularly tricky to write so this is quite good!
gumby on HN
Objections
Mentioning the author's age is unnecessary self-promotion
From 3 comments
Very well done, and I hope you build this out further, but please leave out the 'as a 17 yo'. I really don't think it's relevant and risks coming across as cloying - your work…
jacknews on HNI always found this a bit weird. Why do you want everybody to know how old you are? It's kind of like... hey, I did this impressive thing, please give me credit, but also, just…
MuffinFlavored on HNThis is a highly unusual and complex thing for anyone to accomplish. Why not let the achievement stand for itself? Mentioning one's age screams insecurity (though to be fair,…
_Algernon_ on HN
Debugger only supports self-hosted x86_64 Linux so far
From 1 comment
So, only self-hosted debugging on x86_64 Linux. A good start. Now make it work for other common CPUs (aarch64, RISC-V). Make it work for other OSes (FreeBSD has ptrace, for…
bregma on HN
Requests
Write a tutorial on building a debugger
From 1 comment
Awesome! It might be boring for you, but accompanying that project with a "Let's write a debugger" tutorial would be very useful.
zerr on HN
Support more CPUs and operating systems
From 1 comment
So, only self-hosted debugging on x86_64 Linux. A good start. Now make it work for other common CPUs (aarch64, RISC-V). Make it work for other OSes (FreeBSD has ptrace, for…
bregma on HN
Questions
How does a 17-year-old gain this level of knowledge?
From 2 comments
Looks especially clean, consistent and well-modularised, tackling a problem that requires non-trivial knowledge about binary formats and kernel APIs. Many "senior" programmers…
bluetomcat on HNI'm impressed. What did your dad do to help you get interested in coding?
sagarpatil on HN
Why are parts written in Scheme?
From 1 comment
Cool job. Grats! >Parts of the Spray frontend are written in Scheme Why you decided it do it that way rather fully in C or fully in Scheme?
forgotpwd16 on HN
Why spaces between function names and arguments?
From 1 comment
Why do you put spaces between your function names and their arguments? I find it quite jarring, as someone who's spent a good 18 years reading C code :} ``` return…
cyberpunk on HN