A Byte of Coding Issue 411

Hey-yo,

Hope you all had a nice weekend. I spent my Saturday fixing the hinges that keep my laptop screen attached to its body. I’ve had this problem for around 2 years now (I’ve been using a clothes peg to keep the monitor from falling apart), but it came to a climax about a month ago when a slightly too aggressive shift of the screen caused the plastic frame to snap, resulting in me having to use two pegs to keep it from falling off. Fortunately I found replacement parts for the plastic frame and back panel online. Below you can see a picture of the laptop mid repair. I also had to pop off the bottom side of the laptop and expose the motherboard to remove the old hinges. Unfortunately the parts I ordered didn’t come with the metal grounding strip (you can see it at the top of the red panel that is above the keyboard), so I had to carefully remove that and stick it onto the new back panel (red rectangle in the top right of the picture). Overall it was a pretty easy repair. On one hand, I appreciate how cheap and easy it is to find the plastic replacement parts, but on the other hand, all of the mechanical issues I’ve had with my laptop have been because of plastic bits snapping and the only solution is to order new parts.

Anyway, here’s the issue.

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What We’ve Learned From A Year of Building with LLMs

Published: 8 June 2024

Tags: llm, ai, product development

Eugene Yan, Bryan Bischof, Charles Frye, Hamel Husain, Jason Liu, and Shreya Shankar share their insights from a year of building with large language models (LLMs). They discuss practical tips for prompting, optimizing workflows, and incorporating LLMs into products effectively.

Some highlights:

• Emphasize fundamental prompting techniques like n-shot and chain-of-thought to improve performance.

• Use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to ground models and enhance outputs.

• Optimize workflows with multi-turn flows, deterministic plans, and caching to improve reliability and efficiency.

Moving Beyond Type Systems

Published: 31 May 2024

Tags: functional, types

Vhyrro discusses the concept of static effect systems in programming languages, proposing them as a way to manage side effects more effectively than traditional type systems. They suggest this approach could benefit future programming language design.

Some highlights:

• Static effect systems can enforce control over side effects similarly to Rust's borrow checker.

• Effects should be explicitly annotated in code, improving developer awareness and code reliability.

• Separating type systems and effect systems allows parallel analysis during compilation, potentially speeding up the process.

A Developer’s Guide to One-Time Passwords (OTPs)

Published: 28 June 2021

Tags: sponsored, auth, web

WorkOS has published an extensive guide on how one-time passwords work, their benefits, and implementation details.

Some highlights:

• “OTPs come in three different forms, and each form works differently: time-synchronized OTPs, lockstep synchronized OTPs, or transmission-based OTPs”

• OTPs are more secure than static passwords, but can create a frustrating user experience due to potential delays

• Pros and cons for OTPs

Introducing the RIG Model - the Puzzle of Designing Guaranteed Data-Consistent Microservice Systems

Published: 30 May 2024

Tags: architecture, microservices, rig

Kaj Bromose and Lars Lindegaard Mikkelsen introduce the RIG model for designing guaranteed data-consistent microservices systems, using a gamified tool to categorize microservices behavior. This approach addresses the complexities of achieving data consistency in microservice architectures.

Some highlights:

• The RIG model categorizes microservices into Reversible, Irreversible, and Guaranteed to manage data consistency.

• A gamified tool helps teams design sagas that comply with RIG rules, ensuring eventual consistency.

• The RIG system design flow model integrates business requirements into microservices architecture, facilitating consistent and reliable system design.