Oxide and Friends A Crate is Born
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Mar 6, 2025 Join Andrew Stone, a software innovator at Oxide; Rain Paharia, the mastermind behind the Diffus crate; and John Gallagher, an expert in blueprint design, as they dive into the complexities of software engineering. They explore how to identify the need for new tools, particularly for diffing structures, and the challenges of updates and testing. Their enthusiasm for Rust macros shines throughout the conversation, and they share valuable insights on balancing generic designs with practical applications in programming. A fascinating listen for tech enthusiasts!
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Manual ClickHouse Diffing
- Andrew Stone manually wrote diffing code for ClickHouse in Oxide's OMDB tool.
- This was tedious, taking a day and a half due to the complex structure of ClickHouse configurations.
Genericism Timing
- Generic solutions are powerful but can be time-consuming to create initially.
- Often, genericism in software development is implemented later than it ideally should be.
The Breaking Point
- Andrew Stone's breaking point was updating tests affected by hand-rolled diffs.
- Adding an "expunge" field required changing numerous tests and golden files, highlighting the need for automation.