Top all-time · #1107
David Bryant Copeland
Personal blog · naildrivin5.com/blogprogrammingweb
David Bryant Copeland writes Naildrivin' 5, a personal blog at naildrivin5.com about programming and web. Since 2009, 61 different Hacker News readers have linked it 80 times, most often “Announcing Rails 6: An Imagined Keynote”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Bryant Copeland's blog for npm dependency security, source code typography, web components, and a Scala tour. The site also hosts an Atari Adventure clone and his book pricing notes.
- Recommended for · 2 comments
- Recommended as a reference for learning Scala; called informative by one commenter, though another notes it is a bit dated, targeting Scala 2.8.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
David Bryant Copeland's Website
Most-linked posts?
- Announcing Rails 6: An Imagined Keynote4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-05-17
- Web Components in Earnest4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-01-24
- Another Tour of Scala3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-12-13
- Single Responsibility Principle and Rails3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-06-22
- Four Better Rules for Software Design3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-07-25
- /blog/2019/07/10/the-frightening-state-security-around-npm-package-management.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-02-10
- A Real Keyboard for Programmers?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-08-29
- Source Code Typography2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-05-17
- Another tour of Scala2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-09-14
- 9 facets of an awesome command-line app2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-04-02
What Hacker News says?
npm in particular has been problematic for a long time: https://naildrivin5.com/blog/2019/07/10/the-frightening-stat... https://techbeacon.com/security/check-your-dependencies-gith... https://thenewstack.io/npm-password-resets-show-developers-n...
Comment linking /blog/2019/07/10/the-frightening-state-security-around-npm-package-management.html
on “Dependency Confusion: How I Hacked Into Apple, Microsoft and Other Companies”Submitted Brut: A New Web Framework for Ruby as a story · 208 points
HN discussionI built one recently. Much simpler and more opinionated, but can generate a Tailwind configuration: https://ghola.dev (desktop/ipad is best) Long read on how it was built with web components: https://www.naildrivin5.com/blog/2024/01/24/web-components-i...
Comment linking /blog/2024/01/24/web-components-in-earnest.html
on “Tailwind color palette generator”Submitted Why I'd never work for Google, Twitter, or Facebook as a story · 205 points
HN discussionThere’s also a typography element to formatting source code. The notion that all code formatting is mere personal preference isn’t true. Formatting code a certain way can help to communicate meaning and structure. This is lost when the minimal tokens are serialized and re-constituted using an automated tool. https://naildrivin5.com/blog/2013/05/17/source-code-typograp...
Comment linking /blog/2013/05/17/source-code-typography.html
on “Formatting code should be unnecessary”Submitted If You Call Out Bad Code, Make Sure It's Bad First as a story · 174 points
HN discussionSince they're compiled into the code, it means you can't change them without recompiling, so they're not actually configuration. But they're not actually code either, so they can't be subclassed or inherited, don't support generics, and have other quirks [1]. Furthermore, they are a sort of explicit notation to make you feel like you're getting 'convention' over 'configuration', but if it were truly convention you w…
Comment linking /blog/2009/03/11/java-annotations-javas-love-of-configuration-over-convention.html
on “135M messages a second between processes in Java (2013)”Submitted Source Code Typography as a story · 69 points
HN discussionThis post (2019) by David Bryant Copeland about npm security goes into some of the complications that arise when multiple versions of a dependency are allowed to be loaded simultaneously: https://naildrivin5.com/blog/2019/07/10/the-frightening-stat...
Comment linking /blog/2019/07/10/the-frightening-state-security-around-npm-package-management.html
on “Ruby 3.5 Feature: Namespace on read”Submitted Ruby on Rails: Still the Best Web App Framework for Most Teams as a story · 62 points
HN discussionThe Artima book by Odersky is the bible, and so you need that one. For reference, I like http://naildrivin5.com/scalatour although it's 2.8 rather than the current 2.12. For style guide, I'd go with Li Hiayo's blog, notably the Strategic Style series: http://www.lihaoyi.com/post/StrategicScalaStylePracticalType...
Comment linking /scalatour
on “Ask HN: What are the best resources to properly learn Scala?”Submitted A Real Keyboard for Programmers? as a story · 35 points
HN discussion"Another tour of Scala": http://naildrivin5.com/scalatour was informative for me. It's a bit dated, mostly targetting Scala 2.8. Current version is 2.12. But should not be fundamentally different.
Comment linking /scalatour
on “Ask HN: What are the best resources to properly learn Scala?”Submitted Rails' Degenerate Front-End Support as a story · 16 points
HN discussionThis is my favorite game for the 2600. I built a clone of it for Windows using Direct X in probably 1999/2000. I don't have a Windows machine, but I think Microsoft's obsession with backward compatibility means it probably still works: https://naildrivin5.com/adventure/index.html Here's the C++ code in all its glory: https://github.com/davetron5000/adventureclone/ It replicates the 2600 game, and adds two new levels…
Comment linking /adventure/index.html
on “History of “Adventure” for the Atari 2600”Submitted Why I'd never work for Google, Twitter, or Facebook (2011) as a story · 10 points
HN discussionHe also brought up http://www.naildrivin5.com/blog/2012/06/10/single-responsibi... - and I had a hard figuring out if it was meant as satire or not.
Comment linking /blog/2012/06/10/single-responsibility-principle-and-rails.html
on “Am I Doing it Wrong?”Submitted One Week with Desktop Linux After a 20 Year Absence as a story · 10 points
HN discussionI have had several readers over the last year reach out to ask about this. I ended up adjusting the pricing in Amazon per region (print copies) and creating discount codes for people to use on my site based on the honor system[1]. For books I sell through Pragmatic Programmers, they did not have a way to adjust the pricing per region. For me, the goal is reach and not profitability. The reality of selling technical…
Comment linking /books/index.html
on “Ask HN: How to make international app pricing fair?”Submitted Making It Right: Technical Debt vs. Slop as a story · 10 points
HN discussion- pw · 2016-05-18
Submitted Announcing Rails 6: An Imagined Keynote as a story · 6 points
HN discussion Submitted 9 facets of an awesome command-line app as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Adventures in Functional Programming With Ruby as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Single Responsibility Principle and Rails as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Web Components in Earnest as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Web Components in Earnest as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted SWOT Analysis of Heroku as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted At a startup? Write as little software as you can as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Solid Is Not Solid – Examining the Single Responsibility Principle as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Four Better Rules for Software Design as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
