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    1. Node's "Single Threaded, Event Driven" programming model seems highly deceptive and farcical

      The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced of it. The biggest selling point of Node folks has been the "single threaded, event driven" model, right? Unlike JavaScript, other languages work...

      The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced of it.

      The biggest selling point of Node folks has been the "single threaded, event driven" model, right? Unlike JavaScript, other languages work on a "blocking" basis i.e. you run a statement or command and the program "waits" until the I/O is complete. For example, you issue open('xyz.txt', 'rb').read() in python and the program waits or blocks until the underlying driver is able to read that whole text file (which could take arguably long time if said file is too large in size).

      But with the Nodejs equivalent, you just issue the statement and then pass the "event handler" so that your program is never in the "waiting state". The whole premise of Node/JS event-callback is that "you don't call us, we will call you".

      This is all nice in theory but if this were indeed true then Nodejs scripts should be blazing fast compared to Python and even Java considering that most programs we write are I/O heavy and 99% of time, they're just waiting for an input from a File/URI/User? If this event callback model indeed worked as effectively as claimed, Node would have been the numero one and only language being used today?

      I think I'm starting to understand why that isn't the case. This whole "single threaded, event driven" thing is just a farce. You can also replicate the same thing that Node.js is doing in your Java or Python too by applying multi-threading (i.e. one thread just "waits" for the I/O in the background while the other keeps doing its job). All you've done here is just handed or delegated that complexity of multi-threading to Node.js?

      Realistically, it's impossible to wait or block an I/O request while at the same time also letting the other part of the code engage in other tasks, that's the very definition of multi-threading. Doing "async" is impossible without multiple threads in that sense. Node must have a thread pool of sorts where one of them is engaged in the wait/block while another is running your JS code further. When the wait is over, the control is then passed to the "event handler" function it was bound to in that other thread.

      What Node is selling as "single threaded" applies to application or business logic we are writing, node itself can't be single threaded. I feel it's better to just implement multi-threading in your own code (as needed) instead of using something convoluted and confusing like Node.js. What say you?

      8 votes
    2. Markdown helpers for the comment block

      I submit a lot of posts from mobile, and I find some of the markdown tedious to enter on a mobile keyboard. I know JavaScript is supposed to be a last resort, but I'd really like to have some...

      I submit a lot of posts from mobile, and I find some of the markdown tedious to enter on a mobile keyboard. I know JavaScript is supposed to be a last resort, but I'd really like to have some assistance in the post authoring and comments fields.

      I assume this could be a user script. Looking at the wiki, it looks like none of the current ones do this.

      Thoughts on this? Things people are already using? Ideas for existing tools to build on? Would it be better as a user script or as a feature of the main site, perhaps with an option to disable it? I'm medium at JavaScript but would happily take a crack at it.

      Here is my inital feature list:

      • link button - select text, press the link button, get a prompt for the URL, replace the selected text with the markdown formatted text and URL.
      • quote block- select multiple paragraphs and click the button to block quote them all
      • bold, italic, strike though buttons - apply the markdown to selected text
      • spoiler - insert a details block at the cursor. If text is selected wrap it in a details block and prompt for the summary.

      if I were to develop it, what else would people like to see on this list?

      18 votes
    3. Tildes Userscript: Tildezy

      Updated: June 29th 2023 Hello folks, Like many of the other people that have been around lately, I'm new to Tildes, I've been browsing it without an account since last Monday or so while waiting...

      Updated: June 29th 2023

      Hello folks,

      Like many of the other people that have been around lately, I'm new to Tildes, I've been browsing it without an account since last Monday or so while waiting for an email response (thanks @Deimos), and in that time I've been working on a little tool to add some QOL features I thought would make my experiences with the site feel better.

      I didn't plan on sharing it initially, because I didn't think I'd be able to get the javascript into a usable state, and I'm not fond of sharing my code in general, as I always get a big wave of impostor syndrome whenever I do, "What if they look at my messy code and see how silly I do some things", that sort of thing. But with Tildes I want to try to correct some of my internet behaviours, for years I've generally stayed as a lurker, never commenting or sharing content of my own, so, hello there, hopefully, I stick to my guns and you see more of me.

      Onto the script itself, currently, I've built five main features into it all of them being rather minor on their own, I did do bug testing on everything and couldn't find anything else, but if you notice anything please feel free to report it to me or post an issue on the repo. It's easy to miss bugs when you've only got one set of eyes.

      Tildezy Github

      The GitHub contains installation instructions if you've never used a userscript before, and contains some images showing off each feature described below.

      Comment Collapser The comment collapser was built because, with my shakey hands, I had a few times when I would click someone's name instead of the [-] beside it. With this feature *Triple* clicking anywhere on a comment, be it text or header, will collapse it as if you used the [-] button. It's set to 3 clicks as sometimes I double-click to begin copying a line and didn't want the conflict, but it can be changed to any amount of clicks on line 132

      https://github.com/TeJayH/Tildezy/blob/main/Tildezy.user.js#L132

      Group Stars/Favourites Allows you to click a ☆ beside each ~group on the Tildes homepage to *favourite* it, moving it to the top of the list. Supports as many or as few favourites as you'd wish.
      Scroll to Top Button Adds a button pinned in the top right of every Tildes thread that sends you back to the top of the page. No more scrolling or reaching for the home key
      Open Comments in New Tab Replaces the default function of a posts "x comments" to open the page in a new tab instead of the current tab
      User Colors This one is the thing that I made the entire script for, an entirely useless feature but one I love for silly reasons. Replaces the stock username color with a randomized one based on a hash made from the user's username. So everyone gets assigned their own color which will always be their color anywhere you see them. This one helps multi-person conversations flow better in my head
      New Comment Traveller Gives you navigation buttons either beside the Collapse Replies/Expand all buttons when scrolled up, or pinned in the top right when scrolled past those buttons. Navigation buttons jump quickly between each new comment in a thread.
      Markdown Buttons Adds a selection of various buttons under every comment box that automatically insert markdown for you. No more forgetting which bracket style goes first for a clickable URL.
      Settings Not really a *feature* on its own, but it exists. Adds a "Tildezy Settings" beside the Log In/Username button in the top right of the header, which opens a settings window to enable/disable any and all features of the script. Features can also be disabled by modifying lines 26-41 in the script, allowing you to hard toggle everything *including the settings itself* off should you wish.

      https://github.com/TeJayH/Tildezy/blob/main/Tildezy.user.js#L26-L41

      Hopefully, someone gets some use out of this with me, I look forward to chatting with you all.

      EDIT
      Refactored the code and added a new comment traveller feature based on some of the comments below.

      EDIT 2
      Up to 1.3.0, we've got markdown buttons now, see comment explaining the change or check out the github readme

      120 votes
    4. Lazy userscript

      Just a hack job, but I'd seen some comment about it being inconvenient to ignore posts so I made a quick userscript (tested with Tampermonkey on Firefox) that adds hotkeys for...

      Just a hack job, but I'd seen some comment about it being inconvenient to ignore posts so I made a quick userscript (tested with Tampermonkey on Firefox) that adds hotkeys for bookmarking/ignoring/voting on a post. It can also navigate to the link or comments or prev/next pages (/). Only implemented for posts 1-9 at the moment.

      Ex:

      i+2 ignores and hides the 2nd post (or restores, if ignored)

      ? shows a summary of hotkeys

      // ==UserScript==
      // @name         Tildes
      // @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
      // @version      0.1
      // @description  Quickie convenience hotkeys for tildes.net
      // @author       TT
      // @match        *://tildes.net/*
      // @icon         https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?sz=64&domain=tildes.net
      // @grant        none
      // @require      https://unpkg.com/hotkeys-js/dist/hotkeys.min.js
      // ==/UserScript==
      (function () {
          "use strict";
          let Action;
          (function (Action) {
              Action[Action["Invalid"] = 0] = "Invalid";
              Action[Action["Bookmark"] = 1] = "Bookmark";
              Action[Action["Comments"] = 2] = "Comments";
              Action[Action["Ignore"] = 3] = "Ignore";
              Action[Action["Open"] = 4] = "Open";
              Action[Action["Vote"] = 5] = "Vote";
          })(Action || (Action = {}));
          const regex = /tildes\.net(\/~(?<group>\w+))?/gi;
          let match = regex.exec(document.location);
          //In a group if I wanted to support hotkeys there?
          if (match.groups.group) {
              //alert(match.groups.group);
          }
          else {
              addArticleNumbers();
              addMainHotkeys();
          }
          //Route
          function routeAction(action, event, handler) {
              event.preventDefault();
              //Grab index.  Zero-index?
              let indexText = handler.key.substring(2);
              let index = parseInt(indexText) - 1;
              if (isNaN(index))
                  return;
              actOnArticle(action, index);
          }
          function actOnArticle(action, index) {
              //Get article for index
              let article = document.querySelector(".topic-listing").children[index].children[0];
              //Do the thing
              switch (action) {
                  case Action.Bookmark:
                      if (article.style.borderStyle === 'solid')
                          article.style.borderStyle = 'none';
                      else
                          article.style.borderStyle = 'solid';
                      article.querySelector('button[data-ic-put-to$="bookmark"]').click();
                      break;
                  case Action.Comments:
                      article.querySelector(".topic-info-comments a").click();
                      break;
                  case Action.Ignore:
                      //Hide vs blank?
                      if (article.style.visibility === "hidden")
                          article.style.visibility = "visible";
                      else
                          article.style.visibility = "hidden";
                      // article.style.display = 'none';
                      article.querySelector('button[data-ic-put-to$="ignore"]').click();
                      break;
                  case Action.Open:
                      article.querySelector(".topic-title a").click();
                      break;
                  case Action.Vote:
                      article.querySelector(".topic-voting").click();
                      break;
              }
          }
          function addArticleNumbers() {
              let titles = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".topic-title a"));
              for (let i = 1; i <= titles.length; i++) {
                  let title = titles[i - 1];
                  title.text = i + " - " + title.text;
              }
          }
          function addMainHotkeys() {
              //Set up handlers
              const handleBookmark = (event, handler) => routeAction(Action.Bookmark, event, handler);
              const handleComments = (event, handler) => routeAction(Action.Comments, event, handler);
              const handleIgnore = (event, handler) => routeAction(Action.Ignore, event, handler);
              const handleOpen = (event, handler) => routeAction(Action.Open, event, handler);
              const handleVote = (event, handler) => routeAction(Action.Vote, event, handler);
              hotkeys("shift+/", (e, h) => alert(getHelpText()));
              //Page nav
              hotkeys("left", (e, h) => Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".pagination a")).find((e) => e.textContent == "Prev").click());
              hotkeys("right", (e, h) => Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".pagination a")).find((e) => e.textContent == "Next").click());
              for (let i = 1; i <= 9; i++) {
                  hotkeys("b+" + i, handleBookmark);
                  hotkeys("c+" + i, handleComments);
                  hotkeys("i+" + i, handleIgnore);
                  hotkeys("o+" + i, handleOpen);
                  hotkeys("v+" + i, handleVote);
              }
          }
          function getHelpText() {
              return `
          ←/→ = navigation
          b = Bookmark, i = Ignore, v = Vote,
          c = Open comments, o = Open link,
      
          Action+[1-9] calls that action on the corresponding article`;
          }
      })();
      
      13 votes
    5. What is the present state of NPM Packaging System?

      As I recall, about 2-3 years ago I had experimented with what is called the npm install xyz through some tutorials, etc. The objective was to improve my tooling or toolchain at least with things...

      As I recall, about 2-3 years ago I had experimented with what is called the npm install xyz through some tutorials, etc. The objective was to improve my tooling or toolchain at least with things like css/js minification, etc. along with Bootstrap customization. The idea was to then move on to other newer learnings like react, etc.

      But I was soon disgruntled by the whole process! Neither bootstrap turned out to be an easy horse to tame, and NPM was like this astronomical universe of packages that keep on downloading into your folders! I soon lost taste of the whole thing and kept using my tried and tested stack of PHP scripts and using stock Bootstrap through CDNs.

      But today, I want to give it another shot. Has NPM improved than earlier days? What is the best way to go about building a toolchain using it? Are there any useful guides that make the whole process easier to digest?

      6 votes
    6. Looking for a Simple WYSIWYG Editor for my Blog

      I'm going to be building a simple blog for myself. Partially I just want something really simple and customizable, and also it will be a fun little programming project. I'll be using PHP and mySQL...

      I'm going to be building a simple blog for myself.

      Partially I just want something really simple and customizable, and also it will be a fun little programming project.

      I'll be using PHP and mySQL for the backend. I won't be using any sort of framework as it shouldn't be necessary for a very simple blog. I'm fairly comfortable with JavaScript.

      What I'm imagining is some sort of JavaScript library I can just download, link to my html and then turn a textarea into a simple wysiwyg editor. It could be as simple as a markdown editor or something with a little more features.

      It has to be free. Open source would be a plus.

      If anyone has any recommendations or advice I would be very grateful. Thanks!

      5 votes
    7. What features do you want to see in a userscript manager?

      I'm currently developing a minimal userscript manager who's main goal is to be fully auditable by any user in only ten minutes or so - my prototype uses less than 300 lines of javascript, and I'm...

      I'm currently developing a minimal userscript manager who's main goal is to be fully auditable by any user in only ten minutes or so - my prototype uses less than 300 lines of javascript, and I'm trying to keep it that way.

      To get the codebase this small, however, I have to be very picky with what features I implement - most notably, the code editor has to be very barebones. Are there any features that I'd be shooting myself in the foot by not including?

      For example:

      • syntax highlighting
      • cloud sync
      • regex url matching
      • fullscreen editor (currently, it's just a browser popup - the intention is that you write code elsewhere and paste it in)

      Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

      7 votes