- In defense of XML
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When I started my career, XML was ubiquitous. The meta-information in a Java JAR file - the manifest - follows a proprietary format. But Java EE designers built it from the ground up on XML: meta-information of all artifacts is in XML format e.g.
web.xml,ejb-jar.xml,application.xml, etc.Java EE is one example I experienced personally. But XML was everywhere in the enterprise world at the time. Its prevalence manifested itself in two areas: configuration and data transfer.
Ever since then, it would be an euphemism to say XML has been losing in popularity. Other formats, such as JSON and YAML, have replaced it in the hearts of developers. In this post, I’d like to:
- Explore some of the reasons why the mighty XML has fallen
- Raise some downsides of the popular alternatives
- And describe how XML already solved those problems
- "Bypassing" specialization in Rust or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Function Pointers
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I didn’t know about specialization, I’m glad I read this post!
- Critical Container Registry Security Flaw: How Multi-Architecture Manifests Create Attack Vectors
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Getting registry push privilege is a hard requirement for the trick to work. It’s a nice trick, though.
- Policy-Driven Cost Optimization with Open Policy Agent and Kubernetes
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Cost-optimization wasn’t on my use-case list for OPA, but it makes a lot of sense.
- Writing a Technical Book for Manning
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I’d would have liked to have been the one experiencing it. My experience with Packt was very different–and not for the better.
- Deeper theories of program design
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A very unusual article, but definitely worth reading.
- git-branchless
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git-branchless is a suite of tools which enhances Git in several ways.
+ * It makes Git easier to use, both for novices and for power users. * It adds more flexibility for power users. * It provides faster operations for large repositories and monorepos, particularly at large tech companies.
So many tools want to improve upon Git. I’ve to try some of them as some point and see for myself.
- The Structure of a PDF File
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I’m working on PDFs at the moment, and while I’m doing it at a higher level, it’s still very interesting.
- API Standards ARE Data Standards
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Very interesting point of view. I never thought about it.
- Building Telemetry Pipelines with the OpenTelemetry Collector
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I had to learn all the hard way, by reading the documentation and making mistakes. The post above is an amazing resource to learn about the OpenTelemetry Collector in one place.
- Evolution of HTTP
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Good overview of the evolution of the HTTP protocol, from 0.9 to 3.0.
- What is X-Forwarded-For and when can you trust it?
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TL;DR: It’s a mess! But the details on why it’s a mess are important.
- Reverse Proxy Deep Dive Part 2: Why HTTP Parsing at the Edge Is Harder Than It Looks
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Let’s continue this small series on HTTP with an article on reverse proxies.
- Why Japanese Developers Write Code Completely Differently (And Why It Works Better)
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The author is very enthusiastic, and I’m sure there are culture benefits. However, I’d have like measurable impacts.
Furthermore, my experience is that the Asian culture in general respects hierarchy first and foremost.