Four short links: 20 April 2020
Structured Database, Mainframes, Distributed Platform, and TIL Log
- CastleDB — a structured static database […]. CastleDB looks like any spreadsheet editor, except that each sheet has a data model. […] stores both its data model and the data contained in the rows into an easily readable JSON file. […] allows efficient collaboration on data editing.
- Mainframes Are Having a Moment (IEEE Spectrum) — Although many college and university computer science departments have cut back or dropped mainframe programming curriculum to focus on more modern languages and technologies, faculty and staff at others report an uptick in interest in Cobol and related classes. The increase began well before pandemic-related layoffs inundated state unemployment agency computer systems, causing government officials to put out the call for programmers who know Cobol to step in and help.
- swimOS — a complete, self-contained distributed software platform for building stateful, massively real-time streaming applications. swimOS implements a distributed microkernel, called the Swim Kernel, that is persistent without a database, reactive without a message broker, autonomous without a job manager, and which executes general purpose stateful applications without a separate app server.
- Using a Self-Rewriting README Powered by GitHub Actions to Track TILs (Simon Willison) — writing down what you’ve learned how to do keeps it fresh. I’ve been doing it for years, as have other people — check out this person’s astonishing collection.
