[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Am I an Outlier?
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Ask HN: Am I an Outlier?
I asked a question today(19th Oct 2021)[0] about the laptop spec
required for XR development. Yesterday I asked a similar question
and also provided my budget for the laptop[1]. The only reply to
that question was a single word "None" :) Whenever I shop around
for development systems and or test devices I look for the lowest
common denominator spec. This helps me develop within constraints
and hence reach users who may not be able to afford high-spec
devices or platforms. It is always easy to go from low-spec targets
to high-spec targets. But the other way round is not easy. Today I
saw a post by another member of this community also asking for help
on spec for development system(an Apple device)[2]. The poster will
be using the system for web, mobile and ML development. Looking at
the spec that is listed in that post, I thought to myself, "Am I
the outlier who always looks for low-spec systems both for
development and test systems?" How do you all decide on what spec
your development and test platforms should have? Do you always go
for high spec devices and platforms? [0]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28916747 [1]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28903262 [2]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28921836
Author : phekunde
Score : 9 points
Date : 2021-10-19 20:52 UTC (2 hours ago)
| 1cvmask wrote:
| Depends on who your target audience is and what you are trying to
| build.
|
| Is it for the masses or a deeply engaged targeted niche?
|
| If you build for say VR then you are probably going high end for
| now till it or if it becomes a commodity.
|
| Many developeres have succeeded going mass market like Whatsapp
| (even building Java ME and Symbian apps in addition to Android
| and iPhone) to others just targeting high end iPhones.
|
| Your target market determines your specs.
| xyzzy123 wrote:
| I think the question needs to be more specific and it's not
| entirely clear that someone else could answer it for you except
| in the most general way. Development system requirements depend
| heavily on application domain, your tooling and your workflow.
|
| For development, you are usually running a lot of stuff in
| addition to your system. You might want the ability to host
| multiple copies of your system for integration / regression
| testing. You might use a heavy IDE. You might be someone who
| switches between multiple projects. You could be a person who
| keeps hundreds of tabs open (although it sounds like you are
| not!).
|
| The best choice is whatever you feel is most productive, _for
| you_. Conventional reasoning is that the choice which maximises
| the value of your time is the most powerful system you can afford
| that meets your portability requirements. If you need to
| experience the system as if it were on a less powerful machine
| you can use CPU and memory throttled docker containers or virtual
| machines.
|
| If constraints boost creativity for _you_ , then go for it.
| Personally I would not mandate weak hardware for everyone on a
| team, you want to let people keep their own workflows.
|
| IMHO a better approach than weak development systems is
| performance testing in CI on resource constrained targets. This
| is going to be more consistent over time (as you upgrade your
| systems) and scales better for teams.
|
| You do usually want some test systems which are representative of
| the minimum hardware spec you expect your users to have.
| wmf wrote:
| There's very old advice to always test on the slowest supported
| hardware but it's in tension with the fact that faster compiling
| often allows faster development. You could have two systems but
| most people don't.
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(page generated 2021-10-19 23:02 UTC)