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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderI hate to sound hyperbolic, but I can't overstate how impressive this work is. For me, it evokes nothing so much as Tracy Kidder's The Soul of A New Machine [0] for opening up an obscure world (the one many HN posters live in, but obscure to most people). I am amazed both by the technical fidelity and by the quality of the story telling. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/03164...
This is one of my favourite articles. It's the first one I link to someone interested in coding or becoming a developer. Even as a competent programmer, it's worth having a flick through as Paul Ford's presentation of code as a whole is so engaging and informative.
I was lost, literally, hitchhiking across the Australian outback when this article was published. Going home felt scary because I was afraid to be alone with no one else sharing my interests. Travelling made life enjoyable again because just surviving felt like an achievement. But I felt so, so isolated (again, literally!) from modern society. I wanted to find out why I was so deeply interested in computers but not in “tech”. They must work somehow… why did my iPhone…
Nicely illustrated article and all but title only gets me grug brain go "What is Code? Baby Don't Hurt Me! Don't Hurt Me, No More."
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 4
- Total points
- 1841
- Total comments
- 498
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-06-11 | What Is Code?First breakout · Best thread | 1wheel | 1384 | 355 |
| 2015-09-03 | The culture of programming is whacky and I love it | boltzmannbrain | 2 | 1 |
| 2016-10-04 | What is code? | sndean | 2 | 0 |
| 2016-10-31 | What is code? | kumartanmay | 2 | 0 |
| 2017-01-16 | What is code | tapan_pandita | 1 | 0 |
| 2017-03-21 | What is Code (2015) | moehamann | 1 | 0 |
| 2017-06-18 | What Is Code? (2015) | aviraldg | 1 | 0 |
| 2017-09-01 | What is Code?(2015) | otalp | 2 | 0 |
| 2017-11-13 | What is code | xparadigm | 1 | 0 |
| 2018-02-06 | What Is Code? (2015) | disago | 1 | 1 |
| 2018-06-07 | What is codeHall induction | henridf | 198 | 36 |
| 2020-05-24 | What Is Code? (2015) | michaelbrooks | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-11-10 | Paul Ford: What Is Code? | stekern | 2 | 1 |
| 2021-03-22 | What is code? A 38,000-word answer (2015) | maxejennings | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-02-18 | What Is Code? (2015) | juancampa | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-07-23 | Paul Ford: What Is Code? (2015) | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-10-25 | What Is Code? (2015) | jbredeche | 106 | 50 |
| 2022-10-26 | Paul Ford: What Is Code? (2015) | colinprince | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-10-17 | What Is Code? (2015) | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2026-01-01 | What *Is* Code? (2015)Latest 20+ point return | bblcla | 132 | 53 |