For further context, the website is virtually completely local and could be self-hosted. Aside from hosting the project itself, there is no central server to manage any aspect of the users’ interaction with the site or allow communication with other users. There is no sensitive data stored barring the name of the user for which a pseudonym would be just as acceptable.

I think mentioning the ToS and privacy policy is pointless for creating an app like this. If it is possible, I would rather write them myself or omit them altogether.

It was nice to have someone take this stand and I fully support this. People switching over to Linux already have their own stuff to deal with and need time to accustom to their new environment, and forcing them to embibe ‘FOSS’ philosophy and other strong opinions as held by others in Linux communities is only going to turn them off.

This is why […] better

Sorry, what’s the subject of that?

I was just referring to my original question i.e. how I should write comments in my code to explain its working if I have already done so in the code itself

Interesting to see your opinion on how commenting shouldn’t be mandatory. I specifically go the extra mile to ensure my code is readable for everyone, by naming my variables and functions to be as self-explanatory as possible and breaking down long expressions to store chunks in variables. This is why I was feeling confused as to what more I could add to explain my code better, though I must admit there are still considerable complex portions in some of my projects that would appreciate similar simplification.

I believe you confused the ‘how’ of commenting the ‘why’ with ‘why’ of commenting the ‘why’, if that makes sense.

I am already aware of and totally agree with the need to document your code in this fashion for the convenience of others and self. What I am troubled about is its implementation in real life. How does one write comment that explains the ‘why’ of the code? How would I know if I haven’t accidentally written something that explains the ‘what’ instead or anything that is simply redundant? It seems like this portion is left out ‘as an exercise for the reader’.

Asking as a newbie programmer: how do you suggest we write comments that explain the ‘why’ part of the code? I understand writing comments explaining the ‘what’ part makes them redundant, but I feel like writing it the former way isn’t adding much help either. I mean, if I created code for a clock, is writing “It helps tell what time it is” better than writing “It is a clock” ?

It would really help if someone could give a code snippet that clearly demonstrates how commenting the ‘correct’ way is clearly better than the way we are used to.

I got my gaming rig recently and played all the releases up to Rogue only this year. I assure you my specs are modest enough and it’s just the game that is poorly optimised. Even Watchdogs 2 ran better than this.

Unity was the game I was most hyped for, especially because of its graphics and bigger maps. I even went to speedrun through the last three games to catch with the lore and begin playing it as soon as possible.

Alas, my PC couldn’t meet up with the heightened hardware requirements and I had to give up after barely finishing the tutorial with the awful frame rates even with the settings set to minimal.

1. For Linux enthusiasts, how do you decide which distro you would like to try out next among the plethora of options that are available? The difference I perceive between majority of distros gets smaller the more I try to understand about them.

2. What are the minimum issues I am likely to face using the most beginner friendly distro like Mint for programming and light gaming?

3. How customizable is the GUI in Linux Mint specifically? What if I want a start menu like Windows 10 with the app list and the blocky app tiles? What about those custom widgets I see in hardcore Linux users’ desktops?

4. I heard there is no concept of file extensions in Linux. How am I supposed to work on my projects that I imported from my Windows machine that do contain extensions?

Bonus: Who creates those distro icons in color coded ASCII in the system info command in the terminal?

On a completely unrelated note, I had a first glance at the thumbnail of this article and I was convinced the photo was taken in real life until I noticed the ‘cybernetic seam’ on the subject’s face. I almost couldn’t recognise this as an in-game screenshot and I already consider myself adept in recognising such images.

Though I know very little of enum and never used it before, I think this is what I needed. I couldnt imagine there would exist a type exactly for this purpose since I could consider adding or deprecating data later in time. I would need time understanding how I need to restructure the current JSON object to accomodate enums, but I think it will be worth it. Thanks for you time!

Ive heard about enums before, but I never really paid attention to them since I never got a need to use them in any of my projects till now. I think this is exactly what I need. Ill research more on it

Thank you so much for your help

Yeah, I didn’t consider this reason, but it is plausible.

TIL they show ads for guns. What exactly do they advertise?

Wait, is using GBoard with blocked internet access actually private? I read other people say it is like a keylogger, and probably would bypass the internet restriction.

Wait, is an old laptop also good enough for setting up a home server? I thought you would require a completely separated and dedicated PC box like the ones you can see in studios or offices. That’s new to me!

That is a great analogy of explaining the broadness of the concept of self hosting that I wasnt able to understand from the other comments.

As a beginner, I would like to start out with a storage provider like Google Drive (& Google Photos). I currently don’t have any hardware for a home server but I can get one as per my requirements.

The biggest issue for me would be the OS running in the home server. I would preferably want something compatible with Windows since I have worked with Windows for my whole life. I am also fine with working with Linux, however I don’t want to spend weeks banging my head on setting up and using Linux before I even start configuring it for my home server. I will be able to handle learning about networkings of the server on the go and troubleshoot problems as long as the OS does not bother me. As with self hosting, I am a beginner in the field of Linux so I don’t know what ‘distro’ would be best for me for this purpose, but nonetheless I will research more about it thanks to your headstart.

I’ve heard a lot about setting up a Plex or a Jellyfin server locally, but from what I can tell they are just media storage platforms and in order to watch anything you would have to add your own content. In this age of digital content, it is very unlikely for a simpleton like me to go out and purchase hundreds of movie disks separately and manually load them into my CD drive to even have a fraction of the catalogue these streaming services combined provide. Also torrenting really isn’t a viable option for me as I personally use a free tier Proton VPN which doesn’t allow P2P, and even if I did get a proper one, I would still be limited to availability of seeds for movies I want to watch, which may or may not exist depending on the popularity of the said movie. I currently use a niche streaming site to watch my movies without any issues. Are self hosted plex/jellyfin servers really for a person like me?

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