[d2mw]

Lambda is the antithesis of frictionless development, most of your life is invested in figuring out the Lambda way to do things, just like App Engine before it

"I just need to run this function every 10 minutes"

.. (3 blog posts later)

.. (1 lunch break later)

.. (5 Git commits across 3 repos containing a mix of CloudFormation, CloudWatch and Terraform, 3 new IAM policies and 12 S3 buckets with completely unmemorable names)

.. 5pm, oh shit, I haven't actually written the function yet

[pbiggar]

Dark founder here. Yes, completely agree with this. To a certain extent, Dark is aimed at being what lambda/serverless should have been.

The thing that frustrates me about Lambda (and really all of AWS) is that we're just dealing with a bit of code and bit of data. Even in 1999 when I had just started coding I could write something that runs every 10 minutes. But now it's super challenging. Why is it so hard to take a request, munge it, send it somewhere, and then respond to it. That should be trivial! (and in Dark, it is)

[BubRoss]

You think what they should have been was making people use a custom unproven language and a completely different text editor? Why would anyone want to eliminate their choice in two areas that have been commoditized so well?

[mattbillenstein]

haha, I've been burned by app engine too - well put.

[abdelhai]

I'm working on DETA – it abstracts away Lambda/S3/CF/CW/TF. Would you be interested in a quick chat?

[dgellow]

I hate acronyms so much :'(. To anyone reading this, please write the full term at least once before using an obscure acronym. It's a pain to decipher, creates confusion, and results in miscommunication. I have no idea what DETA is for and google doesn't help at all. My best guess is "Deployment Estimate Time of Arrival", which doesn't make any sense...

Sorry for the rant.

[abdelhai]

Sorry that you didn't like our name. It's not actually an acronym. It's inspired by Commander "Data" from Star Trek TNG.

[majewsky]

They're probably referring to the "CF/CW/TW" part.

[dorian-graph]

> .. it abstracts away ...

Isn't that what people in this thread are speaking against? It may abstract something away, but with the downsides of learning this new (probably leaky) abstraction, increased third-party reliance, more magic, etc.

[abdelhai]

We believe people tend to opt for the less complex solution over time. This evolution happens slowly and may upset many people but in the end, simplicity wins. Caching, SQL, Load Balancers didn't exist a few decades ago and now we spend months of our limited time trying to tame the cloud machine.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a lover of (complex) systems, but not everybody needs them/can maintain them.

Edit: couple => few

[seanhunter]

"Multi-level storage system having a buffer store with variable mapping modes" (1972) mentions caching. The term doesn't require explanation in the paper so was obviously in reasonably wide use already https://patents.google.com/patent/US3820078A/en

"Sequel: A structured English Query language" (1975) https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=811515

"Vertical Migration for Performance Enhancement in Layered Hardware/Firmware/Software Systems" (1978) describes how to do live/live migrations behind load balancers. https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/co/1978/05/01646957/1...

All of these technologies is way older than you think.

[abdelhai]

Thank you for the very useful links.

[supermatt]

Caching, SQL and Load Balancers definitely existing a couple of decades ago...

Edit: Regarding your edit to "few", 40-50 years (at least) isn't a few.

[Aeolun]

What is a DETA?

[abdelhai]

DETA[0] is a scalable 'cloud computer' built out of a set of managed services and SDKs that removes time spent by you and your team on infra configuration, security, and maintenance.

Happy to elaborate more if you're interested.

[0]https://deta.sh/

[craftinator]

Dirty Eccentric Telecom Asshats?

[adrianN]

When you've written the Terraform boilerplate once, making a second lambda that runs every ten minutes is really smooth.