The article argues that domestic databases are far from a joke, highlighting how building a database touches virtually every computer‑science discipline, and recounts Oracle’s early versions—lacking transactions, constraints, and reliable locking—to illustrate the long path from primitive systems to mature, world‑class databases.
The article traces the 40‑year journey from plain‑text .txt files to rich‑text .doc and HTML, explains how Markdown’s minimalist design solves long‑standing formatting and version‑control problems, and shows why AI tools now prefer Markdown for token efficiency, structured semantics, and seamless configuration.
The article examines how recurring predictions of software engineering’s demise have been reshaped by AI, tracing three golden ages—from algorithmic to object‑oriented to platform abstraction—and argues that AI is a catalyst for a new era rather than an industry terminator.
This article explores how first‑principle thinking underpins AI agents, traces their development from single‑craftsman tools to enterprise‑level collaborations, outlines core capabilities such as compute, memory, prediction and action, and forecasts future directions like multimodal models, reduced prompting, and extensive data sharing.
The notes synthesize two books on Taobao’s decade‑long evolution, detailing product category growth, key concepts like SPU/SKU, business challenges and pricing models, a shift from LAMP to Java‑based architecture, and pioneering middleware such as TFS, Tair, HSF, TDDL, culminating in a massive open platform with hundreds of APIs.
This article traces the evolution of databases from early theoretical research through commercial, open‑source, and cloud eras, highlights China's rapid rise in the field, and explains why databases remain the indispensable foundation of modern software.
This article reviews five decades of Chinese database development, from the 1980s pioneering efforts and early hardships to the rise of domestic products, market perceptions, and the recent documentary series that chronicles the industry's milestones and future challenges.
Li Yang’s article traces high‑level programming languages from Fortran and Lisp in the 1950s through C, Java, Python, and modern Rust, Go, Kotlin, and Swift, highlighting shifts toward object‑orientation, safety, readability, cross‑platform support, and the emerging influence of AI‑assisted code generation on future language design.
The article examines how cloud‑native databases are reshaping the industry by combining historical database evolution, disruptive innovation, and Alibaba's PolarDB breakthroughs, illustrating why this shift is a strategic advantage over traditional database architectures.
The article examines the strikingly similar development trajectories of electric vehicles and distributed databases, tracing their historical origins, technological challenges, market dynamics, and recent breakthroughs such as Tesla's autonomous electric cars and OceanBase's native HTAP capabilities, while highlighting the role of open‑source and scaling strategies.
This article traces the evolution of big data technologies from early concepts and Google research papers through the rise of Hadoop, examines the platform transformations of Alibaba, JD.com, and Didi, and offers practical stack‑selection guidance for medium‑ and small‑scale enterprises.
The article examines the controversy around low‑code platforms, argues they are not a harmful industry toxin, and explains how technological progress—from steam power to AI—has driven the evolution from ERP to middle platforms and finally to low‑code as a key enabler of agile enterprise transformation.
This article examines how the rise of the Internet of Things has transformed the technology stack, developer responsibilities, operating systems, and business models, highlighting the expanding skill set required and the shift from hardware‑centric revenue to cloud‑based services and platforms.
This article explores the fundamental nature of digitalization, outlines its six core steps, examines historical and future technological drivers, analyzes the evolution of computing platforms from early PCs to AI‑5G, and discusses the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for societies and industries.
Explore the three pivotal stages of database development—from early manual management, through file-system storage, to modern database systems—highlighting their advantages, challenges, and the evolution of data independence, scalability, security, and integration with emerging technologies.
This essay traces humanity's technological journey—from early agricultural and industrial revolutions through the rise of computing, cloud, and artificial intelligence—highlighting how demand, generalization, cost reduction, and safety shape each breakthrough and drive societal transformation.
From the agricultural revolution to the industrial age and now the AI era, this essay traces how societal needs drive technological breakthroughs, examines the stages of technology maturation—generalization, cost reduction, and safety—and explains how computing power, data, and cloud infrastructure enable the intelligent, scalable systems of today.
From 2015’s rapid, short‑cycle UI tweaks to a 100‑person front‑end organization, Gaode’s Amap team progressively adopted componentization, templating, a C++‑based dynamic engine and JSX framework, scaling code from 30 k to 600 k lines, and now focuses on fine‑grained, standardized, differentiated, low‑code and platformized development for long‑term stability.
This article examines the macro‑level origins and motivations behind open source software, tracing the evolution from early industrial revolutions through scientific and technological breakthroughs, the birth of UNIX, the BSD split, and the broader tech‑economy paradigm that positioned software as a pivotal production factor.
This article surveys thirty historically significant pieces of code—from 18th‑century binary punch cards to the Bitcoin algorithm—explaining their origins, technical details, and lasting impact on computing, security, the internet, and everyday life.
This article chronicles twenty pivotal pieces of code—from the 1725 binary punched cards to the 2008 Bitcoin protocol—illustrating how each breakthrough reshaped technology, influenced society, and highlighted both the power and perils of software development.
In this presentation, Alibaba Cloud’s chief middleware architect Li Xiaoping outlines the evolution of internet middleware at Alibaba, explains the value and applications of cloud‑native middleware, and shares insights on future trends and challenges in the field.
This article traces Unix’s half‑century evolution from a failed Multics project at Bell Labs, through the resource‑scarce PDP‑7 experiments that birthed UNICS, to its legacy in BSD, Linux and ultimately the Android and iOS operating systems that power modern smartphones.
The article traces Google’s decade‑long impact on the evolution of the PC Web era, its pioneering technologies in search, email, infrastructure, big data, cloud computing, and mobile, explaining how its philosophy both propelled and missed commercial opportunities across each wave of internet innovation.
In this reflective essay, Alibaba researcher Wu Hanqing critiques misinformation about himself, outlines the evolution of productivity from physical labor to intelligence, distinguishes information systems from intelligent systems, and argues that true AI value lies in automating actions and fostering machine‑to‑machine collaboration across enterprises.
The article outlines Ctrip’s three‑phase technology evolution—from a simple call‑center architecture to layered internet and mobile platforms, and finally to a cloud‑based big‑data and AI‑driven ecosystem—highlighting architectural changes, operational challenges, and strategic lessons for fast‑growing internet companies.
This article traces the evolution of human communication from ancient knot‑recording and signal fires, through postal couriers, carrier pigeons, and early telegraphy, to the breakthroughs of Morse code, Maxwell’s electromagnetism, the telephone, radio, television, and modern digital networks, highlighting key innovators and technological milestones.
This article traces the historical and technical evolution of cloud computing—from its early grid‑computing roots and the shift to service models, through the progression of isolation layers (physical machines, virtual machines, PaaS, containers), to the emergence of cloud‑native microservice architectures and their resource‑centric characteristics.
In this talk, a former Google global R&D director shares how demand‑driven reform, strong infrastructure foundations, and hiring the best talent shaped Google’s architecture evolution, offering practical insights for startups on balancing design, evolution, and business versus technology drivers.
Databases originated in the 1960s‑1990s when the United States consolidated wartime intelligence into computer‑stored Data Bases, and a review of their development from 1962 to 2016 reveals a relentless stream of technological breakthroughs that continuously enrich everyday life.
The article traces the evolution of software from free academic code bundled with hardware to a commercialized, closed‑source industry, highlighting how the rise of the Internet and open‑source movements reshaped software development, standards, and business models.
The article reviews Ctrip’s multi‑year technology journey, detailing its shift to distributed architecture, OpenStack‑based private cloud, custom asynchronous messaging, large‑scale search, security analytics, and mobile innovations, illustrating how strategic technical choices supported its dominance in online travel.
The article chronicles Tencent's technological evolution across four stages—from massive user growth to flexible platforms—highlighting the strategic use of efficient architectures, dynamic operations, and cloud services that enabled it to support billions of users while maintaining performance and reliability.
The article traces the shift from hardware‑centric profit models to the dominance of free and open‑source software, highlighting how programmers emerged as a vital profession in the 1980s and how software now underpins virtually every aspect of modern life.
Just as wolves gradually became dogs by learning human cues, modern algorithms must evolve to comprehend our intentions and values, turning from opaque decision‑makers into humane partners that enhance daily life without friction, lest their unchecked speed and logic create dangerous mismatches.
