eblog: software articles by efron licht

I’m Efron Licht, a programmer from San Diego, California. Software’s my wife and my life. I write
articles about software, largely Systems Programming and Backend Web Development using Go.

Last update: Gin is a very bad software library (2025-12-09)

Professional Enquiries

I run a software consulting firm, Tapir Technology, which largely works on distributed systems and other
performance-sensitive systems.

If you’re interested in simple, reliable, efficient, and low-latency software - or just saving huge
chunks on your cloud bill - you can book an appointment here.

List of Articles

backend from the beginning: a complete guide to backend development in go

My most popular series. Backend dev without the nonsense. Millions of views and counting.

1. Introduction, TCP, DNS, HTTP (September 2023)
   
2. Practical backend with net/http, net/url, encoding/json, and context
   (September 2023)
   
3. Finishing touches: middleware, dependencies, & routing
   (September 2023)
   

starting systems programming: practical systems programming for the contemporary developer (2025-)

A guide to programming like an adult.

1. Programmers Write Programs: Building your Tools
   (March 2025)
   
2. Your Program And The Outside World (March 2025)
   
3. Execution Counts: Hardware, Memory, & Software Performance
   (under construction, yes really)
   
4. Wait, It’s All gotwo?: Virtual Machines, Assembly, and Debugging
   (under construction)
   

go quirks & tricks (2022-2023)

Intermediate and advanced tricks for more sophisticated Go programmers.

1. declaration, control flow, typesystem
   
2. concurrency, unsafe, reflect
   
3. arrays, validation, build constraints
   

reflection / gamedev / debug console

Really advanced tricks for live debugging in graphical programs.

1. advanced go: reflection-based debug console
   
2. reflection-based debug console: autocomplete
   

opinion pieces

Shaking my fist at the sun.

• Gin is a very bad software library <— NEW! (Dec 2025)
  
• Have you tried turning it on and off again?
  

starting software

Software should build, start, and test quickly. Here’s how.

• build fast: docker should be fast, not slow
  
• test fast: a practical guide to a livable test suite
  
• start fast: booting go programs quickly with inittrace and nonblocking[T]
  

misc/uncategorized (2022-2023)

/etc/..

• faststack: analyzing & optimizing gin’s panic stack traces
  
• simple byte hacking: a uuid adventure