In this example, posts have tags. When a post is deleted, we check to see if there are now any empty tags, and now we want to delete any empty tags that the post deletion may have created.
If we are creating and deleting posts concurrently, a naive implementation might wrongly delete the tags of a newly created post.
This could be due to a concurrency issue of the following types.
Failure case 1:
  • thread 2: delete old post
  • thread 2: find all tags with 0 posts. Finds tag0 from the deleted old post which is now empty.
  • thread 1: create new post, which we want to have tag tag0
  • thread 1: try to create a new tag tag0, but don't because it already exists, this is done using SQLite's INSERT OR IGNORE INTO or PostgreSQL's INSERT ... ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING
  • thread 1: assign tag0 to the new post by adding an entry to the join table
  • thread 2: delete all tags with 0 posts. It still sees from its previous search that tag0 is empty, and deletes it, which then cascades into the join table
which would result in the new post incorrectly not having the tag0.
Failure case 2:
  • thread 2: delete old post
  • thread 2: find all tags with 0 posts
  • thread 1: create new post
  • thread 1: try to create a new tag tag0, but don't because it already exists
  • thread 2: delete all tags with 0 posts. It still sees from its previous search that tag0 is empty, and deletes it
  • thread 1: assign tag0 to the new post
which leads to a foreign key failure, because the tag does not exist anymore when the assignment happens.
Failure case 3:
  • thread 2: delete old post
  • thread 1: create new post, which we want to have tag tag0
  • thread 1: try to create a new tag tag0, and succeed because it wasn't present
  • thread 2: find all tags with 0 posts, finds the tag that was just created
  • thread 2: delete all tags with 0 posts, deleting the new tag
  • thread 1: assign tag0 to the new post
which leads to a foreign key failure, because the tag does not exist anymore when the assignment happens.
Sample executions:
  • node --unhandled-rejections=strict ./parallel_create_delete_empty_tag.js p 9 1000 'READ COMMITTED': PostgreSQL, 9 tags, DELETE/CREATE the tag0 test tag 1000 times, use READ COMMITTED
    Execution often fails, although not always. The failure is always:
    error: insert or update on table "PostTag" violates foreign key constraint "PostTag_tagId_fkey"
    because the:
    INSERT INTO "PostTag"
    tries to insert a tag that was deleted in the other thread, as it didn't have any corresponding posts, so this is the foreign key failure.
    TODO: we've never managed to observe the failure case in which tag0 is deleted. Is it truly possible? And if not, by which guarantee?
  • node --unhandled-rejections=strict ./parallel_create_delete_empty_tag.js p 9 1000 'READ COMMITTED' 'FOR UPDATE': do a SELECT ... FOR UPDATE before trying to INSERT.
    This is likely correct and the fastest correct method according to our quick benchmarking, about 20% faster than REPEATABLE READ.
    We are just now 100% sure it is corret becase we can't find out if the SELECT in the DELETE subquery could first select some rows, which are then locked by the tag creator, and only then locked by DELETE after selection. Or does it re-evaludate the SELECT even though it is in a subquery?
  • node --unhandled-rejections=strict ./parallel_create_delete_empty_tag.js p 9 1000 'REPEATABLE READ': repeatable read
    We've never observed any failures with this level. This should likely fix the foreign key issue according to the PostgreSQL docs, since:
    • the DELETE "Post" commit cannot start to be seen only in the middle of the thread 1 transaction
    • and then if DELETE happened, the thread 1 transaction will detect it, ROLLBACK, and re-run. TODO how does it detect the need rollback? Is it because of the foreign key? It is very hard to be sure about this kind of thing, just can't find the information. Related: postgreSQL serialization failure.
  • node --unhandled-rejections=strict ./parallel_create_delete_empty_tag.js p 9 1000 'SERIALIZABLE': serializable
  • node --unhandled-rejections=strict ./parallel_create_delete_empty_tag.js p 9 1000 'NONE': magic value, don't use any transaction. Can blow up of course, since even less restrictions than READ COMMITTED
All executions use 2 threads.
Some theoretical notes:
  • Failure case 3 is averted by a READ COMMITTED transaction, because thread 2 won't see the uncommitted tag that thread 1 created, and therefore won't be able to delete it
stackoverflow.com/questions/10935850/when-to-use-select-for-update from SELECT FOR UPDATE also talks about a similar example, and has relevant answers.
SQL window RANGE by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
rm -f tmp.sqlite
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite "create table t (id integer, val integer)"
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
insert into t values
  (0, 0),
  (1, 5),
  (2, 10),
  (3, 14),
  (4, 15),
  (5, 16),
  (6, 20),
  (7, 25),
  (8, 29),
  (9, 30),
  (10, 30),
  (11, 31),
  (12, 35),
  (13, 40)
EOF
Show how many neighbours each column has with val between val - 2 and val + 2 inclusive:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
SELECT id, val, COUNT(*) OVER (
  ORDER BY val RANGE BETWEEN 2 PRECEDING AND 2 FOLLOWING
) FROM t;
EOF
Output:
0|0|1
1|5|1
2|10|1
3|14|3
4|15|3
5|16|3
6|20|1
7|25|1
8|29|4
9|30|4
10|30|4
11|31|4
12|35|1
13|40|1
val - 1 and val + 1 inclusive instead:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
SELECT id, val, COUNT(*) OVER (
  ORDER BY val RANGE BETWEEN 1 PRECEDING AND 1 FOLLOWING
) FROM t;
EOF
Output:
0|0|1
1|5|1
2|10|1
3|14|2
4|15|3
5|16|2
6|20|1
7|25|1
8|29|3
9|30|4
10|30|4
11|31|3
12|35|1
13|40|1
There seems to be no analogue to HAVING for window functions, so we can just settle for a subquery for once, e.g.:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
SELECT * FROM (
  SELECT id, val, COUNT(*) OVER (
    ORDER BY val RANGE BETWEEN 1 PRECEDING AND 1 FOLLOWING
  ) as c FROM t
) WHERE c > 2
EOF
which outputs:
4|15|3
8|29|3
9|30|4
10|30|4
11|31|3
SQL contiguous ranges by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
stackoverflow.com/questions/17046204/how-to-find-the-boundaries-of-groups-of-contiguous-sequential-numbers/17046749#17046749 just works, even in SQLite which supports all quoting types known to man including [] for compatibility with insane RDBMSs!
Here's a slightly saner version:
rm -f tmp.sqlite
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite "create table mytable (id integer primary key autoincrement, number integer, status integer)"
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
insert into mytable(number, status) values
  (100,0),
  (101,0),
  (102,0),
  (103,0),
  (104,1),
  (105,1),
  (106,0),
  (107,0),
  (1014,0),
  (1015,0),
  (1016,1),
  (1017,0)
EOF
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
SELECT
  MIN(id) AS "id",
  MIN(number) AS "from",
  MAX(number) AS "to"
FROM (
  SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY number) - number AS grp, id, number
  FROM mytable
  WHERE status = 0
)
GROUP BY grp
ORDER BY MIN(number)
EOF
output:
1|100|103
7|106|107
9|1014|1015
12|1017|1017
To get only groups of length greater than 1:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
SELECT "id", "from", "to", "to" - "from" + 1 as "len" FROM (
  SELECT
    MIN("id") AS "id",
    MIN(number) AS "from",
    MAX(number) AS "to"
  FROM (
    SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY "number") - "number" AS "grp", "id", "number"
    FROM "mytable"
    WHERE "status" = 0
  )
  GROUP BY "grp"
  ORDER BY MIN("number")
) WHERE "len" > 1
EOF
Output:
1|100|103|4
7|106|107|2
9|1014|1015|2
This means that e.g. if you do an UPDATE query on multiple rows, and power goes out half way, either all update, or none update.
This is different from isolation, which considers instead what can or cannot happen when multiple queries are running in parallel.
Ranger (file manager) by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli considered it before he stopped using file managers altogether, it is not bad.
Cocos2d by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli considered this as the basis for Ciro's 2D reinforcement learning games, but ultimately decided it was a bit too messy. Nice overall though.
RPG Maker by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
The one true game engine!
Video 1.
Reviewing a Bunch of RPG Maker Games by Majuular (2022)
Source.
Originally by Keyhole Inc., which the nbecame Google Maps, but the format seems standardized and has non-Google support, so should be OK.
Google Maps by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Owned/developed by Google as of 2020.
Early on jumpstarted from several acquisitions, notably Keyhole Inc. and Where 2 Technologies.
Google Street View by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Street View's go into the past mode is the dream of every archaeologist. Ciro can only dream of a magic street view that allows going back to earlier centuries and beyond... isn't it amazing to think that people in the future will have that ability to time travel back to around the year 2006? Ciro wonders how long Google will be able to keep storing data like that.
Thanks, CIA.
Ordnance Survey by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Has some of the best map data available for the United Kingdom, but their data appears to be proprietary?
Monaco (editor) by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
However also at the same time very limited integration with vscode, that makes using it for VScode compatibility almost useless, e.g.:
Vim by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Before we get a decent open source integrated development environment, what else can you do?
But also perfect for small one-off files when you don't have the patience to setup said IDE.
vim's defaults are atrocious for the 21st century! Vundle is reasonable as an ad-hoc package manager, but it can't set fixed versions of packages:
Vimium by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Since you can't escape shitty browser GUIs and live in the command line, the next best thing you can do is to bring Vim bindings to your browser :-)
There is one major annoyance: you can't use ESC to leave the address bar focus, but using Tab as a workaround works:
OK, you have to share your phone with the company to prevent spam which forces us into messaging software that force you to have a mobile phone, but why do you also have to share your phone with contacts? So you are then forced to give your phone number away on the Internet.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact