Making Things

Making Things focuses on advancements in data manipulation and analytics, particularly through Malloy, a tool designed to simplify and enhance SQL data operations. It covers Malloy's development, including CLI, data notebooks, integration with BigQuery and Jupyter, and future improvements for more efficient and comprehensible data analysis tasks.

Data Transformation Software Development Tools Data Analysis Techniques Programming Languages Database Management Software Updates and Roadmaps Data Visualization

The hottest Substack posts of Making Things

And their main takeaways

Instant BigQuery Usage Insights with Malloy

1 implied HN point • 29 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Data Analysis
  1. Malloy offers an innovative way to analyze data with a focus on user experience.
  2. Google Cloud Shell simplifies GCP environment setup with necessary libraries and resources.
  3. To start analyzing BigQuery data with Malloy, install the VS Code extension and connect to your GCP Project.

Beyond YAML

1 implied HN point • 06 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Programming Languages Data Modeling Semantic Layers Feedback loops
  1. Many semantic layers are built with YAML for its readability and quick setup, but it can lead to a poor developer experience.
  2. YAML lacks immediate feedback for complex expressions, forcing users into a guessing game when writing configurations.
  3. Implementing a real programming language instead of just a configuration DSL can provide instant feedback and support complex data modeling.
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What's Next for Malloy in 2024

0 implied HN points • 09 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Development Data Software
  1. The Malloy community is expanding globally and working on enhancing language capabilities like SQL features.
  2. Efforts are being made to improve analytical completeness by implementing partition clauses and percentile functions.
  3. The team aims to enable users to call arbitrary aggregate or window functions in the underlying database.

Malloy's 10x

0 implied HN points • 23 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Software Data Efficiency SQL
  1. If you can make something 10x more efficient, you have a winner.
  2. Malloy aims to replace SQL for asking questions of data.
  3. Malloy's efficiency shines when multiple queries are involved, offering reusability and speed.

Querying a Semantic Data Model

0 implied HN points • 13 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Data Modeling Querying SQL
  1. A semantic data model includes pre-built calculations and relationships.
  2. There are two main types of queries: lookup and aggregating.
  3. In a semantic data model, querying involves selecting dimensions and measures, simplifying the process.