Tag
tombstones
- Aug 20, 2026 Deletes, Tombstones, and the Append-Only Sink Object storage cannot delete a row in place, so removal becomes a recorded fact with a retention period, and every reader must agree on how to apply it. data engineering
- Jun 5, 2026 Erasing From the Middle: Compaction and the Order It Destroys Why removal from a contiguous array costs a shift, when swap-and-pop is the right substitute, and how tombstone markers defer the cost without hiding it. data structures
- May 18, 2026 Open Addressing, Probe Sequences, and the Cost of Deletion Why open-addressed tables store keys in the slot array, how a probe sequence defines lookup, and why deletion requires tombstones or backward shifting. data structures
- May 14, 2026 Keeping a Vector Index Current Without Rebuilding It How segments, tombstones, and compaction let an index absorb edits, why deletion is more expensive than insertion, and where the visible-lag window comes from. inference systems
- Nov 17, 2025 Tombstones, Merges, and the Cost of Keeping a Vector Index Current Why deleting from a proximity graph is harder than inserting, how segment-and-merge maintenance bounds the damage, and when a rebuild is cheaper than incremental repair. information retrieval
- Jul 24, 2025 Log Compaction, Retention, and Replay Retention deletes from the start of a log and compaction keeps only the newest value per key, which turns the log into a replayable store of current state. backend systems
- Apr 25, 2025 Change Logs and Tombstones for Offline-First Sync How a local database records what changed while offline, why deletes need an explicit marker, and how a sync cursor avoids replaying the entire history on every launch. mobile computing
- Oct 6, 2023 Point Lookups, Tombstones, and Read Amplification in LSM Trees How a single-key lookup consults memtables, filters, and runs, why deletion must write a tombstone, and when the tombstone can finally be dropped. databases
- Mar 3, 2023 Deletion via Tombstones and the Delete Bitvector Why a search index does not remove a document immediately, how a tombstone marks a document dead, and what a query does when it encounters one. information retrieval