I just shipped what was probably the silliest and most pointless software release of my career. But hey, it’s the reference implementation of a language and I’m funny that way. Because I write compilers for fun, I have a standing offer out to reimplement any weird old language for which I am sent a sufficiently… Continue reading Twenty years after
Month: September 2016
Dilemmatizing the NRA
So, the Washington Post publishes yet another bullshit article on gun policy. In this one, the NRA is charged with racism because it doesn’t leap to defend the right of black men to bear arms without incurring a lethal level of police suspicion. In a previous blog post, I considered some relevant numbers. At 12%… Continue reading Dilemmatizing the NRA
Thinking like a master programmer, redux
Yes, there was a bug in my vint64 encapsulation commit. I will neither confirm nor deny any conjecture that I left it in there deliberately to see who would be sharp enough to spot it. I will however note that it is a perfect tutorial example for how you should spot bugs, and why revisions… Continue reading Thinking like a master programmer, redux
Thinking like a master programmer
To do large code changes correctly, factor them into a series of smaller steps such that each revision has a well-defined and provable relationship to the last. (This is the closest I’ve ever come to a 1-sentence answer to the question “How the fsck do you manage to code with such ridiculously high speed and… Continue reading Thinking like a master programmer
Trials of the Beast
This last week has not been kind to the Great Beast of Malvern. Serenity is restored now, but there was drama and (at the last) some rather explosive humor. For some time the Beast had been having occasional random flakeouts apparently related to the graphics card. My monitors would go black – machine still running… Continue reading Trials of the Beast