Growing up as a kid in rural Bavaria, I always …

On Accepting Toil

A year and a half ago, on a plane, I wrote An Ill-Advised Personal Note about "Media for Thinking the Unthinkable".

An open-source guide to help you write better command-line programs, taking traditional UNIX principles and updating them for the modern day.

Meta page describing Gwern.net, the self-documenting website’s implementation and experiments for better ‘semantic zoom’ of hypertext; technical decisions using Markdown and static hosting.

Writing files in a way that ensures their robustness is challenging due to the complexity involved. The paper discusses various issues related to file corruption and data loss, such as crash consistency, filesystem semantics, filesystem correctness, error handling, and error recovery. It highlights the differences in how different filesystems handle errors and points out bugs and inconsistencies found in popular filesystems. The paper also addresses the frequency of disk errors and data corruption, emphasizing the need for caution when writing files and the importance of using libraries or tools to ensure safety. Overall, the document emphasizes the difficulty of reasoning about file-related problems and the need for careful considerations when working with filesystems.

The text discusses the importance of parsing over validating in Haskell to prevent errors and enhance code reliability by using strong argument types. Parsing upfront helps maintain consistency and avoids potential issues with partial input processing, demonstrating the benefits of type-driven design in Haskell programming. The text also touches on the subjective nature of programming languages, highlighting differing perceptions of Haskell and the challenges faced by learners in navigating diverse opinions.

Negative space programming helps improve code by defining what it should not do, making it more robust and clear. By using constraints and assertions, developers can catch errors early and enhance security. This approach also promotes simplicity, making the code easier to maintain and understand.

The author recounts experiences in designing a computer programming language and issues a warning about language complexity. Despite challenges, a subset of the language was successfully implemented. The author emphasizes the importance of simplicity and reliability in programming languages for critical applications.

Invariants are properties that hold true during the evolution of a system, helping to ensure correct behavior in programming. They can simplify reasoning about code, whether it’s for small algorithms or larger systems. By clearly defining invariants, programmers can create robust code and manage complex systems effectively.

The post discusses a new idiom for runtime polymorphism in Zig, focusing on using fat pointers instead of @fieldParentPtr. It provides a step-by-step guide on creating a formal Iterator interface and implementing it with an example range iterator. The drawbacks of this pattern include potential performance issues and the requirement for the original implementor to remain alive for the interface to function correctly.

Zig is a programming language with active community support and a focus on efficient, reusable software development. Interfaces in Zig define a blueprint for classes to implement specific methods, promoting code abstraction and flexibility. Compile-time interfaces in Zig optimize code structure by resolving methods during compilation for efficient program execution.

The author reflects on their year of writing C code, finding it enjoyable and productive. They emphasize the importance of choosing the right language for each problem and share insights on the benefits of using C over C++ in certain scenarios. Additionally, they discuss the advantages of C99 improvements and the simplified nature of writing C code compared to C++.

These guidelines aim to simplify and improve the safety of C++ code by recommending specific extensions and best practices. They focus on static type safety, resource management, and reducing the likelihood of errors or accidents. By following these guidelines, programmers can write more correct, safer code without sacrificing performance.

The text discusses the future of computing science over the next fifty years, emphasizing the importance of simplicity and elegance in design to prevent complexity. It highlights the close connection between program design and proof design, suggesting that advancements in program design can impact general mathematics. The author encourages embracing the opportunity to simplify processes and design systems that rely on formal mathematics.

The issue #2007 discusses the implementation of an HTTP client in Zig's standard library. Contributors debate the necessity and scope of including an HTTP client, considering factors like complexity and resource allocation. Ultimately, the HTTP client implementation was completed and closed as part of milestone 0.12.0.

The text discusses how pipelines in the shell language support vectorized operations on collections and point-free style, where no data is explicitly mentioned. It also demonstrates how imperative code can be incorporated within pipelines for tasks like generating HTML tables. The unique features of pipelines include their ability to handle vectorized code, point-free composition, and integration of imperative instructions.

Entering text in the terminal can be challenging due to inconsistencies in how different programs handle text input. Some programs support basic features like arrow keys and history navigation, while others have custom input systems with advanced functionalities. Understanding the input mode of a program can help users navigate text editing more effectively in the terminal.

The text discusses various design choices and characteristics of incremental and streaming systems. It highlights the core idea of these systems, which is to process inputs to generate outputs efficiently. The systems are categorized based on unstructured vs structured design, high temporal locality vs low temporal locality workloads, internal consistency vs internal inconsistency, and eager vs lazy computation approaches. The text explains the advantages and disadvantages of each design choice and provides examples of systems that fall into different categories. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of understanding these design choices in selecting the appropriate system for specific workloads.

The text discusses the need for controls and policies to manage the growth limits of technical artifacts and the strains on individuals in the Rust project. It emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and addressing these limits to prevent potential crises or dysfunction in the future. The author suggests implementing controls, such as hard limits and moderation strategies, to maintain a healthy and sustainable project environment.

Effective programmers should focus on preventing bugs rather than debugging them. Re-reading code frequently can help reduce the number of errors. Writing bug-free code is achievable with practice and attention to detail.

Consider inlining functions that are only called in one place for efficiency. Simplify code structure to reduce bugs and improve performance. Emphasize consistent execution paths over avoiding minor optimizations.

In a career shift, the author is launching Latent Interfaces to apply expertise in design, prototyping, and development to complex data challenges. They share insights into a genomic data project, emphasizing the importance of Python skills alongside JavaScript. The document showcases the creation of intuitive data interfaces and the design process involving both digital and physical tools. Additionally, the author discusses the significance of well-designed APIs like StabilityAI and the potential for future collaborations in data visualization projects.