Category: Programming
Weather Station Excitement
August 24th, 2011, 4 Comments
I’ve sort of wanted a weather station for a long time. Lately, the ham radio hobby has intensified that, and I finally got one. When I finally got the serial link cable yesterday, well I was perhaps irrationally excited. Terah accused me of running all around the house while gathering up stuff for it. That [...]
Geeks, Hobbies, and Free/Open Source: Feedback Wanted
July 5th, 2011, 8 Comments
I’ve been thinking lately about ways to improve ways in which I interact with Free Software projects, and ways in which they interact with me. Before I proceed to take steps or make suggestions, I’d like to see if others share my traits and observations. Here are some questions I have been thinking of. If [...]
Time to learn a new language
May 18th, 2010, 53 Comments
I have something of an informal goal of learning a new programming language every few years. It’s not so much a goal as it is something of a discomfort. There are so many programming languages out there, with so many niches and approaches to problems, that I get uncomfortable with my lack of knowledge of [...]
Review: Free Software Project Hosting
August 9th, 2009, 23 Comments
I asked for suggestions a few days ago. I got several good ones, and investigated them. You can find my original criteria at the link above. Here’s what I came up with: Google Code Its very simple interface appeals to me. It has an issue tracker, a wiki, a download area. But zero integration with [...]
Real World Haskell update
December 28th, 2008, 2 Comments
There’s been quite the activity around this book lately. Pat Eyler of On Ruby published an interview with the three of us RWH authors. It apparently got some very positive comments on Reddit. Over on Amazon, the book is continuing its streak of 5-star reviews. When I see a review there titled “Finally a Haskell [...]
Why Do Web Applications Stink So Badly?
November 25th, 2008, 36 Comments
So today, I happen to be looking at wikis for two small to mid-sized public proojects (MoinMoin and DokuWiki look like frontrunners right now — any suggestions?) Recently, I’ve also looked at blog and CMS software, and a host of other web apps. It’s as if these people have learned nothing about good software practices [...]
If Programming Languages Were Christmas Carols
November 21st, 2008, 8 Comments
Last spring, I posted If Version Contol Systems Were Airlines, which I really enjoyed. Now, because I seem to have a desire to take a good joke way too far, it’s time for: IF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES WERE CHRISTMAS CAROLS I apologize in advance. (Feel free to add your own verses/carols in the comments.) Away in [...]
Real World Haskell Update
November 18th, 2008, 9 Comments
Times are exciting. Our book, Real World Haskell, is now available in a number of venues. But before I get to that, I’ve got to talk about what a thrill this project has been. I created our internal Darcs repository in May, 2007. Since then, the three of us has made 1324 commits — and [...]
New Twitter Client: Twidge
September 12th, 2008, 18 Comments
I’ve lately been thinking about Twitter. I wanted some way to quickly post tweets from the command line. But I also wanted to be able to receive them in a non-intrusive way on all my machines. And I wanted to work with Twitter and Identi.ca both. Nothing quite existed to do that, so I wrote [...]
Knuth and Reusable Code
April 30th, 2008, 5 Comments
In the recent interview with InformIT, Donald Knuth said: I also must confess to a strong bias against the fashion for reusable code. To me, “re-editable code” is much, much better than an untouchable black box or toolkit. I could go on and on about this. If you’re totally convinced that reusable code is wonderful, [...]
