stevedonovan

12 ms·

91.
by stevedonovan 9y ago
It is outrageously fast (at least compared to compile) but would need integration via libffi to speak to the rest of the universe. This is not a priority for the maintainer, since he's exploring compile-time metaprogramming (where you
92.
by stevedonovan 9y ago
Exactly. There's no doubt that _some_ people (myself included) became much more functional on SSRIs. But we've got the crutches-metaphor and the insulin-metaphor, and we've swung too far to the biochemical side - because it&#
93.
by stevedonovan 9y ago
Conciseness matters. For example, Einstein's convention for tensor notation - a lot of explicit sums are lost!
94.
by stevedonovan 9y ago
Yes, and sometimes you really pay for runtime reflection - I've seen Java programs reduced to Python performance by excessive use of reflection. Whereas, this is _compile-time reflection_!
95.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
'sharp' would be a good word ;) There's lots to like about it but writing good safe C is harder than it looks.
96.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
There's the fabled 'Singularity' (with the capital letter) or the usual meaning: something we cannot predict beyond. That's always a problem in prediction, because even if we can imagine a singularity, we don't know
97.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Yes, it's not my preferred platform at all but we all inherit projects. By leaning too heavily on the _dynamic_ aspects of Java (like reflection) it is possible to get Python-like speeds and constantly running the risk of OOM. But with
98.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Back in the day (early 90s) there was something called ASYST which was indeed a array-based Forth on steroids. It had a nice library and could make plots interactively. It was not elegant ;)
99.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
This is true, but there's a 'surface simularity' problem. It's easy to go from writing C to writing old-fashioned 'bad' C++. Modern C++ really is a different beast.
100.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Well yes: touted as 'a better C' but I suspect they've succeeded at 'a better Java'. But it's more fair to say that Rust is a _retry_ at creating a C++-like language organized around concepts of safety and ML-l
101.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Yes - and frustration. Breaking cycles with weak references and so forth. But on the plus side, once you know this stuff well modern C++ makes so much more sense.
102.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
It is a marvelously true expression. _Whatever_ the cause, a real black-dog depression robs a person of all sense of effective agency. The leg is broken and needs a cast, and for many the drugs do work (personal experience). But then the pe
103.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
I like the rule-of-thumb that short identifiers are fine if their context is limited in length - particularly if proper lexical scoping is supported. Humans do context very well, and imposing some arbitrary length limit ignores this.
104.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Once you know their agenda, you can filter. At least they're not hysterical. Part of the problem is the very different meaning that the word 'liberal' has in the UK.
105.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Exactly. There is always the danger of self-hypnosis, by repeating 'memory safety means safety, full stop' too often.
106.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
It was my job for a while to work with scientists and their spaghetti Fortran codebases. One esteemed fellow still stuck to the FORTRAN IV of his youth (the original pasta language). It was amazing how much they could do with such old techn
107.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Modern tools should offer the option to write out JSON (with a proper spec, please). I can definitely see the value of a 'ls' variant that can do this, and I remember people discussing JSON-based shells. But not either/or! Fo
108.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Not necessarily. JSON is not bad, _if_ you allow comments. Even plain-jane key/value config files can be sanity-checked. I suspect part of the problem is that anything fancy like that is awkward to do in C, so people take the lazy way
109.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
To paraphrase Keynes, in the long run we are all fools. (Except for Alan Kay, apparently)
110.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Of course, from a broader perspective everything is political, but not necessarily party-political. That's a partisan minefield, and the degeneration of public discourse means that it's a very shallow muddy pool these days. But we
111.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Very useful distinction. One mark of tribalism is a set of knee-jerk responses and stock vocabulary. If people could at least check in their tribal phrases, we would have better conversations. For example: 'racists', 'crybull
112.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
There's a bit of German influence on American English, that's true, like 'how goes?'. Also Dutch, as in 'How come?'
113.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Go (despite its faults) definitely raised that minimum bar; a language needs to arrive with a package manager and doc tools, as well as enough standard library to get non-trivial things going. Rust made the right decision on HTTP - let the
114.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Right! That's a compiler designed to be used as a service! Most compilers are usually in a terrible hurry to build that executable before people start playing with light sabers or thinking about new programming languages [1]. I first t
115.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Here's some thinking outside the box. Traditional compilers are focused on building an executable as fast as possible, throwing away an enormous amount of state each time. The new rustc incremental compilation attempts to re-use some o
116.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Eclipse CDT has definitely getting better - quite happy with it now for C++ projects. Code completion and navigation works well and you can just import a makefile-based project.
117.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
It's easy to be blinded by the size of that investment, both technical and emotional. Still enjoy the new C++ though.
118.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
My (limited) experience with Rust is that it's necessary to unlearn a lot of C++ habits. E.g. forgetting that Rust likes to _move_ and C++ likes to _copy_
119.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
Well, totally. Lua and C don't care. A minor change, breaking the strict-subset-of-javascript which is no longer important.
120.
by stevedonovan 10y ago
I've got a fairly old Win7 machine, and it just works. Quite happy to do something else in 2020 when win7 maintenance ends, but not now. Too many horror stories, and no compelling reasons to upgrade.

More ›