programming

apl

Un-directed programming

Various forms of "directed" programming have become very popular these days. However, I find that many of these are too restrictive and not conducive to what I consider a "human" creative approach to programming. Sometimes, it's nice to have a

social media

Trials of Running a Pub Server

So I decided to try to run a Pub server the other day. Unfortunately, it turns out that the state of the pub servers is rather poor right now. Not that they won't work, but simply that the maintenance and work to get one

social media

Playing around with Scuttlebutt/Patchwork

So I'm playing around with Scuttlebutt and Patchwork. I've even set up a pub server: social.sacrideo.us Specifically intended to help those who are interested in keeping up with my own social/technical network. While I can't stand normal social media, perhaps this

apl

Paper is dead, long live Paper Programming

It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I love to program "by hand." I happen to practice a degree of ascetical programming practices, and I believe that they help me to more deeply internalize and understand

apl

User Command for Co-dfns

Co-dfns has a new User Command based interface!

job

Dyalog is hiring!

Are you a fast learner who likes to solve real problems with a passion for programming? How about a unique, one of a kind opportunity to work in diverse fields in cutting edge research and development?

apl

Dyalog APL in Jupyter

I just wanted to make a short post mentioning a new repository that has gone live at Dyalog: https://github.com/Dyalog/dyalog-jupyter-kernel Now you should be able to use Dyalog APL inside of a Jupyter notebook. Very cool! As I understand it, this

apl

Decoding Inverses

Everyone has something to learn, and we should always be open to those new things the world around is showing us. I learned a "new" trick in APL recently from none other than an attendee of one of my APL workshops (thanks

codfns

Getting Started with APL

Dyalog APL is now easier than ever to install: https://www.dyalog.com/download-zone.htm I have been giving a number of talks and workshops on APL recently, and somewhat to my surprise, people are interested! However, this has led to a small dilemma,

co-dfns

Co-dfns 2017 Report

A great deal of work has gone into this year to improve and expand the capabilities of Co-dfns. The following presentation describes these updates in brief. Co-dfns 2017 Presentation at Dyalog '17 You can find the video recording of this presentation at Dyalog TV.

apl

APL Style: Patterns and Anti-patterns in APL

I gave the following talk at Dyalog '17 this year. I think it was a lot of fun, but I had to go through the slides pretty fast. I encourage anyone interested in the topic to go through the Sway presentation more carefully in

co-dfns

Smaller code, Better code

I was enjoying some pizza the other day with some buddies that know a bit about my research and understand where I am coming from with regards to my own computing aesthetics. They understand that I have always pushed for the smallest code that

testing

The Fallacy of Unit Testing

Unit Testing is a standard practice within the industry. Unit testing is often associated with test driven development. In fact, I would venture to guess that most people cannot imagine test driven development without unit testing. However, I have slowly begun to come to

apl

Scripting with APL: Convert GNUCash XML format to Ledger CLI

I want to play around with the Ledger CLI software, but this requires that I have something to work with. I have previously kept most of my stuff in the GNUCash program, and while I found a few conversion utilities around, I didn't find

programming

Debugging is Ignorance

Today reminded me how much I dislike debuggers. Really, though, I do not dislike debuggers; I dislike languages that compel me to use one. Debuggers help, but not completely, compensate for poor languages. Debuggers guide us through code we do not understand. Good language

apl

APL a Day #7: Scalar Functions

Scalar functions perform most of the hard labor in an APL program. A scalar function defines a mapping from one or two scalar values to a third value. In math, the addition function maps two numbers to their sum. Many other such functions exist.

apl

APL a Day #6: Indices and Encoding

Previous sessions established a basic conception of indexing an array. Namely, an index encodes a reference to an element in an array according to the position of the element along each of its dimensions. Always a vector, each element of an index falls in

apl

APL a Day #5: Indexing into Arrays

By now, clearly a shape and vector of values precisely determines an array. All APL functions operate over arrays; they describe new arrays in terms of its arguments. What about describing a sub-array of another array? Indexing provides a means of identifying specific elements

apl

APL a Day #4: Arrays have elements

An array that only describes a box which may contain elements, but that does not contain any elements, does not mean much. While shapes help to clarify the APL language, when doing any work, they really only describe how to arrange the elements of

apl

APL a Day #3: Arrays have Shape

Arrays arrange data into a certain rectangular shape. In APL, the shape of an array is a vector --- yes, in APL, shapes are also arrays --- that describes the number and size of layout in terms of dimensions. All arrays have a shape;

apl

APL a Day #2: Arrays, Values

Last session belabored the function, it's relation to APL, and how APL's treatment of functions differs from traditional mathematics. Keep functions in mind: they come first for a reason. All future sessions will assume that you understand or can quickly figure out functions and

apl

APL a Day #1: Functions

In early grade school mathematics, students already learn the concept of a function, but they do not know what they are called. An expression like 5+5 uses the function known as addition. The addition function takes two numbers and describes a new value

apl

APL a Day #0: Introduction

The APL community seems ripe for a quick, simple, accessible daily series on APL, and here it is. What better time to start than the coming new year? Each session presents a small bit of APL (actually, of Co-dfns) eventually leading the studious reader

aesthetic

On Programming and Being Bored

Many programmers speak truthfully of the excitement of programming. Programming evokes a real sense of discovery and a feeling of mystery at times. Things like the Tao of Programming frame it in a near mystical sense of a journey towards enlightenment. I think many

chez

ChezWEB tangling ChezWEB

For those of you who don't know, I have been working on the next major version of ChezWEB (2.0), which is a complete rewrite of the old system, preserving the good things about the old system, while dropping and removing things