A staple of compact code, the ternary operator ?: feels like it’s earned a place any programming language. I use it often; you should use it often. However, I don’t like the […]
We don’t need a ternary operator
ELI5: The filter, map, zip, and reduce operations
You’ve baked a fresh batch of gingerbread cookies. A bunch of little men, snowmen, stars, and bells are cooling on some trays. You clean up the table and lay out the colours […]
Sadly, I must say goodbye to Leaf (my programming language)
This is hard to write, or rather, it’s a hard decision to make. After investing many years on Leaf — a programming language, a major life project — I need to take […]
ELI5: Algorithmic time complexity
Our favourite hobbies, like baking cookies or painting pictures, take time. Let’s ask a question though, does it take longer to bake one cookie or paint one picture? It’s hard to answer. […]
How I use `variant` in the Leaf compiler
Variants are data types that can store different types of values in them, as opposed to one fixed type. In contrast to a generic object or an untyped variable, there is a […]
Core Layout Protocol API (UI Engine)
Let’s get into some technical details about how a layout engine works. We assume that we have a tree of elements that comprise the UI. Starting from the root node, we request […]
Fitting an image to its element frame
Images require various sizing modes to fit in a responsive layout. Here we’ll look at the relationship between the element and visual and the basic sizing options. I’ll also look at […]
What is a “box model”? (UI Element layout)
A box model describes how to measure an element for layout. It defines what size is and how it relates to the content, margin and padding. It may seem trivial, but clear […]
What is responsive layout?
A good UI design must accommodate the various device formats and resolutions that users have. Element placement cannot be absolute, but rather be constrained and expanded by the available space. Layouts […]
UI Engine Layout: Additive, Partitioned and Layered
Layout determines how children are positioned and sized within their parent element. There are three approaches to placing child elements within a parent: Additive: The children combine to define the size […]
UI Layout: Working with Pixels, Points and Density
Devices have various physical resolutions and densities. One phone may be 10cm wide and have 800pixels across, while another may be 8cm wide and have 1200pixels across. A UI engine needs to […]
Dissecting my Rusty Superhero Bots — The code review
I chose Rust as the language for the Botters of the Galaxy contest. My code structure was suitable enough to get me to the final league, but I had a few […]
UI Layout: Natural versus dependent size
Elements have either a natural size, a dependent size, or combination of the two. The size of an element influences its placement. The user and creator of a UI layout system must […]
Drawing a bitmap in the window (Leaf-SDL #2)
Read Update #1 Syntax Error I addressed two problems since last update: A bad error message, and an image loading error. The bad error message was triggered when an unknown symbol […]
