We hear it often, “global variables are bad, avoid using them!” But is this actually good advice? Simplified blanket statements are already a bit suspicious, but if we get into the details […]
Are global variables bad?
What is a closure?
You’ve heard the term, you’ve probably even used them, but what exactly is a closure? It’s a combination of data and code that have become a staple of modern programming. They offer […]
Adding += and friends to Leaf
Yesterday I finished a rather simple Kata from Codewars: the sum of a sequence of numbers. It was straight forward to implement, but I felt like it was missing something. It looked […]
What is reactive and stream programming?
Reactive programming is a paradigm that creates permanent relationships between values. Rather than one-time calculations, a reactive expression updates its result whenever the source value changes. Perhaps first popularized in spreadsheets, and […]
Debugging a synchronous callback in loop defect
A bug snuck by me while adding a new feature to Each: a behaviour in Fuse that dynamically adds UI elements. I had to change a lot of the code, so I […]
What is declarative programming?
Declarative programming is a paradigm that expresses the desired result, not how to achieve it. It uses rules and constraints to describe a user interface, the layout of a network, the structure […]
Embedding a text file in C++ code (with Scons)
I needed a way to embed a text file in my C++ code. I recently introduced Leaf code into the Leaf compiler and didn’t want to depend on a file dependency at […]
What is event programming?
Communicating between components with events is one of the fundamental programming paradigms. One module publishes an event, and other modules respond via listeners. It’s an asynchronous model that provides an excellent separation […]
Do we need 3, or just 2 error types?
Error handling is hard, and it’s made harder by a rich error hierarchy. Programs that successfully handle errors tend to have only a couple of generic handlers. Code that catches specific types […]
What is functional programming?
Three key concepts comprise the essence of functional programming: first-class functions, pure functions, and immutable data. Together they express a fundamental architectural paradigm on how units of code interact with each other. […]
Sorting a file: A real program in Leaf
Finally, a big step for Leaf: something that could be called an actual program. Over the weekend I finished a program that loads a file, sorts the lines, and writes it to […]
What is imperative programming?
Imperative programming is a paradigm that explicitly tells the computer what to do and how to do it. Unlike most other approaches it is a relatively concrete view on data and execution […]
Yummy UI food with keyframe animations
When I saw the below demo I thought “neat, how’d they do that”? That may sound surprising if you knew that I wrote the API for this. In this article I’ll describe […]
Bravely squash or cowardly refuse: a git conundrum
Why would somebody ever want to take perfectly fine code history and erase it? Phrased like that it makes git squashing seem ridiculous. Alas, some people find sanitizing history is the preferred […]
