Parsing is where the story of compilation begins. While it may mean something wonderful to us, our source code is merely a stream of character data. It’s the role of a parser […]
What a compiler does: Parsing
Bringing blurry device independent pixels into focus
Device independent pixels, or points, are a convenient way to design for multiple devices. They allow a consistent layout without worrying about exact pixel densities. It’s quite convenient, but it can lead […]
Quelling the floating point demon in my line rendering code
A floating point demon had attacked my rendering code. Instead of drawing a nice straight line I’d get a devil’s tail flurried with barbs. It preferred disrupting the basic tests, straight lines, […]
Adding proxies to C#: A simple proposition
C# prefers composition to inheritance yet lacks any concise composition syntax. This is unfortunate. While I have nothing against composition, I really don’t like the redundancy of manually forwarding methods. Here I […]
What a compiler does: internal types
If we scratch the surface of a language a bit we find a secret, rich world of type information. Our compilers know more about our code than we do ourselves. In my […]
What a compiler does: type conversion basics
Determining how to convert object types and ensuring they are correct is a significant component of what a compiler does. For every operation the compiler must determine exactly what type is required […]
Cubist artwork with the help of a GPU
I wanted to come up with a shattered glass effect for my game. That didn’t quite work as intended, but I was nonetheless happy with the result. In this article I’ll describe […]
An unpleasant visit from the refactoring demon
In the middle of a major change to the Leaf type system I encountered the refactoring demon. It reared it’s ugly little head chanting, “you’re doing it wrong, all wrong!” It was […]
What a compiler does: symbol resolution
A key activity of a compiler is to translate named symbols into memory locations. The process typically involves a few stages: identifying the symbols, segmenting them, and determining the actual address. In […]
A secure and private browser sandbox
A patchwork set of standards and rules is creating an unsafe web. Cross-site attacks are too common and privacy leaks have become the norm. There’s no reason it has to be like […]
Blocking JavaScript seems like a good idea
My fancy new website is broken due to a script blocking extension. I found this out when I showed a friend the Radial Blitz website. He complained that something was lacking. He […]
Using macros to simplify type visitors and enums
I like using enums and type hierarchies. What I don’t like is writing verbose switch statements to use them. In C++ I use macros to significantly reduce the burden of creating visitors. […]
What is an idempotent function?
Idempotence is an essential tool in programming. It has many uses, from improving fault tolerance, clarifying code, to writing declarative deployment scripts. It’s important to understand what idempotent means. There are a […]
What is amortized time?
Amortized time is often used when stating algorithm complexity. Instead of giving values for worst-case performance it provides an average performance. This is appropriate in many domains, but we must be careful. […]
Musing Mortoray 