Ad-block users are finding an increasing number of sites blocking access. I wonder if any of them asked themselves why we block ads? Do they suppose we’re anti-capitalist scum fundamentally opposed to […]
Fix your crappy ads and I’ll stop blocking them
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 […]
Working with types and named constructors in Leaf
As types are a keystone in Leaf, working with them must be fluid and simple. I recently improved this area by adding named constructors and bare type names. The results are interesting. […]
Calculating pleasant stepping values for a chart
I needed pleasant range values for the charting API in Fuse. These are the values written by the ticks on the plot, typically on the Y-axis. In the interest of simplicity it […]
The horribly horrible horrific horrifying horrid word horror
What’s the difference between “horrible” and “horrifying”? It’s a simple question posed to me by a friend in the process of editing her novel. It set me off on a tangent, a […]
The agonizing necessity of cached calculations
Language support for caching sucks. Despite an ever present need to cache data and calculations most languages require the programmer to do all the work. There’s no way to track dependencies, no […]
Why can’t I get organic salt and vinegar chips?
As a Canadian, eating potato chips is part of my DNA. I was understandably alarmed when I moved to Munich and was greeted with a paltry chip selection. I could choose from […]
What is orthogonality?
The flexibility and usefulness of an API relate directly to its orthogonality. But what does “orthogonal” mean? It’s a term that’s tossed around a lot in programming, with varying degrees of clarity. […]
Programming won’t be automated, or it already has been
I’m afraid of a robot taking my job. I don’t care about the job part much, I’m afraid of the actual robot. To replace my job it’d need to exhibit human level […]
The meta-field dilemma: `a.size` or `size(a)`
I can’t decide whether a.size or size(a) is more correct when getting the length of an array. While writing Leaf I have a recurrent feeling that perhaps a.size is wrong. What is […]
Importing Blender object normal maps with permutations
We used a lot of object normal maps in RadialBlitz. Figuring out how Blender encoded these was part of the challenge. It didn’t seem to be documented anywhere, nor was I able […]
A game of what’d they press? Hit testing in a 2d/3d layout
A simple tap of the screen invokes a staggering amount of calculations. That screen is actually big tree of UI elements, and we need to navigate it quickly to find the right […]
The bitwise complement, or not operator, is unsafe
I came upon a problem with bitwise complement (logical not): it isn’t safe. It’s nothing new, but it really registered while implementing the logical operations in Leaf. The issue is the result […]
Stuffing curves into boxes: calculating the bounds
Now that we’ve drawn beziers and arcs there’s only one piece missing in the vector API. We need to calculate the bounds of the curve: the minimum/maximum points where it will draw. […]
