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 […]
The agonizing necessity of cached calculations
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. […]
Rendering an SVG elliptical arc as bezier curves
I needed to draw ellipses and arcs. A vector API just wouldn’t be complete without them. Though opinions seem to differ as Apple’s Core Graphics lacks anything but an axis aligned circular […]
Porting Leaf from Linux to OSX
I recently ported Leaf from Linux to OSX. I figured it was about time to start making it cross-platform. The goal is to get it compiling useful libraries for iOS and Android […]
The smooth sexy curves of a bezier spline
I’ve been dreaming and coding curves lately. They play an integral role in a vector drawing API, which I’m writing for Fuse now. “Bezier curves” are so common we might think it’s […]
Ride the carousel of folly with a Python migration
I wanted to migrate my shelljob module from Python 2 to 3. I use this as part of the Leaf unit test setup. What I thought would be relatively straight forward has […]
Optional Types and Leaf: Removing automatic dereference
Optional values are one of the fundamental extrinsic types in Leaf, as are shared values. Originally optional values were used just like regular values, dereferenced automatically. I was always uncertain of that. […]
Smoothing 3d geometry, like a tunnel, with Catmull-Rom splines
An endless tunnel is the centerpiece of my game Radial Blitz. Flying smoothly through this tunnel was important to me. That required both a smooth tunnel and a smooth camera. In this […]
