catenate

5 ms·

1.
by catenate 1y ago
I've been using a little literate-programming shell script for years, for various personal and professional projects. I find it makes a huge difference in my ability to hand off a code file to another developer, because I tend to docum
2.
by catenate 8y ago
Since 1 June 2012, I've been taking notes in unicode text files, which contain (occasional or adjacent) lines starting with 'nb ' and then a list of tags. I wrote a simple tool ("nb") in Inferno's shell (thank
3.
by catenate 10y ago
I made my own Secret Hitler deck, and have been playing it for a few months with both adult and teen groups for whom I usually run Werewolf games. SH has been really well received, keeps everyone more involved with the game (both because o
4.
by catenate 11y ago
I used Emacs from 1993-2004, and switched to Acme for the 11 years to present. I don't miss trying to memorize all the key combinations from Emacs. I like that Acme presents a clean, simple, and direct Unicode interface to what I wor
5.
by catenate 11y ago
I told Facebook to delete my account as soon as they implemented this feature, years ago, and I found that (at least at the time) I could not block it on my Android phone. So, at least, I've not since then been party to giving Faceboo
6.
by catenate 12y ago
Composing a larger program, by combining functions in different languages in a new framework, seems to take things in the direction of large and complicated programs. Would it not be simpler to write smaller, independent, individually name
7.
by catenate 12y ago
Was this a permanent or temporary effect on Algernon the mouse? If we continue the amino-acid mutation along the line of the difference between the mouse and human FOXP2, can we expect great things from Charlie?
8.
by catenate 12y ago
I use Inferno to develop software, as a virtual OS over top of Linux or Windows. Its community doesn't see any value in writing software just to make it easy to use for newbies. It is still actively maintained, with new changes from
9.
by catenate 12y ago
The redo-inspired build tool I wrote abstracts the tasks of composing a build system, by replacing the idea of writing a build description file with command-line primitives which customize production rules from a library. So cleanly compil
10.
by catenate 12y ago
Inspired somewhat by redo, I wrote "credo" as a set of small command-line build tools, so build description files are in the shell language rather than a standalone DSL. https://github.com/catenate/credo (I d
11.
by catenate 13y ago
In high school I was blacklisted from an admin position for demonstrating that you could write in Digital Command Language a program that simulated the login environment, stored login attempts, and then after three tries exited to the real
12.
by catenate 13y ago
From the brightness, whiteness, and suddenness with which it switched off, I'd be far more inclined to think it's artificial.
13.
by catenate 13y ago
I think the most important design criteria in the evolution of Unix to Plan 9 to Inferno was that each step consciously made things _simpler_. Simplify the programming model, use fewer different concepts, get rid of workarounds and hacks b
14.
by catenate 13y ago
Laughter and joking is a coping mechanism for dealing with uncomfortable and hostile situations. It's a way to blow off steam and accept things without reacting as aggressively as the humiliation you feel. Take out that release valve
15.
by catenate 13y ago
Berserker
16.
by catenate 13y ago
Inspired by redo, I'm working on a similar project that takes advantage of some of the nicer features of the Inferno OS: sh features like apply, <{}, and quoting rules; /env for shell-variable dependencies; and bind to overlay
17.
by catenate 13y ago
I was able to teach myself Basic programming on a TI-99/4A, Atari 2600, and Commodore 64 from 4th grade (in the early 1980s) because the languages were simple, the machine was simple, there were magazines (Compute!) to crib code from,
18.
by catenate 13y ago
Unix fmt double-spaces after periods, except periods after single letters. Of course, that's only useful to you if you compose text in a text editor, and pipe it through fmt (or par, if you are that picky), before publishing it. Thanks
19.
by catenate 13y ago
Communication in any form, but I was thinking of language in particular, yes. :)
20.
by catenate 13y ago
There is an invention without which no other invention can spread beyond its inventor. An invention which makes possible inventions beyond the ability of one person to create. An invention which permits a person to do something with their
21.
by catenate 13y ago
> Like the buckle on a seat belt, they are designed to be strong in the directions of forces that might be applied in normal use, and require pressure in an entirely different direction in order to be released. Let's pretend you bui
22.
by catenate 13y ago
People like to put down scripting, especially shell scripting, as "not a real language." I prefer shell scripting, since it lets me tie together programs written in many languages, each doing something that language does very wel
23.
by catenate 13y ago
I noticed right away that the title had no capital letters. But I didn't notice that the body had none until I read this comment and looked back over the text. Neither time did the lack of capitals bother me.
24.
by catenate 13y ago
Aka polymorphic function parameters. If I manage to abstract a bit of functionality into a function, I don't care what the type is as long as the operations within the function work on it. Haskell uses typeclasses to provide this guara
25.
by catenate 13y ago
I'd like to use map/fold/filter idioms instead of for loops, because this encourages me to write reusable functions instead of embedded blocks of code. To do this in Go, I need to write type-specific functions for every comb
26.
by catenate 13y ago
I'd like a minimal smartphone, which comes unlocked or has some other way of assuring I won't ever get into this situation again. I think this is fair, since I have had to live with the consequence. Locking down the OS version o
27.
by catenate 13y ago
I'm eligible for update, so two years at least.
28.
by catenate 13y ago
Don't really see the point in getting another Motorola phone. I paid a premium for my Photon, and it really annoys me every single day with how long it takes to wake up and actually do something, and how often it crashes. That might b
29.
by catenate 13y ago
This response explains how I use Acme to store (and later modify) commands in files in each directory. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5566567 In addition, I wrote a generic tag-indexing tool (in Plan 9's rc and I
30.
by catenate 13y ago
Acme would give him an easy interface to sed/awk for search and replace, and any command-line tools to refactor.

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