Þ   briarpig

     This new column shows recent log page blog posts.

     Lately I write demos under thorn with a todo list using C++ under a BriarPig mu-babel license. New toy language material about lathe (Lisp under thorn) appears under mu with update indexes itemized on toy.

     The run and hex demos were done on 13apr2008; crc on 14apr2008; buf on 20apr2008; in on 27apr2008; ctype on 04may2008; out on 18may2008; slice on 25may2008; quote on 31may2008; escape on 31may2008; mutex on 14jun2008; rand on 16jun2008; stat on 17jun2008; primes on 19jun2008; list on 23jun2008; heap on 29jun2008; iter on 02jul2008 and 04jul2008; atomic on 06jul2008; node on 13jul2008; page on 23jul2008; hash on 27jul2008; book on 27jul2008; pile on 03aug2008; stack on 07aug2008; mu on 12aug2008; toy on 16aug2008; weight on 23aug2008; this menu links all demos:

     mu: toy, peg, imm, tag, box, symbol, token, number, bigint, class, method, reader, writer, eval, env, vm, gc, world, pcode, compiler, asm, lathe, lisp, smalltalk, design, weight, jar, card, harp, debug, profile

     thorn: todo, names, iovec, assert, log, run, hex, crc, buf, in, out, quote, escape, compare, file, deck, cow, slice, rand, time, stat, heap, node, primes, page, book, pile, stack, atomic, lock, mutex, thread, map, list, iter, ctype

trash bin ¶

     I cut a couple long pieces here after I wrote them. I enjoyed writing them, but they were too personal. (It doesn't take much at all to be too personal.) Too bad I didn't spend that time writing more language docs.

design box ¶

     Use of character Zé apppears on design and box formats with start of descriptive dialogs appear on box. I would put off posting either so soon, since there's so much left to write about boxes. But so far it's a bit interesting. I'm always surprised when dialog engages more than I expected.

     It's not too hard to see I write dialogs linearly, all at one time, mostly in one draft, without much editing. Basically the idea is: characters don't have time to be perfect, they just say whatever comes next. Whatever undone parts remain are characteristic of their personalities. I pick up where I left off when I break ovenight or several days.

box editing ¶

     I'm editing api for box formats, but it's still too raw to post as-is. Pending material includes a lot of box formats not yet used because I haven't yet reached parts of the toy language that would use them.

     As I write pages about a toy language, I'll eventually reach the spot where I stopped working on it last fall; then writing web pages will occur concurrently with writing code. (This is likely to be slightly messy, but who cares?)

     I stopped working on it last fall because my day job was getting so involved and absorbing that I couldn't keep context for night time hobby coding in mind. The demand on memory was too great to keep everything "in cache" and I didn't have time to fault in hobby code memory fast enough.

     That's one of the reasons I started writing a lot about past code infrastructure, even though it basically took the place of coding any fun new stuff for a long time. Now that I've written a lot down, I can read material here to quickly remind myself of hundreds — actually thousands — of little details that normally stay in mind continuously if not for the force of day job mental traffic flushing my cache too vigorously.

not your tool ¶

     The Wil character I use in dialogs expresses himself far more dramatically than I would, but we do have attitudes in common. Just the same, don't confuse my actual beliefs with whatever words I put in Wil's mouth. He's easy to write because he doesn't consider very many complex tradeoffs — he just says: keep your distance. That's a simple perspective.

     His use of profane language might make you fear he'll do so again in response to things you say. He's just uncouth enough to make you afraid an ugly, distasteful rant might erupt when you try to apply pressure. That's intentional: I don't want to participate in online conversations much. Having you worry I might express myself the same way suits me fine.

     What Wil said so rudely in a recent dialog conveys an important idea I want you to keep in mind: I'm not your tool. Specifically, I'm not a resource you can use. Any and all attempts at manipulation are extremely rude, even if you think you're being subtle. Let's face it: you're not subtle any time what you'd like to happen is even slightly apparent. Invoking "social good" is one of the most blatant, sophomoric forms of persuasion ever — what makes you the arbiter of social good? Nothing! You only represent yourself. Even hinting you have some direct line on social values — with associated group morality — is one of the ugliest forms of intellectual dishonesty. It puts you in company with all sorts of unsavory folk. I'd invite you to feel ashamed by it, but I suspect you already have a handy defense against seeing yourself critically.

     Coercion is disgusting, no matter what your motive, if it doesn't involve protecting others from abuse of force. Bullying others in pursuit of your interests and your cronies is not service to society, even if you dress up your personal preference as universal neighborhood improvement.

     This column is the original sole content of this home page. It was moved to just one column to make room in the other column for a copy of recent additions to the log weblog.

     For clarity, and for my sons' sake, part of this is an experiment in literate programming. But instead of mixing code and docs in files, I plan to mix them in the pages of the site. Eventually how the site works ought to be (approximately) self describing.

license

     What I publish here will use some open software license† — not yet chosen — minimizing my exposure to nuisances, among which I number corporate patents and open source community code forks. What's sure to annoy me? Racing ahead, using what I make to put social and/or legal roadblocks in my path.

costs

     What's this costing me? Not much in dollars. But writing in plain language will seriously eat into my free time to code, which interests me considerably more. I'm eager to avoid seeing the cost balloon as a result of more email. (Publication of email is partly deterrent.)

     It might seem I'm spending energy on appearance, with nice page formats and color, etc. But this is really easy after long practice, and the clarity of the result is at least as important as the words.

benefits

     What do I stand to get out of this? As much as I enjoy just coding for fun, it still must justify the time to me by providing value someday, by shrinking or streamlining something I do professionally, eventually. Code that's undocumented is hard to use industrially.

     I hope the amount I document here later opens doors for professional use, in a more comprehensive sense than normal cherry picking over the years.

     But that's long term. In the short term, I only mean to benefit by seeing my sons have an environment in which they can learn to code by writing software they and their friends might care about. And of course, I expect to enjoy playing with novel web site infrastructure too.

attitude

     Though I want to have my say here, it doesn't mean I suppose you care. I'd be surprised if you did. Most folks who keep a blog hope to be read, but I expect little. Starting February 2008, I expect to write more fiction in the third person about imaginary developers who sometimes discuss ideas, games, and charades in some mix of boring technical programming chatter and slightly interesting science fiction and fantasy. (Short named characters are virtual personas.)

hand images

     The hand images on some pages only mean to provide visual cues to reinforce perception of place. (I made several dozen of these a couple years ago in the same format, but never used them until now.)

briars & thorns

     Thorn imagery and a briar patch metaphor both correctly convey a clue I might be prickly or socially distant toward feedback since my purpose here isn't really social, so peer pressure is moot.

peers

     If you insist on peer pressure, here's what would make you a peer. You need minimally the following: much more than 10 years of professional C++ coding, a focus in memory managment and performance, plus experience coding Lisp and Smalltalk runtimes in assembler, C, or C++.

     Naturally, I'm likely to appreciate fine technical points from folks who know a lot more than I do about Scheme, Smalltalk, and Python, as long as the perspective favors implementation.

     If you're a big dynamic language geek or enthusiast, that's great and your interest is welcome, but I'm really trying to get stuff done. No hard feelings. I just want to keep working without frittering away much time. I've no time at all for politics or pep rallies.

     Just because C++ is my tool of choice to be productive today, that doesn't mean I'm wed to it, or that I want code & libraries properly styled in C++ fashion or religion, or that I seek existing tools. I just need total runtime control.

competition

     Many software developers are competitive to the point of sociopathy. There's a good chance something about what I'm doing will stick in someone's craw because I encroach some territory, even if I don't undermine a business model with my alternative.

     I'm not competing, and I'm not out for your kudos, territory, money or whatever. I'm not parading my chops, or advertising or selling anything. Whatever you need to be best at — terrific, you win. Cut me some slack, I'm not in the game.

identity

     I'm no one of consequence. This isn't one of those masked man fighting for justice things, nor is it a Dread Pirate Roberts thing. Just think of me as that one guy — yet another geeky engineer. (On pseudonyms: if a message is missing my name or briarpig, then I didn't write it.)

contact

     david (at) briarpig (dot) com — I seldom respond to email, but it's possible I'll make an exception in your case, if you write something interesting. Questions are rarely interesting, tending to flattery and other forms of shallow antagonism.