This article was originally published in Polish in issue 4/2013 (11) of Programista magazine. Although high-level languages—scripting, interpreted, or running in a virtual machine—have many advantages and are the best choice for numerous applications, sometimes we need to write code … Read more
In January 2025, I had a fun hypothesis for a blog post: can LLMs write better code if you keep asking them to “write better code”? That was prior to the advent of robust agentic coding, but Claude Sonnet 3.5 … Read more
We implemented a parquet writer in DataHaskell/Dataframe. Using it is simple; you need only pass your dataframe into the writeParquet function which writes a parquet file with sane defaults for row group and page sizes. An example: import qualified DataFrame … Read more
Because I am known to write using a fountain pen on paper, a number of people have pointed me to this post and its underlying research. I won’t rehash what is said in those sources, but the gist of it … Read more
I read Amy Goodchild’s blog post about digitizing her handwriting in JavaScript a while ago and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t end up digitizing my own handwriting, but it pushed me toward a smaller idea: clamp a ballpoint … Read more
I’m Writing Again For those of you who are still here — and given how long it’s been, “still here” is a real act of patience — thank you. I haven’t written a column since 2022. Just like everyone else, … Read more
It all begun with the Speccy – the ZX Spectrum 48K+, to be precise. I got it when I was 13 years old – the best gift ever: An entire career has passed since then. And one of the habits … Read more
Starting a long-form history of Visual Basic on EvilGeniusLabs.ca. Chapter 1 covers the BASIC dynasty Microsoft had been running since 1975, the California developer Microsoft bought to put a face on it, and the launch pitch Bill Gates seeded in … Read more
⏏️ First foray into the Zig programming language 2025-06-17 This is a series of articles I wrote while writing paella, following Nora Sandler’s Writing a C Compiler. It was both an exercise to learn Zig and a way to waste … Read more
In an insulting, ironic blow to the neats, the scruffies created an AI that much prefers to write anything but Lisp. I use agentic AI a lot at work to do my job as a DevOps engineer. I use OpenRouter … Read more