Super Volatile

Krzysztof Szafranek's link blog

Hi, I'm Krzysztof and I make websites.
When I'm not making websites, I read these.
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May 18, 2012 / 12:48am

Why I Desperately Needed to Learn to Code

Unless you're passionate about making it your career, learning to code is not about becoming a great engineer. It's about gaining insight and perspective. I think if your ambition is to found or work at a technology company, there's no substitute to that perspective.
more on influencehacks.com

Some valid points in the discussion about the need to learn coding. However, while entrepreneurs and software project managers should understand how it is like to program, it still doesn't explain why Michael Bloomberg has to learn it.

Filed under: programming  
 
May 18, 2012 / 12:22am

As a counter to this, I present exhibit A: Judge Alsup from…

As a counter to this, I present exhibit A: Judge Alsup from the Oracle vs Google case, from the GrokLaw transcript today:

Alsup tells Boies Oracle's only doing damages because they haven't won anything else and they're in a fix. "This is a fishing expedition."...
Alsup says he's been writing code since this trial started. He's written rangeCheck code a "100 times".

more on plus.google.com

A counter to the argument that not everybody has to learn to code.

Filed under: programming  
 
May 16, 2012 / 12:05am

Please Don't Learn to Code

It assumes that coding is the goal. Software developers tend to be software addicts who think their job is to write code. But it's not. Their job is to solve problems. Don't celebrate the creation of code, celebrate the creation of solutions. We have way too many coders addicted to doing just one more line of code already.
more on codinghorror.com

A sane response to the recent movement to make coding a purely fashionable activity.

Filed under: programming  
 
Apr 22, 2012 / 1:49pm

Where is the casual programming?

That's the real problem with dynamic typing: With Java, C# and C++ I learn APIs on the go. I use autocomplete and when in doubt I point to the function invocation and press F1 to read the manual entry about this function. If I feel I need more background information, I follow the links higher in the doc hierarchy and begin learning about the big picture the exact moment I realize I need to learn this stuff.
more on iamsamy.blogspot.de

Good explanation why modern languages don't make it easy to start programming.

Filed under: programming  
 
Apr 22, 2012 / 1:35pm

I Guess Im Not A 501 Developer

You don’t love programming. I respect that. But the second part makes it sound like your days of learning and creating ended when you got your diploma. I can’t respect that.
more on adit.io

A response to the 501 Manifesto.

Filed under: open source   programming   work  
 
Apr 15, 2012 / 12:46am

PHP: a fractal of bad design

PHP’s parser refers to e.g. :: internally as T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM, and the << operator as T_SL. I say “internally”, but as above, this is what’s shown to the programmer when :: or << appears in the wrong place.
more on me.veekun.com

The epitome of “this thing sucks” article. Analysis of EVERYTHING that's wrong with PHP down to a tiny detail.

When anybody will start complaining to me about some technology, I will refer him to this article.

Filed under: php   programming  
 
Apr 9, 2012 / 3:06pm

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

C++: In 3 days you might be able to learn some of the syntax of C++ (if you already know another language), but you couldn't learn much about how to use the language. In short, if you were, say, a Basic programmer, you could learn to write programs in the style of Basic using C++ syntax, but you couldn't learn what C++ is actually good (and bad) for. So what's the point? Alan Perlis once said: "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing". One possible point is that you have to learn a tiny bit of C++ (or more likely, something like JavaScript or Flash's Flex) because you need to interface with an existing tool to accomplish a specific task. But then you're not learning how to program; you're learning to accomplish that task.
more on norvig.com

A classic article that didn't get old.

Filed under: learning   programming  
 
Apr 9, 2012 / 2:39pm

Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle

more on vimeo.com

How simple ideas – applied – have breathtaking consequences.

Filed under: creativity   game development   innovation   programming  
 
Apr 3, 2012 / 11:03pm

Lisp Hackers: Marijn Haverbeke

The next person in our series is Marijn Haverbeke, who's not only the author of several pretty useful Common Lisp libraries (some of which he touches in the interview), but also a succesful JavaScript hacker, winning JS1K contest, and writing a profound book about the language — "Eloquent JavaScript". Besides, he hacks on Mozilla Rust and his own language Hob, not to mention co-authoring a JavaScript-to-Common-Lisp transpiler, writing some games in Scheme, and experimenting with Haskell. In the interview he shares his perspective, based in knowledge and experience with so many different languages.
more on lisp-univ-etc.blogspot.de

Plus, is a very nice guy and I have his book with an autograph :).

Filed under: lisp   programmers   programming  
 
Mar 27, 2012 / 1:43am

1k Rose

I’ve participated in the love themed 4th edition of js1k. My submission is a static image, a procedurally generated 3d rose. You can take a look of it here.

It is made by Monte Carlo sampling of explicit piecewise 3d surfaces. I’m going to try to explain all a bit in this article.

more on romancortes.com

Excellent tutorial. Yes, it gets technical.

Filed under: javascript   programming