Scaffolding TLA+
I'm in the process of updating my TLA+ workshop for my class next week.1 Every time I run it I get new ideas on what to improve. After April's class, one of...
New Essay, some thoughts on method vs process
No Newsletter Next Week I hate to do this twice in three weeks, but I have a TLA+ workshop next Monday. A Brief Introduction to Esolangs Two pieces of...
Esolangs!
No Newsletter next week I have some real life stuff going on and also a secret project deadline. I'd still like to make time for the newsletter, but it's...
Can Formal Methods Succeed where UML Failed?
Last Tuesday's piece Why UML "Really" Died went viral. I'm glad that people enjoyed it, and I also was happy to use all that fallow research, but something's...
Why UML "Really" Died
There's this post going around the internet called Has UML died without anyone noticing?, In the piece, Ernesto Garbarino says that UML was killed by...
The Jame of Life
I have a love-hate relationship with APLs. On one hand, they're unbelievably powerful in what they can do. On the other hand, they're absolutely awful in...
Grind Smarter, not Harder
New Essay: Why Specifications Don't Compose Read it here! Didn't sneak peek it to the newsletter because I used a lot of Hugo preprocessing, so this is the...
Reject Simplicity, Embrace Complexity
"Keep it simple!" "Just write simple code!" "Great devs come up with simple solutions!" I get it. Simple code is better than complex code. It's an important...
Function Sets and Specification
May TLA+ Workshop Still three slots left! May 24-26. Learn how to find bugs that would slip right past types, test, and code review. No Newsletter Next Week...
Why Property Testing Finds Bugs Unit Testing Does Not
I intended this newsletter to be my thoughts without editing, and I have a new thought, so here goes. I want to respond to this discussion: But Kids These...
Some Rambling About Structured Text
TLA+ Workshop You know the drill. TLA+ Workshop, three days, May 24-26. Only four slots, so sign up before they're gone! New Essay Why do Interviewers Ask...
The Antipattern Scripting Language
This is a little out of the normal for this newsletter but I had an idea that I just needed to get off my brain. This is going to be a little more free-...
A Binder Full of Questions
1. A joke I once read: A certain well-known pure mathematician had a wife who, while intelligent, was not into mathematics. However, by continued practice,...
No Seriously, Hate Your Tools
TLA+ Workshop Only one slot left! 3 days, April 12-14. Register here! Why Don't Specs Compose? My friend Lars Hupel and I did a small Twitter experiment: a...
Vim is Turing-Complete
No, not VIMSCRIPT. Vim KEYSTROKES are Turing-complete.
Code is Data is YAML
This is a weirder theorycrafting post and I don't know how much I actually believe in it, but it seems like something you all'd enjoy reading. A couple weeks...
New Post, Blub Studies, and Theorycrafting
Hello everyone! First of all, new post: TLA+ Action Properties. It's about specification properties on changes to the state, not just properties on the...
J as a Desktop Calculator
Talk Tuesday I'm speaking at Berlin Function Programming Group! Noon CST tomorrow, register here. It's my standard TLA+ talk, so there won't be any major...
"Naming Things" is a Poor Name for Naming Things
It's been a while! Let's just say the past couple of weeks have not been kind to me and leave it at that. So, newsletter. I got 40% through writing about...
No, "reasoning about code" is not a scam
Late Newsletter next week Alloy workshop. Still one slot left if people are interested! No, "reasoning about code" is not a scam Last week I read “Reasoning...