AI is a gamechanger for TLA+ users
There has never been a better time to learn formal specification.
What does "Undecidable" mean, anyway
An explainer for people who don't know computer science and are mildly curious
Finding hard 24 puzzles with planner programming
(1+5)^5/324 = 24
Modeling Awkward Social Situations with TLA+
Walkward!
Write the most clever code you possibly can
Clever code is a bad idea 95% of the time, this is the other 5%
Requirements change until they don't
Requirements, phase changes, and formal methods.
The Halting Problem is a terrible example of NP-Harder
It's a justifiable copout, but it's still a copout.
Solving a "Layton Puzzle" with Prolog
I have a lot in the works for the this month's Logic for Programmers release. Among other things, I'm completely rewriting the chapter on Logic Programming...
![[April Cools] Gaming Games for Non-Gamers](https://www.aprilcools.club/aprilcoolsclub.png)
[April Cools] Gaming Games for Non-Gamers
My April Cools is out! Gaming Games for Non-Gamers is a 3,000 word essay on video games worth playing if you've never enjoyed a video game before. Patreon...
Betteridge's Law of Software Engineering Specialness
The answer to "is software engineering special" is usually "no".
Verification-First Development
Or: why test-first development is not the same as test-driven development
New Blog Post: "A Perplexing Javascript Parsing Puzzle"
I know I said we'd be back to normal newsletters this week and in fact had 80% of one already written. Then I unearthed something that was better left...
Five Kinds of Nondeterminism
Or four kinds, or six kinds, I'm not picky about how you count them
Are Efficiency and Horizontal Scalability at odds?
Why are scalable systems locally-inefficent, and locally-efficient systems unscalable? Plus, new book release!
What hard thing does your tech make easy?
I occasionally receive emails asking me to look at the writer's new language/library/tool. Sometimes it's in an area I know well, like formal methods. Other...
The Juggler's Curse
It's too cold to go outside, so let's talk juggling.
What are the Rosettas of formal specification?
Plus, new book release!
"Logic for Programmers" Project Update
It'll be done in July.
Formally modeling dreidel, the sequel
2 model 2 dreidel
Stroustrup's Rule
Beginners need explicit syntax, experts want terse syntax.