Some notes on for loops
Experts can learn a lot by looking at the basics.
Why do regexes use `$` and `^` as line anchors?
A history that will satisfy nobody.
What if the spec doesn't match the code?
Address people's biggest concern about formal methods
What Mob Programming is Bad At
Bulldozers vs Lightning Bolts
How to argue for something without any scientific evidence
It's all about the show
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Know (of) the right tool for the job
Plus: Using LLMs for data queries
Planning vs Model Checking
Comparing two software technologies you've probably never heard of
Strings do too many things
The most powerful and terrible of all basis types
What does 'TLA+' mean, anyway
The secret Illuminati meaning behind the Three Letter Acronym (plus)
GitHub Search for research and learning
Also, new blog post!
Unusual basis types in programming languages
All languages have numbers, booleans, strings, and lists. What else is out there?
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Why all([]) is true, prod([]) is 1, etc
It's all monoids! Monoids for everyone!
Advice for new software devs who've read all those other advice essays
From a person who really shouldn't be giving others advice.
I formally modeled Dreidel for no good reason
I can mathematically prove the game's not fun.
When would you ever want bubblesort?
There are very few universal rules in software engineering, but there are are a lot of near-universal principles. Things like "prefer composition to...
How do you take the average of two timestamps?
A jaunt through affine measures and math loopholes
Some thoughts on software expertise
(Note, there's some important administrative stuff after the newsletter.) I think a lot about the nature of expertise. While I write about all sorts of...
I shouldn't be so harsh on teaching TLA+ with puzzles
I know I'm getting the newsletter out very late this week (this kind of lackadaisical nonprofessionalism is why I don't offer paid subscriptions) so I'll...
Raku is surprisingly good for CLIs
A while back I wrote Raku: a Language for Gremlins about my first experiences with the language. After three more months of using it I've found that it's...
I wish people would do historical arguments better
Just because the historical context for a practice was different doesn't mean it's useless in the current context