October 25, 2021

Weekend Storm

I’m gonna keep this one super short, because I feel like there isn’t that much to say. I could try to squeeze out some stuff, but that wouldn’t really be interesting for anyone.

I finished up writing my thesis outline and put it online for folks to see, not just as a link on my (somewhat) private ¹ newsletter, but as a tweet. Jon and Amy have commented on it. That reminds me, I should probably respond to Amy’s comments later.

Gail also took a look through it. I always feel like anything technical I write is fraught with errors and just isn’t very good – my thesis outline was no exception. I was surprised when she gave it back to me with only minor feedback. I guess when we view our own work, we always see it through a more critical eye. That said, the more appropriate explanation would be the fact that I’ve been talking about my thesis with Gail since September. I think the nebulous idea was always in both our minds, I just wrote it down on paper. Now whenever someone asks me what my thesis on, I can print out a QR code for them to use. My ultimate goal is complete. I will never have to explain my research again. Can I have my degree now?

In terms of the technical side of things, I’ve been diving into IntelliJ’s source code for a while now. I think I have a general sense of what things do and where things are for a very small part of the system, but that’s progress. My latest work has focused on locating IntelliJ’s internal static slicing tools. I’m happy to say that I’ve found it and started poking around in it. For the next week, I’d likely work on finding a very naive (but automated) way to summarize the program slices that IntelliJ emits.

I should probably close my window, since apparently, we’re in for a “record-breaking storm.”

This should make for an interesting commute tomorrow morning. That’s it for this week, see you later!