Over the last couple of weeks I did an OO programming experiment. I call it the Erlang design pattern. It is based on the Actor model but goes some steps further. At its core just like the Actor model there are active entities (objects) that have a thread and a message queue with the thread waiting on the message queue to do some stuff.The Erlang design pattern extends the Actor model by first dividing the software program into active (actors, that have their own thread) and passive (objects, whose methods are called by other actors) objects.Second, I enforced that all methods of an ...

Like most programmers, I was attracted to Scheme by the promise that it would make me a better programmer. I came to appreciate the functional style, but swapped to Haskell, a more developed language with a rapidly developing standard library. Unfortunately, for me, Haskell can’t yet replace C++ on a day to day basis, so I reluctantly spend my days tapping away at C++. So, were the promises true? has functional programming made me a better programmer?Better is a tough question, I have no benchmarks for the quality of my code before and after Haskell, but it has certainly changed my c...

Programming is, without a doubt, the most mentally rewarding thing I've ever done. Programming taught me that life should be fun, filled with creativity, and lived to the fullest. Programming taught me that anything is possible; I can do anything I want using only my mind.Programming also taught me that learning is fun. It showed me that the more you know, the more power you have. Programming showed me that a life filled with learning is a life worth living. Programming revealed to me who I am inside, and has continuously helped me work towards my goals.I feel extremely lucky to have had the m...

Learning to code is one of the most powerful and satisfying things you can ever do. If you’re a designer, learning to code can help you understand what you’re creating for, and if you’re looking to build a startup from scratch, being a technical founder can make things exponentially easier for you.No matter why you want learn, the only thing you really need is curiosity. But if you’re just starting out as a novice and don’t know where to begin, here’s a list of 7 ways to start learning how to code right now for free:1. ProcessingProcessing is...

The ecosystem for open source Python projects is both rich and diverse. This enables you to stand on the shoulders of giants in the production of your next open source project. In addition, it means that there's a set of community norms and best practices. By adhering to these conventions and applying the practices in your project, you may gain wider adoption for your software. This article covers practices that have worked well for building large and small projects that have gained wide user c...

Over the years, I've seen a bunch of coding anti-patterns.I figured maybe I'll share a few.Today, I'll introducewhat I'm calling the for-if anti-pattern,also known as"We'll sell you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge."This is a special case of the for-case anti-pattern, whereall but one of the cases is null.for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) { if (i == 42) { do_something(i); }}This can naturally be simplified todo_something(42);The for-if anti-pattern arises in many forms.For example:foreach (string filename in Directory.GetFiles(".")){ if (filename.Equals("desktop.ini", StringCom...

This is the home page of project Kepler, an ongoing effort towards bringing compile-time metaprogramming to Scala. Our flavor of macros is reminiscent of Lisp macros, adapted to incorporate type safety and rich syntax. Unlike infamous C/C++ preprocessor macros, Scala macros: 1) are written in full-fledged Scala, 2) work with expression trees, not with raw strings, 3) cannot change syntax of Scala. You can learn more about our vision of metaprogramming from our talks. We propose to enrich Scala programming language with three flavors of type-safe compile-time macros: macro defs, macro types and...

Over the last year and a half, I have worked with a small group of students and staff to create an excellent online learning community at Mendicant University. Unfortunately, because Mendicant is something that we’re intentionally scaling at a very slow pace, we won’t directly reach as many people as we’d like to any time soon.In this post, I’ve collected some of the things that I think contribute to making Mendicant University a great place to learn. I’d love to see these ideas integrated into more local and online groups, so that we can create a lot more gr...