Life's End

An afternoon of deep dialog

Aaron J. Radke — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I feel so crazy. It is happening again. I have met another. I am always longing for more. It's like a drug.

It was an intense conversation. It was as if we were one. I thought I spent my life communicating but just minutes passed. Hours slipped by with ever unfolding joy. My thoughts flowed effortlessly. I understood all. Creativity was free to run. We could go anywhere. I felt wonder in the creator for such beauty. A rush and a high like none other. Short concise statements conveyed depths of meaning without misinterpretation. Every thought jumped to other thoughts. Time went by so fast, yet I did not even think of time. I spent an afternoon with Ruby.

Although we had something going, I now realize those conversations were not all that deep. I didn't know how shallow I was. I was seeing things I never had before, but those were just foothills of mountains. I have recently met Scala.

Git

Aaron J. Radke — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

Git is an incredible tool that has radically redefined my my entire workflow for everything I do on a computer. A cryptographically secure hash as a fingerprint for everything is an incredibly powerful idea. It has permeated everything. Here is a short list of personal applications that it has taken over:

Insanely fast backups
Highly robust nonlinear distributed backups
Virtual desktops by near instantaneous synchronization
Project record
Time tracking
Source control
Journaling
Writing

Here is why it is so much better than Subversion

It is fun; I want to put everything in it
A single directory stores the repository (no littered garbage)
No servers are required
Nonlinear distribution
It is very fast

Frequently required information

getting a repository

$ git clone http://path/to/project.git

creating a bare repository

$ git --bare init

creating a repository

$ git init

commit changes locally

$ git commit -a
$ git commit -a -m "this is the commit message"

setup origin for default push and pulls

$ git remote add origin http://path.to/origin_project.git
$ git config branch.master.remote origin
$ git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master

sync up repository

$ git push

fix "your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by \d commit"

$ git config branch.master.remote origin
$ git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master
$ git pull

undo the last commit

$ git reset --soft HEAD^

sync up repository

$ git push

Thoughts on Scala

Aaron Radke — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:57:57 +0000

paradigm/syntax general principles

from ruby

mixins over inheritance
the last statement of a function is the return value (encourages small modular code)
no semicolon
symbols with a prime before them like 'this
everything is an object even primitives
higher order functions for loop constructs

from Mathematica

List based hierarchy and functional operations
Powerful pattern matching for code branch decisions

new

syntax

methods, classes, operators can all look the same to make a scalable language
simple but expansive predifened associativity :, precedence provide scalability
{}, () replacable
_ for multiple fill on based on contexts
pattern imports

types

imultibility (val, List)
multibility (var, Array)

operators

Parenthesis on an object calls the apply method
Parenthesis on an object with an equals assignment calls the update method
Single argument methods do not require a dot
Any method can be used in operator notation
predefined prefix unary operators +,-,!,~
postfix operators are methods that take no arguments
methods ending in : are for right called objects in operator notation
equals == test uniformly verifies value with a pre null check
methods are operators, precedence is sorted by beginning characters and associativity is sorted by ending character(:)

classes

Factory methods make use of apply
Companion objects for cleaner instantiation of a companion class
base code is the build in constructor
parameters are fields
parameters can have preconditions with require
separate companion objects for static like pieces
case classes for field pattern matching and companion object construction

traits

linearization

pattern matching

case classes for field pattern matching and companion object construction

control structures

everything returns values
nested loops by additional generators
currying to make language like control structures

functions

first class functions
function literals

typing inference

target typing
simple flow typing versus complex Haskel typing for better OO interoperation

built in tools

xml
combinator parsers: these are really powerful and really useful. These provide whole new levels of abstraction

Life's End

An afternoon of deep dialog

An Afternoon of Deep Dialog

Git

Git

Overview

Frequently required information

getting a repository

creating a bare repository

creating a repository

commit changes locally

setup origin for default push and pulls

sync up repository

fix "your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by \d commit"

undo the last commit

sync up repository

Thoughts on Scala

Thoughts on Scala

paradigm/syntax general principles

from ruby

from Mathematica

new