Array Languages: R vs APL
Posted on July 7, 2023
(Last modified on June 5, 2024)
| 15 minutes
| 3022 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
I’ve been learning at least one new programming language a month through
Exercism which has been really fun and interesting. I frequently say that “every language you learn teaches you something about all the
others you know” and with nearly a dozen under my belt so far I’m starting to worry about the combinatorics of that statement.
APL isn’t on the list of languages but I’ve seen it in codegolf solutions often enough that it
seemed worth a look.
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Reflecting on Macros
Posted on June 10, 2023
(Last modified on June 17, 2023)
| 12 minutes
| 2519 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
I’ve been following the drama of the RustConf Keynote Fiasco (RKNF, per @fasterthanlime)
from a great distance - I’m not involved in that community beyond starting to learn
the language. But the controversial topic itself Compile-Time Reflection seemed like something interesting I could learn something about.
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Hyperlink Annotations in JavaScript and CSS
Posted on June 2, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 745 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
This might not have been difficult for a seasoned web-dev, but it was reasonably tricky
to find a clear solution online (at least it was for me) so here’s how I added the
neat domain hints next to all the hyperlinks on my blog.
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Which Plot Was That?
Plotly subplots and customdata
Posted on May 26, 2023
(Last modified on June 17, 2023)
| 9 minutes
| 1730 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
Plotly has a nice way of making click-events available to the calling language, but
it doesn’t quite work simply when using subplot()
. This isn’t a post about a new
feature, but I didn’t quickly find a resource for it so I’ll add my findings to
make it easier for the next person.
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Polyglot Exploration of Function Overloading
Posted on April 3, 2023
(Last modified on June 17, 2023)
| 9 minutes
| 1859 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
I’ve been working my way through Exercism exercises in a variety of
languages because I strongly believe every language you learn something about teaches
you about all the others you know, and makes for useful comparisons between what
features they offer. I was Learning Me a Haskell for Great Good
(there’s a guide/book by that name) and something about Pattern Matching
just seemed extremely familiar.
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Version Zero Easter Eggs
Posted on March 31, 2023
| 14 minutes
| 2813 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
I’ve just finished reading ‘Version
Zero’ by David Yoon. I really enjoyed
it. There’s some (javascript) code on some separator pages between some of the
chapters that is loosely tied into the plot and general theme of the book. I
love solving puzzles, so what was I supposed to do, just leave it at that?
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The Most Complex Puzzle I've Ever Solved
Posted on October 29, 2022
(Last modified on June 17, 2023)
| 16 minutes
| 3350 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
Don’t show me puzzles, unless you want to be responsible for me staying up too
late solving them. I’m far too easily nerd-sniped. This
one was certainly the most complex I’ve ever solved. Quite complicated too,
but definitely the most complex (you’ll see).
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Polyglot Sorting
Posted on October 8, 2022
(Last modified on June 17, 2023)
| 14 minutes
| 2858 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
I’ve had the impression lately that everyone is learning Rust and there’s plenty of great material out there to make that easier. {gifski} is perhaps the most well-known example of an R package wrapping a Rust Cargo crate. I don’t really know any system language particularly well, so I figured I’d wade into it and see what it’s like.
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Australian Signals Directorate 50c Coin Decryption
Posted on September 1, 2022
(Last modified on September 4, 2022)
| 9 minutes
| 1776 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
Updated: 2022-09-04
I took a very long time to post about the last Australian Signals Directorate (then DSD) decryption, so this time I’ll be a lot more punctual. This article was published today announcing that ASD have collaborated to release a new 50c coin containing a decryption challenge.
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Lissajous Curve Matrix in Julia
Posted on May 12, 2022
| 12 minutes
| 2446 words
| Jonathan Carroll
| Link to source
Another ‘small learning project’ for me as I continue to learn Julia. I’ve said many
times that small projects with a defined goal are one of the best ways to learn, at
least for me. This one was inspired by yet another Reddit post

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