Xah Programing Blog 2014-10

they are switching from Cherry MX switch to Kailh keyboard switch. Kailh keyboard switch is just Cherry MX clones, made by a company in China. see http://deskthority.net/wiki/Kaihua_PG1511_series. I'm guessing it's not that much different from CHERRY MX.

looks like quite a few keyboards are using the Kailh switch. Supposedly, the Cherry MX has supply problems.

they also have some other minor changes. The Shift key is now in conventional position. Ctrl is now at conventional keyboard's Caps Lock position. vim and emacs hackers overjoy! The HYPHEN-MINUS - and LOW LINE _ key are now in the middle, replacing the Tab there. The Tab is moved to the upper left corner. And upper right corner has a duplicated ⌫ Backspace key.

Overall, the key layout changes are now more conventional. People really don't wantto change habit. The new layout makes it easier for people to adopt.

2014-10-19

JavaScript Array Speed vs C Array

2014-10-19

theory of the century from C hackers: 1+1 is faster in machine code than any language.

2014-10-17

just had a relevation. call-by-reference and lazy-evaluation can be thought as the same thing. The value is determined when needed. #python #java #haskell

2014-10-17

What's immutable, what's mutable? If i didn't change it, it is immutable, else its mutable. Anything else, is idiocies of the hacker type. Programing Language Syntax Soup #lisp #python #haskell

2014-10-17

Python: Format String

2014-10-17

is Python more clean or Ruby? These two comparison tells: Python: Complex Numbers vs Ruby: Complex Numbers

2014-10-17

when you write a opinion piece, if it's not full of color, it's no good.

2014-10-16

Paul Graham's ideal language is a lang that's hackable (and he created arc lisp). Actually, the ideal is unhackable lang. Every time you hack, you get a shock. Paul Graham's Infatuation with the Concept of Hacker

2014-10-16

oldie goodie State of Theorem Proving Systems 2008

2014-10-16

How to Calibrate Your Monitor's Color

2014-10-16

This Poor Sob Got a New Monitor

2014-10-16

rule of conduct of a 4chan philosopher

2014-10-16

computer language: mixed list and hashtable

these days, some lang has array/list and hashtable mixed into one. It is popularized by php.

php started that way probably due to a hack. The lang doesn't have arrays, but what it calls array is a mix of hashtable. When used like array, the keys are automatically filled with 0, 1, 2, etc. [see PHP: Array Basics]

JavaScript is a different story, but also hack and incompetence. It did NOT intent to have mixed array/hashtable, but rather, in order to be simple, it's array is implemented as hashtable (which is its object), so it pretent to be array. [see JavaScript: Understanding JavaScript Array].

nobody liked these, because they are even less than a design decision. The JavaScript here is simply fk'd up.

though, i heard lua is also mixed array/hashtable. Anyone know if it's really good?

2014-10-15

The Over Flowing StackOverflow

StackOverflow… although useful, but i hesitate to participate in depth. Like all such forums (except usenet), soon it picks up gazillion policies, rules, and cult communities of the subject, where you can't really express a particular view. And, things like, if you don't use the site in a particular way, the community don't consider you good even if you contribute lots answers (not necessary by a policy, but by the behavior of the members.). And, there's this bunch of badges and score shit. On the surface, they are a bit fun for everyone, but mixedin is really a addiction touch, and of course, the site owners know it precisely, that's why they are there. Its called commercialization.

of course, big congregated sites like that make millions, for themselfs, while the open source fanatic idiots, get nothing, defend the site, yet themselfs work for non open source companies making thousands a month, but has the audacity when some poor sob doesn't open source stuff. fk the open source scums. 'its they, gets us today's web, where most news sites are garbage filled with lurid ads, individuals and creative people get nothing, and we must sing ode to open source. 'tis how communism rose.

IDEOLOGY

found this excellent essay: [Why I No Longer Contribute to Stackoverflow 2013-12-24 By Michael T Richter. At http://michael.richter.name/blogs/why-i-no-longer-contribute-to-stackoverflow , accessed on 2014-10-15 ]

g+ discussion https://plus.google.com/+XahLee/posts/KqpkVPb41fb

PS: personally am very thankful of at least one of the Stackoverflow's founder.

2014-10-13

Whatever programmers think about themselves and these towering logic-engines we've erected, we're a lot more superstitious than we realize. We tell and retell this collection of unsourced, inaccurate stories about the nature of the world without ever doing the research ourselves, and there's no other word for that but “mythology”.

read and weep. Language Design: Should Array Index Start at 0 or 1?

2014-10-13

glorious photos of the DEC VT100 Terminal

2014-10-13

Linux: Set Key Repeat Rate by Command

2014-10-13

Linux: xmodmap Tutorial (updated)

2014-10-11

Kinesis Advantage2 Keyboard Review (updated the layout diagram)

2014-10-10