linusakesson.net

Forum comments in chronological order

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for what people (other than myself) write in the forums. Please report any abuse, such as insults, slander, spam and illegal material, and I will take appropriate actions. Don't feed the trolls.

Jag tar inget ansvar för det som skrivs i forumet, förutom mina egna inlägg. Vänligen rapportera alla inlägg som bryter mot reglerna, så ska jag se vad jag kan göra. Som regelbrott räknas till exempel förolämpningar, förtal, spam och olagligt material. Mata inte trålarna.

Jan 2009

Craft

Anonymous
Sun 4-Jan-2009 15:53
Awsome work!
I really loved this piece of Art when I saw it first, and I'm still in love. Being an Electrical Engineer I smile like hell when I see this demo. :))

Only one bug report:
This should be 31496 Hz, or 31.496 kHz I think:
""Sound is generated during the horizontal blanking periods. That gives a sample rate of 31496 kHz.""

Cheers....
NTAmi

A case against syntax highlighting

Anonymous
Tue 6-Jan-2009 15:58
"Perhaps syntax highlighting was invented to speed up the reading process."

You thoroughly persuaded me that prose text should not be color-coded. Good job. Only prose text works by a very different mechanism than code. Code is a set of detailed, logical instructions for a computer to follow. Prose is generally either descriptive, persuasive, explanatory, or emotive--none of which applies in the least to computer code.

You say that color coding leads to this: "Cognitively, the reading process becomes slightly less automatic and slightly more conscious." But one paragraph later you say this: "software is inevitably full of complexities and important details that you just have to take the time to understand." So wouldn't you want the code reading process to be less automatic and more conscious, so you can take the time to understand what you're reading?

"Syntax errors will be found by the compiler anyway; the developers shouldn't waste time looking for them." Come on, we all know that syntax highlighting isn't about finding syntax errors. It's about disambiguating between properties and methods, or strings and code blocks. It actually clarifies the semantic content that the syntax might hide.

Here's the crux of my counter-argument, and it builds on your notion that semantics is more important than syntax: The semantics of code is tightly bound to the syntax. Natural language is horribly inefficient (by comparison) because of the redundancy and error-correction built in. With a person, you can say something ungrammatical (i.e. with syntax errors) and still be understood. With a computer, you can't just say, "Aw, you know what I meant to write--stop complaining and just do it."

~ philosaur

Craft

lft
Linus Åkesson
Thu 8-Jan-2009 19:13
Only one bug report:
This should be 31496 Hz, or 31.496 kHz I think

Well spotted! I've fixed it now. Thanks!

A case against syntax highlighting

lft
Linus Åkesson
Thu 8-Jan-2009 19:43
Code is a set of detailed, logical instructions for a computer to follow. Prose is generally either descriptive, persuasive, explanatory, or emotive--none of which applies in the least to computer code.

I strongly disagree. Yes, computer code is a set of instructions for a computer to follow. But it is also a means of human communication, and a good programmer strives to write code which is indeed both descriptive and explanatory.

You say that color coding leads to this: "Cognitively, the reading process becomes slightly less automatic and slightly more conscious." But one paragraph later you say this: "software is inevitably full of complexities and important details that you just have to take the time to understand." So wouldn't you want the code reading process to be less automatic and more conscious, so you can take the time to understand what you're reading?

This is a good point. I don't mind slowing down the reading process as such, but when all of that extra time is spent doing cognitive work rather than intelligent reasoning at the semantic level, nothing is gained. There's a trade-off between quantity and quality here, and my original article (or rant, if you prefer) fails to identify it.

Here's the crux of my counter-argument, and it builds on your notion that semantics is more important than syntax: The semantics of code is tightly bound to the syntax.

Again, I don't agree because code is also written for human readers. By changing the names of a few identifiers, reorganizing your data structures, changing the order in which some code is executed -- even though it does not affect the runtime behaviour of your program -- you can help or mislead your audience, and even transform the program from solving problems in one domain into solving (seemingly) different problems in another domain. And when you return to the same code three months later, those choices will have a great effect on how you decide to take the program forward. Code is written for people.

Fratres

Anonymous
Fri 9-Jan-2009 18:41
Very nice piece. Never heard like that in the soudchip world.

Craft

Anonymous
Wed 14-Jan-2009 15:41
WOW ! You guys are just sick ! Amazing !

Best Regards
Ruben Täufer
Germany
Anonymous
Wed 14-Jan-2009 22:30
I cannot decompress lft_craft_src.tar.gz on XP.
How can it be decompressed?

Any help would be appreciated.
Anonymous
Thu 15-Jan-2009 23:47
I cannot decompress lft_craft_src.tar.gz on XP.
How can it be decompressed?

Any help would be appreciated.

Download winRAR or 7-zip =)

The hardware chiptune project

Anonymous
Tue 27-Jan-2009 10:19
You guys are awesome. And you just have saved my day. A cool tune which i can listen to during office hours and a nice idea that i can work on after that. This is the best Idea for what i can do with my Atmel's which are laying around.