linusakesson.net

Forum comments in chronological order

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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.

Aug 2009

The hardware chiptune project

Anonymous
Mon 3-Aug-2009 06:32
You've got a lot of patience to do all of that. I'd say fuck it half through. Keep up the good work though.

A case against syntax highlighting

Anonymous
Fri 7-Aug-2009 22:33
Here's something I find handy about syntax highlighting - brackets, in javascript and many other languages its really useful when nesting code.

The TTY demystified

Anonymous
Mon 10-Aug-2009 07:21
Very nice. I'm currently (trying to) write a Unix-clone mostly from scratch, and this is a good resource on how TTYs are supposed to work.
Anonymous
Sun 16-Aug-2009 15:32
Hi--how are things in Sweden?

Every once in a while I get up the ambition to complain about the width of text on a web page, and you're the lucky winner today--sorry ;-)

This could be a good article--from the looks of it, it probably is--but why is it (and so many other web pages today) so wide?

Checking one line at random, it is 130 characters wide:

echo "Meanwhile, however, the computers — still quite large and primitive, but able to multitask — were becoming powerful enough to" | wc
1 20 130

Oh, and I'm ignoring the stuff in the left hand panel / column--I simply horizontally scroll so that panel is not visible.

I have three choices if I want to read your article:

* horizontally scroll on each line

* set the type size very small (or zoom out), so an entire line appears on the screen, then use a magnifying glass

* copy and paste the text to a file and read it in an editor--possibly deleting hard line breaks to let the text flow better.

Ideally, and I've seen it done this way, so I believe it can be done:

* the text should be arranged to wrap to the width of the (reader's) window

* if there are long lines of code (pre-formatted text), or wide pictures, or something like that, the other text should still wrap to the width of the reader's window, although he'll have to horizontally scroll to see the full picture or code or whatever. (This is the part I'm specifically referring to as having seen done, but I can't remember any details (like an example, or how to do it--I'll try to pay attention and find some).

Anyway, sorry for the rant--thanks for making the effort to create and disseminate pages with information like this!

Randy Kramer

Power Ninja Action Challenge

Anonymous
Tue 18-Aug-2009 23:13
Hello Linus,
Are you planning to release your source code (even without music)?
lft
Linus Åkesson
Thu 20-Aug-2009 08:43
Hello Linus,
Are you planning to release your source code (even without music)?

Hi!

This time I don't have plans to release the source code, because there's nothing particularly new compared to the playroutine in Craft. There's the drum samples, of course, but that's just 1-bit DPCM. Also, getting 44.1 kHz sound from a chip running at 8 MHz was a challenge, but nothing extreme. So the code is a mess, and I feel like I'd have to tidy it up a bit if I were to release it.

A case against syntax highlighting

Anonymous
Sat 29-Aug-2009 23:58
/*Second, try this piece of C code:
void main(void)
{
int d, d, ad;
printf("%d%d", dd, ad);
}

You have another bug, which syntax highlighting is useless for: you double-define 'd', and you use an undefined variable 'dd'. ;)
Anonymous
Sun 30-Aug-2009 00:02
I think you have a case for a lot of languages, but one interesting case is that of LateX - without syntax highlighting you really have to stare at the screen to see if you've written \subsection{} which is an operator, or subsection{}, which the typesetter will parse as normal text. By the way, I know that LateX is not a programming language, but I feel it's relevant.

Actually, it is. TeX, the language underneath LaTeX, is fully Turing complete, and a BASIC interpreter for it exists. Google if you don't believe me.
Anonymous
Sun 30-Aug-2009 00:11
"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.

Properties vs. methods? Syntax. Strings? Syntax. Code blocks? Syntax. Yeah, I'd pretty much have to say that syntax highlighting has *nothing* whatsoever to do with code semantics, and *everything* to do with discovering syntax errors, and quickly.

Syntax highlighting, in all honesty, WAS introduced with the express intent of helping the coder review his code before kicking off a compile. Anyone who has worked in anything beyond a hobby project knows that a compile run can take minutes to complete, even with partial compilation. Who wants to wait that long?

Syntax highlighting is utterly invaluable from a static analysis point of view.

Here's the crux of my counter-argument, and it builds on your notion that semantics is more important than syntax

I only wish that were true. My favorite languages are Forth and Lisp. Yet, nobody codes in these awesome environments. Why? The stack is too hard for people to grok, or, there's too many parentheses.

Let's just all admit it together now: syntax matters, and it matters BIG-TIME.