Emacs 25.1 has been released

— Posted inCoding — 1 min read

As announced on emacs-devel mailing list:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-09/msg00451.html

“Highlights of this release include:

  • Emacs can now load shared/dynamic libraries (modules)
  • Experimental support for Cairo drawing
  • Enhanced network security (TLS/SSL certificate validity and the
    like)
  • New minor mode ‘electric-quote-mode’ for using curved quotes as you
    type
  • Character folding support in isearch.el
  • Xwidgets: a new feature for embedding native widgets inside Emacs
    buffers
  • New and improved facilities for inserting Unicode characters”

Tim Bray on Fixing JSON

— Posted inCoding — 1 min read

Some time ago, Tim Bray started a Fixing JSON conversation in his blog. It’s an interesting conversation and you might want to have a look at it.

Fixing JSON
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2016/08/20/Fixing-JSON

The Fixing-JSON Conversation
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2016/08/22/Fixing-JSON-Redux

I definitely vote for comments in JSON! 🙂

Use Python for Machine Learning

— Posted inCoding — 1 min read

If you plan to do something with machine learning, you might want to read this interview with Adam Geitgey, Director of Software Engineering at Groupon.

“Python is the most popular programming language today for machine learning”
https://jaxenter.com/python-popular-programming-language-today-machine-learning-128942.html

I think Python is a very good choice to get started with machine learning.

To reuse or not

— Posted inCoding — 1 min read

What do you think about reusing code, libraries, APIs? You can achieve more with reuse. But you have to trust. Read what Adam DuVander thinks about this.

When Will the Last Ever Line of Code Be Written?
http://blog.brightwork.io/when-will-the-last-ever-line-of-code-be-written/

I’m not sure about this. Dependencies can make life very complicated. Windows DLL hell, Java library hell, new API versions when you don’t want them. I prefer to have not too many dependencies.

Programming proficiency

— Posted inCoding — 1 min read

O’Reilly has a nice article about programming proficiency written by Gregory Brown.

The traits of a proficient programmer
Bridging the gap between competence and proficiency
https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/the-traits-of-a-proficient-programmer

I think he describes the T-shaped professional that human resources folks love so much.

Pick a small number of specific skills you’re simply good but not great at, and then develop competence to an extreme, almost obsessive degree.

Yep, that’s a T.

Creative Coding

— Posted inCoding — 1 min read

I have just started the free online course Creative Coding on FutureLearn. The course description says:

Use computer programming as a creative discipline to generate sounds, images, animations and more, with this free online course.

Having a background in industrial software development, I’m very curious about the creative aspect of coding. I never felt very creative while trying to be in-time and in-budget.

They will be using the Processing environment in the course. I always wanted to explore this.

#FLCreativeCoding

The Problem With Object-Oriented Languages

— Posted inCoding — 1 min read

I didn’t know this quote by Joe Armstrong, the creator of Erlang:

The problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle.

Thanks to Charles Scalfani to write about it on Medium. You might want to read his article “Goodbye, Object Oriented Programming”.

https://medium.com/@cscalfani/goodbye-object-oriented-programming-a59cda4c0e53