Why programming is so hard

in   Code  

While a computer is simply a machine that takes in a series of instructions and executes them in order, most people have a hard time understanding this fact. As Arthur C. Clarke wrote

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke in Profiles of the Future (1973)

My observations from my own experiences appear to stand as evidence of the above statement.

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Metaprogramming in Ruby

in   Code   , ,

Recently, I developed a configuration DSL that would populate a database. I found myself writing a lot of repetitive code to handle the DSL syntax, and thought that this would be a good case to programatically generate the methods.

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Working with tmux

in   Technology   ,

At my workplace, my laptop is little more than a glorified mailbox and thin-client. All my development is done on a shared Linux cluster, due to the nature of the build environment needing special compilers and tools. Up until a few years ago, I was logging into a VNC session to keep my sessions active. As I started to telework more, I was annoyed by the slow refresh rates. That’s when I realized that, since all my work was done with console Vim and a console, if I could move to a console interface, I’d wind up with a much faster workflow.

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Peanut Powder

in   Recipes   ,

When I was growing up, my grandmother would make a spiced peanut powder, which I could eat as a side dish to dosa or idli, or more likely, just by itself. Considering that companies like PB2 make something similar, I thought about how hard can it be to make some at home.

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