Category Archives: Programming

Reasons for Clojure

Posted on 2021-04-15 by jcs

Irreal regulars know that I’ve been exceedingly wishy-washy about learning Clojure. Every time I see a video from Zamansky or someone else using it, I get excited about learning and trying it out. Other times, I get hung up on … Continue reading →

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Clojure and Scheme Compared

Posted on 2021-03-06 by jcs

As I’ve said before, I’m sometimes tempted to take up Clojure but have always been put off by its reliance on the JVM. Last year, Mike Zamansky posted a couple of videos (1, 2) on using Clojure for the Advent … Continue reading →

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Designing with Finite State Machines

Posted on 2021-02-22 by jcs

I’ve written before (see here and here for example) of my enthusiasm for using finite state machines (FSMs) in my design and coding. I had a C-based template that I used over and over. To implement a new state machine … Continue reading →

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Using Emacs & Org in College (Programming) Assignments

Posted on 2021-01-24 by jcs

If you’re an experienced Emacser, the idea of using Emacs everywhere—including for school assignments—is second nature. Of course, not everyone is an experienced user. Some, like Seshal Jain, discover Emacs in the course of their studies and evolve their workflows … Continue reading →

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REPLs

Posted on 2021-01-03 by jcs

Mikel Evins has a lovely post that considers interactive programming and REPLs. As many of you know, I love interactive programming and am a huge fan of it. I like how you can try out bits of code and feel … Continue reading →

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Threading Macros in Elisp

Posted on 2020-12-10 by jcs

As I’ve mentioned in some recent posts, Mike Zamansky is making his annual pilgrimage to the Advent of Code Website to try his hand at the problems. This year—so far, at least—he’s been using Clojure to solve the problems. I … Continue reading →

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Keyboards for Emacs

Posted on 2020-11-30 by jcs

One of the most important pieces of kit in our arsenal is the keyboard. It’s easy to treat them as an afterthought but if you do a lot of typing as most of us do, the choice can mean the … Continue reading →

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Selective Display

Posted on 2020-06-28 by jcs

Marcin Borkowski (mbork) has a post that reminds me of a useful command that I always forget about: selective-display. Borkowski uses it to make working with some large JSON files easier. Take a look at his post for the details. … Continue reading →

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Comments on the Usefulness of Emacs for Scientists

Posted on 2020-05-01 by jcs

Over at the Emacs subredit, gmu_nu says he’s a graduate student in Physics and wonders about the usefulness of Emacs for scientists who aren’t in CS. The resulting comments are an interesting compendium of the ways that scientists make use … Continue reading →

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In Praise of C

Posted on 2020-01-02 by jcs

I’ve been lucky to spend almost my entire career working in C. These days, I do more Lisp but for many years, C put bread on the table. Like all earthly things, C is starting to suffer a decline in … Continue reading →

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