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The Hard-Core Coder

~ I can't stop writing code!

The Hard-Core Coder

Author Archives: Wyrd Smythe

Tabs or Spaces?

19 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in CS101

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

code clarity, computer code, computer programmers, readable code, space character, tab character, text file

There are many issues that divide programmers: operating systems and editors being two huge ones. I’ve worked on too many platforms to care much about the first one, but I’m a lifelong gvim user.

One of the lesser dividing issues involves the crucial source coding choice: Tabs or Spaces? The issue is both less and more important these days. Less because editors are very capable; more because Python is popular.

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Thinking Ahead

05 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in CS101

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Tags

Computer Language magazine, computer programmers, computer programming

I’ve been going through my old Computer Language magazines, and man have things changed since 1984. It’s a fascinating trip through the early days of personal computing.

I was reading an article about using dates in an application and was struck by the prescience of one bit.

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Brian Kernighan: Successful Language Design

04 Monday Jan 2021

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in Interesting

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Tags

computer language, language design, programming language

I very much enjoyed this one-hour talk by Brian Kernighan:

He’s absolutely right about small languages. Doing a big one is hard to get right.

My Python App Framework

03 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in Python

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Tags

computer code, Python 101, Python code

For me, Python modules seem to divide into two basic classes: library modules and application modules. The former contain basic building blocks, but the latter has top-level routines the operating system invokes when it runs the application.

Today I thought I’d post about the application framework I use for all apps.

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Multiplication Visualized

01 Tuesday Sep 2020

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in Fun, Python

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cartesian product, computer code, Japanese multiplication method, math, multiplication, Pillow (PIL fork), Python code

On my regular blog I just posted about a Japanese visual multiplication method. It’s a cute trick that ties into the notion of grid multiplication techniques. (In general, multiplication techniques are of some interest due to the Mandelbrot set, which requires multiplying large numbers lots of times.)

It turns out code to generate the patterns was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part was generating the diagonal summing lines.

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Square Root of 2

15 Friday May 2020

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in Fun

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

math, Python code

This post contains some simple code for calculating the square root of 2 and then generating the bits of the value.

It’s a companion to a post on my other blog.

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Life With Class

07 Thursday May 2020

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in Fun, Python

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

computer code, Conway's Life game, John Conway, program, Python code

Last time I showed you the functions necessary for Life — for John Conway’s game of Life, that is. We ended up with a set of functions you can use to generate frames of a Life session.

This time I’ll show you an object-oriented version (a Life class) along with some other tweaks to make things look nicer.

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John Conway’s Life

03 Sunday May 2020

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in Fun, Python

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

computer code, Conway's Life game, John Conway, program, Python code

You may have heard that mathematician John Conway died last April. To his everlasting dismay, most people only know him for his “game” of Life (which he considered trivial and inferior to his real mathematical work). Unfortunately for Conway, his Life game is fascinating.

To honor his passing, I whipped up a Python version that I thought I’d share. Python is about the only language I’ve used a lot in which I’ve never implemented Life, so high time I did, right?

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Python Decorators, part 2

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in CS101, Python

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aspect-Oriented Programming, computer language, programming language, Python 101, Python code, Python decorator

Last time I began exploring Python decorators, which are a way of having one function “wrap” another function. Because the wrapper has access to both the input parameters and the return value, it can modify these values (unbeknownst to the inner function).

This time I pick up where I left off by exploring decorators modifying return values, decorators that take parameters, and decorators in classes.

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Python Decorators, part 1

24 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in CS101, Python

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Aspect-Oriented Programming, Python 101, Python code, Python decorator

I’ve been playing around with what Python calls decorators. They’re a built-in way of implementing Aspect-Oriented Programming techniques in Python. In fact, they’re quite powerful.

Since they aren’t a common language feature, they can be a little confusing at first, so I thought I’d try my hand at laying out how they work.

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The Posts

  • Python String Translate
  • The Last Bug
  • Regular Expressions
  • Bits Bytes Chips Clocks
  • Loving the Lambda
  • Failure Tales
  • Naming Things (redux)
  • Calculating Entropy (in Python)
  • Building a Turing Machine
  • Python Tokenize

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Wyrd Smythe

Wyrd Smythe

The canonical fool on the hill watching the sunset and the rotation of the planet and thinking what he imagines are large thoughts.

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