24 Friday Apr 2020
Posted in Python
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.
23 Sunday Jun 2019
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There’s a fairly simple puzzle, called The Eight Queens, that I’ve long favored as a project for first semester CS students. The problem is simple enough for a beginner to tackle, yet also interesting enough to be engaging. (And just tricky enough to be a nice beginner challenge.)
Due to a discussion on my other blog, I dug out an old Python implementation I had, and, after looking at it, I thought it might be worth writing a post about. If nothing else, as I said, the problem is interesting enough to be engaging.
01 Tuesday Jan 2019
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To ring in the new year, I thought I’d play around with an old friend from my earliest programming days, a random text generator. Back then (over 30 years ago), but a little bit always, a good way to practice programming is by working on small, relatively easy, but still fun, programs.
Simple games are common choice, but not the only one. (I’ve probably written a version of Mastermind in every programming language I know.) Another fun choice is various image or text generators (or processors). Random text generators, in particular, offer a range of complexity depending on your taste and time.
02 Wednesday Aug 2017
Sometimes ya gotta laugh. I just spent nearly an hour chasing one of those bugs that “can’t be happening” because “the code looks absolutely correct (as far as I can tell).” Of course, the bug, once you find it, was always hiding in plain view.
This time the fix involved adding just two characters and incidentally improving the program semantics, and very much reminded me of the old joke about the huge cargo ship that breaks down at sea…
20 Thursday Jul 2017
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computer languages, computer programmer, data, Matplotlib, NOAA, programming language, Pythonista, SQL, SQLite, xkcd
In the unlikely event anyone is reading this, and more in the original spirit of “web logs“, as much a diary entry to record both the passing of time and the moment, after a long period of quiet, and in the long-winded run-on way that I sometimes have, a post.
14 Monday Mar 2016
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For Pi Day I published a post on my main blog, Logos Con Carne. Here is the Python code behind the data generated in that post.
06 Tuesday Oct 2015
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computer language, language design, Lisp, little programming language, LPL, programming language, syntax
One characteristic of the hard-core coder is a love of computer languages, programming languages in particular. Programmers of that ilk — of my ilk — collect new languages like merit badges. (I get a kick out of saying that I’ve programmed “from Ada to the Z-80!”)
The especially far gone of us also enjoy creating new languages (or in some cases, new dialects of XML). Lately I’ve been playing with a language design that follows a favorite theme: the single-syntax construction language.
19 Monday May 2014
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baseball, character graphics, computer programming, imperative programming language, Minnesota Twins, programming language, Python code, Target Field
One of the cool things about being a carpenter is that you can make your own shelves and dog houses. One of the cool things about being a computer programmer is that you can make your own computer apps!
In an era when computers are so much a part of life, that’s a useful skill. And the nice thing about doing it yourself is that things turn out exactly as you want them. You can make things that are perfect just for you.
Case in point: using Python to create custom charts of baseball stats!
06 Thursday Mar 2014
To make this blog (I hope) useful, I have tips and advice and bits of advice. But the initial motivation was wanting to write about programming or software in general — topics too technical for my regular blog. In particular, I wanted a place to document past projects, ideas and personal (but sharable) thoughts about coding. I wanted a place to tell stories.
Today I have a story to tell about a programming project I’m working on.
The Hard-Core Coder 