been a bit
Started a new quarter at school. Last one, then I have my AS in Computer Information Systems.
Had a shitty day yesterday.
Broke my lighter, and Linux :/
Linux is back up and running smooth. Still have trouble with with ident though.
April 29, 2005
April 11, 2005
Found a wordpress goodie
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons
A nice wiki for how to make wordpress look and act like you want
April 6, 2005
» How to create Firefox extensions
roachfiend.com » How to create Firefox extensions
Thought this might be interesting :^)
More on wordpress
I like wordpress so far, not that means much as this is my first blog. This theme is called anarchy. There are a few others that I liked as well. I need to find a picture for up top though.
Programming Rules
Shamelessly stolen from Basics of the UNIX Philosophy
Doug McIlroy, the inventor of Unix pipes and one of the founders of the Unix tradition, had this to say [McIlroy78]:
(i) Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding new features.
(ii) Expect the output of every program to become the input to another, as yet unknown, program. Don’t clutter output with extraneous information. Avoid stringently columnar or binary input formats. Don’t insist on interactive input.
(iii) Design and build software, even operating systems, to be tried early, ideally within weeks. Don’t hesitate to throw away the clumsy parts and rebuild them.
(iv) Use tools in preference to unskilled help to lighten a programming task, even if you have to detour to build the tools and expect to throw some of them out after you’ve finished using them.
He later summarized it this way (quoted in A Quarter Century of Unix [Salus]):
This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.
-
Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces.
-
Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.
-
Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected to other programs.
-
Rule of Separation: Separate policy from mechanism;
separate interfaces from engines. -
Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add
complexity only where you must. -
Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is
clear by demonstration that nothing else will do. -
Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to make
inspection and debugging easier. -
Rule of Robustness: Robustness is the child of transparency and simplicity.
-
Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program
logic can be stupid and robust. -
Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do
the least surprising thing. -
Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising
to say, it should say nothing. -
Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and
as soon as possible. -
Rule of Economy: Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in
preference to machine time. -
Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking; write programs
to write programs when you can. -
Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it
working before you optimize it. -
Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for
“one true way”.
-
Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because
it will be here sooner than you think.
If you’re new to Unix, these principles are worth some
meditation. Software-engineering texts recommend most of them; but
most other operating systems lack the right tools and traditions to
turn them into practice, so most programmers can’t apply them with
any consistency. They come to accept blunt tools, bad designs,
overwork, and bloated code as normal — and then wonder what Unix
fans are so annoyed about.
Shamelessly stolen from Basics of the UNIX Philosophy
Haven’t settled on a name yet.
I thought up TechSmoke while I was installing wordpress. I haven’t set the name in stone yet.
I suppose maybe I’ll give it some time, and a name should popup.
I also have to make it to the manual and figure out what some of these options do. I imagine there is a firefox plugin as well.
April 5, 2005
Hello world!
Suppose I should stick with tradition. I’ll leave wordpress’ first post title as is.
Hello to anyone who finds this. I’ll try to keep things as interesting as possible. :^)