Artful Code

Vim has the potential to dramatically increase a programmer’s productivity if you have the time and wherewithal to learn it. And it is a challenge to learn because it is unlike any other text editor (leaving aside other vi clones). It takes work not only to learn the editor’s features and commands, but also to train yourself to use them effectively. Even experienced vim users will discover new, exciting features from time to time. And that is what makes Hacking Vim, by Kim Schulz, a real treat. It takes you on a brief tour of some of the coolest features of vim without getting bogged down in any one of them. Read more…

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Everyone knows not to use goto, right?  Dijkstra’s words on the subject have risen to the level of gospel in the programming community. Not that I do not completely agree… in most cases. Read more…

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Just a few updates and some new projects.

newLISP modules

A Google Code project has been created for my newLISP modules. Anyone who would like to contribute is welcome. It can be found at http://code.google.com/p/actools-newlisp/.

Phorms

The Phorms library also has a Google Project page, located at http://code.google.com/p/php-phorms/. Contributions, as always, are welcome.

PHP Pipeline

PHP Pipeline is an asynchronous HTTP pool. It is very simple to use and extremely efficient on resources. Code and samples available at http://code.google.com/p/php-pipeline/.

JoQ

JoQ is a simple message broker written in Java. Its design goals are efficiency, speed, and ease of use. It is optimized for use as a massive job queue for multiple work flows. One neat feature is the ability to create multiple queues on the fly and add jobs to multiple queues; retrieved jobs are removed from all queues in which they appear.

This is a fairly new project and there is not much code yet written, but if anyone has any suggestions, comments, or contributions, I am happy to hear them.

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A few of us are old enough to remember the days before the Internet, when “online” meant you had Prodigy, AOL, or CompuServe. Some of us are venerable enough to predate even those dinosaurs and recall the age of 300 baud modems, Telix, typing ATDT into the terminal, and local BBSes with names like Gunner’s Grotto and Elfstone (and if you recognize those two, you probably know where I lived in high school). I spent quite a few late nights chatting on the Grotto, a lavish MajorBBS with more than a dozen phone lines on rotary. I remember getting that brand new 9600 baud modem and being awed by its speed. Read more…

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TextMate is an excellent editor, but it is beginning to show its age. It has a few squeaky wheels that have yet to be oiled, and it looks as though the author may be getting bogged down in the minutiae of his next release. With the next version apparently due sometime after the colonization of Mars, it seemed an auspicious time to try out another editor. Read more…

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