miniblog.

Strict-by-default vs Lazy-by-default https://www.barrucadu.co.uk/posts/2016-02-12-strict-vs-lazy.html (clear, readable defense of lazy programming languages)

I admire the Go team's drive to improve build times. Many golang release announcements include bar charts—I wish more PLs did this.

Sometimes I use tools because they're clearly technically superior. Sometimes though it's because the maintainer is a delight to work with.

Awesome @emacs_flycheck feature: you can click error IDs and it will show the full compiler explanation! (Rust in this example.)

How China Is Changing Your Internet https://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000004574648/china-internet-wechat.html (video on how WeChat has become a platform)

The Swift team are discussing a Rust/Cyclone style ownership system! https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/Week-of-Mon-20170213/032155.html (opt-in and an interesting dynamic enforcement)

The Racket team are looking at using the Chez VM, for higher perf and writing more of Racket in Racket!

The Biggest and Weirdest Commits in Linux Kernel Git History https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/blog/2017/the-biggest-and-weirdest-commits-in-linux-kernel-git-history (epic diffs, 66-way octopus merges and other fun)

What's your preferred Emacs mail package?

I'm also struck by how many gnus tutorials assume gmail. We're a monoculture!

I've created a throwaway email account to play with Gnus. It's surprising how many email providers disable IMAP by default these days.

I like the changelog convention of 'taught $tool to $feature' (e.g. git, Emacs). It presents s/w development like teaching the machine.

.@magit_emacs includes a brilliant reflog display! `l H' calls magit-reflog-head, for example.

A blog post is a great unit of size for learning new things. They're manageable. (I miss the thoroughness of books sometimes though.)

Pijul is an interesting VCS based on the darcs patch methodology: https://pijul.org/ (also faster, but due to algo choices)