Devine Lu Linvega's journal https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html 2024-03-21T00:00:00+00:00 Devine Lu Linvega's journal https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html 2024-03-21 Catlangs https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2024-03-21 Catlangs 2024-03-21T00:00:00+00:00 2024-03-21T00:00:00+00:00 <p>As days are getting warmer, we can begin to tackle some much needed maintenance topside like changing old lines, revarnishing the oars and inspecting the rigging. After a whole winter of getting up in the dark to do weight training, I feel it was well worth it as my back pain is gone, I sleep better and feel more overall physically capable. I have a month left of gym membership and plan to make use of it as much as I physically can before its expiration, and our casting off.</p> <p>I&#39;ve spend the idle hours of these past few days improving <a href="left.html">Left</a>, thinking about <a href="concatenative.html">concatenative programming</a> and trying to better understand <a href="https://concatenative.yahoogroups.narkive.com/hrdFdrU7/stack-what-does-actually-mean" target="_blank">what makes a language concatenative</a>. To try and answer this question, I&#39;ve asked members of the catlang community to add example programs for the various flavors. One of these examples was the <a href="https://concatenative.org/wiki/view/Tak%20function" target="_blank">Tak Function</a> which was new to me, and found it to map surprisingly well to stack programming.</p> <ul> <li>It&#39;s just been too nice outside for any more computer musings.</li> <li>Enjoyed Henrik Karlsson&#39;s <a href="../docs/third_chair.txt" target="_blank">Third Chair</a> story.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/chesshire_head.png" width="140"/> 2024-03-10 Left revamp https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2024-03-10 Left revamp 2024-03-10T00:00:00+00:00 2024-03-10T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We took <a href="pino.html">Pino</a>&#39;s chainplates off and while the new ones are being fabricated, we reinforced the area where the chainplate meet the deck. It makes for a momentarily uninhabitable place to live, so I haven&#39;t had much headspace to do creative work these past few days, but it will be well worth it considering the places we&#39;re hoping to venture into.</p> <p>Whenever I get to reclaim my desk from the pile of tools and materials that took residency on there, I fool around with <a href="utf8.html">UTF-8</a> encoding support in <a href="left.html">Left</a>. Looking into how diacritics can be appended to other glyphs, I&#39;ve begun to consider if I couldn&#39;t possibly encode the <a href="uxntal_alphabet.html">Uxntal Alphabet</a> entirely from pre-existing glyphs within the two-bytes range and use diacritics for modes.</p> <ul> <li>Made a few improvements to <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/left" target="_blank">Left</a>&#39;s support for UTF-8.</li> <li>Rewrote the <a href="../etc/uxnrepl/src/uxn.js" target="_blank">uxn.js</a>, it now passes the opcode tests.</li> <li>Added <a href="https://concatenative.org/wiki/view/Example%20programs" target="_blank">example programs</a> to the concat wiki.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/erewhon.png" alt="Samuel Butler, 1872"/> 2024-02-25 Hello, Dot? https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2024-02-25 Hello, Dot? 2024-02-25T00:00:00+00:00 2024-02-25T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Our plans for the summer are coming into focus. It looks like we&#39;ll depart early, head as far north as we can make it, and see if the boat and its crew can weather the cold. This ought to give us taste of what we might expect would we decide to make it further into the arctic next year.</p> <p>Someone found an interesting undefined behavior in the assembly of Uxn code, where the <a href="uxntal_scope.html">nesting of child labels</a> could be implemented in one of two ways, leading to an incompatiblity between assemblers. I&#39;ve explored this further and found myself pulled me into a concatenative object-oriented programming rabbit-hole.</p> <ul> <li>Released <a href="potato.html">Potato</a>, added to <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn" target="_blank">uxnemu</a> and <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn11" target="_blank">uxn11</a> emulators.</li> <li>Added <a href="utf8.html">Latin Accented</a> support to <a href="left.html">Left</a>.</li> <li>Enjoyed reading Bosun Bird&#39;s <a href="https://www.bosunbird.com/beyond-the-rapids" target="_blank">sailing beyond the rapids</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/billard.png" width="120" alt="Fredkin &amp; Toffoli, 1982"/> 2024-02-11 Conlang Weekly https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2024-02-11 Conlang Weekly 2024-02-11T00:00:00+00:00 2024-02-11T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Other than <a href="https://100r.co/site/boat_projects.html" target="_blank">doing improvements aboard</a>, it has been a month of playing with conlangs and conscripts. I begun exploring <a href="utf8.html">variable length glyphs</a> in <a href="left.html">Left</a> after adding support for the Lambda(λ) character last month, and went further still by supporting the <a href="shavian.html">Shavian alphabet</a>. I had been looking for an alternative alphabet for a while and loved its 48 letters, the symmetries in the glyphs and how easy it was to <a href="https://shavian.school" target="_blank">learn it</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Added a dark mode to the wiki.</li> <li>Dodo soldosisol <a href="solresol.html#numbers">larelafa solmisimi</a>.</li> <li>𐑒𐑮𐑦𐑱𐑑𐑩𐑛 𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-utils/tree/main/item/gui/shaviankb" target="_blank">𐑪𐑯𐑕𐑒𐑮𐑰𐑯 𐑒𐑰𐑚𐑹𐑛</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/shavian.png" width="120" alt="stupendous written in the Shavian script"/> 2024-01-26 Back to music https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2024-01-26 Back to music 2024-01-26T00:00:00+00:00 2024-01-26T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I&#39;ve originally started looking into virtual machines to build a target to host some games, a handful of tools and my wiki — but instead of stopping once I had done so, I kept pushing further and became obsessed with this programming language design stuff, and along the way, I lost track of why I was even doing it all in the first place. After a two year detour, I look back and I&#39;ve almost totally ignored my other interests as a digital artist and musician. It&#39;s about time I find my way back. </p> <ul> <li>Finding my <a href="https://soundcloud.com/neauoire" target="_blank">way back</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/identity/koseki-091450.png" width="100"/> 2024-01-13 Maintenance https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2024-01-13 Maintenance 2024-01-13T00:00:00+00:00 2024-01-13T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The forge that we use at Hundred Rabbits has been <a href="https://status.sr.ht" target="_blank">taken down by DDoS attacks</a> and is struggling to come back online, the event reminded us that we ought to also have mirrors and release versions of these source files available elsewhere. I&#39;ve begun to host copies across our various websites. The builds are still accessible through <a href="https://hundredrabbits.itch.io" target="_blank">itch.io</a>.</p> <p>Until we regain access and release the changes of the last few days, keeping with the spirit of improving the resilience of the tools we use I&#39;ve taken a moment to write a kind of <i>pocket version</i> of the console emulator and <a href="drifblim.html">self-hosted assembler</a> as to see how many lines are needed to start from the seed assembler and replicate it. A copy of the pocket emulator, the source for the assembler and its hexadecimal representation have been <a href="uxn.html">added to the wiki</a>.</p> <p>In the meantime, if anyone is looking for a specific file that is currently unavailable, get in touch!</p> <ul> <li>Revamped the <a href="permacomputing.html">permacomputing</a> page.</li> <li>Enjoyed watching the mini series <a href="https://archive.org/details/effondrement-collapse-2019">L&#39;Effondrement(2019)</a>.</li> <li>Thankful for Sourcehut&#39;s tireless work on <a href="https://status.sr.ht" target="_blank">resolving the issue and communication</a>.</li> </ul> 2023-12-28 Lisp https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-12-28 Lisp 2023-12-28T00:00:00+00:00 2023-12-28T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I&#39;ve been taking it easy for the last few days of the year, cooked a lot, walked a lot. I&#39;ve been re-reading SICP and idly poking at implementing a <a href="lisp.html">Lisp</a> system in the style of <a href="varvara.html">Varvara</a>. I don&#39;t have any specific goal for it beyond exploring low-level symbolic computing, but who knows where these things might lead.</p> <p>After watching an excellent documentary about the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxRi34PqWo" target="_blank">Newton</a>, I found myself reading about the various ways to convert hand-written letters into their digital representations, and soon found myself fascinated enough that I just had to invent my own little shorthand <a href="grail.html">calligraphy and interpreter</a>. </p> <ul> <li>Wrote a daily devlog for <a href="https://rabbits.srht.site/decadv/" target="_blank">December Adventure</a>.</li> <li>Revisited the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/lispkit" target="_blank">Lispkit book and ecosystem</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/chine_nual.png" width="120"/> 2023-12-09 Pomparu https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-12-09 Pomparu 2023-12-09T00:00:00+00:00 2023-12-09T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Rek&#39;s <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a> is out! After nearly seven years, it&#39;s finally available for anyone to read. I&#39;m super happy with the result, it includes a few side projects documented on here, such as a dialect of <a href="solresol.html">Solresol</a>, and the game <a href="hako.html">Hako</a>. That&#39;s all I&#39;ve this week, so <a href="https://100r.co/site/wiktopher.html" target="_blank">go read it</a>!</p> <ul> <li>Explored <a href="grail.html">graphical input languages</a>.</li> <li>Noodling on an <a href="https://rabbits.srht.site/decadv/" target="_blank">operating system</a>, again.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/pomparu.png" width="120"/> 2023-11-20 Ulz Compression & Elmet Brae https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-11-20 Ulz Compression & Elmet Brae 2023-11-20T00:00:00+00:00 2023-11-20T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The <a href="elmet_brae.html">Elmet Brae</a> compilation has been released, and put up on <a href="beldam_records.html">Beldam Records</a> with a beautiful cover by <a href="https://nchrs.xyz" target="_blank">Rostiger</a>, who also made the <a href="varvara_zine.html">Varvara Zine</a>.</p> <p>I&#39;ve spared a few evenings to implement a <a href="ulz_format.html">Ulz encoder</a>, for which my first attempt was nearly a year ago, and at the time, writing programs in Uxn that involved many nested loops terrified me. So, it felt great to revisit this old problem that stumped me before, and solve it.</p> <p>Members of the <a href="solresol.html">Solresol</a> community and I talked about the lack of useful example sentences in the language, and how the handful of examples out there often include mistakes, so we&#39;ve put together a <a href="resolsido.html">revised list of sentences</a> that we could agree on.</p> <ul> <li>Released the <a href="https://beldamrecords.bandcamp.com/album/elmet-brae-the-land" target="_blank">Elmet Brae</a> compilation.</li> <li>Implemented the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-utils/tree/main/item/cli/lz/ulzenc.tal" target="_blank">ULZ compressor</a> in Uxntal.</li> </ul> 2023-11-11 Ternary Party https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-11-11 Ternary Party 2023-11-11T00:00:00+00:00 2023-11-11T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Rek and I are doing a final proof-reading of <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a> before release, we&#39;re trying to make sure that all of the book&#39;s conlang dialogs are consistent with each other. On the topic of conlangs, we&#39;ve also translated <a href="thousand_rooms.html">Thousand Rooms</a> in <a href="solresol.html">Solresol</a>.</p> <p>In the evenings, I&#39;ve been revisiting <a href="ternary_computing.html">ternary computers</a> after wondering about string encoding in such a system. I&#39;ve only implemented the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/gyo" target="_blank">basic scaffolding</a> so far, but I&#39;m hoping to reach a point where it can assemble and run basic <a href="terscii.html">TerSCII</a> printing routines.</p> <ul> <li>Improved the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-utils/tree/main/item/cli/opctest/opctest.tal" target="_blank">Opcode Tests</a>, and <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn/tree/main/item/projects/examples/devices" target="_blank">Device Tests</a>.</li> <li>Made a <a href="https://rabbits.srht.site/solrela/" target="_blank">Solresol Translator</a> based on Sidosi.</li> <li>Did a few fixes to <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn5" target="_blank">Uxn5</a> and <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/nasu" target="_blank">Nasu</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/trefoil.png" width="120"/> 2023-10-25 Back Aboard https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-10-25 Back Aboard 2023-10-25T00:00:00+00:00 2023-10-25T00:00:00+00:00 <p>After being away since leaving for the train to Strange Loop, we finally made our way back to Pino. It feels great to be back in our things, and to have the mind-space to create again, I was able to write music this week, and it had been a very long time since I last felt like doing so.</p> <p>I also helped with the implementation of a few devices for the Javascript version of Varvara that a friend of ours use in their classroom, someone also contributed a <a href="https://github.com/remko/uxn.wasm" target="_blank">WASM implementation</a> of the Uxn core, which speeds things up a lot in comparison with the old one I made last year. I&#39;ve also played with <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-utils/tree/main/item/gui/sixels/sixels.tal" target="_blank">sixels</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a song for <a href="https://orllewin.github.io/elmet_brae/EB01" target="_blank">Elmet Brae EB01</a>.</li> <li>Released transcription of <a href="https://100r.co/site/computing_and_sustainability.html" target="_blank">Computing And Sustainability</a>.</li> <li>Implemented a few missing devices to <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn5" target="_blank">Uxn5</a>.</li> <li>So happy to be back on the water.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/softrains.png" width="140"/> 2023-10-12 Perma https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-10-12 Perma 2023-10-12T00:00:00+00:00 2023-10-12T00:00:00+00:00 <p>These past few days, Rek and I were invited to participate in conversations with students, researchers, and radio hosts about sustainable technological practices(Right To Repair, Design for Disassembly, Open Source, etc). We&#39;re witnessing a growing interest in software longevity, digital preservation, and the organization of a critical mass of ecofeminist collectives exploring the failability of modern tech, and the development of <a href="collapse_computing.html">resilient practices</a>, beyond mere academics.</p> <ul> <li>Nothing to show yet, but working on Varvara&#39;s new Audio device with <a href="https://badd10de.dev" target="_blank">Bad Diode</a>.</li> <li>The talk for Strange Loop is now <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3u7bGgVspM" target="_blank">available online</a>!</li> <li>Enjoyed reading Pauwels&#39; <i>Blumroch L&#39;Admirable</i> once again.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/cybersix.jpg" width="220"/> 2023-10-07 Stolas https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-10-07 Stolas 2023-10-07T00:00:00+00:00 2023-10-07T00:00:00+00:00 <p>After taking the train from Seattle to Saint-Louis, I kept on heading East to visit family and friends. I&#39;ve been feeling a bit of out of sorts in regards to programming, and unmotivated to do any software development. It&#39;ll come back to me, but in the meantime I&#39;ll be spending my days <a href="journal.html">drawing dailies</a> for the month of October, and catching up with movies and music that came out since we last had access to reliable internet connection.</p> <ul> <li>Translated parts of <a href="wiktopher_translations.html">Wiktopher to Solresol</a>.</li> <li>Removed interactive mode to <a href="drifblim.html">Drifblim</a>.</li> <li>Got a <a href="https://merveilles.town/@ritualdust/111191488456801990" target="_blank">Prince Stolas</a> from <a href="https://ritualdust.com/tattoo" target="_blank">Lizbeth</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/stolas.png" width="120"/> 2023-09-25 Strange Loop Or Die Tryin' https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-09-25 Strange Loop Or Die Tryin' 2023-09-25T00:00:00+00:00 2023-09-25T00:00:00+00:00 <p>On the eve of the talk, I sit half-awake waiting for my first real meal since leaving Victoria to arrive, it&#39;s been two hours, blatter is coming down hard on this very loud, and very understaffed, and only available vegetarian place within walking distance from the hotel. And, my voice is shut, the talk is in a few hours.</p> <p>I normally am a really careful planner when it comes to giving these sorts of technical talks, you wouldn&#39;t catch me going out the night before.</p> <p>I had assumed that the train from Seattle would either carry their one vegetarian meal on the menu, or accommodate. After a first day of eating cold bread loaves with margarine, and an altercation with an uncompromising attendant on the second day, I managed to secure myself a &#34;<i>Steamed Russet Potato A-la Tomato Sauce</i>&#34; for the third.</p> <p>I had also assumed that the venue would carry palatable vegan options, or that I could cook my own. After missing the Strange Loop meal service twice in a row, due to talk scheduling conflicts, I managed to queue long enough to acquire one of the last remaining scoops of an awful vegan soup. I promptly returned to stealing whole fruits from the hotel gym and eating them in my room, which I was content with. The problem that wasn&#39;t apparent at first was that eating sweets all day kept me up all night. </p> <p>Despite these mistakes in preparing properly for the road leading to the talk, I managed to show up on stage on time, give an (hopefully) entertaining presentation at Strange Loop 2023. I&#39;d love to give a special thank to Jack Rusher for the tea that brought my voice back, and Josh Morrow for letting me borrow their laptop and install Uxn on it for the presentation.</p> <ul> <li>Released slides for the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/strangeloop2023">Strange Loop 2023 Talk</a>.</li> <li>Added soft-reboot to <a href="varvara.html">Varvara</a>.</li> <li>I learnt how to <a href="https://merveilles.town/@neauoire/111101767065278410" target="_blank">cook instant noodles with a clothing iron</a>.</li> </ul> 2023-09-09 Solresol https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-09-09 Solresol 2023-09-09T00:00:00+00:00 2023-09-09T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Now that the first pass of proof-reading for <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a> is behind us, we have begun to look into cleaning up some of the worlding aspects of the book, which include <a href="hako.html">congames</a>, conlangs and even <i>conrecipes</i>. One of Lupin&#39;s dialects can be whistled, and as to encode the various poems of the story into pitches, we decided to pick the <a href="solresol.html">Solresol</a> constructed language as a suitable candidate.</p> <p>Not previously knowing the language, I have spent the past few days neck-deep in digital archeology excavating some of the language&#39;s vanishing documents from the Wayback Machine and transcribing them in a format that will allow me to translate the texts. While I&#39;m at it, I&#39;m planning on translating the <a href="thousand_rooms.html">Thousand Rooms</a> story, <i>Famimi Remisolla</i> as practice.</p> <ul> <li>Collected notes into a <a href="solresol.html">Solresol</a>, and <a href="solrela.html">Solrela</a>, pages.</li> <li>Enjoyed exploring the archives of the <a href="https://www.sidosi.org" target="_blank">Sidosi</a> community.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/ecodisc.png" width="350"/> 2023-08-26 Oekaki https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-08-26 Oekaki 2023-08-26T00:00:00+00:00 2023-08-26T00:00:00+00:00 <p>In an attempt to catch up with all of the readings I have had queued in preparation to <a href="talk.html">Strange Loop</a>, I&#39;ve inadvertently filled my every waking moments with enough dry plt papers to make myself altogether <i>sick</i> with the topic. I&#39;ve been so caught up trying to learn about expressiveness, that I momentarily forgot what about it was that I even wanted to express. So, while I recover, I&#39;ve picked up <a href="neauismetica.html">daily drawing</a> again.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a 4kb <a href="oekaki.html">illustration program</a>, and <a href="journal.html">drew</a>.</li> <li>Enjoyed rediscovering the <a href="https://www.altaplana.be" target="_blank">AltaPlana</a> wiki.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/urbicande.png" width="200"/> 2023-08-06 Lambdas https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-08-06 Lambdas 2023-08-06T00:00:00+00:00 2023-08-06T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The first pass of review for <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a> is done! Rek and I have been working toward this milestone for months.</p> <p>While implementing changes to <a href="oquonie.html">Oquonie</a>, I noticed how many single-purpose labels were used merely to hop over short lengths of code, enough that having ran of ideas for names to called them, I would default to things such as <code>&amp;skip</code>, <code>&amp;continue</code> or even <code>&amp;ok</code>. The solution was to create anonymous labels, and as to be capable of nesting them, I ended up inadvertently adding <a href="uxntal_lambdas.html">lambdas to Uxntal</a> which has drastically improve code readability, and as a side effect allowed for the rapid creation of tree data-structures.</p> <ul> <li>Started <a href="https://merveilles.town/@neauoire/110856485157270511" target="_blank">versioning Varvara</a>.</li> <li>Implemented <a href="https://merveilles.town/@neauoire/110832824831251535" target="_blank">whole-sprite flipping</a> to Varvara.</li> <li>Added makefiles to major uxntal projects.</li> <li>Enjoyed playing with Felix Winkelmann&#39;s <a href="http://www.call-with-current-continuation.org/fleng/fleng.html" target="_blank">Fleng</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/bulb.png" width="120"/> 2023-07-28 Maintenance All The Things https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-07-28 Maintenance All The Things 2023-07-28T00:00:00+00:00 2023-07-28T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We are anchored in Von Donop, and I&#39;m taking some time away from working on the talk to finish proof-reading <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a>.</p> <p>Week after week, I find myself revisiting <a href="drifblim.html">Drifblim</a>&#39;s implementation, and each time I leave convinced that I&#39;ve succeeded in improving it as much as I ever could, considering the negligible scale of the program, yet more elegant solutions, entirely unimaginable at the time, always become nothing less than obvious, a week later. — The destination that I&#39;m grasping for is getting ever farther at the same rate that I approach it, but for as long as the program decreases in size, and increases in reliability, the chase remains exhilarating.</p> <ul> <li>Changed how the <a href="https://merveilles.town/@neauoire/110781490513459345" target="_blank">0x00 color</a> is handled by Varvara.</li> <li>Added a bit of breathing room to <a href="left.html">Left</a>&#39;s interface.</li> <li>Enjoyed Nettie&#39;s <a href="https://mastodon.scot/@nettles/110766224231850097" target="_blank">Uxntal Cheatsheet</a>.</li> </ul> 2023-07-12 Uxntal Presentation https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-07-12 Uxntal Presentation 2023-07-12T00:00:00+00:00 2023-07-12T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I&#39;ve done little else this week other than proof-reading Rek&#39;s <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a> manuscript, but I did have this idea, while working on program verification, that I might like to realize in the fall. A system like <a href="smalltalk.html">Smalltalk</a>&#39;s definition of interfaces for message passing, in which a message must find a match in the listening object&#39;s methods dictionary, might help improve Uxntal&#39;s expressiveness and be realized entirely with syntax already understood by the assembler.</p> <p>We had to negotiate rapids and convert the ideal transit time from tide tables to Daylight Saving Time, which reminded me that I never made time to know when the change occurred in Canada. I am taking a not of it here for next autumn, it begins on the second Sunday of March at 2 a.m. and ends on the first Sunday in November at 2 a.m.</p> <ul> <li>Created a desktop <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-utils/tree/main/item/gui/sliderule/sliderule.tal">slide rule</a> toy.</li> <li>Implemented a <a href="logic.html">few birds</a> to <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/yo-joy" target="_blank">yo!joy</a>.</li> <li>Added an <a href="astronomy.html">astronomy</a> page.</li> <li>Enjoyed using Lynn&#39;s <a href="https://github.com/lynn/chibicc" target="_blank">Chibicc</a> compiler.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/living-structures.png"/> 2023-06-18 Princess Louisa https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-06-18 Princess Louisa 2023-06-18T00:00:00+00:00 2023-06-18T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Ever since we sailed back to Canada, from Japan, friends have told us to make the trip through Jervis Inlet to <a href="https://100r.co/site/princess_louisa_inlet.html" target="_blank">Princess Louisa Inlet</a>. After making our way there this week, and hiking up and down its cliffsides, I can confirm that it does indeed live up to its fame, it is absolutely breathtaking.</p> <p>Having no connectivity has helped me focus on writing my talk for <a href="https://thestrangeloop.com/2023/an-approach-to-computing-and-sustainability-inspired-from-permaculture.html" target="_blank">Strange Loop 2023</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Added speaker&#39;s notes and pencil mode to <a href="adelie.html">Adelie</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxnfor" target="_blank">Formatted</a> some of the major roms.</li> <li>Redesigned the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxnbal" target="_blank">uxntal arity-checker</a>, some <a href="uxntal_devlog.html">design notes</a>.</li> <li>Enjoyed Jenny Odell&#39;s <a href="https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/another-kind-of-time/" target="_blank">Another Kind Of Time</a> conversation.</li> </ul> 2023-06-16 Context Inference https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-06-16 Context Inference 2023-06-16T00:00:00+00:00 2023-06-16T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We&#39;re on our way north, anchored in Telegraph harbor. We&#39;ve preserved enough food to get us through the summer, and stocked the shelves with <a href="reading.html">books</a> to last us as long. I was especially happy about finding a copy of Carroll&#39;s <i>Sylvie &amp; Bruno</i>, and Golding&#39;s <i>Lord Of The Flies</i>, to carry along with us.</p> <p>To continue my research on concatenative language inference, in contrast to the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxnrea" target="_blank">reassembler</a> which creates an intelligible textual representation from a binary file and a symbols file; this time, I&#39;ve written a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxnfor" target="_blank">reformatter</a> that works from a textual source file and reindents it based on context. An interesting puzzle, considering how few syntaxic structures Uxntal has, lacking explicit notation for loops or even conditionals.</p> <ul> <li>Found a way to removed the page limit of 32kb for the <a href="https://github.com/XXIIVV/oscean" target="_blank">wiki</a>.</li> <li>By popular demand, the <a href="../docs">docs folder</a> is now browsable.</li> <li>Enjoyed playing with Bellinitte&#39;s <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bellinitte/pinhole" target="_blank">Pinhole</a> renderer.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/borders.png" width="300"/> 2023-05-28 Road to Strange Loop https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-05-28 Road to Strange Loop 2023-05-28T00:00:00+00:00 2023-05-28T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I&#39;ve submitted a talk about <a href="permacomputing.html">permacomputing</a> to <a href="https://www.thestrangeloop.com" target="_blank">Strange Loop 2023</a> and it has been <a href="https://thestrangeloop.com/2023/an-approach-to-computing-and-sustainability-inspired-from-permaculture.html" target="_blank">accepted</a>. This summer, as we sail north, I&#39;ll be collating my notes on the overlaps between permaculture and situated software design practices — And, hopefully, have a substantial presentation by September.</p> <p>It&#39;s unbelieveable that we can sail up along the coast, find a pretty nook between two mountains that seems inviting, and just live there. When we&#39;ll have walked up and down the old trails to our heart&#39;s content, maybe we&#39;ll keep going. Part of me wonder for how long this will remain possible, it&#39;s just too good to last. </p> <ul> <li>Implemented <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-games/tree/main/item/dads/dads.tal" target="_blank">Dad&#39;s Puzzler</a>, in Uxntal.</li> <li>Added interface controls to <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/bicycle" target="_blank">Varvara&#39;s Bicycle</a>.</li> <li>Illustrated an <a href="https://merveilles.town/@neauoire/110437810242395465" target="_blank">interpretation</a> of the Merveilles logo.</li> <li>Enjoyed Graham Shawcross&#39;s <a href="https://grahamshawcross.com/2014/02/06/five-finger-exercises/" target="_blank">Five Finger Exercises</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/finger_binary.png" width="130"/> 2023-05-12 Type Inference https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-05-12 Type Inference 2023-05-12T00:00:00+00:00 2023-05-12T00:00:00+00:00 <p>For a few weeks now, I&#39;ve been sketching the basis for a <a href="uxntal_types.html">type inference</a> system for Uxntal. I first came across a stack-effect validator when writing <a href="https://docs.factorcode.org/content/article-inference.html" target="_blank">Factor</a>, and I&#39;ve been meaning to make my own since after reading Rob Kleffner&#39;s <a href="https://prl.khoury.northeastern.edu/blog/static/stack-languages-talk-notes.pdf" target="_blank">talk notes</a>. Prior to this project, I had a sense of what the different constructions were, but writing a <a href="type_systems.html">type-checker</a> drew clearer lines between all these different patterns.</p> <p>We&#39;re casting off for <a href="https://100r.co/site/western_canada.html" target="_blank">Desolation Sound</a> in a few days. Most afternoons are spent stocking up <a href="pino.html">Pino</a> with enough food to last us until we make our way back south next autumn. I&#39;m eager to depart.</p> <ul> <li>Implemented <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxnbal" target="_blank">type-inference</a> in Uxntal.</li> <li>Resuming work on proof-reading <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a>.</li> <li>Wrote a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-games/tree/main/item/sand/sand.tal" target="_blank">falling sand</a>, simulator.</li> <li>Enjoyed Conal Elliot on <a href="https://www.typetheoryforall.com/2022/05/09/17-The-Lost-Elegance-of-Computation-(Conal-Elliott).html" target="_blank">elegance and beauty in computation</a>.</li> </ul> 2023-05-01 Concurrency All The Things https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-05-01 Concurrency All The Things 2023-05-01T00:00:00+00:00 2023-05-01T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I recently watched David Ungar&#39;s <i>Everything You Know About Parallel Programming Is Wrong</i> talk, which lead me to read Tony Hoare&#39;s <i>Communicating Sequential Processes</i>, after which I felt inspired to consider <a href="parallel_computing.html">parallel computing</a> once more, and soon found myself taking a detour to play with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam_(programming_language)" target="_blank">OCCAM programming language</a>, and revisit threads in Uxn.</p> <p>As a side-project, unrelated to threads, I made a pixel-perfect implementation of the classic Macintosh Note Pad application, so I could keep notes throughout the day and that turned out to be a fantastic aid to collecting passing thoughts. While building it, I also had a chance to implement text-wrapping in a project with very few moving parts and better understood how to handle text selection, where the boundary of a selection ends up being before the original anchor, and implemented it in <a href="left.html">Left</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Ported the classic Macintosh <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-utils/tree/main/item/gui/notepad/notepad.tal" target="_blank">Note Pad</a> application to Varvara.</li> <li>Enjoyed Ramsey Nasser&#39;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZgQ3MoNJUQ&amp;t=22099s" target="_blank">Causal Islands 2023 talk</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/inmos.png" width="230"/> 2023-04-22 Structured Editing https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-04-22 Structured Editing 2023-04-22T00:00:00+00:00 2023-04-22T00:00:00+00:00 <p>These past few months, I&#39;ve explored <a href="computation.html">playful things</a> to do with programming that might not directly serve a purpose, or at least, one wouldn&#39;t come across them without seeking them out specifically, and I&#39;ve collected some of those seemingly useless, ideas into a talk and submitted it to the <a href="https://www.thestrangeloop.com" target="_blank">Strange Loop</a> conference happening in September.</p> <p>Also, while I consider <a href="beetbug.html">Beetbug</a> to be a kind of <i>disassembler</i>, I wanted to see if I could build something that would let me go from a source file to an assembled rom, and back again. I figured that being able to recover a project from a rom and its symbols file has important potential in terms of data preservation. To make this possible, I modified the <a href="symbols.html">symbols file</a> to include comments, and was able to complete the back and forth I wanted.</p> <p>This allowed me to experiment with something called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_editor" target="_blank">structured editing</a>, in which you modifying the underlying structure, symbols and bytecode of a program, and not its structural representation.</p> <ul> <li>Added an interactive mode to <a href="drifblim.html">Drifblim</a>.</li> <li>Started building a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxnrea">reassembler</a>.</li> <li>Added a type port to the <a href="varvara.html#console">Varvara Console</a> device.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/programma101.png" width="260"/> 2023-04-05 Interaction Nets & Oquonie https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-04-05 Interaction Nets & Oquonie 2023-04-05T00:00:00+00:00 2023-04-05T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The past two weeks have flown by, between finishing <a href="oquonie.html">Oquonie</a> and preparing <a href="pino.html">Pino</a> for the summer, each day I fall into bed completely exhausted. But the game is nearly finished now, there are fewer and fewer bugs, and most of my time is spent doing optimization.</p> <p>I&#39;ve been diving into <a href="interaction_nets.html">Interaction Nets</a> again, and I&#39;ve fallen head over heels with Sato&#39;s <a href="https://github.com/inpla/inpla" target="_blank">Inpla</a> language, the code is a nightmare but I feel that with a bit of work, and a better division between the interpreter and virtual machine, this could turn out to be something very fun.</p> <p>After watching Alan Kay&#39;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKg1hTOQXoY" target="_blank">OOPSLA 1997</a> talk, I went and read <a href="reading.html">Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice</a> and I&#39;ve been fascinated with it. It goes in details about their approach to the implementations of the <a href="smalltalk.html">Smalltalk</a> VM, and the challenges to getting the ST-80 image to boot on all these different platforms.</p> <ul> <li>Discovering new things in <a href="https://lists.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn/%3CCAE2DaSTZVHDpWg1Cw84Ukva4%3Dxpe6oQ9yhANyJM9ZV%3DY37zAjw%40mail.gmail.com%3E" target="_blank">Uxntal</a>.</li> <li>Rewrote <a href="bicycle.html">Bicycle</a> to be a <a href="https://llllllll.co/t/uxn-virtual-computer/46103/393?u=neauoire" target="_blank">companion application</a> to Left.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/ma.png" width="100"/> 2023-03-13 Residency at Biosonic https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-03-13 Residency at Biosonic 2023-03-13T00:00:00+00:00 2023-03-13T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Spent the week at the <a href="https://lenaresidency.com" target="_blank">LEÑA residency</a> collaborating with audio-visual artists. They call it a <i>retreat</i>, but really, I returned from Galiano more exhausted than when I left. It was well worth it tho, as I rarely allow myself to play music for more than an hour or two at a time.</p> <p>I&#39;ve had a bit of time to kill between rehearsals, and whenever I had a few minutes to myself, I&#39;d pour over the <a href="../docs/memo528_cadr.html" target="_blank">Lisp Machine memos</a>. It occurred to me that the <i>byol</i>-type books really ought to teach about targetting Lisp architectures(or at the very least, something in the vein of <a href="secd.html">SECD</a> abstract machines), instead of implementing <a href="lisp.html">Lisp</a> on top of imperative languages, which does a disservice to the entire exercise.</p> <ul> <li>Preparing slides for our talk at <a href="https://activepassive.ca/" target="_blank">Biosonic</a>.</li> <li>Implemented the <a href="https://merveilles.town/@neauoire/110017135586137496" target="_blank">Hilbert Curve</a> fractal.</li> <li>Returned <a href="gly_format.html">image</a> support to <a href="left.html">Left</a>.</li> <li>Added the <a href="hundred_rabbits.html">Hundred Rabbits</a> splash to <a href="donsol.html">Donsol</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/lmi.png" width="100"/> 2023-03-03 Preparing for Biosonic https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-03-03 Preparing for Biosonic 2023-03-03T00:00:00+00:00 2023-03-03T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I&#39;ve been progressing on <a href="oquonie.html">Oquonie</a>, implementing sounds and making sure that it runs as smoothly as possible on as many different platforms as I can. This meant revisiting a lot of the implementation details. The month has flown by, but it has been a lot of fun learning about optimization.</p> <p>I will be staying on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galiano_Island" target="_blank">Galiano</a> for a week during the Biosonic residency, it has been a while since I&#39;ve last slept on firm ground.</p> <ul> <li>Preparing slides for our talk at <a href="https://activepassive.ca/" target="_blank">Biosonic</a>.</li> <li>Wrote a faster <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn/tree/main/item/src/uxn.c" target="_blank">Uxn core</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/generic/oquonie.wizard.png"/> 2023-02-24 Oquonie is nearly ready https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-02-24 Oquonie is nearly ready 2023-02-24T00:00:00+00:00 2023-02-24T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The weather has been absolute garbage and so has been a great help in advancing the <a href="oquonie.html">Oquonie</a> port. Not only is the project pushing <a href="uxn.html">Uxn</a> further than it previously ventured, but it is equally pushing the tools used in its creation. The building of the game has had me do some significant improvements to <a href="drifblim.html">Drifblim</a>, <a href="uxnlin.html">Uxnlin</a>, and <a href="left.html">Left</a>.</p> <ul> <li>It looks like Oquonie will make its way to the <a href="playdate.html">Playdate</a>.</li> <li>Played a set at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5mBG1hlDQU" target="_blank">Lovebyte Party</a>.</li> <li>Added a REPL mode to <a href="beetbug.html">Beetbug</a>.</li> </ul> 2023-02-07 Oquonie is happening! https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-02-07 Oquonie is happening! 2023-02-07T00:00:00+00:00 2023-02-07T00:00:00+00:00 <p>After putting together a demo of what a <a href="varvara.html">Varvara</a> implementation of <a href="oquonie.html">Oquonie</a> could look like, Rekka and I decided to officially port it. It&#39;s a lot of fun to revisit this strange universe. I hope that we can bring the essence of the original into the redux version.</p> <ul> <li>Spared some time to fix a handful of issues in <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/orca-toy/" target="_blank">Orca</a>.</li> <li>Spent nearly every waking moment working on the Oquonie prototype.</li> </ul> 2023-01-20 Function Stacks https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-01-20 Function Stacks 2023-01-20T00:00:00+00:00 2023-01-20T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I&#39;ve been reading about <a href="reversible_computing.html">reversible computing</a> and put together a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/yo-joy" target="_blank">playground</a> that allows me to experiment with the ideas of <a href="../docs/psi_lisp.html">psi-lisp</a>. This whole business of time reversible logic feels like visiting <a href="the_sartre_mechanism.html">an old friend</a>.</p> <p>Meanwhile, I&#39;ve also tried to bring <a href="potato.html">potato</a> to a usable state, which means that for it to entirely replace the current launcher, it should be able to assemble and run the assembled rom, a state to which I am inching closer.</p> <ul> <li>Finally found a use for the 3 unused <a href="uxntal_reference.html">uxn opcodes</a>.</li> <li>Rewrote the <a href="../etc/uxnrepl/index.html">javascript REPL</a> implementation.</li> <li>Could I possibly port <a href="oquonie.html">Oquonie</a>, to Uxntal?</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/oiseau_det.png" width="140"/> 2023-01-08 Pino Rewiring https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2023-01-08 Pino Rewiring 2023-01-08T00:00:00+00:00 2023-01-08T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Since the turn of the year, we have spent every waking hour <a href="http://100r.co/site/electrical_refit.html" target="_blank">rewiring Pino</a>, it has been a more challenging project than we had hoped but we will sleep soundly knowing that each connection has been well made.</p> <p>I&#39;ve read Koopman&#39;s <a href="https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/stack_computers" target="_blank">Stack Machines: The New Wave</a> and it inspired me to experiment with other virtual machine designs, namely that of the NOVIX NC4016. But after two weeks of experiments, I returned to writing Uxntal, partly because I do not feel limited in the realization of my ideas with my current stack, and partly because these sort of systems make for extremely obfuscated assembly languages. That being said, I can&#39;t seem to shake the craving to experiment with the <a href="../docs/dssp.txt">Setun-70</a>..</p> <ul> <li>Chose a new <a href="metadata.html">metadata</a> format and implemented it.</li> <li>Revamped the <a href="mirrors.html">mirrors</a>.</li> </ul> 2022-12-25 Reversible Computing https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-12-25 Reversible Computing 2022-12-25T00:00:00+00:00 2022-12-25T00:00:00+00:00 <p>This week, I was introduced to <a href="reversible_computing.html">reversible computing</a> and linear logic, which not only do not generate garbage, but also preserves state by making any loss of entropy explicit and an integral part of the program&#39;s architecture. To say that this new knowledge shook my understanding of programming would be an understatement.</p> <p>I don&#39;t know what 2023 has in store, but some of it will be invariably spent tangled up in this.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxnbal" target="_blank">stack-effect checker</a> for Uxntal.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/mocking.png" width="100" class="nodark"/> 2022-12-12 Beetbug https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-12-12 Beetbug 2022-12-12T00:00:00+00:00 2022-12-12T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Continuing my recent experiments with the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/blinkengenie" target="_blank">self-hosted emulator</a>, I decided to repurpose it and turn it into an entirely virtualized step-debugger. It is called <a href="beetbug.html">Beetbug</a>, after <a href="https://github.com/randrew/uxn32" target="_blank">Uxn32</a>&#39;s debugger. To improve error reporting across the ecosystem, I&#39;ve also written a <a href="symbols.html">symbols file</a> specification that will allow the various emulators and debuggers to add labels to addresses when throwing errors and warnings.</p> <p>As I was learning to use the Soroban to do elementary level multiplications, I stumbled on this <a href="https://ethw.org/Ancient_Computers" target="_blank">fantastic article</a> on the use of the Salamis Tablet, which has been fascinating me and occupying my mind at night. There, now it can torment you too.</p> <ul> <li>Created a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/moth" target="_blank">calendar program</a>.</li> </ul> 2022-11-27 Soroban https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-11-27 Soroban 2022-11-27T00:00:00+00:00 2022-11-27T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I had this idea of implementing the Uxn virtual machine <i>in itself</i>, to virtualize the memory and runtime entirely in a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/blinkengenie" target="_blank">sandboxed emulator</a> rom. That would allow something like a debugger to be built that doesn&#39;t preclude any special <a href="varvara.html">Varvara</a> support.</p> <p>I also tried writing a <a href="http://turboforth.net/tutorials/blocks.html" target="_blank">block editor</a> for Uxntal, but failed, I couldn&#39;t make up my mind on how to visualize each cell, and in the end, I&#39;ve decided to drop the idea and went back to reading Takashi Kojima&#39;s <i>Advanced Abacus</i> book and toying with my virtual soroban while the snow fell on the boat.</p> <ul> <li>Created a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-utils/tree/main/item/gui/soroban/soroban.tal" target="_blank">little virtual abacus</a>.</li> <li>Enjoyed discovering <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~vdupras/duskos" target="_blank">DuskOS</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/soroban.png"/> 2022-11-18 Handmade Seattle 2022 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-11-18 Handmade Seattle 2022 2022-11-18T00:00:00+00:00 2022-11-18T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I had a unforgettable time at <a href="https://guide.handmade-seattle.com/c/2022/weathering-software-winter" target="_blank">Handmade Seattle 2022</a>. I met countless wonderful creatives, including someone who introduced me to <a href="interaction_nets.html">Interaction Nets</a>, another who showed me their <a href="https://github.com/HParker/dotal" target="_blank">little programming language</a> targeting Uxn, someone even noticed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithkuil" target="_blank">Ithkuil</a> easter egg on one of my slides and came to talk to me about it. I also got to spend hours exchanging ideas with <a href="https://www.inkandswitch.com" target="_blank">Peter van Hardenberg</a> and <a href="https://rsms.me" target="_blank">Rasmus Andersson</a>, whose work inspire me.</p> <p>The conference coincided with the first Pacific Northwest <a href="merveilles.html">Merveilles</a> meetup. There was no better way to end this trip than having the chance of finally meeting, in person, some of the friends with whom I share this online community.</p> <ul> <li>Presented <a href="https://vimeo.com/771406693#t=1h25m46s" target="_blank">Weathering Software Winter</a>.</li> </ul> 2022-10-31 Last Daily https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-10-31 Last Daily 2022-10-31T00:00:00+00:00 2022-10-31T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Today was the last day of October, and the last <a href="https://forum.merveilles.town/thread/58/drawtober-92/#bottom" target="_blank">daily drawing</a>. I had a good time beginning each morning that way, but it&#39;s time to wrap up the slides for <a href="https://handmade-seattle.com" target="_blank">Handmade Seattle</a>.</p> <p>I haven&#39;t had time to do much else this month, but I did modify <a href="left.htm">Left</a> to use a variant of the Smalltalk-76 font, which after a handful of <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/left/tree/main/item/etc/cream.uf2" target="_blank">tweaks</a>, has quickly turned into my favourite font to program with.</p> <ul> <li>Preparing slides for <a href="https://handmade-seattle.com" target="_blank">Handmade Seattle</a>.</li> <li>Implemented <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/tiny-basic" target="_blank">TinyBASIC</a> in Uxntal.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/basic.png" width="140"/> 2022-10-08 TinyBASIC https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-10-08 TinyBASIC 2022-10-08T00:00:00+00:00 2022-10-08T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I&#39;ve recently finished reading <i>What The Doormouse Said</i>, and I was fascinated by the story of the People&#39;s Computer Company publishing the specification for a subset of the <a href="basic.html">BASIC programming language</a>, inviting programmers to write their own unique implementations for their machines.</p> <p>This motivated me to take a deep dive in the language, and what better way to grasp a language than to <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/tiny-basic" target="_blank">write an implementation</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Preparing slides for <a href="https://handmade-seattle.com" target="_blank">Handmade Seattle</a>.</li> <li>Still doing <a href="https://forum.merveilles.town/thread/58/drawtober-92/#bottom" target="_blank">daily drawings</a>.</li> </ul> 2022-10-02 A month of conworld https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-10-02 A month of conworld 2022-10-02T00:00:00+00:00 2022-10-02T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We have returned to Victoria for the winter and reconnected with our little local sailing community, it has been wonderful hearing about everyone&#39;s summer adventures. We have a lot of <a href="https://100r.co/site/boat_projects.html" target="_blank">challenging projects</a> to do over the next few months and knowing that we have dependable friends nearby is reassuring.</p> <p>I am dedicating each morning to drawing a different scene from the <a href="neauismetica.html">Neauismetica</a>, and will try to keep it up for as long <a href="https://forum.merveilles.town/thread/58/drawtober-111/" target="_blank">as I have ideas</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Sown a <a href="playdate_sleeve.html">sleeve for the Playdate</a>, and a <a href="https://100r.co/site/burgee.html" target="_blank">Merveilles burgee</a>.</li> <li>Updated the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn-playdate" target="_blank">Playdate implemenation of Uxn</a> to the latest core.</li> <li>Added d-pad controls to the <a href="wireworld.html">Wireworld playground</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/identity/burgee.svg" height="100" class="nodark"/> 2022-09-12 We've got worlds to go to https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-09-12 We've got worlds to go to 2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00 2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Once again, finding ourselves having drinks over a scattering of world atlases and passage planning compendiums.</p> <p>The days are getting shorter, and so is the time that we can spend on the computer, due to our batteries depleting earlier a bit each day. So, I spend my evenings proof-reading the <a href="wiktopher.html">Wiktopher</a> manuscript and <a href="reading.html">reading</a>. </p> <ul> <li>Added monochromatic modes to <a href="orca.html">Orca</a>, <a href="cccc.html">CCCC</a> and <a href="catclock.html">Catclock</a>.</li> <li>Wrote a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/arduino-cookbook/tree/main/item/adafruit-playground/teatime.ino" target="_blank">little program</a> for the <a href="playground.html">Adafruit Playground</a>.</li> <li>Finally gotten around to fixing the <a href="calendar.html">calendar</a> page.</li> <li>Wrote a document reader, called <a href="bouc.html">Bouc</a>.</li> </ul> 2022-08-30 Hunger for a Way Out https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-08-30 Hunger for a Way Out 2022-08-30T00:00:00+00:00 2022-08-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The misantropia that accompanied our return to the noise and smell of the cities, has not yet subsided. We find ourselves surrounded by people, homologous to those who happily mow the lawn at dinner time, who will break the quietude of an anchorage by running a gas generator to watch <a href="technology.html">television</a> as the sun sets.</p> <p>It&#39;s no wonder that birds don&#39;t sing here, lest their songs be invariably drowned by the deafening display of the <a href="simulacra.html">vacationers</a> broadcasting to the fourth horizon over that they are taking it easy.</p> <ul> <li>Made <a href="drifblim.html">Drifblim</a> capable of assembling large files, namely Potato.</li> <li>Started poking at building a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/zombie" target="_blank">little sequencer</a> again, oh no.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/nocars.png"/> 2022-08-16 Farewell Desolation https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-08-16 Farewell Desolation 2022-08-16T00:00:00+00:00 2022-08-16T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We&#39;ve left <a href="https://100r.co/site/western_canada.html" target="_blank">Desolation Sound</a>, and stopped in Texada to reprovision before sailing south. We finally have access to reliable internet access again, but none of my <a href="bookmarks.html">near-endless supply</a> of things to catch up on, none of it stirs any interest in me right now.</p> <p>Despite my unsettled moods, I was able to built myself a cozy little world to work from, the operating system turned out to be extremly useful in looking through my large collection of pcm, chr and icn files.</p> 2022-08-01 A Potato https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-08-01 A Potato 2022-08-01T00:00:00+00:00 2022-08-01T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We&#39;ve sailed ourselves into somewhat of an internet deadzone, where my evenings consist of lying in the hammock hung between the jib and the mast, thinking about what sort of an <a href="operating_systems.html">operating system</a> I&#39;d like for myself; what would be both realistic for the Uxn platform, and the limits of my own aptitude for realizing it.</p> <ul> <li>Built an <a href="potato.html">operating system</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/generic/potato.png" width="100"/> 2022-07-16 Slideshow Tech 2000 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-07-16 Slideshow Tech 2000 2022-07-16T00:00:00+00:00 2022-07-16T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I haven&#39;t had it in me to start new projects these past two weeks, so I&#39;ve instead revisited projects in need of care; namely <a href="https://100r.co/site/adelie.html" target="_blank">Adelie</a> which was until now undocumented, leaving people to guess at how things worked. It has been nice to see some terrific projects made with it, like <a href="https://merveilles.town/web/@l3kn/108641034195971494" target="_blank">tower of hanoi</a>, and these <a href="https://social.weho.st/@dvn/108630529793221806" target="_blank">gorgeous</a> <a href="https://mstdn.social/@JotaEmese/108620021297292173" target="_blank">slides</a>. It took all the restrain in the world not to turn it into another <a href="hypertalk.html">Hypercard</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a <a href="thue.html">Thue interpreter</a>, and a tiny <a href="cccc.html">desktop calculator</a>.</li> <li>Sent artwork to the second issue of <a href="https://fantomeszine.com" target="_blank">Fantomes</a> zine.</li> <li>Designed a fresh <a href="https://merveilles.town/web/@neauoire/108705386563362320" target="_blank">new bold font</a> for Orca.</li> </ul> 2022-07-02 Self Documenting Binaries https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-07-02 Self Documenting Binaries 2022-07-02T00:00:00+00:00 2022-07-02T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The more I try to imagine what resilient software might look like, the more shortcomings I find in <a href="roms.html">Varvara roms</a>, namely, the ones that rely entirely on external <a href="documentation.html">documentation</a>. So, I decided to try and begin to tackle this problem by adding a menu navigation <a href="manifest.html">manifest</a> to each one, which not only makes the application self-documenting, but also improves accessibility.</p> <ul> <li>Planted soy at 50°8.549&#39;N 124°56.972&#39;W</li> <li>Wrote a macros pre-processor for <a href="drifblim.html">Drifblim</a>.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/generic/adelie.png"/> 2022-06-19 Dwindling Stores https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-06-19 Dwindling Stores 2022-06-19T00:00:00+00:00 2022-06-19T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I hate to think that we will, at some point, have to sail south to re-supply, we&#39;ve both decided that we shall stretch our supplies for as long as we possibly can. We will soon run out of fresh produce, but we have prepared enough <a href="https://grimgrains.com/site/lactofermentation.html" target="_blank">preserves</a> to last us for months.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote our keynote for <a href="https://nime2022.org/" target="_blank">NIME 2022</a>.</li> <li>Transcribed notes over to the <a href="https://permacomputing.net" target="_blank">Permacomputing Wiki</a>.</li> <li>Planted wheat, barley and mustard greens at 50°8.409&#39;N 124°56.842&#39;W</li> </ul> 2022-06-03 Uxntal Communication II https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-06-03 Uxntal Communication II 2022-06-03T00:00:00+00:00 2022-06-03T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We&#39;ve arrived in Desolation Sound and met up with friends. We spend the long afternoons rowing the dinghy along the shoreline and exploring the thickly forested coast. I went ahead and assigned a glyph to each Uxn opcode, to make an <a href="uxntal_alphabet.html">Uxntal Alphabet</a>, it adds a wonderful conlang aspect to the project. I&#39;m hoping to turn this into a little graphical assembler at some point.</p> <img src="../media/generic/ugl/min2.png" width="150" alt="min2()"/> 2022-06-01 Uxntal Communication I https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-06-01 Uxntal Communication I 2022-06-01T00:00:00+00:00 2022-06-01T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I couldn&#39;t stop thinking about the idea of a <a href="uxntal_reference.html">Uxntal Sign Language</a>. So, with Rekka&#39;s help, I began assigning hand gestures to numbers, operators and modes. I&#39;m also thinking that I might like to assign glyphs so an assembler that does away with English altogether could be envisioned.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a <a href="uxnlin.html">linter</a> for Uxntal, and implemented <a href="https://wiki.c2.com/?TailCallOptimization" target="_blank">tail-call optimization</a> to uxnasm.</li> <li>Planted lentils, mung beans and radishes at 50°8.527&#39;N 124°40.195&#39;W</li> </ul> <img src="../media/generic/usl/lth.png" width="200"/> 2022-05-30 Heading North https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-05-30 Heading North 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We are finally making our way north toward Desolation Sound and the Broughton Archipelago. We are spending these late spring days anchored between high mountains, revisiting ideas for projects we conceived of this last winter, but decided to leave for a later time. I&#39;ve been fascinated by how an entire computing paradigm can emerge from the primitives of combinatory logics, my recent thoughts have been populated by these <a href="logic.html">strange talking birds</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Implemented an <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/ornithologics" target="_blank">ornithologics</a> playground.</li> </ul> 2022-05-14 Slides rules https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-05-14 Slides rules 2022-05-14T00:00:00+00:00 2022-05-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Aquired a couple of <a href="slide_rule.html">slide rules</a> from a retired teacher, and figured out how to use them. My plan is to gift them to people we meet in our travels. I&#39;ve spent the better part of the week plotting shapes on paper with the help of the slide rule, while also experimenting with a <a href="turquoise.html">line-plotting engine</a>, inspired from <i>Turtle Graphics</i>, for creating procedural graphics.</p> <ul> <li>Made a little <a href="nebu.html">spreadsheet program</a> that fits neatly in a 6kb rom.</li> <li>Wrote a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn5" target="_blank">HTML5 implementation</a> of UxnVM.</li> </ul> 2022-04-30 Uxn Specs https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-04-30 Uxn Specs 2022-04-30T00:00:00+00:00 2022-04-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>I felt frustrated by the development of Uxn this week. It reminded me of the difficult period in Orca&#39;s development when it was beginning to be actively used, meanwhile the last few operators were being finalized. Folks would raise hell each time operators were moved around and it made finalizing the spec extremely painful.</p> <img src="../media/generic/permacomputing.png"/> 2022-04-14 Bedrock Failure https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-04-14 Bedrock Failure 2022-04-14T00:00:00+00:00 2022-04-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Inspired from the <a href="http://www.vpri.org/pdf/tr2015004_cuneiform.pdf" target="_blank">Cuneiform Tablets</a> paper, I considered realizing the paper&#39;s point of implementing <a href="https://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/989" target="_blank">Smalltalk72</a> on a UVM, I spent a few days experimenting with the ST72 environment — Only to realize that, like the <a href="https://paste.sr.ht/~rabbits/b23e80eaf675c1b704bc704577e503cfd0d8f474" target="_blank">ChifirVM</a>, it is poorly thought out and fundamentally irreconcilable with my vision of small computing.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a plain <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/uxn11" target="_blank">X11 implementation</a> of Varvara.</li> <li>Created an Uxntal REPL, called <a href="bicycle.html">Varvara&#39;s Bicycle</a>.</li> </ul> 2022-03-30 FSF https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-03-30 FSF 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We gave our talk at <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-living-liberation-day-two-retrospective-and-motivation-for-freedom" target="_blank">LibrePlanet 2022</a>, and it went very well. During the Q&amp;A, we talked about living without a fridge, from food preservation to <a href="https://grimgrains.com/site/sprouting.html" target="_blank">sprouting</a>, and we were delighted to see so many people interested in that stuff. I guess the intersection of computers and gardens is slightly larger than I thought. </p> <ul> <li>Played a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1eC8czDAkk" target="_blank">little set</a> for Algorave&#39;s 10th anniversary.</li> <li>Revamped Orca, Nasu, and Left to support Varvara&#39;s new Screen/Auto port.</li> </ul> 2022-03-14 Digital Preservation https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-03-14 Digital Preservation 2022-03-14T00:00:00+00:00 2022-03-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Took a deep dive into the various experiments in digital preservation(PADI, CAMiLEON, Domesday, etc..), didn&#39;t really find anything worthy of note, but it did inspire me to rewrite some of the content on <a href="permacomputing.html">permacomputing</a>. I&#39;ve also spent the past couple of days improving <a href="noodle.html">Noodle</a>, and adding support for <a href="tga_format.html">tga</a> images.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a little single-file Uxntal assembler called <a href="drifblim.html">Drifblim</a>.</li> </ul> 2022-02-14 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-02-14 2022-02-14T00:00:00+00:00 2022-02-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Our upcoming keynote for <a href="https://www.fsf.org/news/artist-collective-hundred-rabbits-to-keynote-libreplanet-living-liberation" target="_blank">Libre Planet 2022</a> has been announced, we&#39;ve built a little <a href="adelie.html">slideshow program</a> for the presentation. I&#39;ve revamped the <a href="orca.html">Orca</a> documentation and added a <a href="orca_reference.html">reference page</a>, as well as fixing a few bugs in the <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/orca-toy" target="_blank">Uxntal implementation</a>. Toying with wireworld sucked much of my time, again.</p> <p>Finally, brought back incoming links at the bottom of wiki pages. They had been gone since the migration from C, to Uxntal.</p> 2022-01-30 Tamagochi https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-01-30 Tamagochi 2022-01-30T00:00:00+00:00 2022-01-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Rekka and I completed <a href="yufo.html">Yufo</a>, our entry for the <a href="https://itch.io/jam/virtual-pet-jam" target="_blank">Virtual Pet Jam 2022</a>, we also added a Serbian and Polish translation to <a href="thousand_rooms.html">Thousand Rooms</a>. When I wasn&#39;t playing with <a href="primes.html">primes</a>, or <a href="reading.html">reading</a>, I was noodling in <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/wireworld" target="_blank">wireworld</a>. Ah! Also, <a href="uxn.html">Uxn</a> turned one year old.</p> <img src="../media/generic/uxn.cake.png" width="250"/> 2022-01-14 Devlog Start https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2022-01-14 Devlog Start 2022-01-14T00:00:00+00:00 2022-01-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>To kick off 2022, I&#39;ve decided to write 3 documents for the Uxn project, in which I&#39;ll save my design notes, the <a href="uxn_devlog.html">first one</a> is about the virtual machine itself, the <a href="varvara_devlog.html">second one</a> is about a personal computer and the last one might be about the language design. Hopefully, by the end of this year, this project will have have matured into something that is more easily definable.</p> <img src="../media/refs/mothra.png" alt="mothra" width="16"/> 2021-12-30 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-12-30 2021-12-30T00:00:00+00:00 2021-12-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Revisited the <a href="tga_format.html">tga format</a> as a potential transfer format for Varvara applications such as Noodle. I&#39;ve also been flicking through the massive collection of notes I&#39;ve accumulated on the topic of <a href="paper_computing.html">paper computing</a> and reflecting on this year that is now ending.</p> <ul> <li>Wrote a <a href="chip8.html">CHIP-8</a> emulator for Varvara.</li> </ul> <img src="../media/refs/xneko.png"/> 2021-12-14 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-12-14 2021-12-14T00:00:00+00:00 2021-12-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Spent the first few days of December solving the <a href="https://adventofcode.com/" target="_blank">Advent Of Code</a> puzzles in Uxntal, got distracted, and started thinking about image support inside Left. I&#39;ve also spent time experimenting with the <a href="subleq.html">Subleq</a> virtual machine.</p> <ul> <li>Released the <a href="turye.html">Turye</a> font-editor.</li> <li>Released a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/catclock.html" target="_blank">Cat Clock</a>.</li> </ul> 2021-11-30 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-11-30 2021-11-30T00:00:00+00:00 2021-11-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Was away from <a href="pino.html">Pino</a> to visit family, spent our evenings catching up and watching movies. Received a replacement keyboard for <a href="ayatori.html">Ayatori</a>, it&#39;s good to be working on the Thinkpad again.</p> <ul> <li>Rewrote the Uxn assembler to use a single pass.</li> <li>Released <a href="busy_doing_nothing.html">Busy Doing Nothing</a> in paperback.</li> </ul> 2021-11-14 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-11-14 2021-11-14T00:00:00+00:00 2021-11-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Wrote a little <a href="brainfuck.html">brainfuck</a> interpreter in Uxntal during this week&#39;s transits. My thoughts have been drifting back to <a href="primes.html">primes</a> and <a href="fractions.html">fractions</a>, I&#39;ve been considering a twist to <a href="fractran.html">fractran</a> where fractions with a zero as nominator or denominator might be used as jump operations, but I have yet to implement this.</p> <img src="../media/refs/jeremy.png"/> 2021-10-30 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-10-30 2021-10-30T00:00:00+00:00 2021-10-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Decided to stop doing daily drawings and port <a href="donsol.html">Donsol</a> instead. I had it all planned out in my head before starting, I went ahead and completed the port within just a few days. The work was done on a Pinebook Pro, revealing a few issues with <a href="left.html">Left</a>, so I spent some time optimizing the text-editor so it would run faster.</p> <ul> <li>Released <a href="donsol.html">Donsol</a>, for Varvara.</li> <li>Added a <a href="uxntal_reference.html">reference manual</a> for the Uxntal opcodes.</li> </ul> 2021-10-14 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-10-14 2021-10-14T00:00:00+00:00 2021-10-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Spending the month of October between <a href="https://merveilles.town/web/statuses/107033448028097574" target="_blank">daily drawings</a>, and various <a href="https://100r.co/site/growing_food.html" target="_blank">food preservation projects</a>. As I work on a picture, I&#39;ll occasionally stop to improve Noodle in some way or correct a bit of friction. The near totality of my computer activities(drawing, composing and programming) are now done from within the <a href="uxn.html">Uxn</a> virtual machine. <i>I couldn&#39;t be happier</i>.</p> <ul> <li>Added guides for the line and rect tool, in <a href="noodle.html">Noodle</a>.</li> <li>Added interface responsiveness, in <a href="dexe.html">Dexe</a>.</li> </ul> 2021-09-30 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-09-30 2021-09-30T00:00:00+00:00 2021-09-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Rewrote Dexe to be compatible to the latest changes to Varvara. I&#39;m unsure what to do about Oscean&#39;s twtxt and RSS feeds, generating them in Uxntal will be hard, especially the date conversion. Maybe I could build the now page&#39;s body from the twtxt feed, but if I did, I would loose the <a href="varvara.html">Arvelie</a> timestamps and links. Picked up <a href="moogle.html">Moogle</a> again, cleaned up the codebase.</p> 2021-09-14 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-09-14 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>The grey weather gives us only a few hours of solar power each day, so we alternate between cleaning and doing other things, such as <a href="origami.html">origami</a>. I&#39;ve been optimizing <a href="orca.html">Orca</a>, trying to make it run faster, inspired by the recent optimizations of Noodle. </p> <ul> <li>Added d-pad controls, in <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/orca-toy" target="_blank">Orca</a>.</li> </ul> 2021-08-30 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-08-30 2021-08-30T00:00:00+00:00 2021-08-30T00:00:00+00:00 <p>Currently rewriting <a href="oscean.html">Oscean</a> in Uxntal, as an experiment to see how far I can push Uxn, and explore what a <i>wiki from first principles</i> might even look like. A few features have yet to be ported, but the main components are done. We&#39;re slowly sailing North toward Vancouver to see friends, we left Saturna for Ladysmith and Silva Bay, Pino has engine problems, again. </p> 2021-08-14 https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now.html#2021-08-14 2021-08-14T00:00:00+00:00 2021-08-14T00:00:00+00:00 <p>We&#39;re anchored near <a href="canada.html">Saturna</a>, it has been nice to work offgrid again. I&#39;ve started porting <a href="paradise.html">paradise</a> in Uxntal, it would be nice to port <a href="oscean.html">Oscean</a> at some point too.</p> <p>After 16 years of daily journaling and tracking, I am finally stopping. I believe that the problems I was attempting to tackle, such as moodswings and the lack of focus, have been fixed and the data gathered in these recent years reveals nothing new or actionable. A bi-monthly format where I write a few sentences on my recent interests might be more practical.</p> <p>Let&#39;s begin, once again.</p>