DaveJarvis's recent activity
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Comment on KeenWrite 3.3.0 in ~comp
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KeenWrite 3.3.0
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Comment on Would building a Dyson sphere be worth it? We ran the numbers. in ~space
DaveJarvis Linkhttps://briankoberlein.com/blog/is-earth-gaining-mass/In fact, humans have already begun this process; we have successfully lofted approximately 10,000–20,000 metric tons of material into orbit and beyond (and a good fraction of it has even stayed there). We just have 5,971,999,999,999,999,990,000 metric tons to go and we’re golden.
https://briankoberlein.com/blog/is-earth-gaining-mass/
In fact from satellite observations of meteor trails it’s estimated that about 100 – 300 metric tons (tonnes) of material strikes Earth every day. That adds up to about 30,000 to 100,000 tonnes per year.
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Comment on Incredible invention - this drone could change everything in ~tech
DaveJarvis LinkThis is step 6 in the free food distribution model I envisioned many years ago: https://dave.autonoma.ca/model.pngThis is step 6 in the free food distribution model I envisioned many years ago:
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~life
DaveJarvis LinkIf you don't already have a front/back dash cam for your vehicle, I highly recommend installing one. Stalking someone in a vehicle like this isn't a crime, at least not the first time.If you don't already have a front/back dash cam for your vehicle, I highly recommend installing one. Stalking someone in a vehicle like this isn't a crime, at least not the first time.
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Comment on The Verge complains about ubiquitous login prompts in ~tech
DaveJarvis Link Parenthttps://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/169172/use-your-google-account-to-sign-in-to-x -
Comment on The vertical farming bubble is finally popping in ~enviro
DaveJarvis LinkYears ago, I hacked together a vertical farm energy calculator to help figure out the size of a building needed to sustain a specific population: https://autonoma.ca/calculators/calories/Years ago, I hacked together a vertical farm energy calculator to help figure out the size of a building needed to sustain a specific population:
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Comment on The vertical farming bubble is finally popping in ~enviro
DaveJarvis LinkFor the last seven years I've been writing a sci-fi novel wherein a vertical farm is central to the plot. There's a food distribution model that I first drew in 2016 that nearly summarizes the...For the last seven years I've been writing a sci-fi novel wherein a vertical farm is central to the plot. There's a food distribution model that I first drew in 2016 that nearly summarizes the Fast Company article. If you like reading sci-fi, have thoughts (or experience) on automating vertical farms, and would like to be an alpha reader, DM me your name and email address or contact me directly.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp
DaveJarvis (edited )Link ParentIMO, the problem with asking questions on SO is that there's either little guidance for how to ask a good question, or people don't care to read the guidelines regarding how to ask a question....IMO, the problem with asking questions on SO is that there's either little guidance for how to ask a good question, or people don't care to read the guidelines regarding how to ask a question. I've asked about 200+ (330+, counting TeX.SE) and, with few exceptions, they have accepted answers. Moreover, they mostly follow a formulaic heading structure:
- Background -- Describe the problem in a single sentence.
- Problem -- What's the issue that was encountered?
- Code -- Show source code that demonstrates the problem.
- Ideas -- Provide example ideas or attempts that failed to solve the issue.
- Question -- Ask one question, clearly.
- Environment -- List any relevant environment settings, library versions, etc.
- Related -- Link to resources and questions that are related, but differ.
Most of your questions seem reasonable, although none of them have sections to help guide readers and break up the text. If I were to pick on one, it'd be the question about Nunjucks templates. There's no code, the question is buried in the second paragraph, no Nunjucks version information, and could be considered borderline opinionated (there could be many ways to render a template).
I think if SO were to pre-populate a basic template (i.e., insert those headings automatically for users with less than 500 reputation) and apply a heuristic to check the quality of questions, it would go a ways to making the site a bit more user-friendly. Nobody is born knowing how to ask a good technical question.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
DaveJarvis (edited )LinkAdded two lines to KeenWrite's Gradle build script: buildscript { dependencies { // first line classpath "com.github.spotbugs.snom:spotbugs-gradle-plugin:5.0.13" } } plugins { // second line id...Added two lines to KeenWrite's Gradle build script:
buildscript { dependencies { // first line classpath "com.github.spotbugs.snom:spotbugs-gradle-plugin:5.0.13" } } plugins { // second line id "com.github.spotbugs" version "5.0.13" }This invokes static analysis of the code when
gradle checkis run, which launches SpotBugs to find potential and actual problems in the code base. Highly recommend adding SpotBugs, or any static analysis tool, to the build chain for Java projects. -
Comment on KeenWrite 3.2.0 in ~comp
DaveJarvis LinkKeenWrite 3.2.0 is a significant update: Tutorial series that demonstrates its more salient features. KeenType, a modernized and optimized NTS fork, replaces KeenTeX. Numerous Windows issues that...KeenWrite 3.2.0 is a significant update:
- Tutorial series that demonstrates its more salient features.
- KeenType, a modernized and optimized NTS fork, replaces KeenTeX.
- Numerous Windows issues that were encountered while making the tutorials are fixed. If you develop cross-platform software, creating videos on all the supported platforms can be illuminating. (See also SikuliX.)
Aside, the on-screen keyboard/mouse monitor was a yak-shaving project, KmCaster.
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KeenWrite 3.2.0
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Comment on KeenType 1.0.0 in ~comp
DaveJarvis (edited )Link ParentAlthough KeenType, technically, produces the same overall output as other TeX-based typesetters, ConTeXt (and LaTeX) have extensive functionality built on top (of Plain TeX). I modernized NTS into...I'm not at all qualified to talk about the typesetting, but if the new tool produces output identical to the ConTeXt output, then that's impressively professional quality to my layman's eye.
Although KeenType, technically, produces the same overall output as other TeX-based typesetters, ConTeXt (and LaTeX) have extensive functionality built on top (of Plain TeX). I modernized NTS into KeenType so that KeenWrite can preview math expressions in real-time, to give a general idea rather than the polished output. The Markdown document is fed from KeenWrite into ConTeXt when the user is ready to produce a PDF file.
I'm makingI've made a tutorial series that demonstrates how it all works.I'd be interested in trying at least a few chapters, although I'm not a sci-fi buff and my feedback will be limited.
Awesome! Email me and I'll send you a copy; I'm at my user name @ gmail.
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Comment on Why not Mars in ~space
DaveJarvis Link ParentMulticellular life on Earth has 500 to 800 million years until the Sun's expansion makes the planet inhospitable. So while the Sun will last for a long while yet, life doesn't have "billions" of...because the sun's expiration date is billions of years from now
Multicellular life on Earth has 500 to 800 million years until the Sun's expansion makes the planet inhospitable. So while the Sun will last for a long while yet, life doesn't have "billions" of years left. Still, 500 million years should be enough time to get us off this rock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_Earth#Climate_impact
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Comment on Why not Mars in ~space
DaveJarvis (edited )Link ParentMars doesn't have plate tectonics, ergo it can't have volcanic eruptions, so I'm not sure if you're trolling. Mars doesn't have a hospitable climate and barely has an atmosphere to retain any...I can't think of a single one of those things where even a fully colonized mars would survive, and earth wouldn't.
Mars doesn't have plate tectonics, ergo it can't have volcanic eruptions, so I'm not sure if you're trolling. Mars doesn't have a hospitable climate and barely has an atmosphere to retain any heat, so climate change would never be a human-ending scenario on Mars. The likelihood of asteroids hitting both Earth and Mars, wiping out humanity simultaneously is vanishingly small. A CME would hit Earth and miss Mars because Earth and Mars are rarely aligned at the same time and Mars is much, much farther away from the Sun's reach, lessening the impact. Similarly, a supernova blast could hit Earth but miss the red planet. Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere to speak of, so protection will have to be present in other ways, making loss of its paltry magnetic field moot. Mars doesn't have nuclear weapons on it, so we couldn't nuke ourselves. Mars doesn't have a biosphere, so plagues wouldn't be an issue at the same evolutionary pace as is possible on Earth.
Or maybe my point about having a backup wasn't clear?
Yes, Mars could get hit by an asteroid, which could wipe out any people. But then we'd still have Earth and could re-populate Mars. And vice-versa. That's what I mean by having a backup copy.
These arguments are moot, though, because neither of us can control whether Earthlings will become Martians. Humans colonizing Mars is going to happen. And soon. My guess is we'll have a semi-permanent settlement between 2050 and 2075.
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Comment on KeenType 1.0.0 in ~comp
DaveJarvis Link ParentThank you for the encouragement! Not at this time. I started KeenWrite because I wanted to use variables and living documents while writing a sci-fi novel (alpha readers wanted!). The novel has a...great to see people sticking through and hitting milestones on long term projects.
Thank you for the encouragement!
KeenWrite, I take it, is kind of a replacement for the de facto way of writing academic papers, replacing things like LaTeX?
Not at this time. I started KeenWrite because I wanted to use variables and living documents while writing a sci-fi novel (alpha readers wanted!). The novel has a complex timeline that I wanted to make sure was kept straight. There's also a genealogy diagram that I wanted to avoid having to update whenever I changed characters' names. I'm also a proponent of the idea that information must have a single, authoritative source in any system. Hence variables for character names, places, birth dates, speech tics, etc.
I also didn't want to write the novel in LaTeX or ConTeXt. I'd rather use something a little less tightly-bound to any one particular typesetting system. Markdown seemed fairly timeless. What's amazing about ConTeXt is that it can typeset XML documents. And, since XHTML is a type of XML document, it follows that Markdown can be first transformed into XHTML and then typeset into a PDF file. Pandoc can go straight from Markdown to *TeX. KeenWrite requires KeenWrite Themes to stylize the document during typesetting.
There are two large items missing from KeenWrite that are absolutely required before it could be used for a thesis. Cross-references (figures, tables, equations, etc.) and citations. I've written some notes on the topic on the CommonMark site. There looks to be a way to unify all types of references under one syntax.
There's an issue for it, though.
Are there similar projects out there, to compare with? Or is this a novel approach as far as you're aware?
I haven't looked for other tools, so maybe someone else can answer. There are no text editors or word processors that I've seen, heard of, or used that provide an easy way to use variables in documentation. M$ Word takes fourteen steps to insert a variable. I suspect that few separate content from presentation to the degree of KeenWrite.
Basically they want derivative projects to copy and distribute the upstream project source files wholesale, and then bundle diffs alongside it.
Knuth did it to ensure that TeX remained TeX so that any typesetting system that purported to be TeX would generate the same output, no matter what. I replaced KeenTeX (a JMathTeX fork) with KeenType and am trying to steer away from TeX naming altogether. Knuth's license made sense for his files (
plain.tex,hyphen.tex, and so forth). It doesn't make sense for Java source files, and is a bit of a prickly pear.If you haven't checked them out, here are a few Markdown files I typeset using ConTeXt:
- https://pdfhost.io/v/4FeAGGasj_SepiSolar_Highlevel_Software_Design (section 9.9.1)
- https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf
I started to migrate the theme for the first link, it's called Solare and is part of KeenWrite Themes.
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Comment on KeenType 1.0.0 in ~comp
DaveJarvis LinkKeenType 1.0.0 is a 100% pure Java library that can transform plain TeX into SVG documents. Output: Equations Document Sample Document Enjoy!KeenType 1.0.0 is a 100% pure Java library that can transform plain TeX into SVG documents. Output:
Enjoy!
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KeenType 1.0.0
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
DaveJarvis LinkI'm attempting to migrate KeenTeX over to NTS so that KeenWrite can render more TeX macros correctly in SVG format (such as \limits). -
KmCaster – Screencasting software to display keyboard and mouse status
4 votes
This release of my Markdown editor, KeenWrite, revamps the way images are loaded within documents. Doing so brings the image references in Markdown documents similar flexibility as the typesetting system (ConTeXt). KeenWrite allows setting the path to the "images" directory as a default, so that the path to images in Markdown documents can vary independently depending on the destination media (e.g., PDF vs HTML). Here's a screenshot of the images settings for context:
https://i.ibb.co/2MpYjds/images-settings.png
With these settings in place, images can be referenced by name without any directory (or file name extension), and KeenWrite will attempt to find them. For example, if the images search directory is set to "images", then you can write the following:
KeenWrite will search for "images/kitten.svg", "images/kitten.pdf", "images/kitten.png", and so forth, until it finds the first valid file. This means that you can render different images against the same Markdown document by changing the image search path.
The video series provides an overview of KeenWrite's major features.