wirelyre's recent activity
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Comment on Ladybird chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
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Comment on Ladybird chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
wirelyre Link ParentSorry for the necrobump — I have had this exact suspicion for a while now. It makes sense that the "toxic community" meme could germinate and spread from interactions where someone violates the...I have no way of knowing this for a certainty, but I have a pet theory that part of the issues stem from the fact that Rust was one of the earliest projects to embrace a Code of Conduct.
Sorry for the necrobump — I have had this exact suspicion for a while now.
It makes sense that the "toxic community" meme could germinate and spread from interactions where someone violates the code of conduct and is told off. The residual negativity, justified or not, is bound to be pointed somewhere.
Ironic, of course, because in my experience the code of conduct has been incredibly effective. Like you say, the toxicity I can remember has disproportionately come from snide, clearly nontechnical or otherwise bad-faith criticism of the language or its community. And it feels so unfair to me that the "toxic" idea seems to arise from the outside and is still attributed to the inside.
Honestly I'm kinda ambivalent about even writing this because it sounds like such an uncritical defence. "See? Rust lemmings can't even take criticism."
I know that's ridiculous, but I actually have participated in Rust discussions on Reddit and IRC and stuff before, and every time I read "toxic" or "evangelism" or whatever I have to remind myself to roll my eyes rather than second-guess my own experiences and actions.
I dunno. I'm a people watcher. I like trying to see the social tides. (A sociologist??) And in person I like to consider myself a people greaser. I lube them right up so they can fit together better. (A mechanic???)
On a more positive note, to the extent that Rust community discussions are nontoxic, I wonder if that's due partly to the type checker being so strict. It's like a shared villain. Everybody loves a good villain.
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Comment on The end of Finale in ~music
wirelyre Link ParentOf all the notation software I've used, Dorico is the only one that makes me feel like I'm actually interacting with musical objects, rather than a graphics editing program. Sort of like the...Of all the notation software I've used, Dorico is the only one that makes me feel like I'm actually interacting with musical objects, rather than a graphics editing program. Sort of like the difference between a word processor and a literal typewriter.
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The end of Finale
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Comment on Super Mario 64's invisible walls explained once and for all in ~games
wirelyre LinkSummary Super Mario 64 has "invisible walls" which obstruct Mario. They're caused by the physics engine and minor errors in the level geometry: Physics is calculated using 16-bit integer...Summary
- Super Mario 64 has "invisible walls" which obstruct Mario.
- They're caused by the physics engine and minor errors in the level geometry:
- Physics is calculated using 16-bit integer coordinates.
- Some static level geometry doesn't correctly cover all physics coordinates.
- Lots of dynamic geometry (moving platforms) rounds strangely to physics coordinates, leaving small holes.
Specific causes of invisible walls
- Geometry with no drawn texture (a real invisible wall)
- Ceilings with no floor above
- Edge of the game course (intentional)
- Vertex coordinate rounding leaving holes
- Floors incorrectly making holes in other floors
Bonus information
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Whether a physics triangle is wall, floor, or ceiling is decided by its normal vector. These three kinds of triangles behave completely differently.
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Most invisible walls are super thin because they're rounding errors. This means that it's very possible to go straight through them, since the physics engine will never register that they've been hit. In fact, they often don't cover contiguous horizontal areas.
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There isn't necessarily geometry at the edge of a stage. Mario simply isn't allowed to be anywhere unless there's a floor below him. For stages he can fall off, there are death planes far below which are valid floor (so he can yolo out into space) but which kill him if he gets close. If Mario moves out of bounds, he's pushed right back in. And if he's still out of bounds, he dies immediately.
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Mario's hat disappears if he manages to sneak out of bounds (and then instantly dies). Every frame, his hat is removed, then his position is checked, then it's put back on.
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"Parallel universes", used in TASes, happen because of physics rounding too. When Mario interacts with floor geometry, his position is clamped by taking the least significant part of his horizontal coordinates. This means that if he can get really far away from a stage, he can still stand on things; it's like there's loads of copies of the floors at horizontal intervals in space. But in order to get there, he has to travel unfathomably fast — around 4 times the maximum stage size per frame.
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Super Mario 64's invisible walls explained once and for all
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Comment on Disney announces Moana 2 set to release November 2024 in ~movies
wirelyre Link ParentI know exactly what you mean about Shiny, it's so bizarre! It's so incredibly uncomfortable to listen to, I love it. I've never been able to take it apart and figure out exactly why. The...I know exactly what you mean about Shiny, it's so bizarre!
It's so incredibly uncomfortable to listen to, I love it. I've never been able to take it apart and figure out exactly why. The accompaniment is super busy, Clement's voice is slightly too dull to hear, there's not a great beat, or even much of a harmonic progression, the lyrics are stagnant and meandering, the tone is trite, etc. It's a perfect storm and it makes it sound sharp to me, like just listening to it hurts me a little.
For my money it also stands out as the character is actively attempting murder while singing about fashion.
I don't think they meant to make it like that. I don't think you could if you tried. But it does make me feel a certain way.
It makes me feel ✨shiny✨.
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Comment on Koka - A Functional Language with Effect Types and Handlers in ~comp
wirelyre Link ParentI won't pretend to be an expert but I'll note that, to summarize the paper, basically FBIP and prior work are pretty tricky. Once you decide to generate a modify-in-place control path you've got a...I won't pretend to be an expert but I'll note that, to summarize the paper, basically FBIP and prior work are pretty tricky. Once you decide to generate a modify-in-place control path you've got a whole tangle of linear constraints in your compiler IR that simply don't exist in the source language. (Unless they do, in which case you get ATS.)
Deciding to reuse an allocation at runtime means you have to know it's not going to be accessed later — in Koka that's done through reference counting, but OCaml and F♯ need garbage collectors because they can have self-references. So it's natural to track values starting from their constructors and try to inline functions / beta-reduce to put non-escaping allocations on the stack. Well, OCaml does that and I'm positive F♯ and its JIT do too.
You can do different stuff with different language semantics. Koka is a squeaky-clean slate with simple values and a precise effect system. It's also a research language. By contrast, the Haskell compiler can get away with murder because of laziness and the fact that it basically has no effects at all.
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Comment on Just intonation keyboard – play music without knowing music in ~music
wirelyre LinkThis is really cool! It's a shame keyboards aren't four-dimensional, that way you could have the green keys laid out a little better. They would probably be harder to type on though. This would be...This is really cool!
It's a shame keyboards aren't four-dimensional, that way you could have the green keys laid out a little better. They would probably be harder to type on though.
This would be bad for the instrument as a performing device, but it would be cool to have a few commas accessible on the purple keys.
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Comment on Self-taught guitar players: How did you do it? What do you wish you could go back and do differently when you were learning? in ~music
wirelyre LinkThis isn't exactly the encouragement kind of advice. But from the way you're talking I think you're in a pretty healthy place overall, you're just in a dip. So, when you're in a problem-solving...This isn't exactly the encouragement kind of advice. But from the way you're talking I think you're in a pretty healthy place overall, you're just in a dip. So, when you're in a problem-solving mood:
Record yourself. Lots. And listen to your recordings.
Listening to and watching yourself play is some of the easiest practicing you'll ever do. Well, or the hardest but most productive. Depends on the day. You'll see some pretty wild stuff if you're looking.
Personally, I know I've improved the most when I'm getting productive feedback from someone else — teachers, friends, enemies.*(Try not to make enemies.) And someone else includes me, if it's through a recording rather than live practice.
Remember that we live in the future and that you can record yourself doing something wrong for five seconds for free. It's not a big deal. I still lie to myself, "oh, it's not really worth it for this bit." That's bargaining, and I'm always wrong.
So when you've put fresh coats of paint and sealant on your ego, try it out!*(Please. Someone must learn from my mistakes.)
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Comment on The Password Game in ~tech
wirelyre LinkI played this a couple weeks ago, then after I beat it I took it apart a bit. All rules Your password must be at least 5 characters. Your password must include a number. Your password must include...I played this a couple weeks ago, then after I beat it I took it apart a bit.
All rules
- Your password must be at least 5 characters.
- Your password must include a number.
- Your password must include an uppercase letter.
- Your password must include a special character.
- The digits in your password must add up to 25.
- Your password must include a month of the year.
- Your password must include a roman numeral.
- Your password must include one of our sponsors: [logos for Pepsi, Starbucks, and Shell]
- The roman numerals in your password should multiply to 35.
- Your password must include this CAPTCHA: [a CAPTCHA]
- Your password must include today's Wordle answer.
- Your password must include a two letter symbol from the periodic table.
- Your password must include the current phase of the moon as an emoji.
- Your password must include the name of this country. [Google Street View frame, like in GeoGuessr]
- Your password must include a leap year.
- Your password must include the best move in algebraic chess notation.
- 🥚 ← This is my chicken Paul. He hasn't hatched yet, please put him in your password and keep him safe.
- The elements in your password must have atomic numbers that add up to 200.
- All the vowels in your password must be bolded.
- Oh no! Your password is on fire. Quick, put it out!
- Your password is not strong enough 🏋️♂️
- Your password must contain one of the following affirmations:
- I am loved
- I am worthy
- I am enough
- Paul has hatched! Please don't forget to feed him, he eats three 🐛 every minute.
- Your password must include the URL of a ___ minute ___ second long YouTube video.
- A sacrifice must be made. Pick 2 letters that you will no longer be able to use.
- Your password must contain twice as many italic characters as bold.
- At least 30% of your password must be in the Wingdings font.
- Your password must include this color in hex. [a box filled with a random color]
- All roman numerals must be in Times New Roman.
- The font size of every digit must be equal to its square.
- Every instance of the same letter must have a different font size.
- Your password must include the length of your password.
- The length of your password must be a prime number.
- Uhhh let's skip this one.
- Your password must include the current time.
Things I noticed
- Most things are case insensitive! Only these are case sensitive:
- Uppercase letters —
[A-Z] - Roman numerals —
[IVXLCDM]— actuallyM{0,4}(CM|CD|D?C{0,3})(XC|XL|L?X{0,3})(IX|IV|V?I{0,3}) - Periodic table symbols
- Chess notation
- Uppercase letters —
- The moon phase can be reflected, and there are more moon emojis than you think. 🌓🌗🌛🌜 are all equivalent.
- Not only is the country name case insensitive, it ignores spaces. So
aus tra lia≡Australia. - The Gregorian calendar is used for leap years even before 1582. Also the year 0, which is not a year at all, is considered a leap year.
- For chess, moves need to end in
+if they're checks. There are 193 possible positions. - The fire spreads faster if your window is wider — basically if you're on a mobile device it gets nerfed.
- Paul eats a bug every 15 seconds, contrary to the rule text. He needs 1–8 bugs in the password when he tries to eat.
- The YouTube challenge can be any length from 180–2179 seconds, chosen randomly and uniformly.
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Comment on "Layered" music that builds throughout the song? in ~music
wirelyre LinkA few classical pieces I was thinking of, especially orchestral, some of which people have already mentioned: Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 (1812), mvt. 2 Maurice Ravel, Bolero (1928)...A few classical pieces I was thinking of, especially orchestral, some of which people have already mentioned:
- Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 (1812), mvt. 2
- Maurice Ravel, Bolero (1928)
- Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 1 (1888), mvt. 3
- Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7 (1941), mvt. 1
In general I think you'll find loads of classical examples.
If you're a little less literal about the building process, there are several entire forms that are like that. For example, passacaglias and chaconnes:
- Maurice Ravel, Piano Trio (1914), mvt. 3, "Passacaille"
- J.S. Bach, Violin Partita No. 2 (1720), mvt. 5, "Ciaccona"
Themes and variations:
- W.A. Mozart, 12 Variations on Ah vous dirai-je, Maman (1782)
- Ludwig van Beethoven, 7 Variations on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen (1801)
- J.S. Bach, Goldberg Variations (1741)
Very motivic pieces:
- César Franck, Symphony in D minor (1889), mvt. 3
- Paul Hindemith, Symphonic Metamorphosis (1943), mvt. 4, "Marsch"
Even less literally, and over even longer spans:
- Pyotr Ilyich Chaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 (1888)
- György Ligeti, Musica ricercata (1953)
And if you go full hog arguably every fugue. You might not want all the hog though, since fugues usually have their thickest textures pretty early.
I love this kind of music too. I'm not sure the Beethoven 7 movement can be beaten but that Mahler 1 movement just blows me away every time.
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Comment on I'm out of the loop, what is up with The Legend of Zelda ? in ~games
wirelyre Link ParentThe one after the waterfall/rapids room? I must've been one of the lucky ones, I don't remember looking for that at all. I do remember wondering if I was softlocked at one point though. What did...The one after the waterfall/rapids room? I must've been one of the lucky ones, I don't remember looking for that at all. I do remember wondering if I was softlocked at one point though.
What did trip me up for probably 15 actual minutes was figuring out how to get into the basement.
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Comment on I'm out of the loop, what is up with The Legend of Zelda ? in ~games
wirelyre Link ParentRight — I can't speak for TotK because I'm avoiding spoilers, but in BotW I really missed the classic formula where all of the puzzles in a dungeon were sort of tangled together. If you solve one...Right — I can't speak for TotK because I'm avoiding spoilers, but in BotW I really missed the classic formula where all of the puzzles in a dungeon were sort of tangled together. If you solve one puzzle it doesn't mean much until you see how it fits into the larger puzzle.
BotW's shrines are decent enough puzzles but they're independent and pretty linear. Off the top of my head I can't remember a shrine where you backtrack. But every classic Zelda I've played, 2D or 3D, has points where I'm dying to go back and re-explore some bit because I just unlocked something. You use the same physical areas multiple times in different ways. There's usually points where you realize you can't make progress so you have to approach it from a different angle — and that usually involves solving a different puzzle. Can't just plow through every puzzle you see in the order you see em.
So here's my hot take: OoT's Water Temple is one of the Zeldiest dungeons because most of your time is spent figuring out how to navigate the single central area — you can see everything when you first enter, you just can't use anything.
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Comment on Let's chat everything classical music in ~music
wirelyre Link ParentI keep trying to convince people of this! I think that figured bass and chord charts are almost exactly the same thing, and it boggles my mind that no one seems to teach continuo at the same time...I really do think that, given the chance, jazz people will appreciate chamber music and vice versa. I'm actually going to test out this theory with a program next year: Baroque and jazz.
I keep trying to convince people of this! I think that figured bass and chord charts are almost exactly the same thing, and it boggles my mind that no one seems to teach continuo at the same time as comping.
I performed with someone last year who told me they were wondering if jazz improv might be a direct descendant of Baroque improv. The Atlantic slave trade was active all through the 17th and 18th centuries so it's not a huge stretch that the European tradition might have mixed in directly. Though I never looked into it more.
Not sure if it's obscure enough, but Luis Bacalov's Misa Tango. Loved that piece!
Obscure enough for me, thanks for the recommendation!
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Comment on Programming Challenge: Mini Calendar Display in ~comp
wirelyre Link ParentI installed a keyboard layout! It's just QWERTY but with a backslash dead key. So I type \r for ↑ and 1\ 2 for 1‿2. It sounds hard but the symbols are good mnemonics for the functions and the keys...I installed a keyboard layout! It's just QWERTY but with a backslash dead key. So I type
\rfor↑and1\ 2for1‿2. It sounds hard but the symbols are good mnemonics for the functions and the keys are good mnemonics for the symbols.\z\Zmakes⥊⋈for example, which both look kind of likez. Andhjklist the dot zone, so\h\j\k\K\lmakes⊸∘○⌾⟜. (Neither of those is meaningful code.)Right now I do most of the drafting in the online interpreter because my terminal editor feels weird for it. Over there you can see all the primitives at the top, click them to insert, hover to see the key binding, and shift/control/command-click them to see the documentation.
Yesterday I was brainstorming and was like "hmm, what's the symbol for this?" So I fumbled around the keyboard trying to find it, and eventually I gave up and looked at the top bar. I was looking for a regular ASCII slash.
Honestly I'm no expert and the biggest challenge is usually figuring out what not to care about, finding the right place of abstraction. For example I needed to pad the end of each month with spaces, otherwise it would cycle back to 1. How many spaces do you need? Well, actually it doesn't matter, just pad with 42 cells and chop it back to size.
It feels like you should be able to extract 7 and make it more general. But, like, who on Earth is going to change the length of the week? (And there's only two 7s in the code anyway.)
And even if it does matter and you do need the generalization — well, it's only 11 lines so you can just go in there and do whatever you want.
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Comment on Let's chat everything classical music in ~music
wirelyre LinkWelcome! Thanks for the piece! When did you make this recording? Not to blast you with questions but I'm super curious what you think: Why do classical chamber recitals and jazz combos have...Welcome!
Thanks for the piece! When did you make this recording?
Not to blast you with questions but I'm super curious what you think:
- Why do classical chamber recitals and jazz combos have different audiences and different audience cultures?
- Is there a way to merge them into a single audience? Is that desirable?
- It feels like the goal of orchestral pops is to reincorporate parts of big band performances. Is that true, and if so, is it working?
- How is it different listening to a recording of an orchestra you conducted versus listening to yourself performing on piano?
- Do you have any favorite obscure pieces by Latin American composers?
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Comment on Programming Challenge: Mini Calendar Display in ~comp
wirelyre LinkFun little challenge. I got a solution in BQN — it should work for any POSIX date. ⟨ 2023 6 4 ⟩ 1 2 3 4 5 6 │ 1 2 3 │ 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 │ 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 │ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 │ 11...Fun little challenge. I got a solution in BQN — it should work for any POSIX
date.⟨ 2023 6 4 ⟩ 1 2 3 4 5 6 │ 1 2 3 │ 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 │ 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 │ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 │ 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 │ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 │ 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 │ 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 28 29 30 31 │ 25 26 27 28 29 30 │ 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 │ │ 30 31Full source code
# Print a calendar of this month and the two surrounding months. # current date and weekday y‿m‿d‿wd ← •BQN 1⊑ •SH ⟨"date", "+%Y‿%m‿%d‿%w"⟩ m‿d -↩ 1 # number of days in a month Leap ← ≠´0=4‿100‿400|¨⊣ Days ← ⊢◶31‿(28+Leap)‿31‿30‿31‿30‿31‿31‿30‿31‿30‿31 # number of days and starting weekday of these three months Offset ← {y‿m𝕊o: x←o+m+12×y ⋄ ⟨⌊x÷12,12|x⟩} ⟨prev,cur,·⟩ ← counts ← Days´¨ y‿m⊸Offset¨ ¯1‿0‿1 starts ← 7 | ⟨wd-d+prev, wd-d, cur+wd-d⟩ # format a single month as rank-2 character array S ← ⥊⟜⟨" "⟩ Chart ← { ∾˘ 6‿7⥊ (S𝕨)∾((¯4↑•Fmt)¨1+↕𝕩)∾(S 42) } # output •Out (32⥊" ")∾•Fmt⟨y,m+1,d+1⟩ •Out˘ (∾⟜" │"⊸∾)˘˝> starts Chart¨ countsTildes's font has surprisingly nice BQN symbols!
This was a good exercise for boiling down the problem to its essential parts. I decided those should be:
- Print today's date
- Print three calendar months
In order to print one month you need to know how many days it has and which day of the week it starts on. I think the
Daysfunction (number of days in a month) is really beautiful. Take the index of the month into a list. If it's February, figure out whether it's aLeapyear (modulus 4 and 100 and 400, xor together) and add 28 to the boolean. One weird note: xor is written≠, so "xor of a boolean list" is written≠´.Then I figured out how to print a single month. This is string formatting and it's ugly. But the interface
2 Chart 29for printing a 29-day month starting on Tuesday (2s-day) is nice. You can then splice those together. Each chart is just a list of strings for each day, padded on the front by the starting weekday, padded on the back by loads of spaces, cut into a 6×7 grid, and merged into an array of lines.Then it's just a matter of finding the number of days in each month and the weekday they start on. Boring math but we got
Offsetout of it:(2023‿6 Offset 3) ≡ 2023‿9, forward 3 months;(2023‿6 Offset ¯8) ≡ 2022‿10, backward 8 months. Finally, a little modular math to find the weekdays (using 0-based month and day indexes).I decided to print the date in native BQN array format, ⟨surrounded by angle brackets⟩, as a nod to the language! I think it looks cute.
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Comment on Use.GPU goes trad in ~comp
wirelyre Link ParentI went back to this earlier post which explains more of the high-level architecture in a way I'm familiar with.I went back to this earlier post which explains more of the high-level architecture in a way I'm familiar with.
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Comment on Writers, be wary of throat-clearers and wan intensifiers. Very, very wary. in ~creative
wirelyre Link ParentEnglish has a lot of diphthongs (two vowels as a unit) and you can put loads of consonants at the front and end of syllables. I'm gonna write a little IPA to show where all the sounds are, and...English has a lot of diphthongs (two vowels as a unit) and you can put loads of consonants at the front and end of syllables.
I'm gonna write a little IPA to show where all the sounds are, and I'll put the vowels in bold. Each of these words has one syllable:
- may — /meɪ/
- make — /meɪk/
- makes — /meɪks/
- eye — /aɪ/
- rye — /ɹaɪ/
- ride — /ɹaɪd/
- tried — /tɹaɪd/
- stride — /stɹaɪd/
- strides — /stɹaɪdz/
- strengths — /stɹɛŋθs/
Really, if you want to count English syllables, your best bet is to look at the vowels. Consonants usually don't make another syllable.
In the interest of hopefully judoing this into a better discussion:
Not only are these really good points, I think the second one is one of the greatest weaknesses of the language.
Rooting ownership in a stack frame, like Rust does (both stack- and heap-allocated values), ties object ownership to the call stack hard; also the way references project into other references implies a tree structure for data which simply doesn't work for more general graphs.
I guess I should have known better than to necromance this one though, sorry about that. :-/