Although the public debate about this week's EU referendum in the UK has become absurdly bitter on both sides, I have had some constructive talks about the subject with people around me, even where we have disagreed. There is, or was, a reasonable debate to be had and it's a pity we haven't seen a… Continue reading Why I will be voting “in” this Thursday
Author: Chris Cannam
Naming conventions in Standard ML
Many programming languages have a standard document that describes how to write and capitalise the names of functions, variables, and source files. It's especially useful to have a standard for writing names made up from more than one word, where there are various options for how to join the words: "camel case", which looks likeThis… Continue reading Naming conventions in Standard ML
Console games and local multiplayer
We just got a Playstation 4, and have been a bit disappointed by the lack of good local multiplayer support in the games we've tried so far. I reckon every console game should support local multiplayer if it can: after all that's the main thing that makes a console different from a PC. (To be… Continue reading Console games and local multiplayer
F♯ has possibilities
A couple of months ago, Microsoft announced that they were buying a company called Xamarin, co-founded by the admirable Miguel "you can now flame me, I am full of love" de Icaza. (No sarcasm — I think Miguel is terrific, and the delightfully positive email linked above really stuck with me; if only I could… Continue reading F♯ has possibilities
Fold: at the limit of comprehension
"Fold" is a programming concept, a common name for a particular higher-order function that is widely used in functional programming languages. It's a fairly simple thing, but in practice I think of it as representing the outer limit of concepts a normal programmer can reasonably be expected to grasp in day-to-day work. What is fold?… Continue reading Fold: at the limit of comprehension
Zero-based indexing
Reminder: programming languages count from zero because of yacht racing, *not* for any math or tech reasons: https://t.co/mAOzMSPy8o — Greg Wilson (@gvwilson) February 4, 2016 The excellent Greg Wilson, founder of Software Carpentry, tweeted the above link to a 2013 blog post by Mike Hoye the other day. I didn't comment on this article when… Continue reading Zero-based indexing
The Breakfast Post 