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Articles by Facundo Olano
--dangerously-skip-reading-code
I concluded my previous post saying that it was irresponsible to assume that we won’t need to worry about reading and debugging our code anymore—to assume that whatever problem that pops up the LLMs will be able to fix for us. This felt irresponsible because, up until now, it has been the programmer’s job to understand and maintain the source code, as a proxy to understanding and maintaining the software system. We are held accountable for the LLMs’ output. But what if this wasn’t the case anymore?
Code is run more than read
Code is read more than written This phrase is, by now, common programmer knowledge, a reminder that the person first writing a piece of code shouldn’t buy convenience at the expense of the people who will have to read it and modify it in the future. More generally, code is read more than written conveys that it’s usually a good investment to make the code maintainable by keeping it simple, writing tests and documentation, etc. It’s about having perspective over the software development cycle.
Gleam, coming from Erlang
I recently took some time to try Gleam, the type-safe language that runs on the Erlang virtual machine. For a couple of weeks, I used it to build a little open-source feed aggregator that’s now live. These are my notes. why I’m interested in Gleam I spent most of my career working with dynamic languages: Python, JavaScript, Clojure, finally Erlang. I don’t claim to be an expert but the Erlang VM is the piece of technology I’ve become most intimately familiar with.
A Pixel Parable
An imagined town is at least as real as an actual town. Richard Hugo “How would you like to work on video games?” Mark is holding his Best of the Show certificate in one hand and Gary’s card in the other: Gary W. Art Director LucasFilm Games LucasFilm Games. As in George Lucas. As in Star Wars. This is his second lucky break of the weekend. A friend recommended he go to this sci-fi convention; she said it would be good for networking.
My Software Bookshelf
I couldn’t wrap this up without a single mention of Lisp. There are books on my shelves about learning to program with Lisp—about thinking in Lisp—; a book to learn Clojure and another one to master it; a book to configure my editor using a Lisp dialect, and another one to learn how computers learn (using Lisp). But nothing suits Lisp, and Racket in particular, better than language development.
Software Possession for Personal Use
There’s a lot to be frustrated about contemporary software and the modern web. (If you are a software user and you are not frustrated, you can safely skip this article). There’s a lot to be frustrated about software, the cloud, and Big Tech, especially if you’ve been using computers long enough to remember what the experience used to be like. It was worse, of course, in some ways, more limited and primitive, but much better in others.
Deconstructing the Role-Playing Video Game
Following up on my previous post on archived project ideas, today I want to write about an rpg-cli spin-off. rpg-cli is one of my fondest personal projects and I never properly documented its development, so I’ll start this post by doing just that. Contents The simplest thing that could possibly work This was back in 2021. I was going through one of those periods where I didn’t get much intellectual satisfaction from my daily job, so I thought I could use a programming side project.
From RSS to my Kindle
Last year I wrote about how I built feedi, a personal feed reader, and started using it as my front page to the web. In the months since I published that post, I continued to tweak the app, observing my reading habits, experimenting with new features, and discarding the ones I didn’t need. I now got it to a place where I can count on seeing fresh and interesting content a couple of times a day, and the interface conveniently lets me keep what I plan to read and discard the rest.
A Note on Essential Complexity
Depending on their personal needs and preferences, the level of abstraction with which they model the world, and where they sit in the idealism-cynicism spectrum, any of the following can be legitimately said to be the job of software engineers: Writing code. Building and maintaining quality software. Building and maintaining good enough software cost-effectively. Managing complexity. Delighting users. Solving problems. Satisfying customer needs.
Reclaiming the Web with a Personal Reader
Background Last year I experienced the all-too-common career burnout. I had a couple of bad projects in a row, yes, but more generally I was disillusioned with the software industry. There seemed to be a disconnection between what I used to like about the job, what I was good at, and what the market wanted to buy from me. I did the usual thing: I slowed down, quit my job, started therapy. I revised my habits: eat better, exercise, meditate.
Code is run more than read
Code is read more than written This phrase is, by now, common programmer knowledge, a reminder that the person first writing a piece of code shouldn’t buy convenience at the expense of the people who will have to read it and modify it in the future. More generally, code is read more than written conveys that it’s usually a good investment to make the code maintainable by keeping it simple, writing tests and documentation, etc. It’s about having perspective over the software development cycle.
Rustenstein 3D: Game programming like it's 1992
Rustenstein 3D: Game programming like it's 1992 Written by Facundo Olano, February 02, 2022 Twice a year, NextRoll celebrates Hack Week, where employees get to work for a week on a project of their choice. It’s an excellent opportunity to experiment, learn new technologies and team up with people from across the company. You can learn all about Hack Week here.
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