ACCU World of Code

Building a command-line quiz application to bed in our knowledge about crates, modules and serialisation. All done using test-driven development. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and paralle…

Going through an exercise on serialization with serde. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe This section (Building applications): 18: Dependencies, …

I’ve used a lot of existing Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and have created several of my own. I see a lot of inconsistency, not just between REST APIs but often within a single REST API. I think most developers understand, at a high level…

I’ve used a lot of existing Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and have created several of my own. I see a lot of inconsistency, not just between REST APIs but often within a single REST API. I think most developers understand, at a high level…

 I went to the ACCU conference this year. I was speaking on the last day, which I managed to put out of my mind for a while and went to several other sessions.We started with a keynote from Herb Sutter about safety in C++. He’s spoken an…

 I went to the ACCU conference this year. I was speaking on the last day, which I managed to put out of my mind for a while and went to several other sessions.We started with a keynote from Herb Sutter about safety in C++. He’s spoken an…

How to write unit tests in your Rust code, and some quick pointers on writing integration and benchmark tests. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe …

I have decided to stand for election to the Matrix Governing Board, which is a brand new body which advises and oversees the work of the Matrix Foundation. I will stand as an Individual Member, not representing a company or project. Contents: Purpose …

Tips and rules for writing good APIs that are easy for other people to use. Try to make them Unsurprising, Flexible, and Obvious. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait obje…

How to describe details of your Rust project with a Cargo.toml file, and how to find and add dependencies (other people’s code). Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objec…

Finishing off the exercises on Rust traits, designing a customised version of Vec. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe This section (Traits and gen…

James S. A. CoreyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841499932Abaddon’s Gate takes a while to get going. About half the book to get going. It’s all new character introductions and building. The second half is more exciting, but drawn out. Chrisjen Avasarala is totally …

James S. A. CoreyISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841499932Abaddon’s Gate takes a while to get going. About half the book to get going. It’s all new character introductions and building. The second half is more exciting, but drawn out. Chrisjen Avasarala is totally …

DON’T DO THIS: the Signal app has the ability to make daily backups of your messages, and when you choose a folder to backup into, you can choose “Nextcloud” as the device, then choose a Nextcloud folder to back up to. Don’t do that. Although the above…

Going through some exercises on Rust traits, designing a customised version of Vec. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe This section (Traits and ge…

Rust has a feature where if you import two things from the same module you can abbreviate it like this: use mypkg::{MyStruct1, MyStruct2}; If you prefer, you can keep them separate, like this: use mypkg::MyStruct1; use mypkg::MyStruct2; I do prefer. St…

I gave a talk called “What is a Random number and why should I care?” a few times last year. It evolved each time, but I was fundamentally trying to decide whether I could define “randomness” properly. My first attempt was at ACCU. Unfortunately, …

I gave a talk called “What is a Random number and why should I care?” a few times last year. It evolved each time, but I was fundamentally trying to decide whether I could define “randomness” properly. My first attempt was at ACCU. Unfortunately, …

This time we tackle one of the most tricky areas for a new Rust programmer: lifetimes. The key point is that when we add lifetime bounds (‘a or similar) to a function signature, this is not to help Rust compile our function: it’s to help Rust understan…

A tour of some of the most interesting traits in the standard library including Add etc. to overload operators, Sized, Sync and Send for telling the compiler special things about your type, Clone and Copy for copying things, Into and From for convertin…

Machine VendettaAlastair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0316462846Machine Vendetta is the final Revelation Space novel we’re getting and the final part of the Dreyfus trilogy and it could have been a lot better. Unlike the previous book in the series, there was o…

Machine VendettaAlastair ReynoldsISBN: ‎ 978-0316462846Machine Vendetta is the final Revelation Space novel we’re getting and the final part of the Dreyfus trilogy and it could have been a lot better. Unlike the previous book in the series, there was o…

There is something wrong with the idea that git gives you confidence to delete. As so often this is from the perspective of the individual programmer. Sure, you can delete your code and you can retreive it. Well done you, but you are relyi…

There is something wrong with the idea that git gives you confidence to delete. As so often this is from the perspective of the individual programmer. Sure, you can delete your code and you can retreive it. Well done you, but you are relyi…

Following on from video 12, looking at how to add type information to traits, to make them flexible enough to describe generic code with different types, for example how to add a u32 to a u64 and return a u128, without defining a whole new trait for ev…

Explaining what a trait is, and how to use it. A trait is a bit like an Interface in Java or Go, or an Abstract Base Class in C++ or Python, but it can be used to define behaviour at compile-time as well as at run-time. We go through an example of why …

Happy Melati Day! On February 16th 2000 WilliamC made the first commit to Melati. https://github.com/Melati/Melati/commit/7a6fb6762cdbb835b4ff1aeb987bf1671cc598bd The name … Indonesia’s national flowers: the melati (small white…

Happy Melati Day! On February 16th 2000 WilliamC made the first commit to Melati. https://github.com/Melati/Melati/commit/7a6fb6762cdbb835b4ff1aeb987bf1671cc598bd The name … Indonesia’s national flowers: the melati (small white…

Going through some exercises on Rust ownership, references, slices and error handling. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe This section (More synta…

Update: as confirmed in the bug I logged, this was fixed in Firefox 123! See also: Keep your Indexed DB keys and values small if you want good performance! and Don’t store arrays of numbers in Indexed DB – use base64 instead. We had performance problem…

Following on from Keep your Indexed DB keys and values small if you want good performance!, here is another thing I’ve learned about Indexed DB performance (in July 2024): Update: Thanks to richvdh, we now know UInt8Array is much better than base64! If…

What a String is in Rust, and how they differ from &str. Strings are resizeable arrays of bytes that are guaranteed to be in UTF-8 format. &strs are references to chunks of bytes that are also guaranteed to be in UTF-8 format. If you want to le…

In our work recently on Element Web (specifically attempting to replace our encryption code with our cross-platform Rust implementation) we’ve noticed some strange behaviour with the performance of our Indexed DB queries. We’ve been aware of some slowd…

In the first post in this series I had thought about the need for a globally unique incrementable artifect id, in the next post I not only designed but tested a proposal for such a globally unique artifact id and how to change it. A t…

In the first post in this series I had thought about the need for a globally unique incrementable artifect id, in the next post I not only designed but tested a proposal for such a globally unique artifact id and how to change it. A t…

Explanation of some of the most commonly used types in Rust: Vecs, which store lists of items, Boxes that allow us to own things that we keep on the heap, and slices that are a way of referring to parts of Vecs or arrays without owning them. Series: L…

This time we discuss how to add methods to structs and enums, using impl blocks. Methods work similarly to other languages, but it might be a surprise that they can be defined inside separate blocks, and in fact they can be defined in multiple differen…

I proposed a new versioning scheme to yield a unique version string for each artifact in our highly modularised Maven java application. Currently we are running a classic SemVer semantic verioning system. The only shortcoming I can see wit…

I proposed a new versioning scheme to yield a unique version string for each artifact in our highly modularised Maven java application. Currently we are running a classic SemVer semantic verioning system. The only shortcoming I can see wit…

We learnt about enums and generics last time, which means we’re ready to talk about Result, which is a really nice way of handling errors in Rust, that allows you to be very explicit about what went wrong, but also with a very compact syntax using the …

A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)by George R.R. MartinISBN-13: ‎ 978-0007447855At least George R. R. Martin is consistent. I didn’t really enjoy the second part of this book any more than the first. The Red Wedd…

A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)by George R.R. MartinISBN-13: ‎ 978-0007447855At least George R. R. Martin is consistent. I didn’t really enjoy the second part of this book any more than the first. The Red Wedd…

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  by  Robert PirsigISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099786405 Zen and …

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  by  Robert PirsigISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099786405 Zen and …

Dear Ben Spencer, The behaviour of Hamas on 7th October and afterwards is inexcusable, and is rightly condemned by our government. I believe that the ongoing behaviour of the Israeli government in response to these attacks is inexcusable, and should be…

The whole Maven ecosystem, and more, follows the Semantic Versioning proposal from @mojombo who made a success of being right about most things. Even Oracle use it (no more ojdbc.jar for them). The problem Semantic Versioning addressed was th…

The whole Maven ecosystem, and more, follows the Semantic Versioning proposal from @mojombo who made a success of being right about most things. Even Oracle use it (no more ojdbc.jar for them). The problem Semantic Versioning addressed was th…

Santa Circles 0.3 is all new and shiny! santacircles.artificialworlds.net (It’s a secret-santa-style gift exchange web site.) Don’t worry, it looks exactly how it did last year, except there is a tiny “Forgot password?” link you can click if you need …

I’m currently rebuilding my main Windows machine after it had become close to unusable. Given that I upgraded it multiple times from Windows 7 all the way to Windows 11 without ever reinstalling the OS, this shouldn’t have come as a major s…

On my Windows machine, I’ve mostly moved from using separate virtual machine products like Hyper-V or Virtualbox to have access to a Linux machine to using WSL. The PC is dual-boot with a separate Linux install anyway, but sometimes I just want t…

Prelude To FoundationAsaac AsimovISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008117481Although, as a child and teenager, I’ve heard an abridged audiobook many times and read Prelude to Foundation the first time more than two decades ago, I loved it more than I can describe and…

Prelude To FoundationAsaac AsimovISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008117481Although, as a child and teenager, I’ve heard an abridged audiobook many times and read Prelude to Foundation the first time more than two decades ago, I loved it more than I can describe and…

If I’ve set it up right, you can now follow this blog on Mastodon and other fediverse platforms! Search for this user: @blog@www.artificialworlds.net

Continuing our review of the things you need in Rust to write programs – grouping together data using structs, and allowing multiple possibilities with enums. We look at how to decide which thing you’ve got with the match keyword, and review a very pop…

Starting some more advanced Rust programming ideas by looking at references – the ability to “borrow” values and refer to them without taking ownership. We look at mutable and immutable references, and the rules about references that prevent us ever ha…

Going through some exercises on basic Rust syntax and ownership. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe This section (Language basics): 1: Intro, 2: L…

My eldest has been using Linux on a 2012 macbook pro with 16GB and an SSD where the optical drive used to be, something she did herself whilst at school, so for her twenty first birthday I wanted to give her a new Linux laptop which she could be proud…

My eldest has been using Linux on a 2012 macbook pro with 16GB and an SSD where the optical drive used to be, something she did herself whilst at school, so for her twenty first birthday I wanted to give her a new Linux laptop which she could be proud…

Fast, light lily trotter. Dall-e Hippo. Hippo trotter. For me this is connected with writing software.

Fast, light lily trotter. Dall-e Hippo. Hippo trotter. For me this is connected with writing software.

Continuing on Rust programming basics by looking at ownership and memory management, including the stack and the heap: what they are, how they differ, and why you need to care. For more help on ownership and the stack and the heap, try Chapter 4 of th…

An introduction to the Rust language basics. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe This section (Language basics): 1: Intro, 2: Language basics, 3: M…

Introducing the Rust 101 series and how to install Rust. Series: Language basics, More syntax, Traits and generics, Building applications, Concurrency and parallelism, Trait objects, Async, Unsafe This section (Language basics): 1: Intro, 2: Language …

Caliban’s Warby James S. A. CoreyISBN: 978-1841499918I was really keen to read this after Leviathan Wakes was so good and after enjoying the TV series so much. Of course there was the pull of the introduction of Chrisjen Avasarala as well, and she real…

Caliban’s Warby James S. A. CoreyISBN: 978-1841499918I was really keen to read this after Leviathan Wakes was so good and after enjoying the TV series so much. Of course there was the pull of the introduction of Chrisjen Avasarala as well, and she real…

Combining interfaces/objects with & When you combine two types in TypeScript with & (ampersand), it is called an Intersection Type. For example: interface Particle { mass: number; } interface Wave { wavelength: number; } type Both = P…

I use Podman to provide Docker-like stuff on my dev machine without effectively being root. Talking to the container host in Docker There is a little trick for accessing HTTP services on the container host in Docker: you add –add-host host.docker.inte…

Visual Lint 8.0.13.364 has been released. This is a maintenance update for Visual Lint 8.0, and includes the following changes: When a Visual Studio 2017/2019/2022 project configuration using the /external:I switch is loaded, the specified folder wil…

Visual Lint 8.0.13.364 has been released. This is a maintenance update for Visual Lint 8.0, and includes the following changes: When a Visual Studio 2017/2019/2022 project configuration using the /external:I switch is loaded, the specified folder wil…

My current project has 319 Maven POMs. These have been worked upon by at least five ‘generations’ of coders, that is under five different software engineering leads. Maven enables different actions depending upon different profiles…

My current project has 319 Maven POMs. These have been worked upon by at least five ‘generations’ of coders, that is under five different software engineering leads. Maven enables different actions depending upon different profiles…

By Alistair ReynoldsASIN: B0C99899GL Take two of my favourite things and my favourite author and what do you get? Formula 1 in space with cyborgs, and who doesn’t love a Sisters of Mercy Reference?From a Formula 1 perspective, there’s so much there. Re…

By Alistair ReynoldsASIN: B0C99899GL Take two of my favourite things and my favourite author and what do you get? Formula 1 in space with cyborgs, and who doesn’t love a Sisters of Mercy Reference?From a Formula 1 perspective, there’s so much there. Re…

By Frank HerbertISBN:  ‎ 978-1473233805I’ve seen lots of people rave about God Emperor of Dune, the first of the second Dune trilogy, which is set several thousand years after the events of Children of Dune. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ok.It con…

By Frank HerbertISBN:  ‎ 978-1473233805I’ve seen lots of people rave about God Emperor of Dune, the first of the second Dune trilogy, which is set several thousand years after the events of Children of Dune. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ok.It con…

I realised, as I stumbled forwards with a presentation on my current project, that the presentation can be seen as a Press Release and remembered that I have explicitly followed the Amazon Working Backwards practice twice before. Write th…

I realised, as I stumbled forwards with a presentation on my current project, that the presentation can be seen as a Press Release and remembered that I have explicitly followed the Amazon Working Backwards practice twice before. Write th…

The idea I want to convey, in a slide deck at work, is that the codebase we are working on has not had enough attention for five years. It has been run by a small number of people who managed to keep the system working, ‘kept the lights on’ but the …

The idea I want to convey, in a slide deck at work, is that the codebase we are working on has not had enough attention for five years. It has been run by a small number of people who managed to keep the system working, ‘kept the lights on’ but the …

Separation of Concerns is a key principle in software engineering. When we used to deploy applications to physical hardware, the two separate concerns of infrastructure and software would often become blurred as an application would often need to tailo…

Separation of Concerns is a key principle in software engineering. When we used to deploy applications to physical hardware, the two separate concerns of infrastructure and software would often become blurred as an application would often need to tailo…

Here’s the letter I just sent to my MP. Feel free to use it in full or in part. Dear Ben Wallace, Last night I made the decision to vote tactically against you at the next election, and I felt I owed you an explanation. I now feel that any of the likel…

Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and SnowGeorge R MartinISBN: 9780007447848I didn’t like the previous book, A Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords isn’t a great deal better, but it is better.  I really enjoyed the multiple threads and, of course, learn…

Storm of Swords: Part 1 Steel and SnowGeorge R MartinISBN: 9780007447848I didn’t like the previous book, A Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords isn’t a great deal better, but it is better.  I really enjoyed the multiple threads and, of course, learn…

Up to now I’ve been following the official guide and using webpack to package my Rust+WASM code to run in a browser. But today I found out there is no need for webpack at all! This makes development much faster, with many fewer dependencies. Setup Befo…

I was recently asked what I thought of using time-based estimates when tracking software tasks. TLDR: I think it’s a terrible idea that can hurt your software by introducing bugs and burning out developers. I think using time-based estimates is pretty …

A nonofficial, JavaScript, feature complete, client library for sending transactional emails via Bloomreach.The aim of the bloomreach-transactional-email package is to get you going with the Bloomreach Transactional Email API as quickly as possible. Th…

A nonofficial, JavaScript, feature complete, client library for sending transactional emails via Bloomreach.The aim of the bloomreach-transactional-email package is to get you going with the Bloomreach Transactional Email API as quickly as possible. Th…