Let’s try this again. This time around, I’ll start with a clear and simple statement of what I want to achieve with the program, and how I want the user experience to feel. There’s a clear use case, and it will probably exclude a lot of people, and I don’t care. I’m not trying toContinue reading “MTBP: Take Two, This Time, With Guidance”
Category Archives: Practical Applications of Knowledge
I Made an Offline Thing!
I’ve built a bridge between my RSS readers (Vienna and Tapestry) and my web browser so that I can connect my laptop to the Internet, fetch updated news stories, then disconnect. Later, while looking through the feed, I can queue up individual articles to be downloaded fully. Even later, I can connect the laptop toContinue reading “I Made an Offline Thing!”
File Sharing Software: Syncthing
Okay, there’s this software project called Syncthing. At its core, what it does is synchronize files among multiple devices. This is the kind of thing that I’m currently using Dropbox and Box and, to a much lesser extent, Google Drive for.
Social, But Offline
I just saw a software update that mentioned GoToSocial so I looked it up to see what it is. And honestly, it’s kind of a thing I want, but barely. So, think about posting, reading other people’s posts, you know, that whole online conversation thing. What do I really want? I want to hear from peopleContinue reading “Social, But Offline”
Frameworks: Ensemble, Forked, Swift Data
I just learned about the existence of a framework called, “Forked.” The blurbs about it talk about “local first” application design and automated merging of concurrent offline editing. This seems very interesting to me. So I started looking at the source code and the example applications, and then reading about other stuff in the “localContinue reading “Frameworks: Ensemble, Forked, Swift Data”
Software Architecture Matters
I’m starting to take a look at Swift Data, and the experience is really, really uncomfortable for me. The tutorials and explanations of how this framework works and how it integrates with SwiftUI really serve to remind me that the way I think about structuring my programs is just plain not how most other folks whoContinue reading “Software Architecture Matters”
Learning to Nope
Over Thanksgiving, a fellow suggested I take a look at writing some bit of software to do with juggling voxels. I explained that there are three general kinds of programming that are specifically not fun for me: compilers, user interface, and drivers. Doing lots of math and spatial geometry in an attempt to squeeze outContinue reading “Learning to Nope”
Prepare to Take Care
So, you know, things are likely going to get harder for people on the margins of power in the U.S., not just over the next few years, but probably for the next generation, until a bunch of justices retire. At least. Anyway, protests and lawsuits are great and necessary, but they’re things you do afterContinue reading “Prepare to Take Care”
Updating a macOS application’s Help Book
Why yes, as a matter of fact that is a really long title. Nevertheless, there’s not a lot of documentation to be found, and certainly not a lot of practical advice that shows up easily. Now that I’m building help books for my applications, I’ve run into the situation where I update the help andContinue reading “Updating a macOS application’s Help Book”
Just Enough Ruby
Last time, I complained about a problem I was having that meant I was going to have to learn enough Ruby to debug someone else’s code effectively. Fortunately for me, it turns out that I was being wildly pessimistic. In the end, I was able to get Middlemac working with Ruby 3.3.5 with only someContinue reading “Just Enough Ruby”