Deus In Machina

Deus In Machina delves into artificial intelligence, programming paradigms, technology's societal impacts, and historical overviews of programming languages and software development. It explores learning techniques, debates AI ethics, and provides practical programming guides and tutorials, alongside reflections on computing history and the evolution of gaming.

Artificial Intelligence Programming Languages Technology and Society Software Development Learning Techniques Ethics in Technology Programming Tutorials Computing History Gaming

The hottest Substack posts of Deus In Machina

And their main takeaways

The Dart Programming Language Is Underrated

72 implied HN points • 05 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Web Development Mobile Apps Computer Science
  1. Dart is a modern programming language that's great for building mobile and web apps, mainly through Flutter. Many developers find it fast and easy to use, especially for creating user interfaces.
  2. Dart has a lot of useful features, like being very object-oriented, supporting asynchronous programming, and offering good tools for development. However, it can also be a bit complex with many keywords to remember.
  3. Despite its strengths, Dart sometimes faces doubts about its future due to Google's history of canceling projects. Nevertheless, its community is growing, and the language continues to evolve and improve.

The Story of Nel

72 implied HN points • 29 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software AI Startups Development
  1. Real programmers often rely on their knowledge and skills rather than on tools like AI and autocomplete features to code. It highlights the importance of understanding the code at a fundamental level.
  2. Having face-to-face conversations and collaboration among team members helped boost productivity when technology failed. Working together led to better problem-solving and learning.
  3. Using simple, effective tools that fit your needs can lead to better coding experiences. Sometimes, going back to the basics can spark creativity and innovation.

Compiling History: A brief tour of C compilers

217 implied HN points • 04 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Programming Languages Compilers
  1. The history of C compilers dates back to the early 1970s with the creation of the first C compiler for Unix.
  2. Early C compilers like the PDP C Compiler and the Portable C Compiler laid the foundation for modern C programming.
  3. The development of standards like C89 brought uniformity and clarity to the C language, leading to the evolution of modern compilers like GCC and LLVM.

Racket: The Lisp for the modern day

326 implied HN points • 29 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Programming Languages IDE Documentation
  1. Racket is an advanced modern Lisp with a wide range of features and tools for developers in 2023.
  2. Racket is especially great for beginners, young programmers, and academics due to its simplicity, built-in IDE, and gradual learning curve.
  3. Racket's unique language building capabilities allow for creating domain-specific languages, documentation languages, and more, making it a versatile and powerful tool for programmers.

SDL Tutorial Part 1: Opening A Window

108 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Tutorial
  1. The tutorial provides a cheat sheet for essential SDL functions like initializing, creating a window, rendering, and cleaning up.
  2. The tutorial gives practical code examples for opening a window in SDL2, emphasizing error handling for function calls.
  3. It emphasizes the importance of clearing the screen with a color to prevent interference between frames and discusses the choice between SDL and Raylib for game development.
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A World without C

72 implied HN points • 07 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Languages Innovation Legacy
  1. The push towards memory-safe languages like C++ over C is gaining attention due to concerns about software security, especially in critical systems like government infrastructure and services.
  2. C's simplicity and widespread usage make it a common choice for interlanguage bindings, but its simplicity can also lead to challenges in areas like memory management and handling large projects.
  3. While C has a rich history and legacy, there is growing discussion about the potential for newer languages like Zig to eventually replace C in its core functionalities, driven by advancements in the programming landscape.

Understanding the Compilation Process in C: A Step by Step Guide

72 implied HN points • 11 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Programming Compilers Assembly
  1. The compilation process in C involves preprocessing, compilation to assembly, assembly into an object file, and linking for the final executable.
  2. Each step in the compilation process serves a critical role in converting high-level C code to machine-executable instructions.
  3. Understanding the compilation process helps programmers appreciate the intricate steps involved in turning source code into functioning programs.

The Evolution of Valve's Source Engine

72 implied HN points • 28 Dec 23
🕹 Technology Gaming Software Development Updates Innovation
  1. Valve's Source Engine evolved from a modified Quake engine to the renowned Source engine, powering successful games like Half-Life and Team Fortress.
  2. Valve introduced the GoldSrc and Source engines to separate stable and developmental codebases, enabling continued development without affecting existing games.
  3. The Source engine underwent major updates over the years, leading to the Orange Box update with significant graphical enhancements, and eventually paving the way for the development of Source 2.

Understanding the Power of Bitwise Operators. No math needed

145 implied HN points • 11 May 23
🕹 Technology Programming Emulation Computing Software
  1. Bitwise operators manipulate binary data without the need for math, making them powerful tools in programming.
  2. Understanding binary representation is crucial in computer programming, allowing for efficient manipulation of data.
  3. Bitwise operators like AND, OR, XOR, and shift operations are essential in tasks like setting specific bits, masking off bits, or shifting binary numbers.

Experimenting with GUIs on the Pi Zero

36 implied HN points • 29 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Programming Performance
  1. Older Raspberry Pi models like the Zero W can still be utilized for GUI experiments, despite limitations in processing power and memory.
  2. Different GUI libraries have varying performance on the Raspberry Pi Zero, with FLTK demonstrating impressive speed compared to others like GTK and Qt.
  3. Tkinter in Python and Tcl with Tk provide viable options for GUI development on the Raspberry Pi Zero, offering acceptable performance levels.

SDL Tutorial Part 2: Drawing Text

36 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Programming Graphics
  1. To display text in SDL2, you need to include SDL_ttf.h and work with functions like TTF_Init, TTF_OpenFont, TTF_RenderText_Solid, and SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface.
  2. When using SDL2, surfaces are CPU-based bitmaps ideal for pixel manipulation, while textures are GPU-based and essential for efficient rendering.
  3. SDL2 can render using either SDL_Surface or SDL_Texture, with SDL_Surface being software rendering done entirely by the CPU, bypassing the GPU.

Lets compile Linux DOOM

36 implied HN points • 01 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Game Development Software Development Open Source Programming Languages Operating Systems
  1. Compiling the Linux DOOM source code requires setting up the source code from the id-software repository and navigating through different build methods like Make and CMake.
  2. Encountering and solving errors in the compilation process involves making adjustments to data types, structure pointers, and handling variables like errno to ensure successful building of the DOOM executable.
  3. To address color depth issues and display errors while running the DOOM game on modern systems, utilizing tools like Xephyr, setting specific environmental variables, and modifying code sections related to color maps and display resolutions becomes critical.

Learning to Touch type again

72 implied HN points • 13 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Gaming Programming Psychology
  1. Learning to use an ergonomic keyboard like Kinesis Advantage 360 can help reduce wrist and nerve pain from excessive keyboard use.
  2. Practicing touch typing on websites like keybr.com can help improve typing speed and accuracy, even with a new keyboard layout.
  3. Adjusting to an ergonomic keyboard for activities like gaming and programming may require remapping keys, creating profiles, and adapting to a new learning curve.

Pascal: The language that almost took over the world part 2

36 implied HN points • 16 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Programming Software Languages Development Computer Science
  1. Pascal programs have a structured format with specific sections for constants, types, and variables.
  2. Free Pascal supports multiple dialects which can be specified using mode directives like OBJFPC and DELPHI.
  3. In Pascal, functions and procedures are declared with keywords like constructor, function, and procedure, and variables are prefixed with T and F.

Pascal: The language that almost took over the world part 1

36 implied HN points • 26 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Programming Languages Computers Operating Systems Software Development
  1. Pascal language was designed with a focus on clean and readable code, making it ideal for teaching programming.
  2. Turbo Pascal revolutionized programming by combining editing, compiling, and linking steps in one integrated environment.
  3. The decline of Pascal was due to factors like its focus on teaching, rapid advancements in computing technology, and the popularity of Unix and C programming language.

Simula the forgotten programming language

72 implied HN points • 02 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Programming Languages Implementation Classes Functions
  1. Simula was a significant influence on the design of languages like C++ and Java, showcasing Object-Oriented Programming concepts.
  2. Finding an implementation for Simula, like Portable Simula, can be a bit challenging but rewarding.
  3. Simula uses unique syntax like keyword-based blocks, explicit statement endings with semicolons, and different assignment operators for text variables.

Treating AI Like Nuclear Bombs

72 implied HN points • 09 Feb 23
  1. AI has the potential for profound impacts on human life.
  2. There are concerns about job displacement due to AI advancements.
  3. Military applications of AI are raising concerns about the ease of transferring civilian AI technology to warfare.

How Word Processor File Formats Work

36 implied HN points • 22 Jun 23
🕹 Technology
  1. The docx file format is essentially a collection of XML files that define different parts of a document.
  2. The XML-based file formats like docx and odt offer advantages in terms of resilience against file corruption by using multiple files.
  3. Understanding the structure of XML files and how they encode data allows for flexibility and customization in word processing and office suite applications.

💎Crystal the language for humans💎

36 implied HN points • 27 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Programming Documentation Community Debugging
  1. Crystal programming language aims to be a 'batteries included language' with a rich standard library that mimics Ruby behavior.
  2. Crystal has good cross-platform support, with macOS and Linux well-supported and Windows improving.
  3. Crystal makes documentation and testing easy, using markdown for comments and providing a built-in testing framework.

What do you mean by "Memory Management"?

36 implied HN points • 23 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Programming Memory management
  1. Memory management in non-garbage collected languages involves handling memory addresses, reserving memory, and manipulating memory locations.
  2. Pointers are crucial in memory management as they store memory addresses to access specific locations and values in memory.
  3. Understanding the concepts of stack, heap, malloc, realloc, and free in C helps in efficient memory management and avoiding common memory-related bugs.

Recapping the first OpenAI DevDay

0 implied HN points • 09 Nov 23
🕹 Technology AI Developers APIs Models Pricing
  1. Inaugural OpenAI DevDay featured new product announcements and successful integrations with companies like Amgen and Lowe's
  2. Over 92% of Fortune 500 companies are utilizing OpenAI products for building, showcasing corporate interest in innovative technologies
  3. Introduction of GPT-4 Turbo model highlighted improvements in context length, control, knowledge, customizations, and competitive pricing

Why on earth are we already lamenting the fall of LLMs?

0 implied HN points • 07 Sep 23
🕹 Technology AI Programming Tech Ethics Machine Learning Digital Tools
  1. Some users expect too much from Large Language Models without putting in additional effort or guidance.
  2. Language models like ChatGPT should be viewed as tools that require ongoing optimization and understanding.
  3. There are various alternatives to ChatGPT, and users should explore and compare different Large Language Models to find the best fit for their needs.

A look at WebAssembly, the webs powerful new technology part 2

0 implied HN points • 19 Oct 23
🕹 Technology WebAssembly Programming JavaScript HTML Memory
  1. WebAssembly is primarily designed as a compilation target for languages like C, C++, and Rust.
  2. WebAssembly files consist of sections like modules with code, and data sections for storing strings or variables.
  3. To interact with WebAssembly modules, JavaScript can import functions and memories from the module to perform tasks like logging messages or manipulating data.

The Evolution of Computing: From 8-bit to 64-bit

0 implied HN points • 31 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Computing Hardware Software Evolution
  1. Computing technology evolved from 8-bit to 64-bit architectures over the years, impacting how we use and understand computers.
  2. Understanding bits, nibbles, and bytes provides insight into the fundamental units of computer data representation and processing.
  3. The transition from 8-bit to 64-bit computing brought advancements in hardware, software development, and overall system performance.

Berkeley’s Digital Legacy: The Evolution of BSD and Its Influence

0 implied HN points • 10 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Operating Systems Software Development Computer History Open Source
  1. Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) started as an enhanced version of Unix with extra patches and evolved distinctively from Unix with 3BSD release.
  2. BSD's 4BSD system integrated TCP/IP protocols, leading to the development of different BSD versions like Net/1 and FreeBSD.
  3. Following legal battles and subsequent developments, FreeBSD and NetBSD emerged as major BSD variants continuing the legacy of Unix with portable designs.

The continued rise of Handheld gaming

0 implied HN points • 08 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Gaming Mobile Streaming
  1. Handheld gaming has been continuously growing in popularity over the years.
  2. Nintendo has been a key player in keeping the handheld gaming industry alive with a history of successful handheld consoles.
  3. Modern handheld devices offer impressive gaming experiences with advancements in technology, bringing more excitement to the gaming community.

The DOIT philosophy: How I'm avoiding Decision Fatigue and the Paralysis of Choice this year

0 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Productivity Programming Languages Operating Systems
  1. The DOIT philosophy involves Overcoming, Iterating, and Triumphing to combat Decision Fatigue and the Paralysis of Choice. By simplifying goals and focusing on simplicity, project completion can be more effective.
  2. Decision Fatigue refers to deteriorating decision quality after prolonged decision-making sessions, leading to reduced self-control and avoidance of decisions.
  3. Paralysis of Choice occurs when faced with too many options, causing feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, and potential regret over chosen alternatives, leading to satisfaction issues.