tslil clingman: hobbies

Code

Programming was my first introduction to structured thought, and i have always enjoyed it as a hobby. Among all the languages i have used, i have written non-trivial or larger programmes in Assembly^[1], C, Common Lisp, Haskell, Java, Javascript, Python, Pascal^[2], and Rust. Of these C, Haskell and Lisp stand out to me as excellent languages and representative of their domains, and much of my experience has been in them.

Here are some of my projects that i think are especially polished or interesting (though unlikely to be both)

• [Zig]ZiRC, a project to learn the Zig programming language and the basics of 3D rendering by building a featureful raycaster engine. Note: Unfinished, it was too much work to stay on-top of language, compiler, and package changes as Zig evolves.
• [c] ctak, a line-mode interface for the game of Tak, complete with a computer opponent. This project was designed to learn about (convolutional) neural networks, adversarial tree search, buildroot for embedded computing, and of course Tak! The ultimate goal is to build a standalone Tak computer backed by a Raspberry Pi Zero, a character LCD, and a Tak move notation keyboard. Note: Unfinished, moved countries and don't have access to hardware anymore.
• [rust] takwrap, a TUI for local play of the game of Tak, providing a wrapper around engines
• [c] msr, a small, public-key message verification tool using the ed25519 scheme, compatible with OpenBSD's signify
• [elisp] siege-mode.el, an emacs minor mode to surround the region with smart delimiters interactively, inspired isolate
• [elisp] cdm-mode.el, an emacs minor mode to aid the generation of (commutative) diagrams using plain TikZ
• My esoteric programming languages

I also enjoy programming under interesting constraints, especially as imposed by the language. Here are two such examples:

      1sn16o120sb89sc512dd
      dsd+sek712sf206sg0[1
      6lnddlb**rlc*-+lnddd
      dld****rdddle***rddl
      f**rlg*21----/+d0k1/
      -ldk16*d0k1/ldknln1+
      snljx]dsj[3.]Pxtslil
    

      [ "$1" = "$HOME" ] && echo $HOME && exit
      fl="$HOME/.local/share/dir_lst"; [ ! -f "$fl" ] && touch "$fl"
      [ "$2" = '!' ] && echo $1 && exit ||
      ln=`grep -n "$1" "$fl" | head -n 1 | cut -d : -f 1` ;
      if [ -n "$1" ]; then if [ -n "$ln" ]; then
      echo -e "$ln m0\n1p\nw" | ed -s "$fl" || echo \?; else
      l=$1; while [ ! -d "$l" ]; do echo \?; l=$(rlwrap -P$PWD -co cat -);
      [ ${l:(-1)} != / ] && l+=/; done; l=`echo "$l" | sed "s|^[^/]|$PWD/&|"`;
      echo -e "0i\n$l\n.\nw" | ed -s "$fl"; sed -i '43,$d' "$fl"
      fi; else echo -e "2 m0\nw" | ed -s "$fl"; fi;
    

“Art”

While i consider mathematics to be my primary – and perhaps only – medium of expression, it is nevertheless sometimes fun to dabble as a complete novice in other media. Here are some visual things:

• Some Man's Son, pixel art by hand
• Iterated function fractals on ℂ (rendered using Fragmentarium)
• Iterated function fractals in bipolar coordinates (rendered using Fragmentarium)
• Epicycloids yielding fractal (-like) images (rendered using Haskell)
• The Mandelex
• The Mandelmobius

“Music”

Another such avenue is sound. In my distant past i had some musical instrument instruction (piano, then alto saxophone) but i never really grasped the notation or theory. Later on i taught myself penny whistle so that i could enjoy Irish folk music. Sometime before this i discovered that computers could make sounds.

Can you imagine what ‘compositions’ sound like, as generated by a young someone without formal musical training or understanding, under the impression that music is just a few good riffs repeated endlessly? Well, no need to imagine, i happily embarrass myself for your education. From 2010-2014 i have dredged up:

Almost Completed

• bambient - futuristic drama spoken in a well-measured tone
• lmms1 - an experiment in chiptunes and LMMS
• moarpaino - guitars interfering with standard protocol
• Alright - rapper takes a day off to admire scenery
• rumblestep - Carmen as seen by nobody

Not Almost Completed

• ambians - inspired by some of Solar Fields' work
• interestin - sims build-mode strikes back
• faster - a fight erupts in the presence of a pace-maker
• cuch - children face perils equal to those of stoneage man

Not Completed

• runningoutofnames - interpretation of world of goo
• youtellme - you tell me what should appear here
• thetension - murder mystery score? exam stress? you decide
• pleasant - LMMS making my soul sigh
• babum - NYC cop struggles against personal issues while enforcing the law in the East
• whalebee - the generations long battle between whales and bees continues to unfold in the pacific