My attempts at game programming usually turn into impenetrable spaghetti code: “If the player walks through this door, then have him talk to the princess, unless he’s killed a guard, in which case the guards attack, or if he comes out of the secret passage…” The game I’m working on now is pretty simple, but [...]
Often I’ll fix a bug (call it “bug A”), kick off some tests, and then get stuck. I’d like to start working on bug B, but I can’t because the tests are running and I don’t want to change the repo while they’re going. Luckily, there’s a git tool for that: git-new-workdir. It basically creates [...]
I’ve been looking at Clang and they define lexer tokens in a way that I thought was clever. The challenge is: how do you keep a single list of language tokens but use them as both an enum and a list of strings? Clang defines C token types in a file, TokenKinds.def, with all of [...]
My interns are leaving today and I think the most important skill they learned this summer was how to use git. However, I had a hard time finding concise references to send them about my expectations, so I’m writing this up for next year. How to Create a Good Commit A commit is an atomic [...]
Everyone says to use git branches early and often, but I inevitably lose track of what branch I’m on. My workflow generally goes something like: Check out a branch Lunch! Get back to my desk and make an emergency bug fix Commit emergency fix Suddenly realize I’m not on the branch I meant to be [...]
I’m trying something new: every Thursday I’ll do a short post on how to do something with the command line. I always seem to either create or apply patches in the wrong direction. It’s like stalagmites vs. stalactites, which I struggled with until I heard the nemonic: “Stalagmites might hang from the ceiling… but they [...]
I’m trying something new: every Thursday I’ll go over how to do something with the command line. Let me know what you think. If you are using a modern-ish browser, you probably use tabs to keep multiple things open at once: your email, your calendar, whatever you’re actually doing, etc. You can do the same [...]
I’ve learned a lot about git, usually in a hurry after I mess up and have to fix it. Here are some basic techniques I’ve learned that may help a git beginner. Fixing your ungood code Let’s say you’re a clerk working for an Orwellian Ministry of Truth and you find out the new chocolate [...]
Probably only relevant to a limited portion of my audience, but Silicon Valley Ryan Gosling is awesome. I have never seen anything like and I’m not sure what the point is, but I know I’m a fan. Go forth and be sexy and supportive for the female programmers you know.
By request, a quick post on using PHP references in extensions. To start, here’s an example of references in PHP we’ll be translating into C: <?php // just for displaying output function display($x) { echo "x is $x\n"; } // pass in an argument by making a copy of it function not_by_ref($arg) { [...]
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