Serving Datastar Streams
Datastar leaves the server-side implementation open-ended. Datastar provides SDKs for various languages, but those SDKs only cover the protocol on top of SSE that the Datastar JavaScript client …
Notes
Notes are a free-form stream-of-consciousness of thoughts, ideas, and references. Some are more organized than others.
2026
Datastar Basics
Datastar is an HTMX-like framework that attempts to minimize the amount of Javascript you write using a few concepts:
2025
Algebraic Data Types: Product & Sum Types
ADTs is a fancy term for a type composed from other types. There are two kinds of Algebraic Data Types.
Monads: Are they worth it?
Monads are interfaces for sequencing behaviors related to a data type.
2024
Typescript Retrospective
As part of trying out Svelte, I’ve also stepped into the modern web development ecosystem. I previously worked primarily in Clojurescript, so my reference point is based on being away from …
Svelte 5 for ReactJS Users
Disclaimer: I didn’t learn Svelte before v5, so this is an experience report on translating Svelte 4 code to 5.
Toml Crash Course
Since migrating this site to Hugo, I felt like it was finally time to avoid learning TOML.
2020
check.statem: Generating Test Programs
One of the most interesting parts of generative testing (aka QuickCheck) is state machine testing. The original purpose I built Fox was to explore state machine testing. In particular, the talk from …
2016
Reading Code – Assertions & Assumptions
I’m fascinated by how engineers read and interpret code that they work on a daily basis. It’s no doubt different for everyone, but few explain how they go about and understand an unfamiliar codebase.
What's Your Engineering Culture?
When evaluating companies, it’s of utmost importance to learn about the engineering culture. Culture for a company is similar to scope for code – culture provides a context for getting work done.
TLDR Programming Concepts
Trying to concisely describe concepts is an interesting exercise. The ideal goal is to build upon existing concepts, but as you add more concepts you run the risk of being inconsistent.
Two Kinds of Abstractions
When someone talks about abstractions, they’re usually trying to make the software more flexible. But that’s usually one of two kinds of abstractions.
Design of Software Solutions
What’s the best way to model a solution? In software, there’s several common ways of building solutions that solve specific problems. It’s worth trying to identify their characteristics and the …
Editing Text (Basics)
The problem seems simple: open, edit, and save text files. This can range from JSON files to source code like every other editor.
Observation
The more you learn, the more this skill seems to be necessary. When missing a bug or a refactor opportunity, I wonder how did I miss this? Sure, everyone wants to learn from their mistakes. But …
Modeling the Domain
Let’s mentally build an API for an e-commerce site. Let’s say we’re tasked with building the cart & checkout portion of the API. Building a RESTful API seems like the natural choice. At first, a Cart …
2015
Daily Processes Check-In
Instead of sounding prescriptive, this article is much more descriptive.
Going Fast by Going Slow
People always ask about how did you learn this or work so quickly doing that? It’s a tough question to answer elegantly. And it’s a cop-out to vaguely say I spent my free time looking into that …
Process is King
There’s a process behind every result.
Communicating as an Engineer
As an engineer, one of the most valuable skills you can have is to communicate effectively. This applies both to your fellow engineers as well as non-engineers (PMs, designers, business). Obviously, …
Mental Schemas
It is difficult to always be improving in the software industry. In creative fields, many artists talk about churn. When starting out, there’s an enormous amount of work to produce to get better. If …
Software as Bridges
Software is always challenging to explain to non-engineers and having a metaphor is valuable to explain complex concepts. Bridges happen to be a good analogy to software. But the devil is always in …
Seeking Simplicity
What is simple?
Moving On
It’s a bittersweet end to a chapter. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Pivotal Labs. I met a lot of great friends. I paired and talked with geniuses and newcomers alike. And I’d recommend anyone with …
Generative Testing
It’s no secret that I’ve been interested in testing. Most of the work I’ve done are around example-based testing. While useful, it’s interesting to look at other communities for inspiration. I’m …
2014
Parsing JSON in Objective-C - Part 2
Note: This previously was on Pivotal Labs blog.
Parsing JSON in Objective-C - Part 1
This post was originally written on the Pivotal Labs Blog.
Reverse Engineering Objective-C
Languages that have dynamic introspection provide powerful meta-programming capabilities. This is generally done at runtime with additional memory used for storing metadata - such as types and method …
Adapting Binary Search
It’s great to use classic algorithms to solve problems at hand. Take this problem of ellipsis:
Evaluating New Techonologies
Every time you look at a new (or familiar) technology, you should ask: What are the tradeoffs?
Objective-C: Lazy Sequences
Lazy data structures are a powerful abstraction can increase the readability of your program while encouraging separation of concerns.
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