diff --git a/content/sundries/shit-code/birth_of_freedomdates.png b/content/sundries/shit-code/birth_of_freedomdates.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5bef07c Binary files /dev/null and b/content/sundries/shit-code/birth_of_freedomdates.png differ diff --git a/content/sundries/shit-code/freedoms_birthday.png b/content/sundries/shit-code/freedoms_birthday.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f90df2f Binary files /dev/null and b/content/sundries/shit-code/freedoms_birthday.png differ diff --git a/content/sundries/shit-code/index.md b/content/sundries/shit-code/index.md index 84241be..7fba898 100644 --- a/content/sundries/shit-code/index.md +++ b/content/sundries/shit-code/index.md @@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ toc = false # A sundry collection of intellectual property, some less intellectual than other -Something I firmly believe is that it's possible to make jokes in any medium. Here at Nebcorp Heavy +Something I firmly believe is that it's important to make jokes in any medium. Here at Nebcorp Heavy Industries & Sundries, despite occasional dabbling with the [physical](@/sundries/a-thoroughly-digital-artifact/index.md), we work primarily with software, and -so this medium is one of our primary corporate humor channels. Below is just some of our work there, +software is one of our primary corporate humor channels. Below is just some of our work there, from least to most useless. ## *katabastird, a graphical countdown timer* @@ -116,23 +116,174 @@ users that I can specifically identify: ![randical's popularity is baffling][randical_downloads] -Who is downloading my software, and why? I don't know, and I don't care about knowing. +Who is downloading my software, and why? I don't know, and more importantly, I don't care or need to +know. It's truly better for everyone that way. -## *freedom-dates, a library noone needed or wanted* +## *freedom-dates, a library neither wanted nor needed* -When I started writing this post, "freedom-dates" did not exist as a concrete thing, merely as a -shit-head suggestion by me about the dumbest possible way to represent dates as a string. +When I started writing this post, "freedom-dates" existed strictly as a shit-head idea of mine about +the dumbest possible way to represent dates as a string. In fact, I had had it about a month before, +while chatting with some friends on Discord. ---- - - freedom-dates - - bad_print +![the birth of the birth of freedom][freedomdates-discord] +*
actually i did ask if i should
* + +As usual, I thought tossing a small crate together to realize this joke would take, at most, one +hour, and be maybe ten lines long. At least this time, it only took five or six times as long as I +thought it would. In its own words, `freedom-dates` + +> provides a convenient suite of affordances for working with dates in *freedom format*. That is, it +> takes representations of dates in Communinst formats like "2023-02-08", and liberates them into a +> Freedom format like "2/8/23". + +For something like this, where I would not want to actually be accused of punching down or being a +jingoistic moron, it's important to be as multidimensionally absurd as possible; I really needed to +commit to the bit and provide maximum, richly-textured incongruity. + +Luckily, using the [Rust language](https://www.rust-lang.org/) helps with that in a lot of +ways. After I [published it to the official package +repository](https://crates.io/crates/freedom-dates), the official documentation site built and +published the [autogenerated documentation](https://docs.rs/freedom-dates/latest/freedom_dates/) for +it. This leads to the creation of content that looks like this: + +![this is history][freedoms-birthday] + +The slick-looking defaults and basically frictionless process for participating in the Rust +ecosystem make it easy for culture-jamming like this. All I had to do was diligently comment, test, +and document my code[^just-do-lots-of-work], and the larger systems took care of the rest. + +Rust also provides a lot of different fancy programming tools, like +[`Traits`](https://docs.rs/freedom-dates/latest/freedom_dates/trait.FreedomTime.html), that allow +you to dress up deeply unserious content in deeply serious costume. + +In all real seriousness, though, I hope that seeing how easy it is to get something this silly +published in the official channels inspires you to overcome any trepidation about doing that +yourself, if you have something you want to share! + +## *bad_print, a silly program* + +A few years ago, someone at the [Recurse Center](https://recurse.com/)[^rc-link] started a chat +thread titled "bad print", and opened it with, + +> you probably didn't know that you needed a bad print function, one that spawns a thread for each +> character in your string and prints the single character before quitting... well, now that you +> know that you needed this, i've written one for you + +and then pasted a 3-line program in Haskell, and asked for other implementations of "bad print", in +any language. I whipped one up using [Rayon](https://github.com/rayon-rs/rayon), a library for doing +some things in parallel really easily, but eventually settled on the following, which uses a much +smaller and more focused external library called +[threadpool](https://github.com/rust-threadpool/rust-threadpool): + +``` rust +use std::io::Write; +use std::{env, io}; + +use threadpool::ThreadPool; + +fn main() { + let args: Vec = env::args().collect(); + if args.len() < 2 { + panic!("Please supply a phrase to be badly printed.") + } + let string = args[1..].join(" "); + let num_threads = string.len(); + + println!(--------); + let pool = ThreadPool::new(num_threads); + for c in string.chars() { + pool.execute(move || { + print!("{}", c); + let _ = io::stdout().flush(); + }); + } + pool.join(); + println!(); +} +``` + +I noted about it, relative to earlier versions, + +> It appears to output strings with an even larger edit distance from the arguments given to it, +> presumably due to the chaos inherent to harnessing the power of one full tpc (thread per char). + +Indeed, witness it for yourself: + +``` text +$ bad_print Behold the awesome power of one full Thread Per Character. +-------- +Bwoesmd elpoh or onh eu Thread earPCh ceearfofelwtter la. +``` + +By far the most impressive was a bash script that did *Matrix*-style cascading text in your +terminal, called, appropriately enough, `bad_matrix`; that particular one was by someone [who's a +bit of a shell +wizard](https://www.evalapply.org/posts/shell-aint-a-bad-place-to-fp-part-2-functions-as-unix-tools/index.html#main). # Other peformance arts +An artist's medium is all of reality and all of time, so every piece of the work is eligible for +expression; the frame is also part of the work. Software in my culture is still embedded in a +context that is a bit stuffy, a bit up its ass about things like "copyright" and "semantic +versioning"[^smegver], and so they're things I enjoy playing with, too. + +At the bottom of the [readme for +freedom-dates](https://github.com/nebkor/misfit_toys/blob/master/freedom-dates/README.md), I have +the following about the version: + +> Freedom *STARTS* at number 1, baby! And every release is ten times the last, so second release is +> 10, then 100, etc. FREEDOM! + +and indeed it is at version 1.0.0; the two `.0`s after the `1` are there to satisfy Cargo's +requirements about semver[^smegver]. + ## goldver +When I version software for public consumption, I tend to use a scheme I call +"[goldver](https://gitlab.com/nebkor/katabastird/-/blob/main/VERSIONING.md)", short for "Golden +Versioning". It works like this: + +> When projects are versioned with goldver, the first version is "1". Note that it is not "1.0", or, +> "1.0-prealpha-release-preview", or anything nonsensical like that. As new versions are released, +> decimals from *phi*, the [Golden Ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio), are appended +> after an initial decimal point. So the second released version will be "1.6", the third would be +> "1.61", etc., and on until perfection is asymptotically approached as the number of released +> versions goes to infinity. + +In order to be compliant with the semver version structure, the following rule is applied to +projects published to the official Rust package repository: + +> Once there have been at least three releases, the version string in the Cargo.toml file will +> always be of the form "1.6.x", where x is at least one digit long, starting with "1". Each +> subsequent release will append the next digit of phi to x. The number of releases can be +> calculated by counting the number of digits in x and adding 2 to that. + +I sincerely believe that this is *better than [semver](https://semver.org/)* for plenty of non-library +software. It was Windows 95 and then Windows 2000; obviously there was a lot of change. I don't care +about arguing about the whether or not this is a "patch release" or a "minor release" or a "major +change". There are no downstream dependents who need to make sure they don't accidentally upgrade to +the latest release. If someone wants to update it, they know what they're getting into, and they do +it in an inherently manual way. + ## chaos license +Anything that I can[^chaos-software], I license under the Chaos License, which states, + +> This software is released under the terms of the Chaos License. In cases where the terms of the +license are unclear, refer to the [Fuck Around and Find Out +License](https://git.sr.ht/~boringcactus/fafol/tree/master/LICENSE-v0.2.md). + +This is about as +[business-hostile](https://blog.joeardent.net/2017/01/say-no-to-corporate-friendly-licenses/) as I +can imagine, far worse even than the strong copyleft licenses that terrified the lawyers at ILM when +I was there. It oozes uncertainty and risk; you'd have to be deranged to seriously engage with +it. But if you're just a person? Dive right in, it doesn't really matter! + +--- +That's about all I have for now, my droogs. Go take what you know and do something weird with it; it +may amuse you! You might learn something! You might make someone laugh! + +--- [katabastird_normal]: ./katabastird_normal.png "counting down with one hour, twenty-nine minutes, and forty-three seconds remaining" @@ -141,3 +292,20 @@ shit-head suggestion by me about the dumbest possible way to represent dates as [katabastird_predator]: ./katabastird_predator.png "get to the choppah" [randical_downloads]: ./randical_installs.png "who the hell are these people?" + +[freedomdates-discord]: ./birth_of_freedomdates.png "a screencap of a conversation where I suggest 'freedom-formatted' dates are 'seconds since july 4 1776'" + +[freedoms-birthday]: ./freedoms_birthday.png "Freedom was born at noon on the Fourth of July, '76, Eastern Time. This is History." + +[^just-do-lots-of-work]: I did more test-writing and documenting for that useless joke project +than for most other software I ever write. + +[^rc-link]: See also the link at the bottom of the page here. + +[^smegver]: "semantic versioning" sounds like it could be a good idea: "the versions should be +meaningful, and when they change, they should be changed in a way that means something +consistent". As usual with these things, it's turned into a prescriptivist cult whose adherents +insist that all software be released according to its terms. This is annoying. + +[^chaos-software]: This is basically anything I write by me, for me, as opposed to contributing to +someone else's project.