#programming-languages
14 posts
2026 - July
1 post2026 - March
1 post2026 - February
1 post2016 - June
1 post2016 - May
1 post2016 - February
1 post2015 - December
1 post2014 - December
1 post2010 - April
1 post2008 - April
1 post2008 - February
1 post2007 - December
1 post2007 - November
1 post2007 - June
1 post2026 - July
1 postThe Bun in Rust Response Andrew Kelly Should Have Written
I used Claude Fable 5 and GPT 5.6 Sol as judges to compare Rust and Zig in Bun’s rewrite. Rust helps reduce ownership bugs and maintenance costs, but the agent-based method mattered just as much as the language.
2026 - March
1 postPorting 10K Lines of Python to Crystal with Claude: easy-subtitle
I asked Claude to port Subservient to Crystal with feature parity and got easy-subtitle in under 40 minutes: 2,516 lines, 76 tests, and a 6 MB static binary with no Python runtime.
2026 - February
1 postAI Agents: What Would Be the Best Programming Language for LLMs?
A thought experiment on what a programming language designed for LLM coding agents, rather than human programmers, would look like.
2016 - June
1 post[Manga-Downloadr] Porting from Crystal to Ruby (and a bit of JRuby)
Porting Manga-Downloadr from Crystal to Ruby and JRuby, the author finds an almost direct translation, swaps Fibers and Channels for Threads, and shows why the test favored Elixir’s architecture.
2016 - May
1 postFlirting with Crystal, a Rubyist Perspective
Evaluating Crystal from a Rubyist’s perspective, the author highlights its familiar syntax, fast native binaries, and cooperative concurrency for I/O, while making clear it doesn’t replace Ruby or Rails.
2016 - February
1 postElixir Pipe Operator for Ruby: Chainable Methods
The Chainable Methods gem passes each call’s return value as the next call’s first argument, making Ruby transformations more readable and testable. It uses method_missing for expressiveness, not speed.
2015 - December
1 postErlang's Ping Pong (tut15) in Clojure and Elixir
A Ping Pong exercise brings Erlang, Clojure, and Elixir together, highlighting pattern matching, macros, and the BEAM’s AST. The author sees power in all three, but still prefers Erlang to Lisp parentheses.
2014 - December
1 post[Off-Topic] Talking with a University Professor
In response to a professor, the author argues for selective UML, Design Patterns as reference material, XP, and multiple paradigms. Java remains useful, but universities should prioritize fundamentals.
2010 - April
1 post[Off-Topic] The Humble Programmer, by Edsger W. Dijkstra
Dijkstra argues for humility before the difficulty of programming: avoid bugs from the start, use abstractions and modest languages, because no tool eliminates complexity.
2008 - April
1 postOff Topic: Never Trust TIOBE
Examining TIOBE’s formula, the author shows how search-engine hits, duplicates, and noise distort the measurement. The index therefore cannot support reliable conclusions about language growth.
2008 - February
1 postChatting with Evan Phoenix
Evan Phoenix presents Rubinius, a Ruby VM inspired by Smalltalk and written almost entirely in Ruby. The interview covers generational GC, FFI, compatibility, and the plan for multiple VMs.
2007 - December
1 postChatting with Avi Bryant - Part 2
Avi Bryant defends Smalltalk’s pragmatic simplicity, estimates that Ruby could be up to 25 times faster, and explains how Seaside uses continuations and components.
2007 - November
1 postChatting with John Lam (IronRuby)
John Lam explains how IronRuby uses the DLR to run Ruby on .NET, prioritizes compatibility with MRI 1.8 and Rails, seeks CLR interoperability, and beats MRI in benchmarks.
2007 - June
1 postChatting with Ola Bini (JRuby Core Team Member)
Ola Bini explains joining the JRuby Core Team, the challenges of compatibility with MRI and C extensions, using JRuby in Rails and Mingle, and why learning different languages makes better programmers.