Posted by Damien Pollet
Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:55:12 GMT
Last weekend I configured my web server to accept IPv6 connections (and since my provider ignores IPv6, I’m using a 6to4 tunnel from BTexact).
To celebrate my small patch of adressing space, I added the banner you can see at the top-left of the page. It should be red if you come from IPv4 land and green if my tunnel is up, my config actually works, and you are really in IPv6 (not using an ::ffff:a.b.c.d IP).
So I’m coming to my first point, which is how to tell Lighttpd to differenciate clients and keep the config files modular.
Resarch(ish) discussion after the jump.
Read more…
Posted in Housekeeping, Research | Tags dsl, ipv6, lighttpd | 1 comment
Posted by Damien Pollet
Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:12:00 GMT
Today I sent my applications for assistant professor positions in the french academic system. Well, that was fun.
Rant and photos after the jump.
Read more…
Posted in Research | Tags rant | no comments
Posted by Damien Pollet
Sat, 09 Sep 2006 15:25:33 GMT
In scientific articles it’s a problem to cite web material because it is volatile. Lawrence Lessig just blogged about a neat solution to this problem: webcitation.org.
When you need to cite a web page, you can archive it at webcitation.org and get a permanent URL for the archived copy of the material. Why wasn’t this done earlier?
Posted in Research | Tags research | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Damien Pollet
Tue, 05 Sep 2006 12:24:00 GMT
Reflective properties of Smalltalk should be improved!
[Markus about Geppeto]
In stateless traits, there is no state.
[Stef about stateful traits]
We don’t use clean, carefully chosen, or meaningful URLs.
[Lukas’ opening slide on Seaside]
Posted in Research | Tags conference, esug, fun, smalltalk, trip | no comments
Posted by Damien Pollet
Sat, 02 Sep 2006 09:20:00 GMT
I’m at in Prague, attending ESUG’2006 as a volunteer student until next friday.
Many interesting people to meet and many intensive hacking hours ahead :-)
Update: For photos, you might want to check James Robertson’s blog, as he’s reporting from the talks in near realtime. eXtreme Blogging?
Posted in Research | Tags conference, esug, fun, smalltalk, trip | 1 comment
Posted by Damien Pollet
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 23:17:36 GMT
Piled Higher and Deeper rocks once again… Oh well, sorry about that.
Posted in Personal, Research | Tags comics | no comments
Posted by Damien Pollet
Fri, 21 Oct 2005 20:16:44 GMT
I just read the article by Dan Ingalls on the design principles behind Smalltalk, published in august 1981 in Byte Magazine.
Many of the principles listed in the article would be recognized by today’s programmers as principles of object-orientation: Objects, Messages, Modularity, Classification, Polymorphism, Virtual Machine. Storage Management doesn’t really exist outside Smalltalk, or as rather crude versions (object-relational mappings vs. the Smalltalk image system). And yet some others relate to very current hype and buzz: the pragmatic programmers’ “Don’t Repeat Yourself” (Factoring, Leverage), domain-specific languages (Purpose of Language, Scope).
But the last two were rather funny, in a way:
Operating System: An operating system is a collection of things that don’t fit into a language. There shouldn’t be one.
Natural Selection: Languages and systems that are of sound design will persist, to be supplanted only by better ones.
About that last one, I must have a strange sense of humor… or maybe 25 years just isn’t long enough?
Posted in Research | Tags language, research, smalltalk | no comments
Posted by Damien Pollet
Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:47:00 GMT
I got my hands on my lab’s copy of The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander. It’s the first book in a series on patterns in architecture that was the inspiration for design patterns in object-oriented software engineering — the GoF book.
A very nice feature of the book is that you can go through it really fast without loosing the message:
What lies in this book is perhaps more important as a whole than in its details. If you have only an hour to spend on it, it makes much more sense to read the whole book roughly in that hour, than to read only the first two chapters in detail.
[…]
Then, if you want to go into detail, you will know where to go, but always in the context of the whole.
The book isn’t even started, you get a glimpse of what it’s all about…
Edit: it’s striking how Alexander’s thoughts apply to software development, and how the book arguments in favor of organic, agile, open methods, where everyone is a developer and shares knowledge.
What also comes to mind is how much the game of Go embodies the idea of distinct patterns, that reinforce each other, and that generate strength — the quality without a name. Design patterns are the joseki of software engineering :-)
Posted in Reading, Research | Tags patterns | 3 comments
Posted by Damien Pollet
Wed, 29 Jun 2005 11:22:00 GMT
Piled Higher and Deeper rocks indeed :-)
Posted in Personal, Research | Tags comics | no comments
Posted by Damien Pollet
Wed, 18 May 2005 10:42:00 GMT
Subtext is a programming language where you directly edit the program structures, by copying and linking. The demo explains that better than I could ever write it.
To me it looks very much like the visual dataflow-oriented connect-the-boxes-in-a-patch tools you find in 3D software for expressions and shaders, in Quartz Composer, or in audio software to compose sound effects. However the concise textual representation in Subtext is better suited to complex programs than diagrams.
That paradigm also reminds me of the key-value observing in Apple's Cocoa; I wonder where this dataflow/driven by change stuff will lead us to...
Posted in Link, Research | Tags language, research | no comments
