About

Blog 4 is about programming and technology. This blog will cover everything from high-level languages like Python and Scheme to low level computer science concepts. In addition this blog will contain opinion articles and advice from my experience with programming.

Blog 4 will be mostly about programming, however, as the name implies, I reserve the right to post any random article I see fit. The only thing I can guarantee is that I will never post about what I had for lunch or any other personal details.

What’s with the name?

The name comes from an xkcd comic and was recommended to me by someone on Stack Overflow (unfortunately the comment was deleted so I can’t give proper credit).

Why Blog?

There are a few reasons why I decided to start a blog. First and foremost, I find that writing tutorials/articles is a great way for me to firm up my understanding of technical concepts. Also having information to point to when explaining programming concepts is helpful.

Putting my knowledge on the web has some great advantages. Not only might someone else learn from it, but someone else might correct me or point me to a better solution. If you find any mistakes, bugs or have any suggestions in general, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. The comments here are moderated, so if you don’t want to leave something publicly just make a note in the comment.

Finally I’m always interested in meeting other people who are passionate about programming, technology or creating things in general. If you’re one of those people and are also looking to meet like-minded individuals, please contact me!

  1. #1 by SteveRob on 2011/03/19 - 02:51

    Hi. I find this blog very interesting. Im not a professional programmer and I dont have any knowledge in languages like python etc. But I got motivated by your blog to explore the world of High level programming and AI rather than sitting in the basic programming world. I do a lot of C, C++, C# but never anything big. THanks!!!!

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    • #2 by Jack Trades on 2011/03/19 - 20:56

      Thank you, I’m glad that you’ve found my blog interesting and motivating! If you want any help, or just want to talk about programming in general you can email me at jacktradespublic (at) gmail dot com. I’m very interested in meeting people who enjoy programming at all levels.

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  2. #3 by SteveRob on 2011/03/20 - 02:39

    Oh thanks bro!!!!
    I do love programming. But Im a beginner. Maybe i can learn a couple of stuff from you……. Now Im teaching my self c#.thanks

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  3. #4 by Someguy on 2011/03/21 - 16:11

    Thanks bro, I came to know of your site when you answering one of my questions on Yahoo answers. It is very straigthforward and teaches the basic stuff, unlike other tutorials where they expect you to know some things.

    Thanks again!

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  4. #5 by Oana on 2012/03/18 - 14:20

    Hey…I really need your help…i have to do a program in Scheme something like that:
    (define type_recursivity f)
    and it returns what kind o recursivity f has:tail,stack,no one
    Please help i don’t know how to do it.

    Oana

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    • #6 by Nick Zarczynski on 2012/03/18 - 20:08

      That’s a tough one! I don’t really have an answer for you on that one and I’m not even sure an answer to that is even possible (see the halting problem).

      I suppose you may be able to do some implementation specific things, that only work some of the time, using whatever introspection features your language provides you.

      For instance you can check if a function is recursive (tail or regular) if it calls itself before it returns. Then, if it is recursive, you could maybe check the size of the stack on each call to determine if it’s tail recursive (stack wouldn’t grow linearly).

      This seems rather hackish to me though, and I wouldn’t count on it working reliably. I’m sorry I don’t have more time to think about this problem. That’s just the first thing that popped into my head.

      Maybe try posting your question on reddit.com/r/scheme

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