The Explorer's Trial
Exploring different utilities
I really like trying out new software. Between me and my friends, I’m the designated weirdo who’s always trying out strange things on my devices. This gets me stares from others, but I don’t mind:
Can’t you just use something normal?
This is normal for me.
Well, maybe I could use something more normal? But time has proven that there are actually a lot of really cool things people have made out there. You’ll see later what I mean about this. Many times a lot better and a lot buggier than the widely established software projects, but still really cool. Some of them have been long forgotten, dead. Some of them have been reborn, whether that is knowingly or unknowingly of the original project escapes me, but I’m certain that the motivation for doing so is out of wanting the same solution the original project sought to accomplish.
Using normal and/or established projects is the antithesis of innovation.
Isn’t this what the indie web is all about? Isn’t this what FOSS needs to survive? What about indie games or music?
The same normal things get boring. True excitement comes from new things. So go out there and give something weird a try!
Array Languages
I was looking at a YouTube channel called Code Report. This channel makes lots of videos comparing different programming languages. From here I discovered combinators and array programming languages.
| PL | Description |
|---|---|
| https://tryapl.org | The first array language. Created in the 1960’s. |
| https://mlochbaum.github.io/BQN/ | An upgrade to APL with many new combinators. |
| https://uiua.org | A stack-based array language, with many of BQN’s combinators. |
| https://jsoftware.com | A more industrial version of APL with many more features. |
Keyboard layouts
Several years ago I found out about Dvorak. This sent me down a rabbit hole. I explored different layouts and why people used them. I decided I’d try the canonical “different QWERTY layout”: Dvorak. After a couple years I had gotten pretty used to it. Then I started trying different layouts that built on the strengths of Dvorak. I finally decided on using MTGAP. On my phone however, these layouts don’t make any sense since you’re really just typing with your thumbs. I tried Clearflow and loved it until my phone’s OS alerted me that my location was being sent to a Google server even though I had turned off location permissions for the app :( Then I moved to KeyBee, which also seems pretty nice, but I do miss the swipe typing that ClearFlow offers.
| Layout | Description |
|---|---|
| https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout | One of the first layouts that differs to QWERTY. Made so that typing from the homerow was easier. |
| https://wikipedia.org/wiki/HexInput | A hexagonal grid of characters, some repeated, to optimize for swipe typing. |
| https://github.com/KeybeeKeyboard | A modern implementation of HexInput for phones, available in different languages. |
| https://clearflowkeyboard.github.io | Phon layout optimized to minimize swipe typing ambiguity for English. |
| https://github.com/kenranunderscore/mtgap-layout | Keyboard layout optimized for “rolling.” |
Other Stuff
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATS_(programming_language): type safe PL arguably as fast as C
- https://harelang.org/: C with namespaces (this is huge)
- https://c9x.me/compile/: The IR that Hare uses, seems very easy to start using.
- http://tph.tuwien.ac.at/~oemer/qcl.html: If you want to get into quantum algorithms without the bloat supplied by IBM et al.
- https://www.nushell.sh/: Alternative shell that structures data between commands (it’s not all plain text).
- https://github.com/niri-wm/niri: Tiling window manager with infinite vertical and horizontal scroll (now widely used)