raganwald / homoiconic
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Description: An experiment in publishing code and words about code on a small scale.
Homepage: http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/homoiconic.markdown
Clone URL: git://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic.git
Click here to lend your support to: homoiconic and make a donation at www.pledgie.com !
homoiconic / homoiconic.markdown
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993e5a08 » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-28 Added a license 1 Homoiconic
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2b8b68ef » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-27 launched! 3
6130562a » raganwald 2009-05-14 4 [Homoiconic](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/) is an experiment in publishing code and words about code on a small scale. When I write, I add files to the homoiconic git repository, organized by date. Code is included in the posts and also in the folder with the posts that discuss them, so it's easy to download what you like. You can even download the entire site as an archive!
6cd4a0cb » raganwald 2008-10-28 Expanded the home page to i... 5
6130562a » raganwald 2009-05-14 6 Homoiconic is really simple: *Snippets of code and words about snippets of code*. I am avoiding words by themselves. And the words exist to amplify and explain the code, rather than the code existing to illustrate the words. This is the opposite of most of the posts you find on traditional (circa 2004) blogs.
0ce7ee9d » raganwald 2008-10-29 Re-organized again to empha... 7
6aeb032a » raganwald 2009-05-14 8 **what can I read right now?**
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777f5145 » raganwald 2009-05-14 10 Asking me what to read is like asking the chef what's good on the menu. It's all excellent, of course! That being said, I have a few personal favourites:
6aeb032a » raganwald 2009-05-14 11
12 * [Optimism](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-05-01/optimism.md#readme)
13 * [Elegance and the Surreals](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-03-07/surreal.md#readme)
58ddf1e1 » raganwald 2009-06-29 Merge branch 'master' of gi... 14
15 My series on combinators: [Kestrels](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-10-29/kestrel.markdown#readme), [The Thrush](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-10-30/thrush.markdown#readme), [Songs of the Cardinal](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-10-31/songs_of_the_cardinal.markdown#readme), [Quirky Birds and Meta-Syntactic Programming](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-11-04/quirky_birds_and_meta_syntactic_programming.markdown#readme), [Aspect-Oriented Programming in Ruby using Combinator Birds](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-11-07/from_birds_that_compose_to_method_advice.markdown#readme), [The Enchaining and Obdurate Kestrels](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-11-12/the_obdurate_kestrel.md#readme), [Finding Joy in Combinators](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-11-16/joy.md#readme), [Refactoring Methods with Recursive Combinators](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-11-23/recursive_combinators.md#readme), [Practical Recursive Combinators](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-11-26/practical_recursive_combinators.md#readme), [The Hopelessly Egocentric Blog Post](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2009-02-02/hopeless_egocentricity.md#readme), and [Wrapping Combinators](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2009-06-29/wrapping_combinators.md#readme).
6aeb032a » raganwald 2009-05-14 16
777f5145 » raganwald 2009-05-14 17 **how to subscribe**
0ce7ee9d » raganwald 2008-10-29 Re-organized again to empha... 18
6130562a » raganwald 2009-05-14 19 I tag new posts in [del.icio.us](http://delicious.com/raganwald/homoiconic "Homoiconic Bookmarks on Delicious"). You can subscribe to [an RSS feed that will alert you when I manually tag a new post](http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/raganwald/homoiconic "Homoiconic Bookmarks Feed").
0ce7ee9d » raganwald 2008-10-29 Re-organized again to empha... 20
21 If you're into git and like fine-grained updates, you can follow [homoiconic](http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic) here on GitHub or [subscribe to commit messages](http://github.com/feeds/raganwald/commits/homoiconic/master "Recent Commits to homoiconic") letting you know what I've added or updated in your feed reader. The latter option is likely to be moderate volume, as I like to make edits and corrections as I go.
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23 **advocacy-free**
993e5a08 » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-28 Added a license 24
97b91f4f » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-27 minor edit 25 My writing used to be heavily philosophical, with lots of advocacy and questioning. I still consider the _why_ of things much more meaningful than the how, but it's time to focus on the how rather than the why. I'm making this little writing place a "no trolling zone." I will try to avoid preaching, and the obvious corollary is that I will also avoid worrying about whether people agree or disagree. Instead, I will try to simply share little pieces of code as it comes to me.
2b8b68ef » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-27 launched! 26
6cd4a0cb » raganwald 2008-10-28 Expanded the home page to i... 27 There is no advocacy on here. I frequent a few scuba diving forums. One annoying part of scuba culture is that it can be very polarizing. A bunch of people over here say there is only One True Way to dive, right down to using the exact same equipment as each other. Another bunch of people over there disregard the conventional wisdom and choose to dive solo, attracting criticism from young and old. The forums discovered a long time ago that running flame wars simply drove members away, so they have instituted "no trolling" zones within their boards, places where people can discuss the _how_ of solo diving, or sidemounting, or DIR, without getting into a battle of whether such a thing is a good idea or not.
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777f5145 » raganwald 2009-05-14 29 So, one of the reasons there is no advocacy is that I am hoping to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. That being said, what is noise to one person is music to another, so I have no problem with people using their blogs or community sites like [Hacker News](http://news.ycombinator.com) to express their feelings.
6cd4a0cb » raganwald 2008-10-28 Expanded the home page to i... 30
31 The other reason there is no advocacy is that I am invoking the "Transit Cop Cop-Out" on myself:
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33 > I used to commute into Toronto on the GO train. They have an honour system: you can buy a monthly pass or purchase tickets that you punch yourself before boarding. Roving transit cops check your ticket, and if you didn't punch it you get a $90 fine. Of course, the miscreants have a litany of excuses "I forgot," "I left my pass in my other tuxedo," and so forth.
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35 > When you ride every day you get to know the cops well. One of them told me that he had a policy of letting people off Scot-free if they told him a story he hadn't heard before. He told me that the last novel excuse he had heard was from a woman who claimed her nails were too wet to reach into her bag, remove the ticket, and punch it before boarding. Nice. He said he let her off on the grounds of novelty and chutzpah.
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2fe898c4 » raganwald 2009-05-14 37 I have already said a number of things about [abstractions](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/07/abbreviation-accidental-complexity-and.html "Abbreviation, Accidental Complexity, and Abstraction"), [functional programming](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/03/why-why-functional-programming-matters.html "Why Why Functional Programming Matters Matters"), [meta-programming](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/07/my-analyst-warned-me-but.html "My analyst warned me, but metaprogramming was so beautiful I got another analyst"), [metaprogramming again](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/03/spaghetti-western-coding.html "Spaghetti-Western Coding"), [brevity](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/12/golf-is-good-program-spoiled.html "Golf is a good program spoiled"), and [much more](http://delicious.com/raganwald/raganwald.popular "Popular posts from weblog.raganwald.com"). But I don't want to say any more on subjects like these until I can think of something *novel*. It may be awhile. In the meantime, share and enjoy.
993e5a08 » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-28 Added a license 38
6aeb032a » raganwald 2009-05-14 39 **comments?**
40
41 At the moment, there are no comments. This is a blog about code, not words. I welcome bug reports and other code-centric feedback by email. I would be delighted to post your snippets and examples. And you know... This is hosted on [Github](http://github.com). So you can always fork my unblog, commit an update, and send me a pull request.
6cd4a0cb » raganwald 2008-10-28 Expanded the home page to i... 42
6aeb032a » raganwald 2009-05-14 43 That is a lot more work than just submitting a comment. I'm sorry, it's a trade-off. I lose a lot of good feedback, but I also shed myself of a damaging temptation to pander to the crowd. When blogs become "conversations," they also tend to converge on a common group-think. All I can tell you is that if you have a change you want to make or an observation you want to add, go ahead and make it.
6cd4a0cb » raganwald 2008-10-28 Expanded the home page to i... 44
0ce7ee9d » raganwald 2008-10-29 Re-organized again to empha... 45 **credit where credit is due**
2b8b68ef » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-27 launched! 46
993e5a08 » Reg Braithwaite 2008-10-28 Added a license 47 I originally set up a blog at homoiconic.com, but I spotted [David Baldwin's blog](http://github.com/bilson/blog/tree/master), and I knew right away that a blog that is about the how of code ought to be hosted on Github.
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49 I am [Reg Braithwaite](http://reginald.braythwayt.com/). You can reach me by email. My first name is `reg`, and that works fine for sending email to `braythwayt.com`. I look forward to hearing from you.
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8ce7be4f » Reg Braithwaite 2008-11-05 new footer 52
f0aad1ee » Reg Braithwaite 2008-12-02 and simplified the footers ... 53 Subscribe to [new posts and daily links](http://feeds.feedburner.com/raganwald "raganwald's rss feed"): <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/raganwald"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/raganwald?bg=&amp;fg=&amp;anim=" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" align="top"/></a>
8ce7be4f » Reg Braithwaite 2008-11-05 new footer 54
a4bfc714 » raganwald 2009-09-23 updated resume link 55 Reg Braithwaite: [Home Page](http://reginald.braythwayt.com), [CV](http://reginald.braythwayt.com/RegBraithwaiteGH0909_en_US.pdf ""), [Twitter](http://twitter.com/raganwald)