Cache for June 2021

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000
An essential reading</a> list curated by Brandon Rhodes (still under construction).</li>
Interesting read</a> for anyone working with any kind of data, about what data ca or can't do. Numbers don’t lie, except when they do.</code>.</li>
A set of lectures</a> covering topics related to computing that is left to learn by the student in a standard CS study. Useful also for non-CS people.</li>
Entertaining talk</a> about usability and the oddities of character encodings.</li>
A long piece</a> on technology, policy, and democracy.</li> </ul>


Cache for May 2021
Sun, 30 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000
Quite some Rust this week. As a self-taught programmer, and mostly experienced in Python, I find Rust a very interesting language. Furthermore two articles more towards my past self: photography, and network science.</p>

Insightful analysis</a> on social norms involving the nature of Open Source work.</li>
One of the best explanations</a> on the distinction between String</code> and &str</code> in Rust, extremely empathic in it's tone. I really like when articles manage to compare things across languages. Bonus: A more extensive and fun read on memory management</a> between C adn Rust very much centered around strings.</li>
Some more Rust, learning it the dangerous way</a> via porting a C application. Very good read, very instructive, and very detailed.</li>
A long piece on computational photography</a>. After reading this, I started to respect cellphone cameras/photography and their improvement over time.</li>
Science divulgation article</a> on how propagation works in networks. Quite nice animated visualizations.</li>
</ul>


My Journey as Programmer
Sat, 08 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000
</p>
I thought it would be interesting, at least for me, to tell my journey with computers and in particular programming. It's a good exercise in retro- and introspection.</p>


Cache for April 2021
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000
This month, quite sided towards git</code> topics. I guess it's correlated with my intention to improve my use of git</code> as a tool.</p>

Interesting use of the malleability and dynamic nature of Python to help debugging tricky situations</a> (talk and transcription).</li>
Impressive ingenuity in debugging via reverse engineering an issue in GTA Online</a>.</li>
How to do a good code review</a>. See also the further reading section.</li>
How to write a git good commit message</a>, including  handy  The seven rules of a great Git commit message</em>.</li>
Great explanation</a> on how to use .gitignore</code> files, the role of the local versus the global one.</li>
On the values embedded</a> in different code editors. BONUS: An excellent talk (youtube)</a> on values embodied by programming languages.</li>
</ul>


Launching The Cache
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000
</p>
The Internet is full of wonderful things. I get to share some stuff via Twitter, but there is a level of temporal fleetingness about tweets that I was never satisfied with. And I'm not even yet talking about availability, long-term archiving, etc.</p>
With this in mind, I decided to use my blog and to create a separate section where I'll publish a monthly curated list of interesting links called The Cache</em>. My intention is to be somewhat selective and not overextend the list. Probably, for now, aiming for about 5 links. For the most part, the links will correspond to things discovered throughout the month of publication.</p>


On my experience in remote onboarding/work
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000
</p>
At the beginning of November 2020, I started a new job 🎉. This was great, mainly because in mid April I was indefinitely furloughed in my previous company, and that didn't change until the last day. Being furloughed wasn't that bad, I still had a state supported salary equivalent (slightly better) to unemployment benefit, and I kinda got to have an extended parental leave with my almost 1-year-old son. Moreover, this allowed my wife to make good strides on her own career.</p>


Dynamic generation of informative `Enum`s in Python
Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000
Since I started learning some Rust and getting to know its enums, I've been very into using Enum</code>s in Python. And while enums in both languages are very different, they're close enough for most of my current use cases. Moreover, within Python, Enum</code>s are used in frameworks like Typer</code> (CLI) and FastAPI</code> (API), where they are used to provide validation to input within a set of possibilities.</p>


(Re) Kickstart
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000
</p>
After a long hiatus (where I had a son, went through a pandemic [which is still going], and changed job), I plan to restart my blog.</p>


About Me
Mon, 06 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000
Physicist by training turned into software developer and currently working as a data engineer.</p>


Bookshelf
Mon, 06 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000
A selection of books.</p>
Technology</h2>
Fiction</h2>
Other</h2>


Site Statistics
Mon, 06 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000



Boolean arguments to functions in Python
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000
Recently I did read the following short piece</a> from M. Fowler regarding the use of boolean flags in function signatures. I'll wait while you read it... done? Good!</p>
As a general rule, I completely agree with him. They can be confusing, and should, in general, be avoided (easier said than done). But the article got me to reflect on this advice in the context of Python.</p>


Picking up from other languages
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000
After many years of doing Python, first as a hobbyist and then in a professional setting, I've had to do some amount of Go programming. Also, I've been trying to explore other languages, primarily Rust, but have been touching some C while following some projects ([1]</a> and [2]</a>).</p>


Deeper into dataclasses
Mon, 05 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000
Most articles cover the basics of dataclasses</code>, this is an attempt to cover some more advanced features of this module.</p>
Usually, examples using the dataclasses</code> module in Python are rather simple in the use of its features. That by itself is completely fine, but sometimes the implementation can be very tedious and cumbersome. However, the dataclasses</code> module offers ways to be smarter, which are rarely talked about. With this article, I want to change that. Thus, this article doesn't cover topics like when and how to use them. There is plenty of material on the Internet to learn about that.</p>


Exploring Rust generics
Fri, 15 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000
For a while I've been interested in Rust, reading articles and books, and trying to do some small exercises in it, but in general still rather superficial. Now, after reading the following the second part</a> of a series of articles on *Scientific computing in Rust, I decided to use that example to explore a bit more and challenge myself. The article mentions very early the following</p>

But what happens when someone else comes up with a new numerical type with a legitimate concept of addition and multiplication (e.g. complex numbers)?</p>
</blockquote>
to motivate exploring generics, but the scenario of complex numbers was not explored. Thus, I wondered how to use the example function used in it, namely generic_scalar_product</code>, with a more complex type., e.g., complex numbers. </p>


Having fun with dataclasses and abstract base classes
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000
Dataclasses are great addition to Python, while abstract base classes are a rather unused feature given the dynamic nature of the language. Here I explore how a (relatively) old and a new feature can be combined.</p>