#ilang

[quentinquaadgras]

197 --- BEDMAS

Full BEDMAS support has been implemented in the new compiler for the ‘i’ programming language.

This is a pretty basic feature of a programing language, however, due to the way I created the first two compilers, BEDMAS support was rather hit and miss. Recursion is not a strong skill of mine.

For those not familiar with BEDMAS (aka. operator Precedence). It is the standard way of evaluating a mathematical expression. The acronym stands for “Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction”. This acronym is a common way for people to remember the order that they evaluate mathematical statements such as “2*3+5” which is equal to “11” and not “16”.

On another new rather ‘surprising’ note, the new ‘i’ compiler runs faster than the ‘Go’ language it is compiling to.

I wrote a Hello World program that loops a million times (To be fair, this is not a great benchmark). The ‘i’ code is ~100ms faster than an idiomatic version in Go. Keep in mind that the ‘i’ code has been translated into Go in order to run --- so this is a rather surprising result! This can mean only good things for the future of ‘i’.

[quentinquaadgras]

196 --- Optimised

I have decided to spend my time over the study break optimising and organising the ‘i’ programming language. For my recent research proposal, it would only be fair that I make sure that the ‘i’ language is ready to undergo performance testing.

I have the opportunity now to completely rewrite the compiler so it is robust and reliable. I think this will be one of the last big opportunities to make sizable changes to the syntax of the language. In order to clean things up, I have removed ‘var’ statements (what in the world is a ‘var’) and functions have been replaced with ‘concepts’. I am rewriting all of the translational runtimes in order to match the new technology stack of the compiler. I have made several changes to the low-level abstract machine in order to make things cleaner, concise and ready for future language-inception. To put it simply, I have learnt a lot over the last two years. Instead of pinning more and more features onto the language like duct tape. I will be building a suitable foundation that will be able to support everything that needs to be supported.

[quentinquaadgras]

186 --- A Grate Mascot

Special thanks to Bligh Hedges for his amazing praying mantis design.

[quentinquaadgras]

146 --- What  I want to do

It’s nearly the end of the University year, this is a collection of the things I would like to do moving forwards.

Connectivity I would like to continue my study of Connectivity, I think it is very strongly related back to my work in Creative Technologies. It is a fundamental field which has many potential applications because it studies the interactions of things and not the things themselves

I made some progress this year in telling people about the subject but I am not happy with what how I am communicating the idea and what the best approach is to show people how it is a useful subject. The ‘i’ programming language The concept of the ‘i’ programming language is similar to the concepts I have been exploring in the field of Connectivity. The language is translated into fundamental building blocks (axioms) and then can be translated to other programming languages. The philosophy of the language is based upon the principle of being clear and concise (or at least my take on this principle). I have made a lot of progress this year, working on it during my spare time. I hope that it can be useful as an educational programming language. I want to get some more awareness out of it being a language. As far as I know, I am the only person who uses it and I would like to get some other people’s feedback on it.

Kamakai I want to solve real-world problems, so Kamakai is a project which has the possibility of doing this. This is an app which provides weekly meal-plans for students and manages a shopping list for them. Addressing problems such as the lack of healthy student meals that myself and a lot of other people face is something worth pursuing.

This semester I have been spending most of my time working on Kamakai. I have made some good progress, I have written all of the code for the application. It is at a functional stage where it will ‘work’. Currently the app is lacking quality recipes, something I am fairly disappointed about.  I will probably be making progress with this next year (I need to find a job over the summer).

Music I really enjoy playing and writing songs. Music is fun and often brings people together. It is really nice form of expression and it is a great avenue for creativity. I am also a big fan of NZ music, this is why I will be visiting the New Zealand music awards this year to see some of the successful NZ artists! This year I took part in a small university performance and released my song ‘Imagination’. I would like to release more music videos of my songs (just need someone to hold the camera!) and continue to look for chances to jam and be musical. I think all of these projects reflect my current goals and ambitions. I will be fitting them in with my University course next year.

[leiza-adoin-12]

Di patitinag sa ulan ang aming kaartehan. 💪 #ilang weeks to go na lang #hallerbabyniodacapunitan (at Carmona, Cavite) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2cDi1nhSLy8yxhmC2mQzoukrMXJJAKMwvynWQ0/?igshid=aemrvmu75vga

[quentinquaadgras]

235 --- Qlova.co.nz

I finally got around to creating a website for Qlova, the organization that holds ownership of the ‘i’ programming language and island. I ended up employing my Css and Javascript skills to create a fully animated webpage.

Take a look! https://qlova.co.nz The website currently acts as a landing page for the two projects. This is suitable for the time-being. I am planning to add documentation, downloads and other materials to the site. Possibly an about-page too. I would love to hear some feedback on the design! PS: my blog now has a dice button next to the search bar that will take you to a random post.

[quentinquaadgras]

225 --- Qlovascript

So, I have been working on a new project... 

It’s a library for the Go programming language that allows programs to be created dynamically from within Go. These programs can be written inside Go, with Go. Then they can be executed at runtime. Alternatively, they can then be saved as Source code. 

I’m not entirely sure on other practical use-cases for this technology but I will be using it to create a qwik ‘i’ compiler.

It’s on Github! https://github.com/qlova/script

[quentinquaadgras]

223 --- Proton

Onwards we march, towards a compatibilistic future. With more eyes and interactivity. ‘Steam Beta for Linux’ just released Proton, a tool to allow Windows games to run on Linux. I scooped up the latest beta for a chance to test it out. It works (DISCLAIMER: sometimes). 

I managed to get the somewhat relevant game Age of Mythology: Extended Edition running on both my laptop and desktop machines. There were a few hiccups with getting it running but there was nothing I couldn’t handle with Winetricks. Proton is built on top of Wine (Wine is not an emulator). It is a compatibility layer for Linux to be able to run Windows applications.

The future of Linux Gaming looks bright, now with the entire Windows catalog to explore. However, there is a storm cloud here, the success of Proton could mean that less native games are developed for Linux. Game developers will use Proton as an excuse so that they don’t need to create a Linux build. I would argue that it doesn’t matter, it’s a tough question to ask when an app or game becomes native. Compatibility layers and Emulation are getting faster and faster. It’s a moot point. There will always be different systems. Needing to interact with one another. This is why compatibility is so important.