KL @kl@mastodon.sdf.org

attempting to learn more about ape (and npe) by trying to compile Jim Tcl.

I've made a little bit of progress on my outliner, but nothing really interesting or shareable.

Starting to see the value of Tcl as a language for prototyping--you can work very fast, and you can come back and re-implement some or all of this in C if you need to.

I have a bunch of sites, mostly static HTML/CSS, on Dreamhost and I'd like to move them instead of going through the price increase they're putting in place. They don't get that much traffic. What do folks on here use for simple web hosting of a few domain names?

I got in to the SDF Plan 9 Bootcamp starting next week. I’m pumped. Wonder if I can manage to get drawterm on my very locked-down work laptop 🤔

Crazy week at work so I haven’t gotten anything done on the outliner I started building in Tcl/Tk last week. If only I could turn obscure tools that only one user actually wants into a career...

Since I'm really enjoying Tcl I decided to just try to write my own outliner. Why not?

Here's the first version of the first GUI app I've ever written running in Windows and Linux at the same time on my Thinkpad. It doesn't do anything... yet.

Tcl update: I think I love it. “Everything is a string” seems to fit with the way my brain works.

I’ve read a lot about why it’s bad (and a few counterarguments) and a lot of those objections make sense, but this the closest I’ve come to feeling like I understand what I’m doing writing code.

I’m not sure I understand expr yet.

Tcl is weird, y’all. I’m kind of enjoying it.

I forgot to mention MSYS2 here, but that's absolutely part of the equation as well.

Now that I have this Ryzen Thinkpad set up, between WSL and VcXsrv/XLaunch, I’ve pretty much totally recreated all the stuff I was keeping around a Linux laptop for.

For people who still need Windows around for various stuff, there’s not really any point in having a separate computer or partition just to run Linux/POSIX stuff you like anymore.

Just remembered that I have a copy of the K&R C book—not the “updated for ANSI C” edition, the original one—that I “borrowed” from my university’s library. I guess I don’t have any more excuses for not getting over my fear of C programming.

Next actions:

* become a less horrible programmer
* read even one piece of SDL documentation
* actually attempt to learn enough to do something with this idea besides writing about it

Thinking out loud: What if this new outliner uses SDL in the same way that Lagrange does, as a cross platform UI layer, with a really simple/stark UI? And then has Lua or Tcl or some other small language baked in for implementing the outlining features, so that it’s easy to extend? And steals the “Leap key” idea from the Canon Cat?

“Cross-platform editor built in an interpreter that you can use to extend the tool however you want” sounds awfully familiar 🤔

Latitude 5290 2-in-1, for the curious. Unsurprisingly, the touchscreen doesn’t work. And it seems to randomly choose a display brightness level at boot. Other than that, it seems pretty solid.

Installed 9front on an i5 Dell Surface knock-off. Took a minute to get the WiFi working. Now I have two 9 machines, and still not much idea of what to do with them.

all of these are not mine anymore unless otherwise specified

* 380ED
* 600
* T22
* X60 Tablet
* X200 (still have and use for 9front)
* X220 Tablet
* X230 Tablet
* T430s
* T14s
* X13 (just got today)

Got a new Thinkpad today, a Ryzen 5 X13. Gotta say: excellent keyboard. Probably the best Thinkpad keyboard I've used since my X200 (which is still better).