Last year I used mainly crystal. This year I’m thinking pharo smalltalk, if I can pick it up in time
I also want to do visualizations, not sure how possible that is with smalltalk.
Going with c# again. I know the language super well but don’t often have a chance to get really deep into it with the stuff at work. These often present very non typical problems that require lesser used features.
Might finally do something with Elixir. Plenty of ideas for using it with Phoenix and while I’ve seen a couple of tutorials for simple stuff like a live chat, I’ve done fuck-all thus far.
Might try V one way or another as well. Super small compiler and very small executables make me happy.
I have previously done it in Rust, but have toyed with the idea of taking this year as a reason for looking into OCaml.
Seriously? This idea of always wanting to use the latest and best technology is a nightmare for those that come after you. I used to run an IT department where I literally had more languages/technologies that I had people to support them. You need two people to support each, for vacations etc so you do the math. It is a nightmare. Spare a thought for the poor support people and stick to Python or Node or whatever - even Perl…
Indeed, you make an excellent point that Advent of Code solutions need to be maintained for years to come.
I always use Rust, because I cannot use it at work and I am still bad with it.
New Years resolution the past 5 years: I will get better with Rust.
…and I do get better but somehow it always feels like it’s not enough. Like, I’m still an imposter.
I can program an entire embedded USB keyboard/mouse firmware from scratch that can do all sorts of things no keyboard has ever done before yet I still feel like a newbie somehow. Like there’s all these people that talk about traits and mutli-threaring with async and GPU and AI stuff and I’m like, “I wrote an embedded_hal crate that lets you use both 8 and 16-channel multiplexers simultaneously!” or, “I wrote an interface that let’s you use the extra space in your RP2040 flash memory as a filesystem!”
Yet everything I ever write in Rust always just uses the most basic and simple features because I still have trouble with complex lifetimes (passing them around quickly gets too confusing for me) and traits that work with non-basic types (because in the world of embedded
'staticis king).
Python. I don’t have much fun in that language and I figure maybe doing AoC will help delete the mental barrier of “Python make sad” and also get me to learn more about it, so if it still makes me unhappy at least it won’t be an “I have very little understanding of what I am doing” unhappy.
I don’t entirely know why, but it’s difficult to enjoy programming in python, even if you enjoy the end product. Something about it’s design, which usually forces you to do things imperatively or reach for a library, it’s position as mainly a glue language, it’s philosophy of “there should only be one way to do it”. They’re practical philosophies, but not very fun
Hm. Want to try to use the Relational Model, but am starting to hate SQL. Anyone know of any decent alternatives?
Typically when people want to avoid sql they use an orm, but um, I’m not sure why you want to use a database for aoc
I want to learn rust but I don’t think I have the socks for it
