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@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-05-05 18:52:02

I've started my development log for May. It's really mostly about tooling -- specifically, editors and debuggers.
#PostScarcitySoftware
#Lisp

Post Scarcity state of play, May 2026
My monster, she builds! Admittedly, she doesn't yet do much, but... (also in this post, a lot of discussion of debuggers and editors).

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-05-05 08:21:01

I'm getting stack frames corrupted (or else I'm hitting the wrong stack frames) and I can't see why. My brain is far too messed up to deal with this level of shit just now!
#PostScarcitySoftware
#TheJoyOfSoftwareEngineering

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-05-04 09:44:04

My monster, she lives.
It has to be admitted, she can't do very much yet.
#PostScarcitySoftware

Terminal window showing the Post Scarcity Software Environment reading, evaluating and printing the number `123`, and then throwing a hissy fit when asked to read a string.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-05-03 10:18:26

It's a week since my last #PostScarcitySoftware entry. The version of eval/apply copied from `0.0.6` still doesn't compile, let alone work. There are reasons. I've been ill — my brain really is fucked — and I've had urgent outdoor work.
There is progress. I am cleaning up bits of old cruft as I go. But I don't think copying the old code was a good decision. I…

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-02 09:56:11
Content warning: Madness

As I emerge uncertainly from another sustained period of #madness, I realise (again) that I largely use the #PostScarcitySoftware project as self-prescribed anti-suicide therapy. It's sufficiently hard that it has my foggy brain working at full stretch, and sufficiently huge that there&…

Mad software
I was listening to Eric Normand's podcast this morning, as I was making breakfast and tidying my room; he was talking about semantics and data. It started a train of thought which I shall try to unroll.I have blogged a lot in the past about madness and about software, but I don't think I've ever blogged about madness and software in the same essay. But the reasons I'm mad and the reasons I'm (sometimes) very good at software are related; both have their roots in autism and dyslexia, or, to put …

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-03-28 11:08:37

OK, folks, I've written yet another incomprehensible essay on the intricacies of implementing a software environment for the hardware of the deep future.
Read this only if you're incurably geeky, and, ideally, interested in #Lisp.
#PostScarcitySoftware

Nodes, threads, locks and links
Up to now, I've been building a single threaded Lisp. I haven't had to worry about who is mutating memory while I'm trying to read it. The idea that this is a mostly immutable Lisp has encouraged me to be blasé about this. But actually, it isn't entirely immutable, and that matters.

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-24 11:30:00

In other news, I'm now posting my #PostScarcitySoftware development log on my blog, in case anyone is interested. Which, if you're sane, you won't be. #Lisp

Post Scarcity state of play, April 2026
I write up the state of play of the Post Scarcity Software Environment in a developer's log on a fairly regular basis; but it only gets published (here) when I publish a new release, which is to say, rarely... I thought I would publish soft-of-monthly updates on my blog. The discipline of doing so may help me stay focused on the project, too. So here's the first such.

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-25 22:08:05

There's a Common #Lisp cryptography library called 'Ironclad'. I'm going to need cryptography for #PostScarcitySoftware authentication, but Post Scarcity #Lisp is going to be a lot more…

GitHub - mikera/ironclad: Ironclad: Steam Legions - A steampunk strategy game in Clojure
Ironclad: Steam Legions - A steampunk strategy game in Clojure - mikera/ironclad

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-19 10:46:15

I did ten hours on #PostScarcitySoftware yesterday, and then slept a bit, and then woke up with an intention to rapid prototype a '#Lisp structure editor in the browser' idea I've been thinking on for a while. I did about five hours on that, and it's looking promising.
I&…

The WEditor prototype, viewing a Clojure project file. The popup text at the mouse pointer shows the underlying s-expression represented by that element in the displayed document. This isn't perfect but it looks usable.
The editor displaying its own source code (in Clojure). Again, this looks usable.
The prototype editor displaying some code from the Post Scarcity 0.0.6 prototype.
The editor viewing some Lisp 1.5 code, from Beowulf (actually taken from page 66 of the Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual).
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-03-20 13:10:45

I've written another essay about my mad #PostScarcitySoftware #Lisp system.
"We don't need to know, or have known, these people to build on their work. We don't have to, and cannot in detail, fully understand their work. There is simply too much of it, its complexity wou…

Don't know, don't care
Modern computing systems are extremely complex. It is impossible for someone to be expert on every component of the system. To produce excellent work, it is necessary to specialise, to avoid being distracted by the necessary intricacies of the things on which your work depends, or of the (not yet conceived) intricacies of the work of other people which will ultimately depend on yours. It is necessary to trust

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-18 10:37:57

Well,. the good news this morning is that i found a stupid bug in `cdr` which, once you've seen it, you can't unsee, so the seventh #PostScarcitySoftware #Lisp prototype is now completing initialisation and entering the REPL.
The bad news is that there's an unterminating recu…

Hot damn! When you see an obvious, stupid bug you created, you can't unsee it! · 02a4bc3e28
post-scarcity - Prototype work towards building a post-scarcity software system