Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

The Myth of the Two Fitted Sheet Patents

2025-08-10

The internet perpetuates a myth about fitted sheets originating from just two patents. This article debunks that, showing fitted sheets existed long before 1992, and often without elastic. A deeper patent search reveals numerous earlier designs similar to modern fitted sheets, demonstrating a more complex evolutionary path. The author suggests the 'two-patent' narrative is a simplification, highlighting the importance of verifying online information and the nuances of historical narratives.

(ratfactor.com)

Misc fitted sheets patents online misinformation

Escaping the Nightmare of Pasted Text: WYSINWLB

2025-06-19

The author encountered the frustrating task of manually untangling nested `` and `

` tags from pasted content. The formatting was a mess, machine-generated for appearance rather than semantic correctness, rendering the text nearly uneditable. The author argues this poor editing experience would cause average users to give up, coining the term "WYSINWLB: What You See Is Not What Lies Beneath" to highlight the problem of pasted text's deceptive simplicity.

(ratfactor.com)

Development text editing

Small but Mighty: Exploring the Beauty of Concise Programming Languages

2025-06-06

This article explores the trade-off between the size and expressiveness of programming languages. The author argues that smaller languages like assembly are limited in expressiveness, while languages like Forth, Lisp, and Tcl achieve powerful expressiveness with concise syntax. Lua is highlighted as a small and easy-to-learn language due to its tiny core (just 27 pages!). The impact of standard libraries on perceived language size is discussed, with Ramda's extensive functionality used as an example of increased learning curve. Ultimately, the author champions the elegance and joy of small languages, suggesting that simplicity can sometimes trump expressiveness.

(ratfactor.com)

Development conciseness

Minimalist Forth: Pushing the Boundaries of Language Size

2025-06-03

This article explores how small the core of the Forth language can be. It showcases several minimalist Forth implementations, including PlanckForth (under 1000 bytes), SmithForth (around 1000 bytes), sectorforth (512 bytes), and milliForth (336 bytes). These implementations achieve basic Forth functionality, even including compilers, with extremely small instruction sets. Frank Sergeant's 3-instruction Forth takes this to the extreme, running on a Motorola MC68HC11 chip in a mere 66 bytes. These examples challenge our assumptions about the size of programming languages and demonstrate the elegance of language design.

(ratfactor.com)

Development Minimalist Programming

Snobol4: A Surprisingly Effective "One Weird Trick" Language

2025-05-13

Snobol4 is a fascinating programming language centered around pattern matching. Unlike languages relying on loops and conditionals, Snobol4 uses pattern matching statements for all logic and control flow. This minimalist approach, while potentially less efficient for large programs, offers surprising ease of understanding for beginners and proves effective for smaller tasks. The author compares its pattern matching to Awk, but significantly more powerful, highlighting its impressive purity and demonstrating how a "one weird trick" can yield surprisingly effective programming.

(ratfactor.com)

Development

The Illusion of Theory in Large Programs: LLMs and the Limits of Code Comprehension

2025-04-28

Peter Naur's paper argues that the 'theory' of a large program isn't the code itself, but rather the deep understanding possessed by the programmers who built it. Using Ryle's analogy of a path, the code is the path, while understanding the program is like walking it. While LLMs can generate text that appears theoretically informed, this is merely surface-level; it lacks true comprehension. Naur emphasizes that understanding large programs requires continuous involvement in their development and maintenance—a knowledge that cannot be gained simply by reading code or documentation.

(ratfactor.com)

Development program comprehension