Hercules Lemke Merscher (@bitmaybewise.com)

Tsonnet #32 - != done, but getting there Welcome to the Tsonnet series! If you're not following along, check out how it all started in the...

Also available on dev.to/bitmaybewise...

05.03.2026 22:03 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tsonnet #32 - != done, but getting there Tsonnet gains a full set of binary operators

Bit Maybe Wise - Tsonnet #32 - != done, but getting there
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/tsonnet-32...

05.03.2026 08:44 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Tsonnet #31 - Taking back control of equality Welcome to the Tsonnet series! If you're not following along, check out how it all started in the...

Also available on dev.to/bitmaybewise...

02.03.2026 20:51 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tsonnet #31 - Taking back control of equality Cleaning up a messy equality implementation by introducing a new AST variant.

Bit Maybe Wise - Tsonnet #31 - Taking back control of equality
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/tsonnet-31...

01.03.2026 10:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

ABEND dump #25 Welcome to the ABEND dump #25! Don't know what is an “ABEND dump”?! I'm glad you asked. You can...

Also available on dev.to/bitmaybewise...

28.02.2026 18:17 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

ABEND dump #25 AI, AI everywhere!

Bit Maybe Wise - ABEND dump #25
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/abend-dump...

23.02.2026 20:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Tsonnet #30 - Dabbling with equality Welcome to the Tsonnet series! If you're not following along, check out how it all started in the...

Also available on dev.to/bitmaybewise....

30.01.2026 14:53 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tsonnet #30 - Dabbling with equality A first-pass implementation of equality in Tsonnet

Bit Maybe Wise - Tsonnet #30 - Dabbling with equality
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/tsonnet-30...

30.01.2026 14:44 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

ABEND dump #24 Welcome to ABEND dump #24!

Bit Maybe Wise - ABEND dump #24
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/abend-dump...

31.12.2025 10:43 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tsonnet series - Table of contents Every post published about Tsonnet

Bit Maybe Wise - Tsonnet series - Table of contents
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/tsonnet-se...

29.12.2025 15:00 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tsonnet #29 - Making inner references work Welcome to the Tsonnet series! If you're not following along, check out how it all started in the...

Also available on dev.to/bitmaybewise...

13.12.2025 10:16 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tsonnet #29 - Making inner references work Inner references require lazy evaluation to prevent infinite loops when variables hold self-referential objects.

Tsonnet #29 - Making inner references work
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/tsonnet-29...

12.12.2025 10:45 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Unrolling loops — Matt Godbolt’s blog Learning when the compiler decides to unroll loops for performance

Day 10: Fixed loop count? Compiler transforms code surprisingly. At 50 iterations it switches strategy. What's the cutoff and why?

xania.org/202512/10-lo...
youtu.be/HvF3tF2efEA
#AoCO2025

10.12.2025 12:35 👍 25 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0

Induction variables and loops — Matt Godbolt’s blog Compilers can rewrite loops to avoid expensive calculations

Day 9: Why does the compiler keep an "expensive" multiply in the loop instead of using clever addition tricks? The slower operation enables something more valuable. What's the hidden benefit?

xania.org/202512/09-in...
youtu.be/vZk7Br6Vh1U
#AoCO2025

09.12.2025 12:56 👍 32 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 1

Going loopy — Matt Godbolt’s blog Exploring the ways optimisers deal with loop constructs

Day 8 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations! 🔄

Index-based for vs pointer while vs range-for vs std::accumulate—which is fastest? Three produce identical assembly, but one doesn't!

xania.org/202512/08-go...
youtu.be/FB8Hgj3TpJM

#AoCO2025

08.12.2025 13:10 👍 31 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 0

Multiplying our way out of division — Matt Godbolt’s blog How compilers avoid expensive division with multiplication tricks

Day 7: Dividing by 10 compiles to... no division at all!

How does the compiler pull this off? Magic constants, bit shifts, and a clever arithmetic trick.

xania.org/202512/07-di...
youtu.be/V9Pvv1tkocM

#AoCO2025

07.12.2025 11:07 👍 35 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 1

Division — Matt Godbolt’s blog Division doesn't have to be slow with some clever tricks

Day 6 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations! Divide by 512—just a shift, right? But the compiler adds extra instructions. Why? A subtle difference between what you asked and what you meant!

xania.org/202512/06-di...
youtu.be/7Rtk0qOX9zs

#AoCO2025

06.12.2025 12:49 👍 37 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 0

ARM's barrel shifter tricks — Matt Godbolt’s blog The ARM architecture has a cool feature, and compilers know how to use it

Day 5 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations! x86 has LEA, but ARM has the barrel shifter—instructions can shift operands cheaply. The compiler uses this to multiply without multiplying!

xania.org/202512/05-ba...
youtu.be/TZubUyr2UEY

#AoCO2025

05.12.2025 12:05 👍 29 🔁 6 💬 2 📌 0

Tsonnet #28 - Debugging gets pretty (printed) Welcome to the Tsonnet series! If you're not following along, check out how it all started in the...

Also available on dev.to/bitmaybewise...

11.12.2025 11:09 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tsonnet #28 - Debugging gets pretty (printed) derive show; // compiler does the rest

Tsonnet #28 - Debugging gets pretty (printed)
bitmaybewise.substack.com/p/tsonnet-28...

10.12.2025 08:26 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Day 4 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations! Multiply by constants—which ones use actual multiply? The compiler has tricks to avoid it, then saves you from your own clever hacks.

xania.org/202512/04-mu...
youtu.be/1X88od0miHs

#AoCO2025

04.12.2025 12:07 👍 48 🔁 9 💬 7 📌 0

You can't fool the optimiser — Matt Godbolt’s blog Pattern recognition can see through obfuscated code to find the right instruction

Day 3 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations! A while loop, recursion, direct addition—all compile to one instruction. The compiler sees the pattern beneath the code.

xania.org/202512/03-mo...
youtu.be/wHg9lYPMvvE

#AoCO2025

03.12.2025 12:00 👍 46 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Addressing the adding situation — Matt Godbolt’s blog We learn why adding on x86 isn't as obvious as you might think

Day 2: Adding two integers on x86? Not with `add`! The compiler uses a completely different instruction—one designed for memory addressing. Why? xania.org/202512/02-ad... youtu.be/BOvg0sGJnes #AoCO2025

02.12.2025 11:28 👍 77 🔁 18 💬 4 📌 0

Why xor eax, eax? — Matt Godbolt’s blog Why do compilers love xor-ing registers so much?

Ever wonder why compilers use `xor eax, eax` to zero registers? It's smaller AND faster—CPUs optimise it out entirely!

Day 1 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations: xania.org/202512/01-xo...
Video: youtu.be/eLjZ48gqbyg

#AoCO2025

01.12.2025 12:12 👍 137 🔁 26 💬 6 📌 4

Science e-Books - NASA Science From Earth and the other planets in our solar system, to supermassive black holes and the distant galaxies that contain them, explore NASA science and imagery through our library of e-books.

Today I learned that NASA has a collection of free ebooks that can be downloaded as pdfs or ebub format.

The science books even include a children’s section with fun activites and coloring books!

science.nasa.gov/multimedia/s...

04.12.2025 14:43 👍 520 🔁 302 💬 13 📌 10