“Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.”
#BertrandRussell
17.02.2026 15:14
👍 15
🔁 5
💬 0
📌 1
“Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.”
#BertrandRussell
Do you make drag-and-drop interfaces? Or do you wish you did, but they're just too hard?
We're working on a new way to drag & drop! Wanna try it out? Join our study – we'll ask you about your drag-and-drop experiences, and get your hands on the prototype.
Join here: forms.gle/J82tFtu6DqS8.... 🙏!
If AI takes over coding do we become methodologists now? github.com/unclebob/emp...
What is the future of end-user programming research? AI can vibe disposable no-stakes code, but can it build long-lived multi-user software managing valuable state, without technical supervision? I disbelieve plain English can serve as a spec without full AGI. Many betting on that
Cityscape of Munich
Early registration for #prog26 ends Feb 20!
2026.programming-conference.org
Join us in Munich (Mar 16–19) for the art & science of programming!
Workshops: MoreVMs, PX/26, SCLIT, VIMPL, and Substrates.
Submit to the Substrates workshop until Feb 20:
2026.programming-conference.org/home/substra...
Talking with @marianoguerra.org
We created an exhibition to go along with my 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 book! tomasp.net/cultures/exh...
It tells the story of how programming concepts methodologies emerge amidst clashes and collaborations between cultures.
🖼If you want to display this at your university or conference, let me know!
Vernor Vinge was a prophet
It seems the entire current tech stack will be the x86 (awful but who cares) for the post-human layer of programming.
The LIVE Programming Workshop will be held online Oct 17. Submissions due July 21. liveprog.org
Bring Your Own Substrate to Substrates-26. Submission deadline Feb 20. 2026.programming-conference.org/home/substra...
AI coding agents still need humans in the loop, so the bottleneck will still be human intelligence.
The open access version of Cultures of Programming is now available online. Just in time for the holiday break!
Read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
If you prefer a real book, use PETRICK26 for a 20% discount (valid until January 31) at: www.cambridge.org/9781009492348
this too shall pass
Some programming feels fun, other programming feels annoying. Why? Submit papers, essays, and demos to PX/26 by Jan 9 2026.programming-conference.org/home/px-2026...
Help me @disconcision.com you're my only hope
Formulaic papers and mechanistic reviews have been ruining research for a long time. I'm glad AI is giving it the final blow, so we can, again, focus on we're good at: debating whether something is important or not.
Time to face the final boss: structure editing 😱
New paper with @tomasp.net. Baseline: Operation-Based Evolution and Versioning of Data alarmingdevelopment.org?p=1886
What defines a correct program? What education makes a good programmer? The answer depends on what culture of programming you subscribe to!
This has been a long time in the making, but my open access book on the history of programming is available for pre-order!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
In the last part of my tiny systems course, we get to implement a tiny version of the world's most widely used programming language!
TinyExcel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghRA...
I love this idea! Related noodling: "Managed Copy and Paste": alarmingdevelopment.org?p=1653
Also see Variolite: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
The missing semantic in Dataflow languages: Dataflow Templating. Clone subgraphs as an analogue to function calling.
observablehq.com/@tomlarkwort...
More on this simple path to collaborative apps, as an alternative to the Operational Transform / CRDT rabbit hole, in my recent DWeb Seminar talk: docs.google.com/presentation...
Software Substrates Workshop. Submission deadline Feb 20
2026.programming-conference.org/home/substra...
I'm teaching 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺(𝘀)! again. I'll be posting the videos & tasks on YouTube too.
In the first lecture, I explain what's a tiny system, why write one and show plenty of demos!
🎞️ Playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
👉 More info: d3s.mff.cuni.cz/teaching/npr...
Submitted. Now what?
A split-screen figure shows a cross-reality collaborative space in Spatialstrates. The left side presents a first-person augmented reality (AR) view in a physical room, where a user interacts with floating 3D molecular structures, sticky notes, and analytics panels. A blue cursor line on a red sticky note represents a remote collaborator's position in 2D. The right side displays the same space in a 2D desktop interface, where 3D objects are flattened into a 2D layout: sticky notes and the analytics elements are having a very similar appearance compared to in 3D. The molecules have a different representation, displaying a table of atoms in the molecule instead. Black avatar icons indicate the projected position of the AR user's headset and controllers. The mouse cursor rests on the red sticky note.
Next week I’ll be at ACM UIST 2025 in Busan, South Korea, where @maski89.bsky.social will be presenting our work on Spatialstrates. In this project, we address the gap between everyday laptop-based computing and immersive experiences with augmented or virtual reality headsets.
