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ntoll

703 karma · joined October 26, 2008

http://ntoll.org/about
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ntoll··on PySnippets – easily write, run and share Python in the browser
You mean, collaborative coding a la Google docs?

Nope. :-)

There is no back-end through which one could coordinate such things. It's all done in-browser.

ntoll··on PySnippets – easily write, run and share Python in the browser
Ever wanted to quickly share and run Python code via a URL? Well, now you can!

PySnippets is JSFiddle or CodePen but for Python in the browser (via PyScript).

It's a static website. All the logic runs in the browser. No back-end or cloud storage is used - instead, code is URL encoded. Share the URL, your code is in there already, and the static target re-hydrates it then runs it. Yeah, yeah, "snippets" because this is for small scripts. ;-)

This is a goofy "fun" project just to see how quickly something like this could be created. The initial version took just 3 hours to build. Here's a sample (SNAKE game) project: https://is.gd/q3209l (click through to see how its done.)

Feedback welcome..! Thank you!

ntoll··on Python performance myths and fairy tales
Antonio is a star. He's also a very talented artist.
ntoll··on Mornington Crescent
I wonder what old school international grandmasters like Theydon Bois (France), Pim Li Ko (China) and Will Esden-Green (UK) would think of the modern game... We've lost the creativity, bravery and elegance of such players, from a time when taking part was more important than winning.
ntoll··on Sonic Pi – The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone
Thirded... our world is a better place because of Sam and his contributions.
ntoll··on Ask HN: Do you consider Hacker News to be a positive/useful use of your time?
I skim in the morning for "News".

I avoid otherwise because of the "Hacker" (i.e. tech bro) vibes.

ntoll··on The Ecology of Freedom (1982)
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lewis-herber-murray-...

(Lewis Herber is pseudonym of Murray Bookchin)

ntoll··on Pico CSS Framework
This is a similar project (by a friend), that recreates the look and feel of the outstanding UK Government design system:

https://gdcss.netlify.app/

Same idea and Pico (classless, simple, small etc).

ntoll··on Algorithmic symphonies from one line of code (2011)
I managed to get MicroPython versions of these working on a micro:bit with the speaker directly plugged into the IO pins. Lots of fun, and MicroPython was definitely quick enough. :-)
ntoll··on Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?
... writing a blog can also be life changing.

Putting thoughts into words for others to understand is a creative activity that keeps on giving for all sorts of subtle reasons. (What reasons..? Write a blog and find out for yourself!)

ntoll··on Richard Bartle releases his classic “Designing Virtual Worlds” book for free
I read this way back when. It deserves its status as a classic. I highly recommend it.
ntoll··on The rinds of the Cheese Shop menu
Some fun archaeology and digging around into the dark and weird corners of PyPI. I, for one, didn't realise that "Kenneth Reitz" is a perfectly valid version number! :-)
ntoll··on Teaching other teachers how to teach CS better
The ultimate source of this is Aristotle... the original is (from memory), something like this:

  Those who can, do; those who understand, teach.
ntoll··on Technology Traps (1978) [video]
Perhaps a more humorous illustration of the same principle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAz_UvnUeuU

ntoll··on John Lewis slams UK education system and offers staff literacy lessons
The only failure of education that I see around here relates to the schooling of HN users who don't have the wherewithal or self awareness to understand that they're pushing ignorant, prejudiced and unkind opinions.
ntoll··on The Grand Unified Theory of Documentation
Eyup Daniele, it's great to see this get some recognition and visibility. It's a very useful framework for documentation.

Best of luck with the job hunt..!

ntoll··on 1980: MUD
Me too
ntoll··on CircuitPython: Programming Hardware in Python
I'm an open source contributor. I've worked/collaborated with Adafruit. They support the ecosystem. Perhaps they don't blow their own trumpet in this respect (and should, so you could see how the do give back).

My experience is a counter example of your comment, "...instead of contributing to the greater success of the open source maker movement that enables their existence".

ntoll··on Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython
The "bits that are missing" relate to Python's standard library, which is huge. MicroPython has svelte versions of many of Python's standard library modules... Pick and choose what you need, given your specific context. MicroPython is pretty friendly in that respect.

FWIW, MicroPython, as a language, is a complete reimplementation of Python (and an amazing feat of engineering on the part of Damien and his collaborators).

ntoll··on Changes to the pip dependency resolver in 20.3
Yup. Kudos to the maintainers and volunteer contributors who continue to work on these tools.

As some of the other comments here show, it's a thankless task.

ntoll··on What is the core of the Python programming language?
MicroPython is an amazing achievement, and Damien has done fantastic work growing the project.
ntoll··on Sonic Pi is a code-based music creation and performance tool
I know Sam (the creator) and can vouch that he's a good guy and a bit of a legend.

He hasn't had the easiest of rides when it comes to sustainable support for his work. I'd encourage folks to contribute here: https://www.patreon.com/samaaron (he'll certainly do wonderful things with such support).

ntoll··on LambdaMOO takes a new direction (1992)
LambdaMoo, BayMoo (and the now defunct ParkMoo) were all favourite haunts of mine in the mid-90s when I was at university. Perhaps I'm feeling nostalgic for those innocent pre-social-media times: I'm in the process of writing a Python "MOO" as a weekend fun project -- a sort of interactive literary world inhabited by other writers / creators / explorers.

If you're interested in this sort of thing, Richard Bartle's "Designing Virtual Worlds" is the classic to read.

ntoll··on Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?
A brief look around their website will reveal a wealth of high quality educational resources.
ntoll··on Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?
https://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/music-theory-exams/

You're welcome. ;-)

ntoll··on Mu: A minimal hobbyist computing stack
Note to self (as the author of the "Mu" editor, https://codewith.mu/) - two letter project names are just asking for name collisions. ;-)
ntoll··on Adafruit Founder Limor Fried: Open-Source Hardware Revolution [video]
Limor and Adafruit are an inspiration.
ntoll··on QEMU 4.0 adds micro:bit emulation support
I was directly involved in this project.

For the record, the micro:bit was originally based upon the CodeBug (http://www.codebug.org.uk/) by Andrew Robinson, who definitely deserves a mention in this story.

I, too, share your hope that it has "Sparked" curious minds (old and young). ;-)

ntoll··on A little discussed effect of therapy: it changes personality (2017)
Beautifully put. Thank you.
ntoll··on Introducing Project Mu
Thank you! Very much a work in progress.

You can see what folks have been doing with Mu (the editor) here: https://madewith.mu/ :-)

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