Two's Complement

Ben and Matt explore the world of programming languages. So many! Why are there so many? Wait, there's a Java Mobile Edition? Who would use such a thing? The hosts of the #1 top ranked programming podcast that my mom listens to, that's who.

Hey Ben, when are you going to release the second part of that podcast on pull requests and pair programming? I've really been looking forward to it. Oh, I don't know. I need to come up with a witty description first. Hopefully some time this week.

Matt and Ben compare different methods of collaboration, and how they work for different personalities. Ben is not a psychologist, but plays one on this podcast. Matt gets very close to explaining what makes for a good pull request, and then doesn't.

Matt and Ben discuss the kinds of things modern CPUs do behind the scenes. Branch prediction, caching, speculation, out-of-order processing, hyper-threading, register renaming... Lots of things most people don't need to know. Matt gets overly excited, and Ben channels Larry King to try and keep him on track.

Ben and Matt think boring things are good, and provide a few examples. Databases, for example, are boring...but even more boring options exist! Matt explains how boring tools make it easy to automate local development tasks on his funny side project. Ben reverts your commits because he wants you to be happy.

Matt and Ben discuss their favorite *nix command line tools, and make various movie references while doing so. Included in this episode are references to both Sergio Leone and gunzip, although the two are surprisingly unrelated. Matt recalls using System Tap to discover latency in a trading system. Ben explains a method for writing Wireshark plugins that sparks joy.

Matt and Ben compare monorepo vs multi-repo layouts, explain Conways Law, talk about what a 'team' is, and what Visual Source Safe isn't. Ben defines how big a service should be. Matt recalls a brief interlude with Clojure.

Join our hosts as they talk about hobby hardware projects, past and present. Matt explains how he's building a digital picture frame out of a Raspberry Pi Pico and E-Ink display. Ben talks about building a Halloween candy dispenser using devices both serial and cereal. Matt and Ben discover they both liked MP3s in the early 00's.

Ben and Matt talk about builds and build systems, mostly in C++. Matt talks about lots of different ways to speed up builds for C++, and is very helpful. Ben questions whether you want a build that never fails, which is moderately helpful.

Matt and Ben join an argument on the Internet, which is always a productive and rewarding use of one's time. They discuss the SOLID principles from two different perspectives, and judge them. Listen in for the verdict. Then, Ben ponders how programmers learn, and whether sailors are happy. Matt gets a new puppy.