Thoughts on Programming and Tracing (by alaric)

I was recently pointed at this interesting article: Learnable Programming.

It's a good read, overturning many assumptions the software industry has picked up over the years, and propagated without thought since.

The first part suggests allowing a programmer to trace the flow of execution of a program graphically, using an interactive timeline. My first thought was that this was all well and good, but would rely on every library in the language annotating every operation with information about how to present it - producing the little thumbnails to go in the timeline, or exposing numeric values that can be plotted onto charts. Also, highlighting the "current" drawing operation in red on the canvas relies on those operations being things that affect a canvas; more abstract operations, such as writing to a database (or even generating images to be encoded directly into a file rather than onto the screen) would require a more explicit "object preview".

However, those are not insurmountable goals. And, perhaps, things that can be built on top of my ideas about logging and tracing, making it possible to use such an interface to go through traces of execution captured from production servers, rather than just within a cute live-coding IDE; the trace entries generated by operations in your libraries could, with the help of a meta-library of trace visualisation rules, generate those little thumbnails. However, it would need to be augmented with dynamic scope information provided by the programming environment itself to know which line of code caused the trace event; the kind of thing one finds in a stack trace.

He asks "Another example. Most programs today manipulate abstract data structures and opaque objects, not pictures. How can we visualize the state of these programs?"; so I suggest that the abstract data structures and opaque objects be annotated with code that summarises their state. Many languages have a notion of "return a string representation of this object", generally aimed at debug logging - Python's repr() versus str(), for instance. Perhaps if we moved to expecting objects to return HTML representations of themselves, we could take a step in that direction.

The second part (and I'm taking some temporal liberties here, as some concepts I've included in the first part are touched upon in the second and vice versa) is also inspiring; it looks at the bigger picture, considering how libraries and code-editing environments can be designed to make it much easier for programmers to identify what operations their libraries are making available to them, rather than requiring the first step to be the reading of documentation. It touches on topics such as the dangers of mutable state (preaching to the converted here!), and the choice of library function names to make code using them clear (I'm also a big fan of smalltalk / Cocoa-style function call syntax, and how it might be brought into the Lisp family of languages...)

I've written before that I think modifying software should be a much more widely-practiced activity; and I think that should be achieved through removing unnecessary obstacles, rather than forcing everyone through complicated programming classes. I'm always interested in more thoughts on how to make that happen!

Identifying, Identity and stuff (by sarah)

(found amongst "drafts" and backblogged to the date last edited)

Due to stuff I have been studying, to help with inclusion and the broader reach of say Science Communication, I have been thinking. Who do I identify with?

This is interesting for me as during a debate with a poetry friend I discovered that other people have these groups they feel part of and those groups give them a sense of identity. I do not have this; there are groups I dip in and out of, that if I really tried I suppose I could become properly a part of. But often that seems to be a trade off, i.e. losing the other parts or ignoring them or pretending they don't exist.

I am a mishmash, there is no culture or identity for me, other than that that I make my own. I can pass for white middle class but, in honesty, not very well. I have the resources of the middle class and am sort of shell shocked to find myself in such a position, but attitude and behaviour can be vastly different.

When I left school I thought I'd left pettiness behind, such as people cutting your clothes with scissors as they are 'pikey' cloths, or setting your hair on fire as you've obviously stolen it from someone with darker skin, or having stones thrown at you for being a witch and a bible basher, or having your school bag nicked repeatedly so people could copy your homework and get better marks than you because they can spell and on and on. But it doesn't actually go away, as an adult I have had comments about my diction, my clothing, my hair, my childrens' hair (one incident 'do you not brush that child's hair? She looks like a ghost golliwog' (Jean's toddler curls are now gone - something she is sad about)).

I am 'white' for those who don't read the blog lots, I am in fact PALE as a pallid thing, I do however increasingly have a problem with my skin pigment trying to change and patches of skin are dark, they are mostly hidden and are the reason that I stopped wearing bikinis as a teen. It would be fine if all of me was that colour but I am not, so they look like dirty patches or like I haven't washed - I remember this being a real issue with my neck which is a slightly darker pigment, people would scrub it for me but it would never get 'clean'. Just to confuse things further I also have a skin condition/infection that acts up when I'm stressed that leaves red/brown/white brown patches on my skin and some of them are more visible especially on my arms - the difference is marked as they go scaly and itchy.

Of course if I had the figure I had as a teenager I so would wear a bikini, I don't now as I am Miss Mummy Tummy and that is a whole new identity crisis for me (or not that new as it's pretty much been the case since I had Jeany at the age of 24 and am now 33).

Interestingly I realised the reason I wasn't getting the anger over micro-aggression and stuff was because I myself had filtered it out. It just is the way things are... I still think that the correction/adaption/change is being gone about in the wrong way and being aggressive back rather than leading by example or reasonable debate and talking (What I call opening the dialogue) - obviously open aggression is another issue. There is also the thing of people getting offended on other people's behalf, there is standing up for people and then there is a patronising them in assuming they can't deal with it themselves but on the other hand calling insidious stuff out is important too. It is a huge minefield and, my policy is to treat every one like human beings.

I am in danger of derailing the post into other matters!

What I am really wondering is if other people feel this way, I have always got the impression that other people seem to feel like they're part of one group or another.

As a child people would always comment and play with my hair, even within my own family it is unusual though it is on both sides - the genetics of curly hair is still a bit confused, it is supposed to be dominant with straight hair as the recessive but people with wavy hair can have a child with full blown curls etc...and they haven't actually isolated the genes that cause it yet! Also populations with curly hair range from 'celts' to 'afro' to 'hawaiian' etc... I remember my mum's friend having to show her how to sort my hair out as brushing it was becoming a nightmare, mainly the solution was me nicking my Nan's special comb and getting leave in conditioner and not actually 'brushing' the hair except with the conditioner in etc. It is not the tight tight curl/frizz though bits of it are and if put in micro braids/dreads it stays there with now hair bands etc...

I brush it out most of the time and still get comments on my curly hair 🙂 I love my hair by the way even if it is a pain. I get called pre-raphaelite, get asked if I'm from Hawaii, get people approach me and on one occasion shouting at me for denying my heritage (what ever that is supposed to be), I had an old man in Bruge cry and say (via his curly haired daughter) that the Nazi's took all the curly haired people away when he was young. Is curly hair actually that unusual?

I find the reception differs drastically on the colour I dye it as well, so:

red = celtic
black = gypsy, Italian, Jewish and in one case arab
blonde = assumed perm? or celtic or Hawaiian (though I was asked why I had bleached my hair)
brown (natural colour though it has obvious other colours in it (all of the above) - I don't like the mash up hence the dying) = South African, Hawaiian, Australian, celtic, pre-raphaelite
Multi coloured pink, blue, purple = hippy, artist, druggy, scrounger

I have used the words that were used to me.

Do other curly haired people suffer from this? I know my accent gets confused too - it is ESSEX! Ok so I am social chameleon and accidentaly pick up inflections so there is a bit of South Ken (BBC English) and some words apparently now have a Gloucestershire twang to them especially if they are directed to the children, I also say some things with an Australian accent - blame my Dad, he was always saying stuff he'd picked up there in an accent. Also my spine is a dynamic spine (afro-carribean) and not the European (static) spine so maybe I just look odd?

I spent a lot of last night thinking about this which is stupid as it doesn't really matter, or rather shouldn't matter, mainly due to comments yesterday as I hadn't bothered to straighten my hair. They were complimentary and lovely, it just struck me as a thing after some of the accessibility lectures and debates I've seen going on recently.

There are silly things as well, like I never realised I wasn't a 'typical English Beauty' until several of the girls where marked as such on our undergraduate course. I remember feeling left out as everyone else was classified as various types (including dusky and pale etc...). And that is really stupid! But this post is about identity and indentifying and really a matter of belonging. I didn't belong to any of those groups - not that I really wanted to, but we are back to the school playground exclusion and being picked last for PE, aren't we? (To be fair I was later classified as 'natural, wild and classical' but sort when it was realised I'd been left out - this was girls talking about girls by the way.

So then I got on to thinking - well who do I identify with then?

Being a story writer and performer myself I of course turn to fiction and it has been a long time coming but of course there is Merida from Brave with her lovely curly red hair (I have waited so long for a curly haired animation!) and her tomboyish nature, then there is Diana Troy from Star Trek the Next Generation who is empathic and gentle, there is Saffy from Ab Fab who is the geeky science girl (and my nick name/twitter handle) and then there is Kaylee from Firefly - she is the only one without curly hair I note.

The others are male characters - mainly Sherlock and Sheldon (from The Big Bang Theory). I like Hermione but more in the books, her hair just was not frizzy enough in the films 😉

A lot of this stuff does come down to respecting people and not assuming stuff about them due to their looks etc...

Still wondering how rare curly hair is and what reactions others get. I asked Al and a couple of others if they had people randomly ask them in the street about their origin or ancestry and for Al it is only ever an issue if he is introduced as Alaric.

The Writing Saga (by sarah)

Today is all about the writing and the art, I have until 3 o'clock by myself, there are currently no deadlines looming and I don't have a headache. I have a new candle - ancient Egyptian Mummy type thing that I hope is going to inspire.

I have so far spent one hour planning my writing projects, prioritising and the like and finishing the flash fiction I started last night. Then I have spent another half an hour editing and on social media reading and researching and interacting.

One of the things I have discovered on my Science Communication course is that I really do prefer long form writing. I do the flash fiction to get ideas down and as a writing exercise, a form of literary discipline if you will. But I really love my epic stories and as I worked on the science articles and features I got the drip drip in the back of my head that I wanted to investigate more and write a book. To draw graphs and tables and do endless bullet points that I join up (this is how I write essays/factual stuff and is how I wrote my UG dissertation in one night (got a really high mark for it too - of course I had done lab stuff and background research for months).

But you see here's the thing, I took the course for two reasons - one I need both science and art in my life, I am not someone who can exist with just one and I love learning new things. The second was financial, I love the creative industries but they don't tend to pay very well, for most books the royalties are pathetic and if you are not careful it is easy to go into negative money just going to events to promote your book.

The art world is not much better and due to the charity sector can in fact be a lot worse as people sell their paintings for less than material costs! I do a lot of charity work so I am not moaning about that nor charity shops selling second hand things as I feel that is a double bonus for the environment, pocket and charity. But it is disheartening to see something being sold for £5 new and knowing that that doesn't even cover the framing - it's a being priced out of the market thing and really they could be getting a lot more for the charity if they upped the price.

The craft situation is even more dire so lets not even go there. So I looked around and I thought hmmm I could write about science - I always wanted to write and draw science, if I am truthful that is why I wanted a PhD so I could write popular science books. And it's science right? So it wont be all wishy washy with contradicting guidelines and feuds over commas.... WRONG!

So very very wrong.

As I have said myself so many times Science and Art are really similar and the expectations are pretty much the same. You have to do loads of free/volunteer stuff to get known - now I don't mind this when it is a little charity or a community project but when it is a business turning a profit I get hacked off. Also the whole set up is one that means if you do not have a family with enough money to support you whilst you build your experience, you are screwed. It is the glass ceiling of the working class.

All that aside, things are slightly better in science writing than in fiction but not much better than standard copy-writing. You are looking at more mid level earnings for your writing. Having found out how much midlist fiction authors who I thought where doing really well get paid and seeing artists including the top paleo-artists struggling and crunching the numbers - it is not a good picture at all.

In fact what I discovered is that I am actually doing well compared to most people who are attempting this sort of career. Unless you are lucky it is not going to be producing a living wage .

Having said this I am actually really happy with my career or haze of careers, I now know that the sci comms stuff is going to suffer the same sort of issues my fiction and copy writing does and the art and craft for that matter - I don't have one thing to focus on. I can't, it isn't going to happen so I will probably float along being the one people can call when others let them down. The sensible thing would be to pick one thing within either sci or art or craft or writing but I can even narrow it down to which field.

On the other hand I am still selling copies of The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry, not many that is true, but I still don't actually have it up on Amazon or anything and it is a seasonal book - I wasn't expecting to sell anymore until October! I am also being booked for tones of events - a mix of performances and events management and coverage and workshops (both craft and writing and science).

I am fusing stuff together, I am having fun, I am finding I am being paid for things which is always good.

There are going to be ebook releases this year, I'm applying for various schemes, there is audio stuff waiting to go out, I am being invited to judge competitions and running creative communities. To up the game I have used the last of my current money to get my old laptop looked at, the data appears to be fine but is ouch to retrieve. This means the novel that was lost will hopefully no longer be lost and I can try my hand at getting it published. And I've joined The Poetry Society, The British Science Fiction Association and just to be confusing the British Science Writers Association, which is already proving useful.

International Womens’ Day (by sarah)

It's International Womens' Day and I sort of didn't make it to the festival in London nor meet up with friends or celebrate another's birthday or any of the other things we had planned due to homework and sick kids.

I'm kind of in two minds about this sort of thing - part of me wants to say it is not needed and is just highlighting the divide but then I look in the history books, and notice the names that are not there, the ones we did not learn about in school, and the pay gap in this country between men and women, and watch the news and see girls being stoned to death for having opinions and I think... yeah this is needed to highlight those things.

I've been grumpy with the feminism stuff lately - for a start for me it is the wrong word and in general words ending in isms cause schisms. But I'd always said I was a feminist then recently I've seen talks being shut down because there was no female speakers even though the speakers and bored, were not chosen as such but came from people putting themselves forward - the issue there is that the women need to feel empowered to put themselves forward and that needs to be pointed out but not in a way that results in the shutting down of the whole event - due to the main backer pulling out for fear of public backlash. It was a pointless waste.

But that was just a bit of over kill and I understood where it had come from. However now what I am seeing is something far more insipid and down right nasty. And that is a sort of, 'your not a woman or not a woman exactly like me therefore your opinion is not valid.'

I have seen this applied to men, people of different ethnic origins/religions and economic classes and sexualities and orientations. And it makes me sad, angry and sick - how dare you say someone can not have a voice because they are not the same as you - you can disagree and debate with them yes but not crush them beneath your heels for not conforming to what you think a woman or feminists should be. This is mostly women to other women.

This attitude has highlighted for me exactly why International Womens' Day is important still, the term woman covers just over half the human population and within that there is a beautiful range of diversity and natures and stories to explore, not to mention potentials to be fostered.

Rant over... for those of you still reading I have a little favour to ask...

For next year I wish to release a little e-book of poems about inspirational women but I don't want to just use the ones I can think of so if people could nominate in the comment fields below - maybe with a link to wikipeadia though just a name is fine - that would be fab!

I've done poems for various events around International Womens' Day before and just want to create a little collection.

Thankyou!

Cheltenham Comic Book Convention – for 2015 (by sarah)

I am very excited about the potential of Cheltenham having a comic book convention in 2015, so really really hope this kick starter works out!

They need 5500 by the beginning week of March and are over the 1500 mark. You can by your tickets to attend on the kickstarter or like me buy a stall. Kickstarter only takes your money if the target amount is made so if they don't the extra money I'm not going to have a stall to sell my things at.

Of course I would have loved a pair of the shoes they are offering as a reward but alas and alack, I am not rich!

There are some funky peeps from the comic book world down as guests (as you would expect!) and there will be professional stalls etc...

Apart from the fact that this is a social or community venture, I am excited about this because it gives me a deadline. I have stuff that can go on the stall anyway - namely The Little Books but I would like to run a save the Wiggly Pets campaign and/or get the first part of the Punk comic / graphic novel out there.

So yeah that's the plans 🙂 London peeps etc... you would be welcome to stay at our house if you came up for this - as part of the kick starter you can buy tickets - did I mention that already? 😉

Also cosplay stuff!