Disclaimer: All opinions expressed herein are my own and don’t necessarily reflect that of my employer. Caveat: I hold these opinions and make these recommendations specifically with respect to high school students (or casual hobbyists). I have a friend in my neighborhood who teaches high school computer science. When she happened to mention that she was trying a new curriculum for one of her classes, I asked her which programming language she was planning to use in her class. She said that she hadn’t quite decided yet, but was leaning towards JavaScript, because it’s ubiquitous and (importantly!) runs well on her school’s Chromebook machines. Upon hearing that she was favoring JavaScript, I ran my mouth and recommend that she instead consider Python. Based on my professional experience with both JavaScript and Python, I feel comfortable stating that JavaScript has quite a few pitfalls in terms of learning, and has a non-trivial path to writing high-quality code. I also feel comfortable stating that Python has a number of educational virtues, and has a fairly strong path for students to learn to write high-quality code. ...

• programming
• education
• python
• javascript
• java

I recently decided to switch the backend static site compilation toolchain for this blog from the small Cryogen project in Clojure to the venerable Hugo project written in Golang. Although I had previously written that I wanted a hackable static site generator at Returning to Blogging with Cryogen, my requirements lately have changed. I thought I’d write a couple of quick notes about why I switched (and why I didn’t). hackableToolchain << maintainableToolchain An easily hackable blog generator became less valueable to me than a robust and well maintained one. Although it was nice getting to contribute code to Cryogen and to make a difference, and to be able to understand the code base, the value of established and battle-tested code is something I ignored at the time. (I knew it was a factor, but at the time I just wanted to get rolling quickly. These days I’d rather have something that works on its own.) ...

• meta
• python
• clojure

It’s been a long while since I last blogged. My last post dates back to April of 2014, shortly before I graduated from Rutgers Engineering. My life since then has been a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve since graduated, moved to the Upper West Side, started working in banking, gotten engaged and married, and moved out. I suppose I could be forgiven for not blogging as actively. Why I Took Down My Old Blog My old blog was running on Ghost, a nifty JavaScript-based modern reimagination of the classic web-based blogging platform. Ghost has some gorgeous themes, a svelte editing experience, and seems poised to be the next generation of blogging platforms. It seems great. Why did I leave it behind? ...

• meta
• clojure
• python