Steve Losh is a software engineer and Lisp enthusiast who writes about Common Lisp, functional programming, and game development. His blog covers practical programming techniques, symbolic computation, macros, and building small projects and emulators.
62 articles from this blog
A developer's rant about software stability and the pain of backward-incompatible updates when migrating to new computers.
A guide offering practical advice and best practices for writing and distributing Vim plugins, covering compatibility, scripting, and documentation.
A developer shares practical tips and tricks for working with Django, covering tools like Vagrant, Fabric, and Vim to improve workflow and avoid common pitfalls.
A guide to setting up a personal, automated paper-free document system for $220, focusing on scanning, OCR, and secure backup.
A programmer details their journey back to using Vim as their primary text editor after years with TextMate, explaining the efficiency gains and core concepts.
A guide explaining Mercurial Queues (MQ) for Git users, comparing it to Git's index and showing its advanced capabilities.
Explains a Mercurial workflow using named branches to manage multi-language translations for a static site, detailing merging and conflict resolution.
Explains the 'Stable & Default' branching workflow in Mercurial for managing features and bug fixes in software projects.
A developer details the backend rewrite of 'A Feed Apart,' a real-time tweet aggregation site for web design/development conferences.
A guide to the simplest Mercurial workflow, 'Branch as Needed,' for small projects, contrasting with structured Git models.
A developer shares his customized Zsh command line prompt, explaining its components and encouraging others to personalize their own shell environment.
A comparison of Git and Mercurial focusing on their fundamental design philosophies and user experience, rather than just features or speed.
A developer details their migration from a dynamic Django site to the static site generator Hyde, explaining the technical motivations and process.
A detailed comparison of Mercurial's branching models (clones, bookmarks, named branches) and how they differ from Git's approach.
A guide for developers on setting up a development environment and contributing patches to the Mercurial version control system.
A developer's critique of Mercurial's design quirks, including confusing commands and configuration methods.
A guide to customizing terminal colors on OS X, including workarounds for Terminal.app's limitations and a Monokai-inspired color scheme.
A guide to customizing your bash prompt to display the current Mercurial branch and repository status for better workflow.
A guide to automating website deployment using Fabric and Mercurial with BitBucket as an intermediate repository.
A developer explains the reasons for open-sourcing his personal website built with Django, including community contribution and potential benefits.
