16 November, 2019

Status update

Exams, stuff, etc.

   This month is mostly just unfun stuff, lined up in a neat schedule --
   exams. I get all these cool ideas for things to do, and it's always
   during exams. Anyway, here's a quick update on what I've been up to.

Blog post queue

   I realized that I could use this site's [1]repo's issues to track blog
   post ideas. I've made a few, mostly just porting them over from my
   Google Keep note.

   This method of using issues is great, because readers can chime in with
   ideas for things I could possibly discuss -- like in [2]this issue.

Contemplating a vite rewrite

   [3]vite, despite what the name suggests -- is awfully slow. Also,
   Python is bloat. Will rewriting it fix that? That's what I plan to find
   out. I have a couple of choices of languages to use in the rewrite:
     * C: Fast, compiled. Except I suck at it. (cite?)
     * Nim: My favourite, but I'll have to write bindings to
       [4]lowdown(1). (nite?)
     * Shell: Another favourite, muh "minimalsm". No downside, really.
       (shite?)

   Oh, and did I mention -- I want it to be compatible with vite. I don't
   want to have to redo my site structure or its templates. At the moment,
   I rely on Jinja2 for templating, so I'll need something similar.

IRC bot

   My earlier post on [5]IRC for DMs got quite a bit of traction, which
   was pretty cool. I didn't really talk much about the bot itself though;
   I'm dedicating this section to [6]detotated.^[7]1

   Fairly simple Python code, using plain sockets. So far, we've got a few
   basic features in place:
     * .np command: queries the user's last.fm to get the currently
       playing track
     * Fetches the URL title, when a URL is sent in chat

   That's it, really. I plan to add a .nps, or "now playing Spotify"
   command, since we share Spotify links pretty often.

Other

   I've been reading some more manga, I'll update the [8]reading log when
   I, well... get around to it. Haven't had time to do much in the past
   few weeks -- the time at the end of a semester tends to get pretty
   tight. Here's what I plan to get back to during this winter break:
     * Russian!
     * Window manager in Nim
     * vite rewrite, probably
     * The other blog posts in queue

   I've also put off doing any "security work" for a while now, perhaps
   that'll change this December. Or whenever.

   With that ends my status update, on all things that I haven't done.
     __________________________________________________________________

    1. [9]https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dedotated-wam (dead meme, yes I
       know)

References

   1. https://github.com/icyphox/site
   2. https://github.com/icyphox/site/issues/10
   3. https://github.com/icyphox/vite
   4. https://github.com/kristapsdz/lowdown
   5. https://icyphox.sh/blog/irc-for-dms
   6. https://github.com/icyphox/detotated
   7. https://icyphox.sh/home/icy/leet/site/build/blog/2019-11-16/temp.html#fn:1
   8. https://icyphox.sh/reading
   9. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dedotated-wam