<summary>TLDR: read the paper and view the gallery of pretty Perl programs. In this paper, we aim to answer a long-standing open problem in the programming languages community: is it possible to smear paint on the wall without creating valid Perl?</summary>
<summary>It’s been nearly two months since my last day at Google, so I guess I should finally make use of this newsletter :) I wrote a paper which was published on April 1st as part of SIGBOVIK 2019: “93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs”. In this paper, I answer a long-standing open problem in the programming languages community: is it possible to smear paint on the wall without creating valid Perl?</summary>
<summary>I can’t believe it’s here so quickly, but: today marks a year since my last day at Google. That seemed like a good occasion to dust off this newsletter & let you know what I’ve been up to: making a videogame! I’m working on a stealth-based 2D platformer where you don’t have to kill anyone unless you want to. It’ll be possible to get through every level by sneaking and misdirection, but it’ll require you to be careful and tactical to do so… and of course if that doesn’t work out, you can always draw your swords and go in fighting! So far I’ve given it “Sneak” as a codename, but that’s definitely a placeholder until I can flesh out more of the world.</summary>
<h1id="my-first-paper-in-10-years">My first paper in 10 years?!</h1>
<p>Published: 2019-04-03.</p>
<p><em>Posted 2019-04-03.</em></p>
<p>It’s been nearly two months since my last day at Google, so I guess I should finally make use of this newsletter :)</p>
<p>I wrote <ahref="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZGGNMfmfpWB-DzWS3Jr-YLcRNRjhp3FKS6v0KELxXK8/preview">a paper</a> which was published on April 1st as part of SIGBOVIK 2019: “93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs”. In this paper, I answer a long-standing open problem in the programming languages community: <em>is it possible to smear paint on the wall without creating valid Perl?</em></p>
<p>(Long-standing since February 13, 2019, when a <ahref="https://twitter.com/jaffathecake/status/1095706032448393217">Twitter conversation</a> between Adrienne Porter Felt & Jake Archibald posed the question.)</p>
<h1id="a-new-year-a-sneaky-new-project">A new year & a sneaky new project</h1>
<p>Published: 2020-02-09</p>
<p><em>Posted 2020-02-09.</em></p>
<p>I can’t believe it’s here so quickly, but: today marks a year since my last day at Google. That seemed like a good occasion to dust off this newsletter & let you know what I’ve been up to: making a videogame!</p>
<p>I’m working on a stealth-based 2D platformer where you don’t have to kill anyone unless you want to. It’ll be possible to get through every level by sneaking and misdirection, but it’ll require you to be careful and tactical to do so… and of course if that doesn’t work out, you can always draw your swords and go in fighting! So far I’ve given it “Sneak” as a codename, but that’s definitely a placeholder until I can flesh out more of the world.</p>
<p>So far Sneak runs on PC & Xbox, but I hope to add Switch and PS4 support within the next couple months. I’m using a C# framework called MonoGame, which provides low-level graphics & audio support across all these platforms. In order to write games for Switch or PS4, you need to apply to Nintendo & Sony to get access to their platform-specific SDKs. So my first real milestone will be coming up with a compelling Game Design Doc & gameplay videos so that they can (hopefully) be convinced that I’m worth taking seriously. Wish me luck!</p>
<h1id="93-of-paint-splatters-are-valid-perl-programs">93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs</h1>
<p>Published 2019-04-01.</p>
<p><em>Posted 2019-04-01.</em></p>
<p>TLDR: <ahref="2019.pdf">read the paper</a> and <ahref="splatters.html">view the gallery of pretty Perl programs</a>.</p>
<p>In this paper, we aim to answer a long-standing open problem in the programming languages community: <em>is it possible to smear paint on the wall without creating valid Perl?</em></p>
<p>We answer this question in the affirmative: it <strong>is possible</strong> to smear paint on the wall without creating a valid Perl program. We employ an empirical approach, using optical character recognition (OCR) software, which finds that merely 93% of paint splatters parse as valid Perl. We analyze the properties of paint-splatter Perl programs, and present seven examples of paint splatters which are not valid Perl programs.</p>
