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Many people use the standard Python debugger (pdb or ipdb) because it works well and can be used as a standalone tool or with your favorite editor. I’ve used it for years, but today I’m more productive using the PyCharm debugger. It can debug Python, JavaScript, and Django and Jinja Templates (making the debugging process seamless in web applications). Also, I don’t have to worry about leaving…
The whole Editors versus IDEs debate is getting old and boring, especially because it is not a zero sum game. I’ve been using Emacs for 15+ years and at one point I used it to read my email, browse the web, and make coffee (haven’t we all?). But today I find that I’m more productive by using the right tool for the right job.
I often need to convert a bunch of MIDI files to MP3 for teaching and lecturing. There are a few commercial graphical apps for the Mac and you can even use Garageband, but I always wanted to be able to convert MIDI files using the command line since it’s easier and I can automate the whole process. On the Mac we can use Timidity++ or Fluidsynth, both available using homebrew.
How many hours have you worked on your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the past month? How many hours have you worked on your lifestyle business this week? How long does it take to write a book? I’m able to give reasonable answers to these questions because I track my time.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I used Sphinx to write my book, Music for Geeks and Nerds. With Sphinx I could generate HTML, Epub, Mobi (for the Kindle), and two PDF versions (black-and-white and color). Sphinx works quite nicely out-of-the-box for documenting computer programs, but I had to bend it a little to generate output more suitable for a book.
I’m happy to announce that I’m launching my ebook, Music for Geeks and Nerds. It uses programming and mathematics to teach same aspects of music and it answers long-standing questions such as why Eb and D# are different, and which sequence sounds better, Pascal’s triangle or Fibonacci (place your bets). I wrote it because I have friends who are programmers, computer scientists, or engineers and…
I was advising some students the other day about harmonizing non-traditional scales and someone mentioned how it would be useful to have a list of harmonizations for every possible scale. I bragged that I could write a program in half-hour to accomplish it. Of course it took longer than that, but I quickly wrote a small python program to generate harmonizations for every possible scale and used…
I’m writing a series of posts about SICP in Python. You can read more about the reasoning in the introductory post.
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (a.k.a SICP, or “The Wizard Book”) is considered one of the great computer science books. Some people claim it will make you a better programmer. It was the entry-level computer science subject at MIT and it’s still used in universities like Berkeley. One of the great things about SICP is that it focus on computational processes and ideas, instead…
Call me old fashioned but I like to review my code by printing it. Yes, on paper.