#syntax highlighting notes

[filehulk]

CherryTree for Windows

When it comes to note-taking applications, many people think of Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, or Google Keep. However, CherryTree offers something different. It is not just a simple note-taking app—it is a structured documentation tool designed for those who need hierarchical note organization, rich-text editing, and syntax highlighting. Unlike many modern note-taking apps that focus on…

[tes-trash-blog]

Full Falmer translation of @king-minyard's Ode to Snow Elves (thank you thank you THANK YOUUUU for giving me your blessing!)

For a less-blurry version, open in a new tab; Common transcription and translator notes below the cut!

This one was a challenge! Two complete overhauls of syntax, thirty new words by my count (I definitely lost count), and a new method of expressing determiners went into making this adaptation. I wanted to treat this as a translation in either way, so keeping the original syllabic count was important, especially as it was in eights. I dunno, that number seems important to the Falmer, who likely engaged in numerology like their Altmeric cousins.

Highlights from this translation include Farligandra, "greet-grace" i.e. welcome and hospitality, Laivan, "to grant, to offer reprieve", Banhe, an outsider-friendly term for "home" (was this meant to be heard by others, perhaps?), and two of my personal favorites, Maethan, "to embrace" and naerth, "soul-rending grief", here translated as "gnashing grief" to provide a more visceral tone and to imply just what became of the Snow Elves.

The complete, side by side translation, is as follows!

[cuntphoric]

i'm also supposed to be posting on ao3... god i have to remember to update there. highlights:

-use "rich text". in the text box where your fic goes, top right, there's "HTML" and "rich text". unless you wanna do HTML formatting stuff just use rich text. it'll copy syntax stuff (italics etc.) out of the box which is nice.

-when you FIRST create a work, if you don't select "this work has multiple chapters", it'll only have the one chapter. the before/end notes you put in there will appear for EVERY chapter so heads up there!

-ao3 is on EST time i think. so if you're PST or further behind, fics from "the next day" (1/8 or when it's still 1/7) will show up at the end of the day. if you post, check what date the most recent works for that fandom are posted on, and if it's the next day, you can set the fic's posted date to be then!

-in the same vein, when you create a draft (even a draft of a chapter!) it pre-selects THAT CURRENT DATE as the publication date. so if you create a draft and post it later, check the date for that draft and make sure it's recent!

-use lots of tags. people use tags way more on ao3 and it's great. especially if there's specific kink stuff. people who don't know or care about your fandom will read and love your work if you tag it with a particular kink they like!

that's about all i can think of rn skhgfskhdfg sorry if i'm spamming you with stuff you already know. the publication date/draft thing gets me allll the time it's so annoying. good luck!

from @specialgradefckr

OMHMG THANK YOU SPEG THIS IS ACTUALLY SO HELPFUL !!! I DO NOOT UNDERSTAND OR KNOW ANYTHING ON AO3 I APPRECIATE THIS SOO MUCH 💗 MWAH

ALSO spam me as much as you like i don't mind AT ALL

THANK YOU AGAIN

[alisiaburd123]

Boosting Productivity with Notion: Essential Tips for Software Developers

Notion is a powerful tool for organizing and boosting productivity. For software developers, it’s especially valuable, as it combines note-taking, project management, and collaboration features in one place. By setting up a dedicated workspace in Notion, developers can easily track tasks, store code snippets, and manage projects. This post will walk you through essential tips to make the most of Notion, helping you streamline your workflow and stay focused on coding.

Setting Up Your Workspace

Start by creating a central workspace in Notion for all your development needs. This workspace can be your main hub, where you keep project overviews, tasks, and quick links to important resources. Having everything in one place saves time and keeps you focused.

One helpful feature is Notion’s code blocks. You can use these to store code snippets, commands, or notes on syntax that you frequently need. By organizing snippets within your workspace, you can quickly reference them without searching through multiple files or tabs. Notion’s formatting options allow you to highlight code, making it both readable and easy to locate. Whether you’re working solo or with a team, having your snippets neatly stored in one place improves efficiency and reduces the chances of forgetting key code pieces.

For project tracking, set up a database to manage tasks, bugs, or new feature requests. You can customize fields such as task status, priority level, and due dates to match your development process. With Notion’s database, you can organize tasks into different views: list, table, or board, depending on your preference. The board view, for example, works well for Kanban-style project management, letting you drag tasks between columns like “To-Do,” “In Progress,” and “Completed.” This flexibility helps you stay organized, keep track of priorities, and adapt easily as your project evolves.

Project Management and Tracking Progress

Notion makes project management easy with its flexible organization tools. You can create task templates for different types of projects, saving time and ensuring consistency. Templates allow you to pre-fill fields like priority, due dates, or project stages, so every task stays organized from the start.

Using Kanban boards in Notion is a popular way to track progress. These boards let you visually move tasks through stages like "To-Do," "In Progress," and "Done." It’s simple to drag and drop tasks as they progress, giving you a clear view of what’s happening. This approach works well for sprint planning, daily task tracking, and even bug resolution.

For longer-term planning, Notion’s timeline and calendar views are great tools. You can schedule tasks by week or month, set milestones, and adjust dates as needed. These views help you track deadlines and keep everyone aligned on project timelines. Here are some common recommendations to help you get the most out of project management in Notion:

Use templates: Set up reusable templates for tasks and projects to save time.

Organize by priority: Add fields for priority levels to keep high-impact tasks front and center.

Combine views: Switch between Kanban, timeline, and calendar views for different project stages.

Set milestones: Mark key dates and project goals to track overall progress.

Assign tasks: Tag team members directly in tasks for clear accountability.

Enhancing Collaboration

Notion is a great tool for team collaboration. You can easily share pages, assign tasks, and tag team members in comments. This makes communication faster and more organized, with all discussions and updates in one place. Real-time editing allows everyone to work together on documents, reducing back-and-forth emails and keeping everyone aligned.

Integrating Notion with other tools also boosts teamwork. For example, syncing Notion with GitHub or Slack keeps projects updated across platforms, so team members stay informed. Additionally, creating a shared knowledge base in Notion helps everyone access important resources, documentation, and project details. This organized approach makes collaboration smoother, keeps everyone on the same page, and enhances productivity.

Boosting Personal Productivity

Notion can be a powerful tool for organizing your daily tasks. You can create to-do lists, set daily goals, and track progress all in one place. By having a clear outline of tasks each day, it’s easier to stay focused and prioritize what matters most. This setup helps keep you on track and reduces distractions.

Using Notion as a knowledge hub is also effective. You can store notes, tutorials, and helpful links in organized folders or databases. This way, you don’t have to search through endless bookmarks or files when you need information. Having all your resources in one place saves time and keeps learning materials easily accessible.

For long-term goals, Notion’s habit trackers and progress checklists can be helpful. You can set up goals for learning new skills, completing courses, or achieving specific project milestones. Tracking your progress regularly gives you a sense of accomplishment and keeps you motivated. With Notion’s customizable templates, you can easily adapt these tools to fit your personal productivity style.

Advanced Tips for Power Users

For those looking to take Notion to the next level, there are some powerful features to explore. The Notion API allows you to automate tasks and integrate with other tools. This is especially useful for developers who want to pull data from Notion or update entries automatically. With the API, you can streamline workflows and reduce manual work.

Embedding external content is another useful trick. You can embed Google Docs, Figma files, or other resources directly into Notion pages. This keeps all essential materials in one place, making it easy to access everything without switching between apps. Here are some more advanced tips to boost your productivity in Notion:

Use database relations: Link related databases to organize complex information.

Create rollups: Ssummarize information across linked databases for quick insights.

Automate with the API: Connect Notion with Zapier or custom scripts for automation.

Customize templates: Design templates for repetitive tasks, saving time on setup.

Set up custom shortcuts: Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate and edit quickly.

With these advanced tips, you can make Notion an even more powerful tool for managing projects, tracking tasks, and staying organized.

Summing Up

Notion offers a versatile, powerful platform for developers looking to streamline their workflow and boost productivity. By setting up an organized workspace, managing projects efficiently, and exploring advanced features, you can make Notion work for your unique needs. From tracking daily tasks to collaborating with your team, Notion keeps everything in one place, helping you stay focused and on top of your goals.

Whether you’re just starting or looking to maximize your Notion skills, these strategies can make a meaningful impact on your productivity. Embrace the flexibility and tools Notion provides, and tailor it to support your personal and professional growth.

[dragoncookies]

(PT 1) REREADING STELLARLUNE!

I am on a mission this summer to reread the entirety of Stellarlune, every last word, because I’m really just delusional and don’t want to believe my favorite childhood series is spiraling downward (even though it truly is). There’s still some gold in Stellarlune, quite a lot actually. 

SO, if you don’t want to reread stellarlune but still stay up to date you can follow me as I analyze this convoluted book. If you want, of course. 

(TW: all caps). 

(Sorry for grammar or spelling mistakes).

CHAPTERS 1-2:

Quick summary: Sophie finds the note, gets pissed at Grady for letting Keefe go and leaves her room to go to Elwin’s place with Sandor. Elwin and Ro are having a weird stuffed animal/exlir showdown, they have a long discussion about Keefe (go figure), then they call up Dex to figure out why Keefe freaked out and left. Dex clearly doesn’t want to tell them but they find out that Lex is talentless (it’s so sad). 

First of all can I just say OH MY GOSH the whole thing is about Keefe. Literally that is all anyone obsesses over for the first two chapters so far. Literally his health and safety is ALL SOPHIE OBSESSES WITH in her internal monologues. Is that even healthy...?

CHAPTER ONE:

Funny thing, CHAPTER ONE HAS MAD PARRELELS TO THE SOPHITZ FIGHT SCENE IN LEGACY. Like, I’m not even lying when I say that I got intense flashbacks to that scene because Grady was literally acting like Fitz in his mannerisms and the syntax was so similar and the dialogue rang so many bells. It was uncanny.

Fitz tends to drag his toe on the ground and run a hand down his face when he’s stressed, and in this chapter Grady would be doing things like “dragging the toe of his boot through he flowers woven into her carpet” 

and “Grady dragged a hand down his face”

I’m not even joking when I say that Grady said, “You trust me, don’t you?”.

There’s also a part in chapter one where it goes:

“’But I’ve never seen him so detirmined. Best I could do was...’

‘Was?’ Sophie prompted when he didn’t finish.”

In the Legacy fight scene there were multiple moments when Sophie didn’t finish her sentence and Fitz finished it. Except now it’s Sophie finishing the sentence. She was the one who was frustrated and she was lowkey acting like Fitz did in the Legacy fight scene. Little reverse reverse moment.  

Do with this information what you will.

I never get tired of the Flori descriptions. In the first part of chapter one Shannon described her swaying to be like an autumn breeze, but at the end of chapter one she was described as swaying in a storm. Felt fitting.  

Also, 

someone get rid of Shannon’s ability to hit the Enter button, 

Please.

;)

CHAPTER TWO:

I forgot how unironically comical Sandor is. It might just be me, but I narrate things when I read occasionally so I would be reading his stuff aloud with the squeaky bunny voice and everything he says is so serious but the voice makes it lowkey funny. The first lines of chapter two were so goofy because Sandor was all “it’s exactly what I feared” and it’s just Elwin’s house. It’s funny for me to imagine okay. 

Chapter Two really highlights something in Sophie at this point: She is very unpractical. She’s a little dramatic but she refuses to listen to common sense and logic, and gets annoyed with anyone who tries to reason with her. She only listens to those who agree with her in that Keefe should have stayed. Like with Grady and Elwin she feels horribly betrayed, but connects with Ro because Ro wants to drop every current problem they’re all facing with the state of affairs in the elven world to find Keefe. When Dex (later in this chapter) points out Keefe might be safer in the lost cities Sophie gets mad and thinks “what’s wrong with everybody??” Like, Sophie please you’ve got bigger problems right now. Lowkey relatable ngl. 

Okay I might ruffle some feathers with this, but Ro only gets more and more annoying with every new book that comes out. She’s so unbelievably in everyone’s business it’s surprising she has the fanbase she does. I feel as though Shannon is TRYING to make her BLATANTLY disrespectful and everyone just eats it up more and more. First of all, she just exposes Keefe’s personal statement in front of everyone and it clearly makes Sophie uncomfortable, then talks about how she’s been wanting this to happen forever and just assumes Sophie feels the same way about Keefe that Keefe does Sophie. Like, what would Ro have done if Sophie genuinely didn’t like Keefe? She’s shoving her nose in a teenage relationship she has NO BUISNESS being in. Gosh Ro. Sorry that was critical...she’s just so invasive. Also, this is a fantasy series, the romance is becoming excessive. 

When Sophie calls up Dex, all I can say is oh my. Oh my. 

Dex has clearly been crying and looks real rough and Sophie’s just like “so why are you crying. You’ve been crying tell me why, don’t argue with me” and when I tell you I’ve never wanted to reach through the pages and slap someone more. He’s clearly hurt and all she can think about is how badly she needs to get Keefe back. She makes Dex reorganize his priorities in the middle of a grieving session for his sibling so she can make him try and find Keefe. SOPHIE. HE’S YOUR FRIEND. BE NICE. 

This entire conversation is also highlighting how lowkey hypocritical Sophie is (wow I’m absolutely bagging on the poor girl). She asks Dex “you trust me, don’t you?” when Grady literally asked her that a chapter ago and she got mad about it. She also tried to tease Dex a little to lighten the mood like Grady did a chapter ago when Sophie didn’t find it funny before. 

Then there’s the part where Dex really really REALLY doesn’t want anyone to know that Lex is talentless and Ro just goes “well i know what happened and I’m going to spill your secrets in ten second unless you tell her yourself” (paraphrasing). That is just. I hate to say it but that is absolutely disgusting. You don’t hold people’s sensitive and personal information over their head’s like that. Dex has been sobbing and there’s crashing coming from his end of the imparter from inside his house. His world has probably been flipped upside down, he’s shouting “STOP” and asking them not to prod anymore, and Ro just FORCES the information to come out of him one way or another. That’s sick. It’s underhandedly sick. Sophie goes along with it too, using some pathos type sappy speech to convince Dex why invading his privacy is important because guess what? Finding Keefe (a relatively useless task) is more important than Dex’s privacy. 

Then after Ro forces Dex to tell Sophie keefe’s new ability-detecting ability she makes it seem as though he’s overreacting. 

Put simply: poor Dex.

There’s emphasis on the obsession with elven abilities in this chapter. Ro repeatedly highlights how bizarre it is that elves are so infatuated with something that can only be useful half the time, and Dex’s grief over Lex not having an ability shows how HEAVY the elven prejudice runs. Like, it’s literally making him cry. He doesn’t even want to say it. That’s how important it is in elven society. Dex even says, “Abilities define us for the rest of our lives”. Yikes. Maybe this is an important concept to keep in mind...?

I love this part of the chapter, though, when Dex actually does tell Sophie about Lex:

“’Oh,’

The tiny word seemed to pulse, growing louder with every beat until the sound filled the enormous room.

So did the word none of them said. 

Talentless. 

More tears dripped down Dex’s cheeks, and Sophie felt her own eyes turn watery.”

Sad :(

Well, that’s all for now. If you read all of that, you’re a legend. Stay tuned for more chapters!

[seeingteacupsindragons]

I’ve got another question, if that’s alright—do you have any advice for varying sentence structure? I feel like it’s a skill that is mostly natural / unconscious and I’ve been wondering if there’s a good way to deliberately practice it, apart from my current method of writing as usual and revising with a specific eye on sentence structure

You given me war flashbacks to my tenth grade English teacher and her"sentence starter" worksheet with 10 different opening phrase types for English, and we had to use at least 8 of them in every essay we wrote.

I do not recommend this approach. Most of them did not sound natural or fluid at all. At the end of the day, the vast majority of English sentences are going to start subject-verb because that's just the way English syntax is at its most natural and least stressed. And yet, neither that sentence nor this one did.

Ultimately, sentence structure varying is important not so that it varies, but because varying it has different effects.

Short sentences feel quick and choppy and adding them to short paragraphs feels a lot like movie cuts switching every few seconds. Good sometimes, but you don't want the whole movie filmed that way, either.

Longer sentences will feel slower, drawing out a moment to linger on it and connect things together. A lot of them together can be used to really highlight a character's spiraling mental state.

A lot of knowing which to use is just practice and developing a knack for which part of the book needs what.

And different people talk differently. Yes, they use different vocabulary, but they also structure their sentences differently. "I really wasn't thinking about home," could also be, "Wasn't really thinking about home, you know?" and they mean mostly the same thing but the sentence structures are different.

So it might be a good idea to do some warmups or exercise also focused on character voice.

I pulled out this section from Ceiling Fan to see if I could dissect it for you to show how and why sentences varied, but I actually...ran out of highlight colors because the sentences are all really quite different.

That second-to-last paragraph is all fragments. Long fragments, mostly, but none of them are actually complete thoughts on their own. They're punctuated like that because functionally, they're each their own points of emphasis.

I also have asides to sentences in both parentheses and em-dashes. But they serve different purposes. The parens basically reduce the "probably" to a muttered, under the breath note. The em-dashes are spoken at an equal volume, but it wouldn't otherwise fit into the sentence. Cameron is basically interrupting himself with dashes.

The second sentence starts with a gerund noun phrase because it sounds better than "It was only half the exam to study the formulas"--more natural, and it puts actual concretes upfront instead of a meaningless pronoun.

There's an ellipsis where Cam trails off a thought, searching for words before picking up with the next paragraph and sentence with an interjection.

There's a lot of variety in this...half a page if you look, and I did almost none of it while thinking about it or caring at all about sentence structure. This is just what felt natural when I was writing someone talking. This is what made Cam sound the way I wanted Cam to sound.

I picked up these instincts from reading, mostly--I saw what was impacting me and gave me what tones--so reading with an eye for structure and then writing to capture voice really well, I think, are my strongest recommendations. And then on making sure the pacing flows.

It's hard for me to give advice on how to achieve a means to an end, I think--the means are often different for everyone. You want the goal, and the goal isn't "interesting sentence arrangements." The goal is to make Cam sound like Cam (fill in your own characters here lol) and the pacing and focus to be where they need to be.

[ai-revolution]

Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizes the Music World: The Case of "Neural Notes Revolution"

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming our world, permeating sectors from healthcare to industry, education to transportation. This technology, which aims to replicate and surpass human cognitive abilities, promises to revolutionize the way we live and work.

The applications of AI are numerous and ever-expanding: from medical diagnosis to autonomous driving, data analysis to content creation. A particularly intriguing field is music, where AI is demonstrating remarkable potential.

Recently, there has been much discussion about AI-based music generation platforms like "Suno" and "Udio," accused of violating numerous artists' copyrights to train their algorithms. These controversies highlight the complex ethical and legal issues that AI raises in the artistic field.

In this context, the Italian project "Neural Notes Revolution" emerges, demonstrating how, with the aid of AI programs, the study of algorithms suitable for targeted generation of musical styles, voices, song structures, and with adequate post-processing, it's possible to produce musical pieces of any genre and style, in any language, in relatively short timeframes.

The project also leverages other generative AI platforms such as OpenAI's ChatGPT (Microsoft group, of which Elon Musk was a co-founder), Anthropic's Claude AI, and Google's Gemini. These technologies allow for the generation of texts, both original and based on precise or imaginative prompts, in numerous languages, even using expressions typical of specific localities and dialects.

However, "Neural Notes Revolution" still faces some challenges. The results provided by ChatBOTs require careful verification, and in the music field, generation platforms have significant limitations. In particular, "Suno" and "Udio" lack a precise and rigorous syntax that allows for accurate results. Often, the outcomes are even opposite to those desired, forcing a trial-and-error approach. One of the major limitations is the near-total impossibility of having clear style changes within the same song.

Expected future developments include the ability to modify produced songs in a targeted manner. It would be useful to have separate files for the vocal part, the musical backing, and the lyrics in subtitle format. Moreover, there's hope to be able to modify individual parts of text or music, and above all, to have a correct and rigorously respected syntax for the song structure and use of styles.

The use of these platforms raises several issues. On one hand, they offer new creative possibilities and democratize music production. On the other, they raise concerns about copyright, artistic authenticity, and the future of work in the music industry.

In conclusion, while giving space to creativity, we are still far from competing with the styles, voices, and tones of artists of all time. However, in defense of the "new artists" of the AI era, it must be recognized that creativity and skill are still necessary to produce musical pieces of a certain depth. This is particularly relevant in a modern musical landscape that often offers music devoid of artistic and cultural significance. AI in music thus represents both a challenge and an opportunity, requiring a balance between technological innovation and preservation of human artistic expression.

[andromeda3116]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I recently discovered you on A03 through your Zutara fics and I must admit that I'm mesmerized by your stories. They are so wonderfully written—the structure, the development, the characters, the dialogues and the political aspects are so beautiful. Everything about them makes me want to dive in and read and explore the worlds you have created.

I'm writing this in the hope that you might be able to provide me with a little guidance. I really admire your work, and I wanted to know if you had any tips on how to develop characters, dialogues and conflicts, for every scene you've written contributes to the story in some way (it's really engaging and thrilling as a reader).

Without further ado, I hope this finds you well. Thank you :)

First of all, thank you for your kind words! And I'm flattered that you wanted my advice!

The only "trick" I can actually impart is: I've gotten a lot of mileage out of just reading my story out loud to myself, and seeing if it sounds good. And from there is a lot of "oooh, that sounds wrong, how about..." until you get something that works, or -- quite often, in my experience -- you just highlight the sentence to come back to later when you're less frustrated. And try again. (This is particularly useful with dialogue.)

But for the rest... I know this is going to sound trite, but the answer is to just write a lot. And read a lot.

Everyone has their lists of writing advice, how to structure stories and make them pop -- but ultimately, everyone has a different way of doing those things, and mostly, there isn't actually a correct answer. Finding your voice just takes practice.

Reading a lot -- and watching a lot of movies and shows! -- can teach you a lot of the wrong ways to do it, either because you cringe away from the screen/page for reasons you can't put into words, or because it all comes together so well that you try to mimic it in your own writing and you have to figure out why you couldn't do it like they did. Trust me, I wrote a lot of derivative shit while trying to capture someone else's lightning in my own bottle. I honestly don't think that's a bad thing -- everyone learns from someone else, and everyone starts off by mimicry. If anyone claims to have had their own unique voice from the start, they're full of shit.

Redwall taught me how to craft imagery, I can point you back to the FFX oneshot that taught me how to use single-sentence punches to gut the reader, Terry Pratchett taught me how to incorporate politics into a story in such a way that it doesn't feel dry, there was a brief period back on fictionpress.net (s/o to my other fandom olds) where weird single-sentence poetry (?) things? were super-cool to me and they taught me how to build emotion using syntax, Lord of the Rings taught me how build an engaging plot, the drabble and one-sentence challenges taught me how to use conservation of words to make what I did have count -- and so on and so forth.

I've been writing stories since I could hold a pencil, and sharing them, getting feedback on them, and actively engaging with them since I was 13 (I'm 33). It sounds like weak advice, but it really legitimately just does come down to "read something that sets your brain on fire, try to do something like it, inevitably fuck it up, try it again until you figure out why it didn't work, fix that, read something else that sets your brain on fire, try to do it, inevitably fuck it up --" ad nauseum, until you've figured out enough "yikes"-es that you know how to craft a story on your own that hits all the notes you want it to hit. Kinda like sculpting, you start with a shapeless rock and chip away at all the parts that don't work until you learn what does. And the statues you make get better and better the more of them you sculpt. They don't have to be good. A lot of them won't be. And that's a good thing! It's the process of learning how not to do it that teaches you how to get it right.

But other than that, I unfortunately can't give you a lot of advice. It honestly does just take a lot of practice, consuming stories and digesting them and pulling their pieces out to try and make something out of it all yourself. And accepting that you're gonna fail a lot. I failed a lot. I still fail a lot. There's never a point where you're done learning how not to do it.

Wanting to write well is the first step. Writing badly is the second.

[melonpalooza]

DUDE DUDE I AM FREAKING AMAZED BY YOUR CODING SKILLS ON AO3 (Is it coding? EITHER WAY-) How do you make it look like discord? Does it take lots of time to do? Did you copy the code for how it's set up from discord itself? How do you do it?! (not exactly asking for a step by step but a gen overview?) I'm super curious >:3

Hello, Anon!

Thank you for the ask! I've always wanted to info dump about my process lol

Okay, so I use a workskin that I hobbled together from multiple sources, sometimes adding my own elements by tweaking some things here and there.

Credits verbatim from my author notes (every link and user listed is from AO3):

Discord Workskin from unpredictableArtist (wovenstarlight). Extra code from BookKeep.

iOS Workskin from CodenameCarrot, La_Temperanza. All I did was augment the borders and colors to make it “dark mode”.

"Email" Workskin lifted and repurposed from La_Temperanza for the sake of looking like the Notepad app instead.

If you want the (current) workskin code, I can upload it in another post! Because the original codes are already a free resource, I don't see why not in sharing the full code that I use, y'know?

Once that is set as the workskin, however, all the chapters simply have to be written in raw HTML format! To make it easier for myself, I write everything in an app called "Notepad++" that highlights the syntax, making it easier for me to read/spot mistakes! I have a "master list" of usernames and commonly used code and I copy and paste it to the chapter with the messages. I also test the code on a site called jsbin to make sure it looks alright (sometimes I don't though, and just "update" the draft on AO3 like 50 times lol)

Basically, I have prompts on a google doc -> notepad++ -> ao3

If you are curious this is what the beginning of Ch. 21 looks like in its "raw" state in notepad++:

There is actually a lot of extra coding in this (all of the "hide" classes), so that it is still readable even if a reader has "Creator Style" off.

But yeah, all of that above is for the first three messages of the chapter:

But trust me, it's not as intimidating as you think, especially with my master list file (I'll even post it if you're interested and you can test it out for yourself!). And that's basically it? Not sure if I answered your question, but there you go! Of course, if anyone wants to do something similar on AO3, feel free to ask and I will assist! :)

[alltingfinns]

This is the least relevant post I could make, but something that’s been bugging me since the nineties is a sitcom conversation about “political correctness” as in what is now called “cancel culture”.

Sitcom in question is Spin City where Michael J Fox plays deputy mayor of New York. At the end of an episode he and his co-workers are hanging out at the bar they’re always hanging out in after work. I couldn’t tell you the main plot of the episode if I tried, but it must have been something about causing an offense towards a minority in some way. Because I can exactly remember Michael’s character saying:

“So what? If I go around singing girls just want to have fun, will people get angry that I’m insinuating that men just want to be boring and serious?”

To which one of his female co-workers reply:

“No, but they will be angry that you referred to women as girls.”

And I, in roughly my early teens or younger, get super annoyed. Because the sentence “girls just want to have fun” doesn’t in any way preclude anyone else wanting to have fun!! The “just” isn’t before girls, it’s before wanting to have fun. At most it could imply that girls are the only ones that want nothing else but fun, that men must want something besides fun. But that is only insinuated by the singling out of girls, rather than singing people just want to have fun.

The actual “reason to cancel” anyone over the lyric would be the much more explicit implication*) that “girls” have no other ambition or aspiration but to have fun. That “girls” are too vapid for long term goals, and “just” want to have fun.

Note: I am not saying that is the meaning of the song or that it should at all be canceled over the lyrics. To be absolutely clear this is NOT a cancellation of Cyndi Lauper or 80s bubblegum pop.

This is explicitly me being annoyed that the syntax and sentence structure was completely ignored for an interpretation that clashes with the text, when actually considering the order of the words anyway provided a more interesting interpretation. Like, maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t the dialogue have been funnier as:

“So what? If I go around singing girls just want to have fun, will people get angry that I’m insinuating that girls don’t have any other ambition or drive in life?”

“No, but they will be angry that you referred to women as girls.”

I mean, to me, making Michael’s line rooted in a slightly more serious interpretation of the lyric, one that sounds a bit more “woke”-ish, highlights the contrast in the reply more sharply. I don’t get how me as a kid with English as my second language got that, but a room full of writers where presumably the majority were native English speakers thought a completely nonsensical interpretation made more sense for the joke.

*) I’m aware that explicit and implicit are antonyms, I still stand by my word choice.

[mentalisttraceur-software]

I retract my previous judgement: I used to think it was a significant flaw of Git that it cannot understand any unit of difference besides "line" at its core.

For example, the "color-words" option is actually a post-processing step. Internally, git cannot record such precise diffs. If you want to look at a change which is stored in git history, differences which are more granular than a line have to be recomputed. And the tools it ships with - "git add -p", "git merge", and so on - they can't help you get any more precise than line changes.

This particularly bothered me for prose. I think git is almost a great tool for version-controlling prose. But when writing prose in a plain text format, our natural atoms of change are words and punctuation, not lines. And a line-based diff end up being huge: changing a single word is likely to cascade into a diff to the whole paragraph. Imagine trying to merge two changes to a paragraph of prose - suddenly you're back to manually comparing and picking words and characters. Note that prose includes code comments.

This also bothered me with code because code is often structured - it also has atoms of change that are not lines, which are usually much smaller than lines but can also sometimes span lines. Language-aware diffs could be profoundly useful! Just as I might sometimes say "I want a character-level diff" or "I want a word-level diff", I might say "I'd like a diff which ignores renames" or "show me a diff which ignores changes to quotes, changes to optional parentheses/braces/semicolons, and so on".

But I've come to understand that it doesn't matter if git's core has any understanding of this. Or rather, it only matters as an optimization concern.

I have the "delta" command-line program to thank for helping me realize this. See, we configure git so that delta intercepts diff output, and delta shows you nicer diff output. But the key idea is that it has its own analysis for granular changes. And it has its own analysis of the syntax of many languages - it only uses that to apply syntax highlighting, but in principle that can be generalized to static analysis that enhances diff usefulness.

After fiddling with delta for a few days, and then thinking of "git add -p" again, it hit me that all of these use-cases can be separate preprocessing or postprocessing steps. Sure, "git add -p" can't split multiple changes within one line or within adjacent changed lines, and currently that's because git's core can't understand the change more granularly - but it's increasingly clear to me that we can just work around that from the outside.

We can, for example, write a program which looks at the diff from git, applies a more granular diff within each of git's diff hunks, and lets us pick just some of those changes, then saves the other changes elsewhere, mutates the file to contain just the selected changes, and tells git to stage it. Git will record it as line deletions and additions, and sure that's a loss of information, but it's not a terrible loss of information. In principle, it's approximately always possible to unambiguously retrieve that information, so long as you have some idea of what kind of diff to try (character-level? word-level? language token level? etc). And then we even add that command as a subcommand within git, or even alias "git add -p" in our git config to call that program instead.

Basically, it now seems to me that we can entirely improve the user experience to the point where it's as if git has other diff granularities than just "line", and picks the most appropriate granularity based on the detected language, configuration, or command-line options, and that the ability to do this is trivially independent of a lack of support for it in git's core.

[holyjak]

A discussion of the newly released Electric Clojure by Hyperfiddle. What is Electric? "Electric Clojure, a reactive Clojure/Script dialect for web UI with compiler-managed client/server data sync." What does that mean? You write a single piece of code, e.g. a UI component function, and hint which parts need to run on the server vs. the client. "The Electric compiler performs deep graph analysis of your unified frontend/backend program to automatically determine the optimal network cut, and then compile it into separate client and server target programs that cooperate and anticipate each other's needs." Thus you program as if there was no hard client-server divide (no 2 separate files with REST calls in between) and Electric handles splitting it up and managing the communication between them on your behalf. It is groundbreaking and fascinating, with potential to significantly simplify web apps. Go read more about it.

Highlights from the discussion (many comments by the founder):

[..] we're seeing 10x LOC reduction (18k to 2k) in rebuilding Electric's sister project, Hyperfiddle (a spreadsheet like tool for robust UI development), as well as massive gains in performance.

NOTE: Til now focus was on correct program semantics, now started work on DX etc.

Our DOM module is only 300 LOC - it's bare metal DOM point writes + Electric (reactive language) + macros for JSX-y syntax. When the programming language itself is reactive, DOM rendering falls out for free.

Mechanically, Electric is comparable to Solid.js except the reactive engine (missionary) is general purpose, not coupled to DOM rendering, which is a special case of incremental view maintenance.

[..] over-abstracting is a primary risk and has been top of mind for us since project conception in ~2012. [..] Electric is an attempt to find exactly the right level of abstraction. The goal is to remove and flatten layers, not add them, thus decreasing abstraction weight in the end if we succeed. Maybe we fail, but first let me share some details about how we think about this:

I've personally failed to build this project several times, Electric Clojure is something like the 7th attempt.

strong composition model as a starting point, based on category theory generalization of "function" -> "async function" -> "reactive function" -> "stream function" -> "distributed function". [..] (This rigor is in response to the past failures.)

Functional effect system (monad stuff) at the bottom, which provides strong semantics guarantees about glitch-free reactive propagation, process supervision (like Erlang) (transparent propagation of cancellation and failure), strong resource cleanup guarantees (DOM nodes can never be left hanging, event handlers can never fail to be detached and disposed). Already this results in tighter operational semantics than we have ever achieved with manual resource management (and, again, we tried, see past failures).

Electric affords the programmer trapdoors to the underlying FRP/concurrency primitives. Electric is essentially a Clojure-to-FRP compiler, so if you code raw concurrency and effect management, that actually typechecks with what Electric generates, allowing seamless transition in and out of the abstraction.

3k LOC + 3k test LOC is the size of Electric today (includes a rewrite of the Clojure analyzer). Spring Framework is, let me go check, 59k just for spring-core/src/main/java, and there are like 20 other modules I excluded. Indeed it is not a fair comparison but certainly we have complexity budget to spare.

About Missionary: "Missionary is a reactive dataflow programming toolkit providing referentially transparent operators for lazy continuous signals, eager discrete streams, and IO actions. Missionary aims to improve over state-of-the-art reactive systems, it can be used as a general-purpose asynchronous programming toolkit but also as a basis for event streaming and incremental computations." Electric uses it for functional effects and as its reactive engine.

[whotookcheesuschrist]

I would like to add a couple of examples, more to outline this. I can't fucking remember the source for the former, but if you want tangible examples of this put into practice:

There was this female journalist and author, and to my immense shame I cannot remember her name, only that she moved from Norway to London at some point, who had this fantastic documentary detailing her meetings with the people who bashed her very existence, her being of Muslim heritage. She met them and asked them, face to face, why they hated her. The result of that was often really damn sad. With the exception of... I believe it was Rick Spencer (the neo nazi what got clocked on live television), most to all of them started having a really hard time justifying their politics, mainly because they thought she was. Quite alright, actually. Problem was that in these cases that just brought the same SynTax error we can see in interviews from the last week or so when moms voting for the Drump seemed to believe that their daughters was just misunderstanding things, like there was room for discussion for what the problem was. (Leopard eating faces-meme.) It also highlighted just how lonely a lot of those guys were; they had essentially isolated themselves into a very, very lonely existence where nothing else but the Qanon-bullshit existed. (See also, Sacha Baron Cohen regaling what he experienced when he in-character was taken in by Q-anon boys and spent the night in their place.)

We have a trial in France right now which might be the most explicit and unquestionable rape cases in history. These men had to be dragged to the courts, forced to watch the irrefutable evidence they themselves taped along with the entire damn nation, and that's, that's the point where any of the fuckers felt shame for themselves. There was nowhere to run at all. Think about just how hard it is to capture these people like that. Think about how many to one that is to make them stop deflecting.

Point is, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

I also think it's worth noting that, under the age of Obama's presidency and such where a lot of protection started to be written down on paper more akin to what we will now, sadly, remember the Biden administration for as the good old days (among a LOT of things, for good and bad)... how many years of pushing and nudges did it take to get there? And yet after years those protection came to pass anyway. Think through what needs to be done, then don't give up.

If your vision for the deradicalization of right-wing men begins and ends with "other men telling them that that's gross and to stop it" then I'm sorry, you do not understand how masculinity works.

"Men who hold patriarchal status" and "men who are feminists" are two groups who overlap less than you want them to. I'm sorry. That's not solely because men are so happy with patriarchal status that they don't want to risk it by policing misogyny/queerphobia/racism, It's because being misogynistic, queerphobic, and racist, end expressing other forms of toxic masculinity(and often abusively so) are part of how people establish and maintain patriarchal status. The men who have the ability to stop this via nothing but peer pressure are the very people who are doing it. That's by design. And engaging in feminist intervention is, in and of itself, usually the abrupt end of that status and its associated power to persuade misogynistic men.

Like, I have worked in blue collar jobs as a notably queer person. It was pretty much a constant deluge of verbal abuse. In my experience, most blue collar work environments are exploitative, abusive, and bigoted, and very gleefully so. On the occasions I have spoken up about someone saying something that was super fucking out of line (asking me which of the girls walking by was hottest. We were installing a portable classroom at a middle school), believe it or not, they completely failed to be shamed! Because nobody else on the crew gave a fuck. *I* was the weird one. They ghosted me. A full blown company ghosted me. I suddenly didn't have a job anymore because they just straightforwardly stopped telling me where the next job site was.

Like, this doesn't mean that it's your job to do it, but this vision you have of these big groups of men where everyone is on the fence and there is precisely one shit stirrer who can be shut down by a brave feminist man who can single handedly set the example for all these other guys...you are high. You are describing an "everybody clapped" level absurd scenario. Most of these truly virulent misogynistic guys either have zero friends, because, you know, our society is atomized to fuck, or they are in a group where the feminist guy is actually the weirdo who can be shut down and ostracized much, much easier than the misogynists, because there is no such thing as a man misogynists respect who stands up for women.

You might be saying "well, we're talking about longstanding personal relationships, actually. Like, they need to have to want to spend time with you and then, as a side effect, you can mind control them out of being a threat to us."

Problem with that being:

1: Many feminist men also have no friends, see the atomized society above.

2: Feminist men already stopped hanging out with men who make rape jokes because why the fuck would we want to spend time with them.

3: That isn't just because we respect women so hard. We are in many cases talking about men who are also deeply queerphobic, heirarchical, violent and abusive to other men. What initially drew me to feminism and women was a lack of heirarchical squabbling and constant bullying, and the ability to be openly queer. A lot of men who came to feminism did so because they knew that the patriarchy was not a place they would find success or acceptance. These are not the men who are gonna be able to change right wing minds.

4. Men do not view themselves as a monolith. There is no universal brotherhood of men. The actual meaning of the term "Fragile masculinity" is that men are constantly expected to prove that they are deserving of the status of being a member of their own gender. There are large swathes of men--including most of the men who you'd look to as examples of good, feminist men who you want to undertake this project--who are considered failed men, sissies, f****ts, soyboys, ect. They are. Not. Going. To. Convince. These. Men. Of. Jack. Shit. Much less successfully *shame* them. Jesus.

I know all of this sucks. I know it would be cool to be able to just point at a group and have them be responsible for the work. But nah. It's gonna have to be a societal project, one that will probably outlast all of us. Sorry. The thing you want these men to do is, absolutely, the morally correct thing to do. But presuming that it would be effective is, and once again I am so sorry about this, just ignorance of how these social groups function.

[azus-reyan]

Entry 17: Verbing Your Way to Better Writing.

What do you think of this sentence?

Original Version: Some scientists, because they write in a style that is so impersonal and objective, do not communicate with lay people easily.

Did it make sense? Great! But did it feel a little awkward?

Check this revision of the same sentence:

Revised Version: Some scientists do not communicate with lay people easily, because they write in a style that is so impersonal and objective.

Feels smoother, doesn’t it? The words haven’t changed��only the construction.

You’ve probably heard the advice: “Use active voice, not passive.”

While I wouldn’t say this advice is wrong, it’s far from the full picture.

Active voice isn’t a one-size-fits-all rule. Sometimes, passive voice can actually improve your writing.

For instance, when you want to highlight the recipient of the action, not the doer.

Take the phrase “All men are created equal.” It’s passive for a reason—the focus isn’t on the creator of men but on the equality of men themselves

Here’s a better advice: “Reach the verb faster.”

Syntax is the arrangement of words within sentences, clauses, and phrases. Just shifting a single word can change the meaning of an entire sentence.

The key is verb placement.

In the first sentence, the main verb (do communicate) is almost at the end. The reader would have to work real hard to reach it. He might even give up out of frustration. 

In the second sentence, the verb is moved to the front, allowing the reader to get to the action faster—with less effort

Here’s another example:

Main verb at the end: The crew, because they couldn’t take detailed pictures, had to take shelter from the record-high winds.

Main verb at the front: The crew had to take shelter from the record-high winds, because they couldn’t take detailed pictures.

Another way to think about it is by placing any interrupting elements (like "because they couldn’t take detailed pictures") after the verb

I edited my post with this technique yesterday and the results were sweet. It was a game changer. 

Try it out for yourself! Pick something you’ve written recently and apply this technique.

Move the main verb as close to the beginning as possible to help the reader get to the action faster. 

I learned this from a book I’m currently reading and it’s amazing!

You can download it for free here: Good with Words: Writing and Editing.

Note: I’m not sponsored or affiliated with the book—just passing along something useful that I think you’ll enjoy. Happy learning! 😉

Until next time, 

Sayonara.

[qcsdclabs]

Different types of text editors in Linux

In Linux, there are a variety of text editors available, catering to different user preferences, from simple terminal-based editors to full-fledged graphical text editors. Here are some of the most popular types of text editors you can use on Linux:

1. Command-Line Text Editors

These editors are used directly in the terminal, offering a lightweight and efficient way to edit files.

Vim (Vi IMproved) Vim is an enhanced version of the classic vi editor. It is very powerful and flexible, especially for programmers. It has multiple modes (normal, insert, visual, etc.) and supports advanced features like syntax highlighting, plugins, and macros.

Nano Nano is a simpler text editor compared to Vim. It is user-friendly, especially for beginners, and provides on-screen keyboard shortcuts for common actions.

Emacs Emacs is a highly customizable and extensible text editor, known for its powerful features like integrated shell, version control, and an extensive library of plugins.

Vi The original text editor, vi is available by default on many Linux systems. While it doesn't have the advanced features of Vim, it's still highly functional for basic text editing.

Ed ed is a line editor, often considered as the predecessor to vi. It's very minimal and requires command-line knowledge to operate effectively.

2. Graphical Text Editors

These editors provide a graphical user interface (GUI), which can be more user-friendly, especially for those who prefer a point-and-click interface.

Gedit Gedit is the default text editor for the GNOME desktop environment. It is simple, lightweight, and supports syntax highlighting for many programming languages.

Kate Kate (KDE Advanced Text Editor) is the default text editor for the KDE desktop environment. It provides powerful features such as multiple document editing, syntax highlighting, and a built-in terminal.

Leafpad Leafpad is a lightweight, simple text editor designed for basic text editing tasks. It’s ideal for users who need a no-frills, fast editor.

Xed Xed is the default text editor for the Linux Mint desktop environment. It is a simple, fast, and lightweight text editor.

3. IDE-Based Editors

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are more specialized editors with features like debugging, code completion, and project management, mainly used by programmers.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) VS Code is a popular open-source text editor with robust support for development. It offers features like extensions, debugging, Git integration, and a wide range of language support.

Sublime Text Sublime Text is a fast and highly customizable text editor for code and markup. It is often preferred for programming due to its intuitive interface, powerful search features, and plugin support.

Atom Atom is a highly customizable, open-source text editor developed by GitHub. It is aimed at developers and offers features such as a built-in package manager, Git integration, and real-time collaboration.

IntelliJ IDEA IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful Java IDE, but it also supports other programming languages with plugins. It offers advanced features for debugging, testing, and version control.

4. Specialized Text Editors

These editors are designed for specific use cases or workflows.

TeXstudio TeXstudio is a LaTeX editor that provides an integrated environment for creating and managing LaTeX documents. It includes features such as syntax highlighting, auto-completion, and built-in PDF preview.

VSCodium VSCodium is a community-driven, open-source version of VS Code, without any telemetry or proprietary Microsoft code. It’s ideal for users who prefer a fully open-source version of VS Code.

Gnote Gnote is a note-taking application inspired by Tomboy. It's simple and effective for managing text-based notes.

5. Text Editors for Programmers

These are designed to offer advanced features for software development and code editing.

Brackets Brackets is an open-source editor focused on web development, providing real-time preview, inline editing, and preprocessor support.

Geany Geany is a lightweight IDE that supports many programming languages. It’s fast and comes with features like code completion, syntax highlighting, and project management.

Notepadqq Notepadqq is an open-source text editor for programmers. It offers syntax highlighting for multiple languages and is often seen as a Linux alternative to Notepad++.

6. File Managers with Built-in Editors

Some file managers in Linux also offer text editing capabilities, often for quick edits of configuration files.

Nautilus (with a custom editor) Nautilus is the default file manager for GNOME, and it can be configured to open a text editor when you need to modify files quickly.

Thunar Thunar is the default file manager for XFCE, and like Nautilus, it can be configured to launch a text editor for quick edits.

Conclusion:

The choice of text editor in Linux depends on your needs and level of expertise. Command-line editors like Vim and Nano are preferred by experienced users for their efficiency, while graphical editors like Gedit and Kate are great for those who prefer a more user-friendly interface. IDEs like Visual Studio Code and Sublime Text are ideal for developers, and specialized editors like TeXstudio cater to specific workflows.

for more details please visit 

www.qcsdclabs.com

www.hawkstack.com

[jj-shubert-writes]

NaNo Quasi-Victory

I did my tracking apparently wrong and somehow missed about 10k words somewhere, which is frankly impressive it its own right. Anyway, if you take my total document word count right now (so there's an extra day on there) minus what I started with, I wrote 47,938 words this month! If we added notes and bonus things, I'm sure I got to 50k, which I didn't use the Official website/company for due to Reasons, but it was my New Month's Resolution, so I can call it a win.

Might be able to finish Raspberry Forethought Nucleus/Syntax Optic Lockdown by the end of the year. It'll depend on work and other things. I'm proud of the progress I was able to make by pushing myself 2% harder than usual. I've learned that Rhiannon has the sickest backstory ever, Valley is an unreliable narrator even to xemself and lives in a state of pure denial, and poor Deadeye is yet another installation on my "AI who works very hard without recognition and is getting tired but doesn't think it has the right to be tired or recognized because it's just doing what it's supposed to do what no this is absolutely not a metaphor for myself shut up" character lineup. Without any further ado, for all one of you probably still tuned in, here's the highlight reel:

Kat and Valley's dynamic is actually getting interesting:

[*Valley says something completely out of pocket and rude again*] Kat looked xem up and down, brow furrowed. “The fuck’s your problem?” “Self-diagnostic reports no errors or flaws.” She snorted through a mouthful of crackers. “Yeah, I’ll bet it doesn’t. Mx. Perfect, that’s you. [...] You manage to be a dick, a [does Tumblr censor the c-word?], and an asshole in spite of having none of the above. Truly a win for diversity.” “Your prowess of observation knows no bounds.”

Meanwhile, I'd die for whatever the heck Valley and Deadeye have going on. It's buddy cop it's tsundere it's five computer language barriers in a trench coat and I enjoy every moment of it

<Deadeye. Listen. Between you and me? You’re the octopus. By the way. Hope that’s not awful,> Valley let slip out of nowhere. It was stupid. But it wasn’t nearly as stupid as the thought behind it xe wouldn’t say. We’re very different creatures. But I’m learning and you’re evolving, and we can sort of talk, and that’s not bad. We’re still different, but less alone. <On the contrary, I appreciate the sentiment,> Deadeye said like he understood.

Can't find other quotables at the moment, but hey, it's fun