De Programmatica Ipsum
De Programmatica Ipsum
Adrian Kosmaczewski
De Programmatica Ipsum is a monthly magazine about programming and society published since 2018. No AI content, no ads, no paywall, full RSS feed, 100% supported by our readers.
Latest Posts
Welcome to the 94th issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Killer Apps. In this edition: Graham argues that the “Killer App” phenomenon is in danger of extinction. Adrian enumerates some examples of “App Killers”. In our Vidéothèque...
I have more experience with situations where apps have already done the killing, than I have with being onboard with a killer app. I never used VisiCalc, for example, joining the spreadsheet revolution long after the field was already...
The name “Killer App” says a lot about the level of violence in the world of business (well, in the world in general). Such a piece of software is dubbed a “killer” if it somehow triggers a massive uptick in the adoption of its...
Archival footage from the early 1980s has this distinct, almost palpable texture to it. For members of Generation X, it brings memories of Donkey Kong, He-Man, and Star Wars. The colors are slightly washed out, the audio hums with the...
The mid-1980s was the era when the personal computing vendors ended their war on themselves. In the belligerent phase, every time a vendor released a new computer, it was incompatible with everything that came before it. In “Where Are...
Welcome to the 93rd issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Functional Programming. In this edition: Graham explains the benefits of solving problems with a functional mindset. Adrian explores why functional programming was shunned until...
Programming styles are supposed to be paradigmatic, in that they structure your thinking about creating software by providing unifying theories and methods that you use to plan, design, construct, and operate your software. In that...
In a famous paper published in 1998, Philip Wadler complained that no one used functional programming languages. It is safe to say that in 2026 everybody is using some kind of functional programming language, albeit to a certain extent,...
If there was a contest for the single most beloved person in the functional programming galaxy, Joe Armstrong would have effortlessly won the first prize. For decades, he constantly showed the world that the principles behind functional...
Imagine a world in which two people take the best ideas from programming languages, and create an interpreter for their own programming language. Then they demonstrate that most of the features in that programming language—indeed, in all...
On page 138 of the second edition of his 1971 book, “Categories for the Working Mathematician”, American mathematician Saunders Mac Lane inadvertently coined one of the most famous memes ever made around programming. It is there,...
Welcome to the 92nd issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Linux. In this edition: Graham reports on the state of GNU Hurd with very good news. Adrian untangles the Linux distro jungle and helps you choose the best one for your needs. In...
Those of us who have been extremely online for a very long time will remember that Linus Torvalds announced his Linux kernel to a usenet newsgroup (or “froup”, as the internet lexicon had it at the time) for the Minix operating system....
The Non-Aligned Movement was born in 1961, during the most dramatic period of the Cold War, in opposition to the nuclear escalation threats between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Countries from what it is now known as the “Global South” got...
Paraphrasing Apple and their famous advertising campaign, we can safely say that Finnish movie director Hannu Puttonen (1960–2023) was very interested in the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the...