on Lua

content/programming.tree

@@ -8,21 +8,30 @@
   content.link = "programming/projects"
 + ### projects
 
-% content.link = "programming/cxx"
-  id = "programming/cxx"
-+ ### C++
-
-% content.link = "programming/unreal-engine"
-  id = "programming/unreal-engine"
-+ ### Unreal Engine
-
-% content.link = "programming/opinions"
-  id = "programming/opinions"
-+ ### opinions
-
 % id = "01HPD4XQQ5GPQ20C6BPA8G670F"
 - ### blog
 
     % content.link = "programming/blog/tairu"
       id = "01HPD4XQQ5WM0APCAX014HM43V"
     + tairu - an interactive exploration of 2D autotiling techniques
+
+- ### languages
+
+    % content.link = "programming/languages/cxx"
+      id = "programming/languages/cxx"
+    + ### C++
+
+    % content.link = "programming/languages/lua"
+      id = "programming/languages/lua"
+    + ### Lua
+
+- ### technologies
+
+    % content.link = "programming/technologies/unreal-engine"
+      id = "programming/technologies/unreal-engine"
+    + ### Unreal Engine
+
+% content.link = "programming/opinions"
+  id = "programming/opinions"
++ ### opinions
+

content/programming/languages/lua.tree

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+- TODO: this page could really use an interactive Lua interpreter. can we have that?
+
+- Lua is a really cool language! did you know that?
+
++ lots of people complain about it being really weird for various reasons, but these are generally superficial
+
+    - usually it's cosmetic stuff, so these aren't any arguments of technical merit, but...
+
+    - stuff like indexing from 1 instead of 0, which is _just a design choice_ and does not impact your programming that much
+
+        - in fact, one could argue that regular programmers are weird for counting from zero :thinking:
+
+    - or using `~=` instead of `!=`, which is _just a syntax choice_, and you only have to get used to it once
+
+    - or using `do`..`end` style blocks instead of `{`..`}`, which again is _just a syntax choice_ and does not impact programming that much
+
+        - it's a tad bit more line noise, but not that terrible. I [did design a language using `do`..`end` blocks][def:mica/repo] and it really doesn't look that bad
+
+- but I think Lua is a pretty damn genius programming language.
+
+    - the use of tables as The One Data Structure for Literally Everything strikes me as a 200 IQ choice I could never come up with myself
+
+        - partly because it's so fucking bold I can literally not imagine myself designing a language with a strong distinction between hash tables and arrays, and even tuples and records!
+        but the authors of had the restraint to just have One. and that One is **tables.**
+
+        - tables are extremely powerful in what they can do, because they're more than just a way of structuring data - they also allow for interfacing with the language *syntax* through operator overloading
+
+            + in fact object oriented programming in Lua is typically done by overloading the `[]` indexing operator.
+
+                - the way it works is that `a.b` is just syntax sugar for `a["b"]`, which means you overload `[]` to _fall back to another table_ - and that way you can achieve [prototype-based inheritance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype-based_programming)!
+
+                ```lua
+                local fallback = { b = 2 }
+                local base = { a = 1 }
+
+                -- The __index field can be both a function *and* a table.
+                -- { __index = the_table } is a shorthand for { __index = function (t, k) return the_table[k] end }
+                setmetatable(base, { __index = fallback })
+                assert(base.b == 2)
+                ```
+
+    - TODO: even more on restraint (standard library)
+
+    - TODO: restrained sugar: function calls `require "abc"`, `do_stuff { with_a_table = 1 }`
+
+- I really wish Lua had at least *a* form of static typing though, since knowing about errors you make early is _really_ helpful during development.
+
+    - it regularly happened to me that a type error I made only occured at *some point* later during runtime; and then you have to track down a reproduction case and make a fix at the source. not fun.
+
+- and it's really a bummer that Lua is not that strict!
+
+    - global variables by default are a pretty bad design choice in my opinion. having any form of uncontrolled globals hurts local reasoning and makes it harder to tell whatever your code is going to do.
+
+        - but fortunately it is possible to freeze your global variables by setting a metatable on `_G`, which is a table that represents the global scope.
+
+            - TODO: example
+
+- there are also some bits of syntax that haven't aged very well.
+
+    - as much as people complain about cosmetics [TODO: link], I think there's a particular design choice that has aged very poorly in the face of modern, functional programming - function literals.
+
+    these tend to be quite verbose in Lua which hurts readability in functional code:
+
+    ```lua
+    local u = map(t, function (v) return v + 2 end)
+    ```
+
+    compare that to JavaScript's arrow functions `=>`, which I think are a prime example of good syntax sugar that encourages more function-oriented programming:
+
+    ```javascript
+    let u = t.map(v => v + 2)
+    ```
+
+        - the lack of a pipelining operator `|>` is also an annoyance, albeit most modern imperative languages don't have it either.

content/programming/technologies/unreal-engine.tree

@@ -7,13 +7,13 @@
         % id = "01H8YGXP0ZWG6X3PB6GWSGKAT0"
         - both the fun and the good, and that which ruins my mood
 
-% id = "programming/unreal-engine/blueprint"
+% id = "programming/technologies/unreal-engine/blueprint"
-  content.link = "programming/unreal-engine/blueprint"
+  content.link = "programming/technologies/unreal-engine/blueprint"
 + ### thoughts on Blueprint
 
 % id = "01HP1FESY5WVJG4X80AZ4ZBX5D"
 - ### random but cool things
 
-    % content.link = "programming/unreal-engine/fixes"
+    % content.link = "programming/technologies/unreal-engine/fixes"
       id = "01HP1FESY5ZS6YTZXA8QTT5V1Z"
     + data validation quick fixes

crates/treehouse/src/cli/generate.rs

@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ impl Generator {
     }
 }
 
-pub fn generate(paths: &Paths<'_>) -> anyhow::Result<Treehouse> {
+pub fn generate(paths: &Paths<'_>) -> anyhow::Result<(Config, Treehouse)> {
     let start = Instant::now();
 
     info!("loading config");
@@ -386,13 +386,13 @@ pub fn generate(paths: &Paths<'_>) -> anyhow::Result<Treehouse> {
     info!("generation done in {duration:?}");
 
     if !treehouse.has_errors() {
-        Ok(treehouse)
+        Ok((config, treehouse))
     } else {
         bail!("generation errors occurred; diagnostics were emitted with detailed descriptions");
     }
 }
 
-pub fn regenerate_or_report_error(paths: &Paths<'_>) -> anyhow::Result<Treehouse> {
+pub fn regenerate_or_report_error(paths: &Paths<'_>) -> anyhow::Result<(Config, Treehouse)> {
     info!("regenerating site content");
 
     let result = generate(paths);

crates/treehouse/src/cli/serve.rs

@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 #[cfg(debug_assertions)]
 mod live_reload;
 
-use std::{borrow::Cow, net::Ipv4Addr, path::PathBuf, sync::Arc};
+use std::{net::Ipv4Addr, path::PathBuf, sync::Arc};
 
 use anyhow::Context;
 use axum::{
     extract::{Path, RawQuery, State},
-    http::{header::CONTENT_TYPE, HeaderValue, StatusCode},
+    http::{
+        header::{CONTENT_TYPE, LOCATION},
+        HeaderValue, StatusCode,
+    },
     response::{Html, IntoResponse, Response},
     routing::get,
     Router,
@@ -15,7 +18,10 @@ use log::{error, info};
 use pulldown_cmark::escape::escape_html;
 use tokio::net::TcpListener;
 
-use crate::state::{Source, Treehouse};
+use crate::{
+    config::Config,
+    state::{Source, Treehouse},
+};
 
 use super::Paths;
 
@@ -29,12 +35,18 @@ struct SystemPages {
 }
 
 struct Server {
+    config: Config,
     treehouse: Treehouse,
     target_dir: PathBuf,
     system_pages: SystemPages,
 }
 
-pub async fn serve(treehouse: Treehouse, paths: &Paths<'_>, port: u16) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+pub async fn serve(
+    config: Config,
+    treehouse: Treehouse,
+    paths: &Paths<'_>,
+    port: u16,
+) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     let app = Router::new()
         .route("/", get(index))
         .route("/*page", get(page))
@@ -44,6 +56,7 @@ pub async fn serve(treehouse: Treehouse, paths: &Paths<'_>, port: u16) -> anyhow
         .route("/static/*file", get(static_file))
         .fallback(get(four_oh_four))
         .with_state(Arc::new(Server {
+            config,
             treehouse,
             target_dir: paths.target_dir.to_owned(),
             system_pages: SystemPages {
@@ -114,13 +127,17 @@ async fn static_file(Path(path): Path<String>, State(state): State<Arc<Server>>)
 }
 
 async fn page(Path(path): Path<String>, State(state): State<Arc<Server>>) -> Response {
-    let path = if !path.ends_with(".html") {
+    let bare_path = path.strip_suffix(".html").unwrap_or(&path);
-        Cow::Owned(path + ".html")
+    if let Some(redirected_path) = state.config.redirects.page.get(bare_path) {
-    } else {
+        return (
-        Cow::Borrowed(&path)
+            StatusCode::MOVED_PERMANENTLY,
-    };
+            [(LOCATION, format!("{}/{redirected_path}", state.config.site))],
+        )
+            .into_response();
+    }
 
-    if let Ok(file) = tokio::fs::read(state.target_dir.join(&*path)).await {
+    let html_path = format!("{bare_path}.html");
+    if let Ok(file) = tokio::fs::read(state.target_dir.join(&*html_path)).await {
         ([(CONTENT_TYPE, "text/html")], file).into_response()
     } else {
         four_oh_four(State(state)).await

crates/treehouse/src/config.rs

@@ -17,6 +17,26 @@ pub struct Config {
     /// Links exported to Markdown for use with reference syntax `[text][def:key]`.
     pub defs: HashMap<String, String>,
 
+    /// Redirects for moving pages around. These are used solely by the treehouse server.
+    ///
+    /// Note that redirects are only resolved _non-recursively_ by the server. For a configuration
+    /// like:
+    ///
+    /// ```toml
+    /// page.redirects.foo = "bar"
+    /// page.redirects.bar = "baz"
+    /// ```
+    ///
+    /// the user will be redirected from `foo` to `bar`, then from `bar` to `baz`. This isn't
+    /// optimal for UX and causes unnecessary latency. Therefore you should always make redirects
+    /// point to the newest version of the page.
+    ///
+    /// ```toml
+    /// page.redirects.foo = "baz"
+    /// page.redirects.bar = "baz"
+    /// ```
+    pub redirects: Redirects,
+
     /// Overrides for emoji filenames. Useful for setting up aliases.
     ///
     /// On top of this, emojis are autodiscovered by walking the `static/emoji` directory.
@@ -30,6 +50,13 @@ pub struct Config {
     pub pics: HashMap<String, String>,
 }
 
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize)]
+pub struct Redirects {
+    /// Page redirects. When a user navigates to a page, if they navigate to `url`, they will
+    /// be redirected to `page[url]`.
+    pub page: HashMap<String, String>,
+}
+
 impl Config {
     pub fn load(path: &Path) -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
         let string = std::fs::read_to_string(path).context("cannot read config file")?;

crates/treehouse/src/main.rs

@@ -42,8 +42,8 @@ async fn fallible_main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
             generate: _,
             serve: serve_args,
         } => {
-            let treehouse = regenerate_or_report_error(&paths)?;
+            let (config, treehouse) = regenerate_or_report_error(&paths)?;
-            serve(treehouse, &paths, serve_args.port).await?;
+            serve(config, treehouse, &paths, serve_args.port).await?;
         }
 
         Command::Fix(fix_args) => fix_file_cli(fix_args)?,

treehouse.toml

@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ description = "a place on the Internet I like to call home"
 "dispatchers/repo" = "https://github.com/liquidev/dispatchers"
 "abit/repo" = "https://github.com/abyteintime/abit"
 "rokugo/repo" = "https://github.com/rokugo-lang/rokugo"
+"mica/repo" = "https://github.com/mica-lang/mica"
 
 # Blog posts I like to reference
 "article/function_coloring" = "https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2015/02/01/what-color-is-your-function/"
@@ -36,6 +37,10 @@ description = "a place on the Internet I like to call home"
 "person/firstbober" = "https://firstbober.com"
 "person/vixenka" = "https://github.com/Vixenka"
 
+[redirects.page]
+"programming/cxx" = "programming/languages/cxx"
+"programming/unreal-engine" = "programming/technologies/unreal-engine"
+
 [emoji]
 
 [pics]