| 4 Aug 2026 | |||
| lucs | Oh darn. The link to T.Nelson's "Raku: Your Forever Language" appears to hang. | 00:12 | |
| (In today's Weekly News.) | |||
| Oh, removing the URL's `#id1` suffix fixes it. | 00:14 | ||
| lizmat: ↑ | 00:39 | ||
| lizmat | weird, works fine for me... but I'll remove the #id1 | 08:55 | |
| lucs: thanks for the headsup | 08:56 | ||
| 6 Aug 2026 | |||
| tbrowder | hi, i have a module that can use certain foreign font packages all having the same exported subs. how is that handled in the META6.json file since those entries seem constant? i assume i will always have to list all in the meta file and then use 'need' or 'require'. in using scripts. | 21:06 | |
| ah, disregard! | 23:10 | ||
| 7 Aug 2026 | |||
| disbot | <ilguappo> I'm curious why this code is so slow. It takes more than a second for a 36x90 terminal window raku sub neighbors([$x, $y]) { ([-1,0,1] X [-1,0,1]) .grep({$_[0] != 0 || $_[1] != 0}) .map({$_[0] + $x, $_[1] + $y}).Slip } sub frequencies(@board) { @board.sort() .unique(:with(&infix:<eqv>)) .map(-> $x { ( $x, @board.grep( {$_[0] == $x[0] && $_[1] == $x[1]} ).elems) }); } sub | 21:30 | |
| step(@board) { frequencies(@board.map({neighbors $_})) .grep({ ($_[1] == 3) or ( @board.grep(* eqv $_[0]) and ($_[1] == 2)) }) .map({$_[0]}); } | |||
| <ilguappo> Frequencies is quadratic right? But still | 21:31 | ||
| <ilguappo> I got the algorithm from strangeleaflet.com/conways-game-of...-approach/ | 21:32 | ||
| <antononcube> Hm... I have been seriously considering for weeks to create the package "CellularAutomata". And use it to play with Conway's Game of Life on different types of grids. | 21:42 | ||
| <antononcube> This brings two questions: 1. To what extend rule-based programming should be implemented in Raku? 2. Can 1D and 2D Cellular Automata (CA) be implemented using sparse matrices? | 21:45 | ||
| <antononcube> I think the answer of the 2nd question is "yes", hence, the a much faster implementation of Game of Life can be done in Raku. | 21:47 | ||
| <ilguappo> I have a version using a sparse hash map. I'm just using GOL to learn aspects of Raku. It is much faster | |||
| <antononcube> Yeah, sparse matrix algebra can be implemented with hashmaps. | 21:48 | ||
| <ilguappo> The above algorithm is sparse. It's only storing and manipulating a list of alive cells and potentially alive cells | 21:49 | ||
| <ilguappo> That's why I'm confused as to why it's unbearably slow on such a small grid. | 21:50 | ||
| <antononcube> Ok. I am proposing / looking into sparse matrices because "Math::SparseMatrix" can use C-implemented matrix algebra. | 21:51 | ||
| <antononcube> Especially with large play fields that should be fairly fast. | 21:52 | ||
| <ilguappo> That's interesting. | 21:53 | ||
| <ilguappo> This is what inspired me to use GOL to learn programming languages. jaxry.github.io/colorful-life/ | 21:57 | ||
| <antononcube> Nice! Also, it can be implemented in Raku. | |||
| <antononcube> Hmm.. if the mutation rules can be expressed as sparse matrix operations. | 21:58 | ||
| <antononcube> "Dry life" 🙂 | 21:59 | ||
| <antononcube> @ilguappo In case you are wonder why I am interested in Cellular Automata -- I tend to talk the "New Kind of Science" guy often enough. | 22:02 | ||
| <antononcube> This seems like a good topic to discuss at «The SF Perl Raku Study Group, 08/09 at 1pm PDT». | 22:15 | ||
| <antononcube> @ilguappo Can GOL be implemented using regexes? That should be fast. | 22:34 | ||
| <ilguappo> That's an interesting idea. I don't know. | 22:46 | ||
| <ilguappo> I found this code golf version and of course Perl wins. 😉 stackoverflow.com/a/3539261 | 22:51 | ||
| <ilguappo> I can't say I understand that it all. Lol | 22:52 | ||
| <ilguappo> Cool stuff dotat.at/prog/life/life.html | 23:03 | ||
| 8 Aug 2026 | |||
| <antononcube> Raku should be able to do something terse like that too. | 00:50 | ||
| 9 Aug 2026 | |||
| <antononcube> @ilguappo Hopefully, today I will publish in raku.land the package "CellularAutomata". It might be 1D rules only, though. | 18:38 | ||
| <antononcube> Nevertheless, I plan to have 2D rules and to use sparse matrices. | 18:40 | ||
| <ilguappo> I look forward to playing around with it! | 19:45 | ||
| <antononcube> That package would be very "fruitful" blog-posts-wise. | 19:50 | ||
| 10 Aug 2026 | |||
| lizmat | And yet another Rakudo Weekly News hits the Net: rakudoweekly.blog/2026/08/10/2026-...ating-hex/ | 15:22 | |
| 14 Aug 2026 | |||
| ab5tract | atononcube: Did you say you are in touch with Stephen Wolfram? He's one of those legends that seems almost unreal, like Ray Kurzweil. | 15:27 | |
| disbot | <antononcube> Yes, I can talk to him. (Stephen Wolfram.) But I, usually, think I am wasting his time, so, I communicate with him in "official manner" only, with other people around, | 15:43 | |
| <antononcube> I have not heard of Ray Kurzweil before... | |||
| ab5tract | He developed that classic Text to Speech voice chip from the 80s, among a few dozen other things. Also popularized the idea of an AI singularity with some books in the early 2000s. | 15:58 | |
| Anyway, that's pretty cool re: Stephen Wolfram. | 16:01 | ||
| disbot | <antononcube> Here is a summary/review of what I was doing last month at Wolfram Summer Research Program 2026: www.reddit.com/r/summerprogramresu...are_button | 16:57 | |
| <antononcube> BTW, that is why I did not go to the Perl/Raku conference in June. | 16:58 | ||
| 16 Aug 2026 | |||
| <jubilatious1_98524> Only a handful of Raku talks this year (2026). | 14:58 | ||
| <antononcube> 🙂 What was the attendees average age. Or age distribution... | 15:38 | ||
| <jubilatious1_98524> Age is just a number. | 23:44 | ||
| <jubilatious1_98524> There was at least one high-quality talk/attendee 🤣 . | 23:45 | ||
| 17 Aug 2026 | |||
| <antononcube> Yeah, many old people say that. | 12:02 | ||
| <antononcube> I am curious, who/what that is, but I think I know the answer... | 12:03 | ||
| <jubilatious1_98524> We needed you at the conference, Anton! Rob was there...maybe he'll give a talk in a year-or-two. | 15:36 | ||