Z. D. Smith

About:

Z. D. Smith is a software developer interested in programming languages like Lisp and Janet, and enjoys podcasting and creating tools for developers.

Website:

blog.zdsmith.com

Specializations:

Software Developer Speaker

Interests:

Programming Lisp Janet Elixir Nim

Outgoing Links:

Hillel Wayne Idle Words Paul Graham

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2026-01-02 • programming linguistics shorthand ai stolze-smith

Stolze-Smith is a new, simplified shorthand system developed through AI-assisted coding and optimization techniques, reflecting on the challenges of effective abbreviation design.

2025-09-16 • programming regular expressions lisp combinatory logic brzozowski derivative

The post discusses the concept of Brzozowski Derivatives and their application in evaluating regular expressions, emphasizing their elegance despite not being ideal for industrial use. It introduces a recent exercise that explores...

2025-01-23 •

The text discusses two examples of data analysis using K. The first example involves developing a written shorthand, Smith Shorthand, and the second example involves cricket data science. The author provides detailed explanations ...

2025-01-04 •

The text discusses the game Mariglia, which is sometimes called il bridge sardo. It compares Mariglia to Bridge, highlighting the importance of communication and the shared understanding of information in both games. The author al...

2024-10-05 •

The author discusses their experience designing a shorthand system, inspired by previous systems they have used. They reflect on the challenges of creating a shorthand that is efficient, comfortable to write, and easy to learn. De...

2024-04-14 •

The text discusses the concept of combinators in Combinatory Programming, providing motivating examples and expressing the same logic in multiple styles. It covers topics such as conditional combinators, function composition, abso...

2024-04-06 •

The text discusses combinatory programming, which involves functions that apply their arguments to each other in a particular shape and order. It explores the field of combinatory logic and its relevance to computer programming. T...

2023-09-03 •

The text discusses the structural characteristics of different poetic forms, such as haiku and terza rima, and explores the idea of poetic forms as algebraic structures. It also introduces the concept of lenses as functions that d...

2023-01-15 •

The text discusses the author's plan to focus on playing and discussing the card game Ulti for the year 2023. It outlines the author's activities related to the game and invites others to participate.

2022-12-27 •

The author plans to embark on a year-long media campaign to introduce a new card game into Anglophone culture. The author discusses the importance of culture in making a game successful and lists several traditional card games tha...

2022-12-02 •

The text discusses the game of bridge and its cultural significance in the English-speaking world. It explores the reasons why people might be interested in learning bridge, and suggests that they might be more interested in learn...

2022-02-19 •

The text discusses the author's idea for a Zettelkasten-style note-taking app on the command line, and the process of writing a specification for it. The author emphasizes the importance of describing programs before writing them ...

2021-03-20 •

The author discusses the development of a calculator program called EC, which was built using the Fugue object system for the Janet programming language. The program is designed to be powerful and convenient, and the author explai...

2020-12-10 •

The author discusses the creation of a new static site generator called Bagatto, written in the Lisp Janet. They compare it to other SSGs and explain the principles behind the new SSG. They also discuss the use of Janet and Temple...

2020-11-22 •

The text discusses Offenbacher Schrift, a style of handwriting designed by Rudolf Koch, and its relation to the German handwriting style known as Kurrent. It explains the attractive and interesting qualities of the Kurrent scripts...

2020-08-16 •

The author has been working on a new software system for playing card games online. The idea came to him when he was talking with a friend who is a computer programmer and an enthusiast of obscure traditional card games. The autho...

2020-06-07 •

The text discusses how card-playing can be done during lockdown by migrating to online platforms. It provides a brief survey of where to play different card games and the preferred interfaces for playing. The author also shares th...

2020-04-05 •

The text discusses Henry Sweet's Current Shorthand, a historical shorthand system that is relatively obscure. It explains the basic principles of the shorthand, including the representation of spoken or written language with writt...

2019-11-23 •

The text discusses the author's experience with designing and using three shorthands, including an alphabetic, orthographic shorthand, Forkner/F-Minus, and a new system. The author explains the limitations and benefits of each sys...

2018-12-26 •

The text discusses the author's journey from being a Python programmer to learning Elixir and eventually becoming a full-time Elixir programmer. The author initially had a simplistic understanding of Elixir, but later realized its...

2018-01-14 •

The text discusses the author's transition to Linux and the benefits of using a dynamic tiling window manager. The author also talks about the benefits of using a dark-on-light color scheme and the drawbacks of syntax highlighting...

2017-06-06 •

The text discusses the implementation of a compile-time quicksort in D and Nim. It compares the code in D and Nim and highlights the differences. It also explains how Nim's static statements can perform IO and demonstrates effectf...