Although the Parquet format allows extra metadata and the C++ libraries provide a means to read and write extra metadata the capability isn’t well documented. I’ll show some example code to clarify how to read and write key-value Parquet metadata. This advice is specific to directly using the C++ libraries in the Arrow project.
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My not so deep thoughts on AI
Speculation on our AI future races straight to where we fear it ends up, but we should think about what comes first (but I can't help myself in the concluding thoughts.)
Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? Yes. And it will begin when McKinsey and the other big consultants start to apply A.I. routinely. If firms like McKinsey are “capital’s willing executioners”, A.I. will at first merely sharpen their axes.
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So Many New Systems Programming Languages II
Twelve new systems languages, and one that dates to the Carter administration
Here’s a non-exhaustive rundown of newish systems languages. I’ll list some notable things about them related to safety and syntax as I discussed in the previous post. Well, here they are, in rough order of production readiness and popularity. Sorry if I put something lower than it deserved.
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Taking a Look at the Recent Batch of Systems Programming Languages
The new languages emphasize safety, convenient syntax, and high-performance. There are so many of them!
The last few years have brought us an explosion in the number of new systems languages under development. They’re mostly trying to find good balances between safety, performance and expressivity. In this post I’ll first outline briefly what’s meant by “safety” and a little on how today’s system languages try to achieve it.
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Value and Reference Semantics in Modern Programming Languages
Some relatively new programming languages give the developer clear ways to choose value or reference semantics with data type, which is unusual. This controls pass by value or by reference to and from functions. Languages have nearly always supported the distinction but it wasn’t always so obvious what was going on.
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Resources for Building Programming Languages
These are the most useful links I've found that focus on using Rust and C++ to develop your compiler or interpreter
Here’s a collection of resources for learning to create programming languages. I’m using Rust and some C so that’s the focus of the resources listed at the end. First, I’ll talk about Crafting Interpreters, a book that’s applicable no matter what you plan to use to build your language.
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Notes on Designing and Implementing a Small Language
For years I’ve wanted to create my own programming language. Recently I took the time to do so, and a few weeks ago the project reached a milestone: The compiler builds a non-trivial program – and it’s fast! Before that I’d built a simple interpreter for the same language. This is a collection of my thoughts on planning a personal programming language project for others who are just starting out.
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Tech Support 1: Findings from 8529 Unwanted Conversations
In the mid-1990s I worked phone tech support at a call center in the Twin Cities. Though I kind of hated it at the time, it proved to be a valuable experience. At first the stress was pretty high, then burnout set in. Eventually, like most, I moved past the burnout to calm acceptance, while always planning on eventual escape.
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NewTypes: Introduction and Using in Rust
Adding “newtypes” to your code can improve readability and type-safety. A “newtype” helps to communicate your intent both at a superficial and deep level in your code.
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Read Multi-File Parquet Data with Rust
How to iterate and yield Records over multiple files as a single dataset with a schema projection
Figuring out how to elegantly consume multi-file Parquet data may seem challenging unless you dig into the test cases and the source code for the Rust Parquet crate. The one example given in documentation is misleadingly simple. I’ll show a couple examples of how it’s done. Jump to “The Solution” at the end to skip the journey it took to find it.
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