Aaron Christiansen
@aaronc.cc
Software Engineer in Leeds, UK. Web, Ruby, Rust, and electronics. he/him Cross-posting to Mastodon: @aaronc81@ruby.social
SvelteKit remote functions look AWESOME, oh my - I think these solve every problem I've ever had with Next.js Server Functions Data fetching! Streaming responses! Baked-in input validation! Refreshing data after mutations! Sounds like I need to give Svelte(Kit) a go svelte.dev/docs/kit/rem...
Remote functions • SvelteKit Docs
Remote functions • SvelteKit documentation
svelte.dev
Working on this modelling tool again - now you can define *recursive* operators, which lets you construct complex layouts of children based on each of their geometries. Here's a `stack` operator which arranges all children next to each other, even of different sizes, with a gap between each.
![A code editor showing this code:
```
operator stack(gap = 0) {
if ($children == 1) {
children();
}
if ($children > 1) {
child = children(0);
translate([child.max_point.x + gap, 0])
stack(gap = gap)
...children([ 1 : $children - 1 ]);
}
}
stack(gap = 0.5) {
cube(1);
cube(2);
cube(3);
}
```
Besides that, a model viewer shows three cubes of increasing size, with a small gap between each.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b7bjmofoowyo7mzsudwu2zeu/bafkreieltxkyh4cdwo7o7ipwnjnpgxjq3zwismk3hxodgvadb3gddixy4e)
Aaron Christiansen@aaronc.cc · 10mo agoFor a bit of polish and ease-of-experimentation, there's now a basic editor! Here's one possible implementation of a rounded rectangle. Being able to define a new operation that inspects the geometry, like this `rotate_around_centre`, feels rather useful to me.
It's day #100 of Loconundrum! Thanks so much to everybody who's played - it's been lovely to hear from people enjoying the game. To mark the milestone, you can now play all 100 past puzzles from the new Archive! Fill out a missed day, or catch up on puzzles from before you started playing.
Here's a peek behind the curtain at Conductor, the thrown-together dashboard I use to schedule Loconundrum puzzles. It used to automatically pick at random from a pool, but once I ran out of the major stations, I started scheduling puzzles manually instead so I could test things out a bit more.
If you played Loconundrum today (puzzle #40, 2026-04-24) before 7am BST, there's a chance you may have got the wrong puzzle due to a caching issue. If you got Birmingham New Street, you were affected. It should be fixed now, please load up Loconundrum again and have another go! Sorry about that 🚂
I wrote a blog post about how Loconundrum actually works. Thank you to everybody who's played! aaronc.cc/2026/03/29/l...
Building Loconundrum, a rail station daily guessing game
I wanted to brush up on some web skills, so I made Loconundrum. Along the way, I was significantly side-tracked by calculating journey times using rail open data.
aaronc.cc
Aaron Christiansen@aaronc.cc · 7mo agoI made a daily game where you try to guess a UK rail station! loconundrum.aaronc.cc
Arc's "File" menu is probably the worst example of macOS Tahoe's automatic menu icons that I've seen yet
I made a daily game where you try to guess a UK rail station! loconundrum.aaronc.cc
Loconundrum
A daily game: can you guess the UK rail station?
loconundrum.aaronc.cc
Falling in love with inline snapshot testing My usual problem with snapshot testing is that you need to find the snapshot files to learn the expected output of a test - but with inline snapshots, the expectation is in the test code, which can be updated automatically by the snapshot tool. Neat!
![#[test]
fn test_no_subcommand() {
let test_env = TestEnvironment::default();
test_env.run_jj_in(".", ["git", "init", "repo"]).success();
let work_dir = test_env.work_dir("repo");
// Outside of a repo.
let output = test_env.run_jj_in(".", [""; 0]);
insta::assert_snapshot!(output, @r#"
------- stderr -------
Hint: Use `jj -h` for a list of available commands.
Run `jj config set --user ui.default-command log` to disable this message.
Error: There is no jj repo in "."
[EOF]
[exit status: 1]
"#);](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b7bjmofoowyo7mzsudwu2zeu/bafkreieuu7lntipfpyc233f6eatgeo2rgf62wrcfkhj3ynmx5ehrfcz66u)
For the latest Gosu Game Jam, I wrote a crop-cultivating roguelike deckbuilder in Ruby, where you race the clock to score coins by combining your crops' effects. This is the most fun I've had creating a jam entry, I've wanted to try making a card game for a while! orangeflash81.itch.io/topsoil
TIL that: 1) you can have SVG favicons nowadays, and 2) they can be styled to respond to light/dark mode automatically evilmartians.com/chronicles/h...
Agree with a lot of the points in this article. I've found Tahoe's menus take me noticeably longer to scan than before, and I think it's partly down to the inconsistent visual noise of the icons. tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-i...
It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons
Looking at the first principles of icon design—and how Apple failed to apply all of them in macOS Tahoe
tonsky.me
Do you remember this gadget? It was sold as letting you control your apps/games with your hands. Young-me saw this in Maplin back in the day, thinking how cool it would be. I saw one in a second-hand shop, for a price where I'm not too bothered if it's rubbish. Let's satisfy young-me's curiosity!
I've done some mad science with Ruby 4.0's new Ruby::Box namespacing feature - what if Ruby had JavaScript-style `import`/`export`, rather than requiring entire files? You only get what you import, and imported items don't "leak" between files. Try it, if you dare: github.com/AaronC81/rixby
Had a good time with Langjam Gamejam - a week-long jam where you build a language and then use it to write a game. The resulting game is pretty simple - I didn't have much time left after getting the language to a usable state - but I think it's at least fun! orangeflash81.itch.io/space-blaster
SPACE BLASTER by Aaron Christiansen
Minimal space game for Langjam Gamejam
orangeflash81.itch.io
For a bit of polish and ease-of-experimentation, there's now a basic editor! Here's one possible implementation of a rounded rectangle. Being able to define a new operation that inspects the geometry, like this `rotate_around_centre`, feels rather useful to me.
![YASCAD code editor, with dark theme. On the left, a Monaco code editor, with file and rendering controls. On the right, an orange cuboid with rounded corners on a grid.
The code in the editor is:
operator rotate_around_centre(angle) {
c = buffer() children();
// Move so that centre is on (0,0), rotate, then move back
dx = c.origin.x + c.size.x / 2;
dy = c.origin.y + c.size.y / 2;
translate([dx, dy])
rotate(angle)
translate([-dx, -dy])
copy(c);
}
// Subtract this from a rect to round its closest corner to the origin
module rounded_corner(r) {
translate([r, r]) rotate(180)
difference() {
square(r);
circle(r=r);
}
}
module rounded_rect(w, h, r) {
difference() {
square([w, h]);
rounded_corner(r);
rotate_around_centre(90) translate([w-r, 0]) rounded_corner(r);
rotate_around_centre(180) translate([w-r, h-r]) rounded_corner(r);
rotate_around_centre(270) translate([0, h-r]) rounded_corner(r);
}
}
linear_extrude(1)
rounded_rect(5, 6, r=1);](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b7bjmofoowyo7mzsudwu2zeu/bafkreig2dawb4sddqkbkzgkbhstvffso323eqjkk4lal4zvfifqjzgirgi)
Aaron Christiansen@aaronc.cc · 11mo agoStarting to get interesting - now you can write operator modules which behave based on some properties of their children - here repeating the children in a grid. You can't do something like this in OpenSCAD unless you also pass a separately-calculated size for the children.
Ruby argument validation with pattern matching aaronc.cc/2025/12/12/r...
Ruby argument validation with pattern matching
aaronc.cc
Starting to get interesting - now you can write operator modules which behave based on some properties of their children - here repeating the children in a grid. You can't do something like this in OpenSCAD unless you also pass a separately-calculated size for the children.
![Code editor showing cylinders repeated on a 3x4 grid.
Code:
```
// Repeat the children a certain number of times in the
// X and Y directions to form a grid
operator repeat(xs, ys) {
// Draw the children to a virtual buffer once
t = buffer() children();
for (x = [0:xs-1]) {
for (y = [0:ys-1]) {
// Based on the size of that virtual buffer,
// stamp out copies of the children
translate([t.size.x * x, t.size.y * y]) {
copy(t);
}
}
}
}
repeat(3, 4)
cylinder(5, 5);
```](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b7bjmofoowyo7mzsudwu2zeu/bafkreiesavyfrpwafbspna5hz62d6itfgqinfla3b6oakjinhqaj2v2fri)
Aaron Christiansen@aaronc.cc · 11mo agoHaving a crack at a project I've been thinking about for a while. An OpenSCAD-alike where you can introspect objects you've already drawn - which means less thinking about how to structure your variables for quick thrown-together 3D prints. First prototype works well!
![A code editor showing an STL preview with a small cube on top of another big cube. The code beside is:
```
// Create an object and make a binding for it
big_cube = cube([20, 20, 20]);
// Reference that binding to create another object
translate([0, 0, big_cube.size.y])
cube([5, 5, 5]);
```](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b7bjmofoowyo7mzsudwu2zeu/bafkreih26wup6suc3pm3laoohylu5f4xc2olxhxoumqpdy3mfhqzp7viqm)
Having a crack at a project I've been thinking about for a while. An OpenSCAD-alike where you can introspect objects you've already drawn - which means less thinking about how to structure your variables for quick thrown-together 3D prints. First prototype works well!
I found out about the “Paged Out!” Magazine, which publishes one-page articles about programming and computing. I absolutely LOVE this pagedout.institute
Paged Out!
Deeply technical zine. And it's free.
pagedout.institute
Seeing if I can put together a tiny macro pad to live in my work’s office - I miss my macros when I’m not working from home! First steps - a 3D-printed plate with hardwired Gateron Browns (with jumpers I now realise I’ve made far too long)…
New Twilight Sad, wooo! Fantastic start, can't wait for more... www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9zu...
THE TWILIGHT SAD - WAITING FOR THE PHONE CALL
YouTube video by thetwilightsadofficial
youtube.com
My Jujutsu problems were caused by .gitignore being case-sensitive. Turns out I've been relying on case-insensitivity for a long time - macOS and Windows will do that to you ;) Patched in case-insensitivity, and now Git and Jujutsu agree with each other: github.com/AaronC81/jj/...
fork: case-insensitive .gitignore · AaronC81/jj@f4a2143
github.com
Aaron Christiansen@aaronc.cc · last yr.After a few days - this works alright! Only issue is there's some disagreement between Git and Jujutsu about a few files from LFS - Git is tracking them, but Jujutsu thinks they're new. If I delete them, Git sees the repo as dirty, but Jujutsu is happy and works a treat.
I’ve landed a little warning improvement in this release! Gleam was a lovely codebase and community to contribute to - high hopes for where this language goes in the future
Gleam Programming Language@gleam.run · 12mo agoGleam v1.13.0 is out now! 👻 gleam.run/news/formali...
What if we were 3D printing decades ago? Downloading STLs over dial-up? I mocked up Cura for Windows 95
After a few days - this works alright! Only issue is there's some disagreement between Git and Jujutsu about a few files from LFS - Git is tracking them, but Jujutsu thinks they're new. If I delete them, Git sees the repo as dirty, but Jujutsu is happy and works a treat.
Aaron Christiansen@aaronc.cc · last yr.No support yet for submodules and LFS limits how much I can use it, sadly, but I’m keen to see whether I can just ignore all that stuff in Jujutsu and fall back to Git’s CLI instead
Having a play with Jujutsu VCS: jj-vcs.github.io/jj/latest/ You can move back to a previous commit and edit it, and all the later commits rebase automatically… coming from Git, that feels MAGIC
I don’t know how long this has existed, but I’ve never spotted it before… Apple Photos smooshing together geotagging and event listings to give concert photos an artist tag - which you can search by! - is such a damn clever feature
