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    Justin Meiners

    jmeiners.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2022

    Justin Meiners writes about programming, math and game graphics, including a tutorial on writing a virtual machine and a hosted copy of SICP.

    Visit blogRSSHN submissions
    ProgrammingMathGames
    What HN says

    Commenters recommend his virtual machine tutorial for learning bitwise operations and link his pre-rendered backgrounds article and his SICP HTML copy.

    Stats for nerds
    16HN people shared it
    12linked in comments
    606story points
    Aug 2023last shared
    2022people per year2023

    Top posts on HN

    1. 1
      Write Your Own Virtual Machine (2022)
      7 people · 348 points · first shared 2022 · 97 comments on HN
    2. 2
      Think in math, write in code (2019)
      1 person · 208 points · first shared 2025 · 72 comments on HN
    3. 3
      An Adventure in Pre-Rendered Backgrounds (2019)
      1 person · 44 points · first shared 2022 · 6 comments on HN
    4. 4
      Thinking Styles from Math
      2 people · 3 points · first shared 2022 · Discussion on HN
    5. 5
      Efficient Programming with Components (2021)
      2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · Discussion on HN
    6. 6
      Take Your Time
      1 person · 1 points · first shared 2025 · Discussion on HN
    7. 7
      Ff7.jpg
      1 person · first shared 2023
    8. 8
      Book
      1 person · first shared 2022

    What HN people wrote when they linked it

    • beardogAug 2023

      I argue that (good) literate programming can make code literature. Your program is told as a sort of story and ought to contain background info, thought processes, and rationale for decisions. Additionally macros can be used to reuse code at build ('tangle') time that your underlying language may not otherwise support.

      For example if I have some constants i need throughout a python program, I might put it in something like constant.py during normal programming, but if I were literate programming I could have a section called "Program constants" and dive into each one, referencing them with macros throughout the program. You do have to be careful because the macros can make debugging confusing since you are now working with two languages instead of 1.

      You can also put stuff that is irrelevant to humans out of the way of the most important stuff.

      Example literate program for writing a virtual machine program (not my work): https://www.jmeiners.com/lc3-vm/

    • thesuperbigfrogAug 2022

      Archived copy here: https://www.jmeiners.com/sicp-html-original/book.html

      Justin's GitHub states: "MIT just recently took down the book from their own site (why?!)"

      Source: https://github.com/justinmeiners/sicp-html-original

      It looks like MIT Press released a Javascript version of SICP that is for sale:

      https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543231/structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs/

    • tmountainJul 2022

      One fun way to get familiar with bitwise operations is writing a virtual machine, as it involves a lot of masking and shifting bits from instructions to extract relevant pieces (dare I say bits) of information. If anyone is interested in going this route, I recommend LC-3, as it's very straightforward.

      https://www.jmeiners.com/lc3-vm/

    • pedrosorioJul 2023

      For those reading who may not remember or have played the original FF7, here are links to pre-rendered backgrounds in FF7:

      https://www.jmeiners.com/pre-rendered-backgrounds/img/ff7.jpg

      and the image in the article about Meta's library:

      https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/blogs/2023-july-blog-meta-igl_2.jpg

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