Dear Diary: How to enable webp previews in Ubuntu 22.04

I find myself needing to work with .webp files a lot recently. The default file browser (Nautilus) in Ubuntu 22.04 does not have previews. Enable webp previews To change that you can install webp-pixbuf-loader. As always, adding a 3rd party repo is risky, so think about whether you want

Developers as RPG classes

I've recently seen a "developers as RPG classes" post on LinkedIn; I don't remember what it was, just that it was disappointing. So I decided to make my own. 🛡️ Paladin: Carries the holy book of functional programming and wields the refactoring hammer. 🔮 Sorcerer: macro-level

Laravel: A replacement for Http::assertSent() with better feedback on error

When writing PHPUnit tests for your Http clients in Laravel, you probably know about Http::fake() and Http::assertSent(). Here is an example of this: use Illuminate\Http\Client\Request; Http::fake([ 'hehe' => Http::response('hehehe'), 'hihi' => Http::response('hihihi'

Type-safe pipe() in PHP: part 2

In a previous article I explained how Scala allows seamless function chaining via extension methods and pipe(), and then went on to replicate something """kind of""" similar in PHP: Creating a type-safe pipe() in PHPI am an absolute fan of pipeline-oriented programming. In this

Adding PHPStan to a Laravel application

Install the dependency: composer require --dev larastan/larastan If you are using Laravel, make sure to install larastan. Laravel comes with a huge amount of magic that is not compatible with a static type system, but the larastan package covers most of that. It installs phpstan under the hood and

ChatGPT's determinism from a technical, practical and philosophical view

In this article, I want to provide a holistic view about generative AI models and applications. I want to give an abstract notion of what LLMs are, some technical details about how applications like ChatGPT can infuse them with additional capabilities, how developers cope with the technical limitations and what

Two tools that are fun and productive on the command line: zoxide and shell_gpt

I've been using zoxide and sgpt for about a year, and they are now a staple in my toolset - in fact often the first tools I install on a new system. In this post I will quickly demonstrate both of them and how you can start using

What can Plato's allegory of the cave teach us about software design?

What can Plato's allegory of the cave teach us about software design? What we are supposed to deliver to customers is always: a shadow, a simplified perspective of complex shapes. Customers demand something easy to understand and one dimensional that "just works". A common trap that

Creating a type-safe pipe() in PHP

💡The code in this article is superseded by a new and improved version. For additional context I decided to leave up this article as well, but for the fixed code, check out part 2 instead.Type-safe pipe() in PHP: part 2In a previous article I explained how Scala allows seamless

order process part 2: refining the domain model and building an anti-corruption layer

Last time, we created a testable implementation of a simple function, that takes an order, computes some values like net / gross totals and tax, and returns the result so we can print it. Here is part 1 if you're interested. As a refresher, here is what that program

order process part 1: Increasing purity and testability

In this article I want to show you how to increase function purity, modularity and testability in inherently impure programs, based on a realistic code example. 🤠The following code snippets are not necessarily best practices. Each snippet is supposed to highlight one specific characteristic, without mixing in too many concepts

Making short work of pure function misconceptions

Chances are, you heard of functional programming, and maybe dabbled in it. But if it is not your main paradigm, you probably have some misconceptions about it. First of all, a disclaimer: I am still new to FP myself, but I have already wrestled with understanding it for at least

scala

Adding a nice trim for multi-line strings in Scala

As already mentioned in my PHP article on this topic, I frequently store multi-line strings in my programs. Today, let's use ascii based game art for our example. Language version used in this article: Scala 3.6.2 The Artwork Here is the artwork of a book that

php

Multiline Strings in PHP

A common task I face when programming is to store multi-line strings in a variable. This may be related to templating for views, emails or configuration files for third party systems, or just writing readable inputs for tests. The naive approach First I want to show you the naive approach:

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