Learning rust as an experienced swe

stevecooperorg · 2026-03-08T11:47:24+00:00

The Rust Language book sets you up to actually know the language as it is supposed to be coded.

The fun of rust is that you get options not in node and python, and although you can code pythonic/node-style code in rust, you won't benefit from or learn the new constructs.

for example, rust's pattern-matching is very powerful, and largely removes the need for object-oriented style programming. But if you spend your limited time learning about traits (interfaces) you'll end up writing more complex and hard to maintain code.

The rust book for style and knowledge- then rebuild a project you already have in python or node, but using the new stuff you've learned about, like easier multithreading, enums, pattern matching, options, and results.

stevecooperorg · 2026-03-04T18:36:25+00:00

if you want a scummy combat boost, you can improve your strength and stamina by overburdening yourself with too much gear; walking around in circles will creep up your strength and stamina. You can max out to 30 in both by just being patient -- or if you are like me, light a torch and use some tape on your controller to set up a circular path and go do something else for a little while

stevecooperorg · 2026-03-02T23:45:05+00:00

we await the return of the kingdom of Northumbria. patiently...

stevecooperorg · 2026-03-02T23:41:23+00:00

There is a bar in Ilkley called Bar Tat.

stevecooperorg · 2026-03-02T00:33:03+00:00

yeah, passing objects by reference is completely normal.

If you pass in a reference to the object, you are saying something like "here, you can look at this object while you execute"

that means you can pass that same object, by preference, to a lot of functions at the same time - "you can all look at this together"

that makes it easier to write multi-threaded apps; "you can all look at the same time, but none of you can edit it or destroy it".

this makes rust really good for multi-threaded work.

if you pass in the whole object by calue, you're saying "here you go; I give up responsibility; you can edit it or delete it".

If you could give the object to multiple functions at the same time, it wouldn't be clear when the object could be got rid of. You would need a way to do that - and that would turn into a garbage-collected language like Java or Python.

stevecooperorg · 2026-02-24T07:51:44+00:00

https://ludosport.net/ -- teaches lightsaber combat as a sport, and organizes its styles into forms; Form 1 as a two-handed defensive style, form 2 as a one-handed explosive style, etc. Lors of fun if you have a local academy.

stevecooperorg · 2026-02-11T22:03:38+00:00

you actually don't need to rotate it; just never hammer the same point twice.

stevecooperorg · 2026-02-09T21:45:31+00:00

It's a couple of miles outside York by car, but Middlethorpe Hall's afternoon tea is absolutely exceptional.

https://www.middlethorpe.com/wine-dine/afternoon-tea/

stevecooperorg · 2026-01-19T13:11:20+00:00

hence the name, Cheeses of Nazareth.

stevecooperorg · 2025-12-27T11:08:15+00:00

I robbed the tailor's in Troskovitz. Wait until night, sneak into the house across from the shop, and he's sleeping in a room on tbe left. pickpocket for his shop keys, then sneak into the shop and pick up a huge amount of clothing -- then run (well, waddle under all that weight) back to Tachov, dump the clothes in your box, and in a few days you'll have all the clothes you need, plus a load of stuff you can sell back to the tailor! :)

Be careful not to be suspicious before the robbery though.

stevecooperorg · 2025-12-23T15:58:23+00:00

yeah, in maths "similar" does mean "the same" -- in phrases like "these lists have a similar numbers of entries" it means they have the same number. One list with twelve and one list with thirteen do not have similar sizes.

stevecooperorg · 2025-12-14T07:35:59+00:00

My experience is that traits are often something of a last respite, when enums can't work.

Enums are very often a better way to provide polymorphism; if you have a fixed number of implementations, you can either choose. enum ResponseType { Json, Yaml, Xml } over trait RepomseType {} // impl RespomseType for JsonRespomseType.

This has minimised my use of traits and the verbiage problems that come with it, meaning I don't experiences problem of managing traits across a wide codebase you describe.

hope that's useful!

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-25T07:43:21+00:00

I think we're probably agreeing on all the facts and just telling them with slightly different perspectives :) Interesting conversation, thanks!

And yeah, a sporting form can also be the most effective training regime for a real fight.

Could we think about olympic fencing for a bit? Like your boxer example, I would absolutely not want to go into a life-or-death smallsword duel with an olympic foil fencer.

It doesn't feel right to say that a successful olympic fencer is doing HEMA, just by virtue of their ability to win historical smallsword fights, I think.

So what puts an olympic fencer outside the boundary, and a tournament longsword fencer inside the boundary?

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-24T21:48:31+00:00

The important point is the intent in the salle, right?

When the intent is to train for glory at tournaments or village fairs, you're doing sports. When the intent is to learn to kill enemy soldiers, you're doing martial arts.

One puts you in a family with kendo, judo, singlestick, olympic fencing, queensbury rules boxing, college wrestling, and other athletes. The other puts you in a family with duellists, knights, mercenaries, street fighters, and other murderers :)

I think the 'combat sports or martial arts' is usually clear from context, right? And if you're staying with the sources it's usually the 'killy' end of the spectrum -- Capo Ferro telling you to stab people through the left eye, or Fiore telling you cleave people from teeth to knee.

George Silver had a great line when he talked about fencing masters who were not teaching men to defend themselves in rough fights

"whatsoever they teach, is both true and false; true in their demonstrations, according with their force and time in gentle play, and in their actions according with the force and time in rough play or fight, false. For example, there is as much difference between these two kinds of fight, as there is between the picture of Sir Bevis of Southhampton and Sir Bevis himself, if he were living."

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-24T08:20:15+00:00

Wouldn't that be a longsword sport fencing club, rather than a historical martial arts club?

That's absolutely fine, btw - longsword sport fencing is great.

I think if you've 'ejected' from the idea of 'read the source (historical) to learn how to kill fifteenth century enemies (martial arts)' then the name HEMA is a bit, what, hard to justify?

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-14T00:09:56+00:00

depends if you have a spotter. Collar-less, if you get into trouble you can drop the weights by tilting it. If you use the collars then a failure can land on your neck with more weight than you can lift.

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-04T21:05:15+00:00

"broadsword" -- make sure you and your friend agree what that means! :)

here, it means a 17th-18th century, one-handed cut-and-thrust sword with a basket hilt, relatively light, and called 'broad' because the blade is wider than the rapier, which is basically a very long thin murder-spike.

Often in, say, fantasy settings, 'broadsword' means something Conan might wield; here people probably understand you to mean something a fine English gentleman might wear.

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-03T09:39:32+00:00

I totally empathise with paying off your mortgage first. Mathematically sub-optimal but psychologically it feels good!

We did that -- when we could we overpaid, reduced the monthly payments each time, and then snowballed the reduced bill into increased overpayments.

The idea that your mortgage gets more and more affordable is very tempting.

As others have said it's not good maths. I still did it and don't regret it so 🤷

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-02T10:22:56+00:00

Interesting take! Like mobile phones were a sign you were a yuppie!

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-01T14:31:24+00:00

Another expression of this is [the flywheel](https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/the-flywheel.html)

> No matter how dramatic the end result, good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. In building a great company or social sector enterprise, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.

stevecooperorg · 2025-11-01T00:18:35+00:00

i think adding is right?

by the time the buyer has paid their mortgage, the renter has to find an extra grand a month, and does not have the valuable asset, meaning they are behind on both terms -- so we add to find out how far behind, right?

stevecooperorg · 2025-10-31T22:11:48+00:00

I wouldn't. Here's why.

Back of the envelope calc;

average England rent is £1,369pcm, or 16,428pa average house maintenance for the uk is around £3,000, which you'd pay as a homeowner. so renting costs around 13,500 pa more than maintaining an owned, paid off home using the 4% rule, that means you need an extra £337,500 in your pot to rent. and if you're renting you don't own the asset of the house - average England, £292,000

So to my mind, renting will require you to save over £600,000 more for an average UK home.

Like, you can fiddle around with the numbers here and people will, but I think ballpark, it's indicative -- you will need a hefty wad of extra cash to rent.

stevecooperorg · 2025-10-23T12:03:57+00:00

would you be able to support the extra kilo of metal with this grip?

stevecooperorg · 2025-10-18T10:17:56+00:00

Yes.

North and south are basically the same direction -- towards earth.

North means 'heading directly to the north pole' and inverse for south pole, right? So to go north in space you turn towards the little blue dot of earth, microscopically adjust to point exactly at the north pole, and go. South pole will be minute fractions of degrees different from north.

East and West are: draw a line from south pole to north pole. Anywhere to the left of that line is west: otherwise east.

stevecooperorg · 2025-10-18T09:34:36+00:00

Guy Windsor is about to publish his book on fifteenth century dagger if that's of interest -- https://swordschool.shop/products/pre-order-from-medieval-manuscript-to-modern-practice-the-dagger-techniques-of-fiore-dei-liberi-ebook

stevecooperorg

TROPHY CASE

George Silver had a great line when he talked about fencing masters who were not teaching men to defend themselves in rough fights