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Robots Must Be Ephemeralized

Published: 20 September 2021
Tags: robotics

One of the biggest advantages of software is the fact that the iteration and testing feedback loop is insanely quick. This same advantage can be applied to hardware as well, in the form of simulation. In this exploratory article, Eric Jang "outline[s] why it is tempting for roboticists to iterate directly on real life, and how the difficulty of evaluating general-purpose robots will eventually force us to increasingly rely on offline evaluation techniques such as simulation".

How I patched Python to include this great Ruby feature

Published: 16 September 2021
Tags: python, ruby

When was the last time you pushed a feature to a language you routinely use? For me, never, but after reading Miguel Brito's article, I think it might be a good idea. Miguel presents the tertiary conditional check of Ruby and demonstrates how to adjust Python's grammar and test files to implement it.

There Was No Formal Methods Winter

Published: 21 September 2021
Tags: formal methods, philosophy

Formal methods are a particular kind of mathematically rigorous techniques for the specification, development and verification of software. Basically software created using formal methods guarantees no bugs (although they can't guarantee some stray ionized particle won't flip a bit). Justin's article (in response to another one) highlights some of the limitations of formal methods that hindered their mass adoption industry, while underlining aspects that might be contributing to the growth of interest.