Simo Virokannas

Writings and ramblings

Author: Simo

  • Out of the Box Software site is up

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    The completely-renewed OOTB site is now up. You can find it either by clicking on a link in the sidebar (statement that might not be future-proof) or here: https://outofthebox.software

  • Gitlab-runner, MacOS 12

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    If you’ve tried setting up a gitlab-runner on MacOS 12 you may have run into the same problem I did – even when you follow all the manual setup steps, it just won’t start (unless you run it in interactive mode). Note that this probably doesn’t apply to running it using homebrew. It might work…

  • Totally Arcade Controller

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    With the A500 Mini finally out, it revealed a screaming void no one seems to be filling: a proper controller. Almost everyone I ever knew to own an Amiga 500 had one or two TAC-2 controllers by SunCom. It was undoubtedly the best game controller ever made, never to be repeated on any platform. This…

  • Compiling Pixar’s USD natively on Apple M1

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    This is in no way meant to be a “standard, do it this way” kind of a solution, but just one way of making it happen. I don’t like how homebrew and alike plug themselves into default locations and potentially taint your environment, so I default to Python-centric virtual environment handlers like miniconda. With the…

  • A new design pattern for MMXXII

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    Over the past decades designing an application has gone through several overhauls. Of course whether this affects you or not depends on if you’re into doing the latest thing or if what you already have can in itself withstand the changes in computing landscape. But if you’re like me and at least like to entertain…

  • Adding resizing and resizable subviews to NSView

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    If you’re adding a subview programmatically, you may run into having to constantly set all the resizing behaviors and/or anchors manually when all you really want to do is fill the whole available area based on two options: “stretch me to fit this box” or “stretch this box so I can fit”. This happens especially…

  • Application packaging: history and good practices

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    As long as there have been programmable computers, there has been a form of application packaging, and it has taken many shapes in the past and has at least as many that coexist today. Here’s a brief run-through of some of these followed by a couple of conclusions. HISTORY punch card boxes 1950’s and 1960’s…

  • Learning to learn programming (part I)

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    Programming as a profession is no different from most professions – there’s no real trick to it, there’s no “learn this in 10 days”. But one skill does help you a lot: the ability to learn. That means the key is to learn to like the learning process and then never stop learning. Therefore, this series…