One obvious difference I can see at a glance is that Maker.js doesn't support 3D models, while FluidCAD does. I assume Maker.js is a lower level library aimed at interfacing directly with CNC machines, while FluidCAD is focused on 3D design.
I used Slug at a previous job. It is an excellent, artfully crafted library; really the pinnacle of software engineering in my opinion. Thanks to the author for donating the algorithm to the public domain!
I taught myself coding, but struggled through some of my CS computer science classes because I hadn't learned some (important) boring details. My peers who hadn't coded before, but were otherwise bright, excelled in these classes and have had impressive career trajectories after school.
Based on my personal experience, I don't believe prior experience with programming before college is that predictive of engineering talent.
I found the preamble at the beginning of the announcement charmingly dated:
> The Minor Planet Electronic Circulars contain information on unusual minor planets, routine data on comets and natural satellites, and occasional editorial announcements. They are published on behalf of Division F of the International Astronomical Union by the Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
>
> Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network
> The OpenVMS cluster consists of nine single-CPU workstations and one four-CPU server. All the machines are running the extremely robust and secure OpenVMS operating system. The twelve Alpha-based machines are arranged as an OpenVMS Cluster, allowing all machines to share disk storage, execution and batch queues and other resources, as well as simplifying system management.
In my personal experience I couldn't use Zed for editing python.
Firstly, when navigating in a large python repository, looking up references was extremely slow (sometimes on the order of minutes).
Secondly, searching for a string in the repo would sometimes be incorrect (e.g. I know the string exists but Zed says there aren't any results, as if a search index hasn't been updated). These two issues made it unusable.
I've been using PyCharm recently and found it to be far superior to anything else for Python. JetBrains builds really solid software.
This is tragic. It's one of favorite games of all time--heck, one of my favorite media experiences, period. It's worth pushing through until you get hooked.
If you are trying to advance your career, I feel prepping for interviews is probably the number one most important thing you can do, unless you are freakishly gifted at acing interviews with no prep.
I took 2 years off where I made 0 income. Insurance was covered by the government and my healthcare was quite good. I didn't pay taxes because I didn't make any income. Getting back into the workforce happened literally within a single day (this was ~4 years ago when the market was different, not sure the same thing would happen now). I had no trouble switching jobs multiple times afterwards, either—recruiters and interviewers have never seemed to care that I took a break.
I was able to take some much needed time off to focus on personal projects and I'm extremely grateful I was able to do it.
My friends who didn't take time off were able to advance more in their careers, but I think it is a fair trade.
> Have been to the DMV? It sucked? There is a human being whose job it is to be in charge of the DMV. They do not care that it sucks.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've actually never had a bad experience at the DMV here in Seattle. The staff have been efficient, fast, and friendly every time.
One major difference I’ve seen in shader graph type tools is that they are stateless, or almost stateless. The output of the shader graph is a function of time and some fixed parameters, and there are rarely feedback loops. When there are feedback loops in shader graphs, they are represented explicitly via nodes like TouchDesigner’s feedback TOP.
This way of expressing computations lends itself well for shader programming where the concurrency of the GPU discourages manipulation of arbitrary state.
In contrast, business logic programmed for the CPU is generally more stateful and full of implicit feedback loops. IMO these types of computations are not expressed well using node based visual programming tools because the state manipulation is more complex.
Some[1] think that things are trending in the opposite direction: away from clever manipulations and hard coded domain knowledge, and towards large scale general models.