Coding is a lot more fun when you don't have to keep jumping around to check you've used exactly the right names for things. Which means we're constantly trying to up our game with the VisualInk editor to make the suggestions it gives as fast, context aware, and accurate as possible. Today we've rolled out intelligent suggestions for asset names and divert targets as you type!
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@[email protected] If you ask the wrong type of pedant, they'll tell you (for even more confusion) that it's only a whetstone if you use oil on it, otherwise it's a water stone. "don't oil up that water stone, and especially don't get the whetstone wet!"
@[email protected] of course, this is the same school of pedantry that will try and tell you that you're using the 'wrong' names for types of swords as if there's a central historical authority rather than each author going 'I'm gonna call these ones long because I feel like it'.
it's quite funny how "whetstone" comes from whet, to sharpen, but is also often wet, covered in water, too
whet your tools with a wet whetstone
@[email protected] If you ask the wrong type of pedant, they'll tell you (for even more confusion) that it's only a whetstone if you use oil on it, otherwise it's a water stone. "don't oil up that water stone, and especially don't get the whetstone wet!"
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On the one hand, customisation is a bit limited (there's no way to override themes, etc) - on the other, for prototyping the lack of distraction on detail while you test the idea can be really helpful. And at the end of it you still have an Ink file you can use anywhere Ink is usable.
And because of the constraints, we can do things like having seamless support for mobile devices without you having to think about it.
Interested in quickly prototyping your #ink based #interactivefiction or #visualnovel? We're starting to look a pretty decent choice, with collaborative editing sessions and (if you're logged in) instant shareable "play" links.
On the one hand, customisation is a bit limited (there's no way to override themes, etc) - on the other, for prototyping the lack of distraction on detail while you test the idea can be really helpful. And at the end of it you still have an Ink file you can use anywhere Ink is usable.
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Interested in quickly prototyping your #ink based #interactivefiction or #visualnovel? We're starting to look a pretty decent choice, with collaborative editing sessions and (if you're logged in) instant shareable "play" links.
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That feeling when you realise tab didn't complete the filename you thought and that you've just tried to open a 30gb file on a USB drive in vi over an ssh connection.
There's this weird moment in refactoring code, when after hours/days of redesign, changes, and testing you bask in the glow of a job well done and all the improvements you've made... before running the code and seeing absolutely nothing different in how it functions from the outside because that's what refactoring means.
I suspect that people making physical components with care and precision that they know will never be seen, and will be noticed only in the absence of problems coming from them, most have a similar experience. You feel pride in the job well done, but it is also somewhat anti-climatic when you look at the finished product.
There's this weird moment in refactoring code, when after hours/days of redesign, changes, and testing you bask in the glow of a job well done and all the improvements you've made... before running the code and seeing absolutely nothing different in how it functions from the outside because that's what refactoring means.
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Three bugs appear.
“Ah, with my senior software developer senses I detect these are in fact not three separate bugs, but a single bug manifesting in different ways. A greener developer would have fallen into this trap and spent all day chasing shadows!”
*7 hours of struggling*
They are three separate bugs.
@[email protected] @[email protected] see also: a greener developer would assume that this is obviously a bug in the compiler because the behaviour is so inexplicable, but my senior software developer humility teaches me it is surely my mistake
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Here at VisualInk we love writing the narrative side of visual novels in Ink, a programming language specifically designed to help manage the complexity of branching narrative without getting overly technical.
But it does miss one feature that is really useful in visual novels: tracking ordered "stacks" of values. So we added it.
Blog post here: blog.mavnn.co.uk/2025/12/12/...
Some (most?) days teaching students to code is uplifting, feels worthwhile, and gives everybody involved a sense of satisfaction.
Other days you discover one of your students hasn't been able to press "enter" for the last 2 lessons because they rethemed their keyboard and the theme turned the enter key into an image of a teapot.
@[email protected] well, if i can do that the night before, i think i can manage 😁
looks at track record of leaving things ready the night before
Well! I'm glad that works for other people. No jealousy here at all 😀
Apparently 2025 is the year that has Weird Al singing 'killing in the name of'. Not a parody, not with sanitised lyrics. Just straight up 'fuck you I won't do what you tell me'.
That's... not something I ever expected to see.
@[email protected] @[email protected] as someone medicated for adhd, I'm going to have to speak up a moment here: several of the most common adhd medications will make the symptoms no better or actively worse if given to someone who has executive function issues (the symptoms of adhd) but caused by environmental effects like trauma, lack of sleep, etc.
@[email protected] @[email protected] While I think that medication is often used as an only treatment when it should be part of something more holistic (and that is a problem), I don't think there's too much of giving medication to boys who don't actually have adhd because that's just a pain for the 'carers' involved
@RickiTarr Purposefully dodging the question -- I think it's legitimate -- about gender-based diagnoses, I want to come at it from a slightly different angle.
ADHD is dramatically over-diagnosed. Not because the symptom isn't present, but because the symptom is regarded as a stopping point.
It's an "oh *THIS* is the problem!".
It's a "LET"S MEDICATE!!!"
In fact, ADHD is generally not a root cause. It's mostly a symptom.
We hammer kids w/speed, cuz it's easier than taking care of them.
@[email protected] @[email protected] as someone medicated for adhd, I'm going to have to speak up a moment here: several of the most common adhd medications will make the symptoms no better or actively worse if given to someone who has executive function issues (the symptoms of adhd) but caused by environmental effects like trauma, lack of sleep, etc.
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i really struggle to get my day started until i have my first coffee. even if i take my adhd meds, its really only after i get my coffee that i can do things. it’s 1pm here now and finally i have my coffee and im out of bed. makes me think two things- is it that i can finally make a coffee so obv i can do other things ? (correlation not cause) , and MORE IMPORTANTLY, id be unstoppable if i had one of those american automatic programmable coffee makers.
> unstoppable if i had one of those american automatic programmable coffee makers.
Right up until the first time it needs cleaning or refilling?
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Interested in writing #visualnovels / #interactivefiction ?
We're running courses online next term at Thinkers Meetup:
- Coding Games with a Story (ages 9-14 and 14+) teach you how to write visual novels in Ink
- The Interactive Fiction Writing Club is a writing club, but specifically for 9-18 year olds writing interactive fiction
So I noticed yesterday that my home automation server (surprisingly useful when you have solar panels) was running out of storage space, and thought I was going to have to buy more.
Then I noticed that I'd stored every change in fan speed of the ventilation system for the past 18 months because I'd forgotten to add a retention policy.
Turns out I was storing multiple (10+) gigabytes of internal data from the ventilation system including fan speeds, system humidity and temperatures, etc as it is one of the most aggressively real time systems connected to the automation.
Oops?
