David Beazleydabeaz@mastodon.social
Jun 2, 2026, 2:27 PMI used ed(1) as my copilot when implementing an entire programming language from scratch and it only consumed about 4 seconds of total CPU time.
Replies
Andrew Dalkedalke@toots.nuJun 2, 2026, 5:00 PM@dabeaz That's about half the time Markus Hess used in "The Cuckoo's Egg" before the 75 cent (in USD 1986) accounting discrepancy from his 9 seconds was noticed.
- Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyzJun 2, 2026, 5:10 PM
@dabeaz But how much brain energy did you use to compensate for ed(1)? (And don't forget to include caffeine intake in your cost estimate)
[On my laptop, just starting and stopping emacs uses 0.7-1.0 second user+sys CPU time]
- David Beazleydabeaz@mastodon.socialJun 2, 2026, 5:28 PM
@PeterLudemann Compensate?
- Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyzJun 2, 2026, 5:39 PM
@dabeaz Compensate for ed(1) not helping you by offering any suggestions. (Except for the occasional "?").
- David Beazleydabeaz@mastodon.socialJun 2, 2026, 5:39 PM
@PeterLudemann Suggestions?
- Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyzJun 2, 2026, 5:45 PM
@dabeaz Doesn't copilot apply advanced reasoning to help you write better code? (I've never used it, so am merely going by the marketing material).
Ed(1)'s sole copilot-ish response is "?", leaving everything to you.
:)
- Andrew Dalkedalke@toots.nuJun 2, 2026, 7:45 PM
@PeterLudemann @dabeaz I believe the answers are "no" and "why do you need something more than '?'".
Or, if you want marketing material, ed helps you apply advanced reasoning to write better code.
Lyksolykso@tiny.tilde.websiteJun 2, 2026, 10:47 PM@PeterLudemann @dabeaz No reasoning, just probabilistic syntax generation.
ed(1) conferenceed1conf@bsd.networkJun 2, 2026, 11:34 PMIf you desperately need it, there's
cpwrap(1)for Copilot ined(1):flan_evil:
- David Beazleydabeaz@mastodon.socialJun 3, 2026, 12:16 AM
@ed1conf @PeterLudemann There's also `kill -9` for `cpwrap(1)` for when you have no other choice.
- Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyzJun 3, 2026, 12:26 AM
- David Beazleydabeaz@mastodon.socialJun 3, 2026, 1:34 AM
@PeterLudemann @ed1conf Yeah, I'm not putting up with any of that no-go diggy die shit. `kill -9` for the win.
- Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyzJun 3, 2026, 1:50 AM
@dabeaz The main reason I avoid `kill -9` is that theoretically non-9 kill gives the program a chance to clean up and/or avoid data corruption. Theoretically. If the programmer has read and understood sigaction(2). And has avoided every "gotcha".
Yeah, might as well use `kill -9` and save time (except for emacs, which handles `kill -HUP`)
Khleedrilkhleedril@cyberplace.socialJun 2, 2026, 8:37 PM@dabeaz @PeterLudemann I think he means allowing for the Heisenberg uncertainty over whether you pressed the semi-colon key before or after the enter key.
- Khleedrilkhleedril@cyberplace.socialJun 2, 2026, 8:36 PM
@PeterLudemann @dabeaz Believe me, when you get fluent with ed(1), and that takes about half an hour, the editor sends energy back into your brain for more coding spoons.
- David Beazleydabeaz@mastodon.socialJun 2, 2026, 9:13 PM
@khleedril @PeterLudemann It's almost like feeling like you're alive.
- Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyzJun 2, 2026, 10:04 PM
@dabeaz
Soon you'll be hired by LLVM or Hermès, producing luxury hand-made bespoke code for the descerning few who want something better than the mass-produced code for the petit bourgeoise. Be sure to keep that video of you handcrafting a programming language, as one of the œuvres in your portfolio. - Peter LudemannPeterLudemann@mathstodon.xyzJun 2, 2026, 10:05 PM
@dabeaz
"... feeling like you're alive" -- bare metal programming will do that to you.