Words, Words, Words

Salutations! So I bounced back a forth between a few things this week. I did a little more work implementing the programming language I designed. Bittersweetly, I encountered a few small problems I hadn't foreseen. While this was frustrating, it was also nice to have them called to my intention.

I also worked some more on the math library (see this post for relevant links). At one point, I modified the game to start using it, so now the game's kinda stuck until I either finish the math library or at least get it working well enough to function. My choice to include concepts from geometric algebra is making it difficult to complete. It's hard to find good reading material on the subject, and often even harder to wade through it. I love the subject, and I've enjoyed learning about it, but it can be a little overwhelming at times.

When I started the original library (years ago before I'd even heard of geometric algebra), I used templates to implement things (including some fancy recursion and inlining to avoid unnecessary loops). I continued that way for a while, but it quickly became more trouble than it's worth. So instead, I wrote a program to generate the code for me.

Another one of my interests, not mentioned till now, is language. Specifically, constructing languages. Years back, I started work on a conlang (short for constructed language). It went through many revisions, but I eventually stopped working on it. It's been gathering dust since. Fast forward to now, when I decide to drudge it up and start working on it again! The thing I always had the most trouble with was actually making up words. You might be thinking, "if you weren't making up words, then what were you doing?". Consider that making an interesting language (i.e. not just replacing English words with new ones) involves phonology, morphology, grammar, etymology, and a whole slew of other considerations.

For anyone who might be interested, this site has lots of good resources on language making. For breaking away from English pronunciation, you might want to look into the international phonetic alphabet. This site has interactive charts, complete with sounds. I recently learned about the Swadesh list. A short list of basic meanings. It's been very helpful, and has given me a good starting point for creating words. Here are some similar lists one can use.

Well, that's all I got for right now. See you next week!