Sila Dev Log: Getting Back in the Saddle and Starting From Scratch With Haskell

Some time ago I was quite actively working on my very own compiler project whenever I had some spare time. Unfortunately, due to personal time constraints this has been in the back-burner for some time and I haven’t really have time to work on it. Also part of the reason was also coding myself little bit into a corner. Mainly due to bad architecture.

Some time ago, I had some efforts in refactoring the still, fortunately, quite small code base, but even with this smaller size, it proved to be quite annoying to work with. Big part in this was the dynamic nature of Common Lisp, that at least in my personal experience, made this refactoring feel “unnecessarily” difficult.

Now I admit, this is mainly a skill issue and not a negative thing about the language. I still love the language and the dynamic nature is a great perk on it. I definitely won’t stop using Common Lisp at all, since I do use Opusmodus for composing and analyzing music, which all Common Lisp.

That being said, personally I feel that this nature is shining in other domains. Especially when working with compilers, having good and strong type system, also preferably statically typed, would be something that I would like to have.

Sure, Common Lisp has a strong typing on its own, and the type system generally speaking is good. Common Lisp also has projects such as Coalton which brings optional almost Haskell-like typing to Common Lisp. Optional in a sense that with Coalton you’re able to mix regular Common Lisp and Coalton as you please. Giving you the best of both worlds.

So this made me start eyeing into languages such as Haskell. Of course, due to its type system, but partly also due to personal needs and interests. Personal needs and interests in a sense that in my professional life I have ran into a situation where I need Haskell, so naturally I wanted to become better at it. Which is fun also due to the fact, while I’m not a beginner in Haskell, every single line of Haskell I’ve written has been pro bono just out of personal interest.

Haskell, and other ML languages, of course has a long history in compiler writing, being quite common choice in that world. Not saying that Common Lisp would be worse option in any way. Old Yale Haskell compiler for example was written in Common Lisp and also the famous SBCL being another great example of state of the art compiler written in Common Lisp. The static, pure and rigorous typing system of Haskell also offers a nice shift in the design of architecture, which hopefully will lead to a more robust and formally sound architecture.

So I guess this a nice fresh start but also a continuation, personal reboot in a sense and I’m quite excited to see where it leads. I plan to return to regular updates regarding the compiler so people interested can follow the progress.

RIP Ozzy Osbourne 1948-2025

Yet another massive loss in music. Black Sabbath was probably the first band I ever heard. Definitely the first band that I really got into. This was due to the fact my father introduced me into it when I was a literal baby. Hugely important band for me. Tragic loss.

Thank you for everything.

RIP Douglas McCarthy

This week has been horrible when it has come to death of musicians. We just lost Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. Now, one of the most influental artists for me, Douglas McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb. What a horrible year and week.

Nitzer Ebb along with Front 242 were probably the two most influental bands for me which made me eventually to delve more deeply into the realms of EBM and industrial. Naturally, after those came bands like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails that also have always been super important bands for me. Nitzer Ebb were for me the gateway drug into this sort of sonic world.

Thanks for everything!

Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable

I recently stumbled upon a beautiful quote from Cesar A. Cruz that I just wanted to ponder.

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”

Cruz’s quote is both provocative and elusive, a tidy aphorism masking a deeper tension. It implies a dual responsibility for art: to console those in pain while challenging those at ease. But who decides which group we belong to? What comforts one person might deeply unsettle another, and vice versa.

The beauty of Cruz’s idea is that it resists easy answers. Comfort isn’t inherently weak; it can heal. Discomfort isn’t automatically righteous; it can harm. Art lives in this paradox, in the liminal space where consolation and confrontation coexist. Cruz’s words don’t prescribe solutions, they challenge us to sit with the ambiguity, to feel both the sting and the salve of what art can do. That’s its power: to disturb us into wakefulness, but also to cradle us when we need it most.

What I Read Between May and October 2024

Haven’t updated my “What I Read Between” -series in a while mainly due just being busy in my own life but also due to the fact that I’ve reading and rereading veeery big novels. But finally having been managed to finish those, let’s gather some thoughts.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment (reread)

I’ve always been a huge fan of Russian literature, or at least a big fan of few Russian authors. Mainly due to this reason I wanted to embark on this “rabbit hole” during the summer months. Naturally, starting with Dostoyevsky.

I’ve read Crime and Punishment a couple of times during my lifetime. First, as a mandatory homework from school and later few times just out of pure enjoyment and I can say that it’s possibly one of my favorite books. To summarize, book is about Raskolnikov’s internal and external battles and the repercussions of the crimes he has done.

I love how the “crime” aspect of this book happens only in the 100 or so pages, and the rest (600 or so) are devoted to the “punishment”, which in this case means battles with psychological consequences of the crimes, insanity and isolation, ending in the moment of divine grace and beginning of Raskolnikov’s redemption.

Great book, cannot recommend it enough.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Notes from Underground (reread)

Along side Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground is also a book that I’ve read multiple times from Dostoyevsky. Probably I stumbled upon this book when I was a “edgy” teenager, so I thought I could see some similarities between me and the protagonist.

Book focuses mainly on diving deep into the mind of man living in solitude. So a majority of the book is about questioning various everyday concepts, such as logic, reason, free will, and showing how suffering can add depth to our everyday life.

Again, very good book that encourages reader to not just read but also to think and reflect.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamazov

The Brother Karamazov was one of the classics of Dostoyevsky that again for one reason or another I hadn’t read so I finally was able to finish it and what a book it was! Book itself focused where heavily on rich and absorbing ideas such as spirituality and logic and their contrast. So much so, that the plot of the book itself (while being great on its own) feels secondary to the exploration of these themes.

While the high level topics might be the main thing behind the book, I especially loved the way how Dostoyevsky embedded these themes in to the main characters of the book, the Karamazov family.

Book was pretty big with lots of different events and stories (even stories within a story) so couple of paragraphs doesn’t do it justice. Just this book alone deserves a separate post. I would even argue that just reading the book once doesn’t do it justice. That being said, I enjoyed the book tremendously, and I will be reading it again in the future.

David Foster Wallace: The Infinite Jest

The Infinite Jest has always been an interesting book for me. For many reasons. First, I’ve always thought David Foster Wallace to be an interesting character on its own right. But at the same time, for the the literary prowess that he had. I had read couple of works from him previously but Infinite Jest always felt like a somewhat of a herculean task to finish. Firstly due to its length, but also for how it was written.

I remember reading some interview from DFW, where he mentioned how he “wanted to write a best-seller, that was meant for literature students/professors”, which can definitely be seen in the book. The writing style in the book is very hard and difficult. Especially to someone from whom English is not their native language.

But overall I think the book was great. Especially the time in the current world made the book feel sort of “prophetic” in many ways. Despite the book itself is set in this dystopian world. But looking it with perspective of today’s world, it’s not that dystopian.

Similarly to The Brother Karamzov, couple of paragraphs doesn’t do the book justice, since it features hundreds of different characters, many of whom are just coping with modern technological world filled with loneliness and disconnection.

Again, a great book once you get into it, which definitely deserves an another read.