Two's Complement Ben Rady and Matt Godbolt

In flagrant violation of Betteridge's Law, Ben and Matt consider the question 'Is Optimization Refactoring?' and conclude that the answer is 'probably'. Ben warns our listener about overspecifying in tests. Matt is horrified by his own assumption that other people's code works.

Matt ponders the future of his accidentally eponymous hobby project. Ben offers thoughtful consideration while waiting for the right opportunity to crack a joke. No lawyers were harmed in the making of this podcast.

Ben and Matt discuss their transition to using ARM-based Apple Silicon laptops for their day jobs. Ben rewrites Bash into Java because it makes his tests run faster. Matt tries to teach VSCode something and winds up writing JSON instead.

Matt and Ben describe how to build a developer automation interface with Make, a ubiquitous build tool that can be conveniently inflicted on other people. Ben explains a great way to test shell scripts that doesn't work. Matt deletes libbob3.so and then regrets it.

Ben and Matt discuss the original definition of technical debt a metaphor created by Ward Cunningham to explain why software designs that were correct when created now need to be changed. Ben invents a new verb, 'to soapbox' and then demonstrates its practical use. Matt reads timestamps in the future.

Matt and Ben talk about when it's OK to copy and paste code. Matt explains how helpful compilers take the time-saving step of copying and pasting code for you, saving you precious microseconds. Ben recalls things from the 80s, like word processors and Indiana Jones.