Welcome to /* COMMENT BLOCKS */, my little web log where I will share with you everything about the progress on my personal projects, as well as interesting challenges, findings or techniques regarding programming, and other random stuff.

Me, me, me…

“Me too!” – Agent Smith

My name is Hamza Haiken (or Tenchi on the internet). I have been programming and tinkering with computers ever since I was little and continue doing so every day as a hobby (and optionally as a job).

I was born in Switzerland where I majored in Computer Science and Engineering in the HEIG-VD. I now live in the Netherlands where I work as a Software Developer in a major IT consulting company.

Also, I happen to be the only member of team2xh which totally is a real coding group that focuses on doing exactly what I like to do :o)

What do I like? Prototyping crazy ideas, coding my way through life, discovering new technologies but also very old ones. Language wise, I really enjoy developing in Python and Scala. I enjoy putting to code everything that crosses my mind and trying new ideas.

I also play Go, where my rank seems to hover at around 5kyu, and like to play VS-Fighting games like Street Fighter on my home made arcade stick.

Recently, I grew to like Pyth, a code golfing language, trying to solve puzzles with the shortest code possible. Just to get an idea of how concise the language is aiming to be, here is my take on a program that will output a zoomed-out plot of the Mandelbrot set, coded in only 72 characters:

=k_smCdr32+32yTK23DvbJbVyT=J+*JJbI>.aJTRN)RNVr_KKsm@kv.jcd30cN15r_+TyKK

Which, when run with Pyth, outputs the following lines in standard out (output was shortened a bit to fit the layout):

111111111111111000000000000000/////..-,*"*&( .///000000000111111
11111111111000000000000000///////...-,+*' )+,-./////000000001111
11110000000000000000///////.....--,+)       !),-...//////0000001
10000000000000000///////..------,,+*(       $*+,---.....///00000
0000000000000/////////..-+   )**' ' $"     !$& ( ),,,,+#-.//0000
0000000////////////....--+'!   #                 $(( %% $-.//000
000////////////......--,,*)%                           (,-.//000
///..,(+,---,+,----,,,+)%                              '**+.//00
...--,+)&          ()($                                 &+-.///0
.--,,*(&!           $%                                    -.///0
-+&*)(%                                                  ,..///0
+*'                                                    ),-..///0
                                                     '*,-..////0
+*'                                                    ),-..///0
-+&*)(%                                                  ,..///0
.--,,*(&!           $%                                    -.///0
...--,+)&          ()($                                 &+-.///0
///..,(+,---,+,----,,,+)%                              '**+.//00
000////////////......--,,*)%                           (,-.//000
0000000////////////....--+'!   #                 $(( %% $-.//000
0000000000000/////////..-+   )**' ' $"     !$& ( ),,,,+#-.//0000
10000000000000000///////..------,,+*(       $*+,---.....///00000
11110000000000000000///////.....--,+)       !),-...//////0000001
11111111111000000000000000///////...-,+*' )+,-./////000000001111
111111111111111000000000000000/////..-,*"*&( .///000000000111111

What to expect

I think that the last example (and this whole introduction) will make you understand what kind of nerd I am (according to @jqno), and, if you get the feeling you’ll learn a thing or two, I hope you’ll enjoy reading my upcoming posts! :)

I will try my best to write here regularly, and to give you a taste of what’s to come, here’s a non-exhaustive list of past and future projects I’d like to talk about:

• Almonds, a terminal-based Mandelbrot set explorer (pip install almonds)
• Falcon, a music box punchcard writer
• Scurses, a no-dependency ncurses for Scala
• Onions, a UI / dashboard API for Scurses
• My recent Chrome extension coding spree, and how easy it is to write them
• Trying out Typescript
• Experimenting with three.js
• Code golfing and Pyth
• Using Hugo for the first time and creating this blog
• ULTRA SECRET PROJECT Kotan (枯淡), a web application for playing Go online, with lots of innovative features (I feel like the world of online Go has been stagnating for a long time)

If you see something you like or have a question, feel free to comment using the comment form (you don’t need a Disqus account), or mail me!