Ask Justin Frankel

justin = { main feed , music , code , askjf , pubkey };

Ask Justin Frankel
No reasonable question unanswered since 2009!

Suggested topics: programming, music, sleep, coffee, etc.

Note: please do not ask questions about REAPER features, bugs or scheduling, use the forums instead.

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[older questions]

Question: Without googling, do you know who Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey are?
Asked by Mommy (99.173.156.x) on November 1 2016, 10:48pm
Reply on November 2 2016, 2:17am:

Not really, I think maybe the last one was some UFC fighter? I remember hearing about her at some point but other than that nope... Comment...

Question: When you do bigger new features, do you have a concept / design stage first or do you immediately start coding and see what happens ?
Asked by wasereb4 (79.200.231.x) on November 1 2016, 12:31am
Reply on November 2 2016, 2:18am:

Depends, but usually we like to figure out what to do before starting it. Sometimes you start things to see where they end up, though, too, though usually one is willing to throw away the results of that if it isn't good for what you wanted... Comment...

Question: do you sometimes miss working on programs like winamp and the fun of making a company from nothing?
Asked by sean (174.25.127.x) on October 31 2016, 11:31am
Reply on October 31 2016, 1:35pm:

No, I've pretty much been doing the same thing for the last while (though with a much deeper program) Comment...

Question: Do you think "technical debt" is a good/appealing metaphor?
Asked by fujimotos (122.215.34.x) on October 26 2016, 8:31am
Reply on October 26 2016, 2:08pm:

"Feature latch" is more meaningful to me. Comment...

Question: You and schwa seem very dedicaed to Reapers development. It reminds me of the open source groups.
Asked by mdiman007 (71.167.114.x) on October 21 2016, 6:58pm
Reply on October 25 2016, 2:35pm:

That is correct! Comment...

Question: In that case, what does schwa suck at most? (looks like askschwa.com is available heh) Alternately, what are you best at, or what idioms do you tend to favor? What's the biggest pain in the ass that still trips you up?
Asked by fmap (142.162.253.x) on October 16 2016, 12:25am
Reply on October 17 2016, 2:07pm:

That (the former) seems like it would be awfully impolite!

Anyway, I thought

this little class

Comment...

Question: What's the story behind all the music you have posted? Loving it!!!
Asked by Sean (68.37.160.x) on October 13 2016, 2:59pm
Reply on October 13 2016, 4:24pm:

Thanks! It's stuff I'm making for fun (mostly while testing/developing REAPER). Comment...

Question: What kind of glue is Donald Trump sniffing?
Asked by PunkyBrewster (99.103.119.x) on October 13 2016, 2:47am
Reply on October 13 2016, 4:25pm:

file footage

Comment...

Question: Yes, the Reaper project note field is a text field. But how do I set this to show the text in a monospace font? The font it uses on my machine messes up alignment of lines, because of different sizes for different characters...
Asked by fladd (84.26.42.x) on October 12 2016, 9:56pm
Reply on October 12 2016, 10:43pm:

You don't for now, unfortunately... Comment...

Question: In terms of actual coding skills, what do you suck at the most?
Asked by Will (107.203.156.x) on October 12 2016, 2:29am
Reply on October 12 2016, 10:43pm:

Hell if I know, that'd be better asked on askschwa.com probably Comment...

Question: Why is the font in the projects notes in Reaper not a monospace font? Wouldn't it be great to format the project notes a bit ASCII style?
Asked by fladd (92.110.128.x) on October 10 2016, 9:14pm
Reply on October 11 2016, 12:53pm:

It's a regular text edit field... Comment...

Question: Can you give any advice to one who is going to run his first marathon?
Asked by asafonov (77.222.12.x) on October 10 2016, 7:51pm
Reply on October 10 2016, 8:37pm (edited at October 10 2016, 8:38pm):

Practice eating during the run, figure out what foods work well for you
Run a few long (17-20 mile) runs ~5 weeks, ~4 weeks, and ~3 weeks ahead. If you have to make them on the shorter side (17 or even 16 miles) you should be fine too, just don't hurt yourself
Taper down for the 3 weeks before, so that the week leading up to the marathon you run a few very short very easy runs only
Practice racing in general throughout the process, so you get used to drinking from water cups and so on

Get very hydrated before the race. It's hard to keep up with water intake during the race, so giving yourself the most water at the start to start is helpful. If you can stand it, I'd take a 1L (or so) bottle of water that you can drink throughout the first 6 or 7 miles, then toss.
Eat and drink (in small quantities) as much as possible throughout the race. You might not *need* to, but it makes things better. Don't overdo it, obviously, but finding a nice routine of intake is good.
Go out easy and keep it easy until the last couple of miles!

Look around, enjoy yourself, listen to yourself and other people and the spectators and/or nature.

The marathon IMO is a different experience than shorter races because you (well, I anyway) really have to take it easy most of the way. Running a half marathon, I can go out at a slightly uncomfortable pace and more or less keep it there for the first 10 miles (uncomfortable enough that it requires my concentration, but not so uncomfortable I couldn't talk), before getting very uncomfortable on the last 5k. On the marathon, though, you really have to just go chill the whole way (the difficultly comes without speeding up ha ha). I'm sure other people would disagree, they're probably faster than I am ;)

Comment...

Question: Batman or Superman
Asked by IXix (86.160.199.x) on October 2 2016, 3:11pm
Reply on October 3 2016, 1:30pm (edited at October 3 2016, 2:52pm):

greenman (

clarification

Comment...

Question: As a kid I was drawn to x86 assembly language for its efficiency. I've recently become interested again, but I'd like to learn a high-level language that I can use to make small, fast binaries with few (or no) dependencies. REAPER and the Sysinternals suite are probably my favourite pieces of software in these regards. I've started learning C++ for the above [continued] reasons. As the creator of REAPER, which ticks all of the above boxes, how did you do that? And do you think I should I continue learning C++, or something else?
Asked by dän (155.143.123.x) on September 30 2016, 7:32am
Reply on October 1 2016, 9:53pm (edited at October 1 2016, 9:54pm):

Comment...

Question: is it possible to use wdl to generate x/y voltages in the 0-1v range to control a plotter from the audio jack - if so what API?
Asked by tones (67.193.92.x) on September 22 2016, 10:11pm
Reply on September 29 2016, 12:07pm:

Well, you could generate audio using some code (not WDL specifically) and send it to the audio device using an audio API for the system you are on. But getting it to the 0-1v range, that is completely outside the scope of software really. Comment...

Question: According to my sources, Schwa has turned himself into the ARA police department and is awaiting trial. Can you confirm or deny that Schwa has been cooperating with the ARA police and has made several written statements with semicolons at the end?
Asked by Mommy (99.173.156.x) on September 22 2016, 5:59pm
Reply on September 29 2016, 12:07pm:

I'm not sure where things stand Comment...

Question: Windows - Lenovo Thinkpad laptop... standard laptop basically
Asked by Shaggy Mike (125.14.185.x) on September 22 2016, 4:07am
Reply on September 29 2016, 12:07pm: