Two's Complement
47 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 20 ratingsIf you come to a fork in the road, take it! Two’s Complement is a programming podcast, hosted by Matt Godbolt and Ben Rady; two programmers who both grew up wanting to make video games. One of them did, one of them didn’t, but now they both work together despite coming from very different backgrounds.
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Episodes
Is Optimization Refactoring?
May 15, 2024 05:00 - 44.9 MBIn 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.
The Future of Compiler Explorer
April 17, 2024 04:00 - 33.4 MBMatt 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.
Strong ARM
March 18, 2024 03:45 - 46.8 MBBen 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.
make podcast
February 17, 2024 15:05 - 45 MBMatt 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.
Technical Debts
January 15, 2024 18:15 - 53.6 MBBen 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.
Copypasta
December 19, 2023 02:35 - 52.4 MBMatt 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.
Iter-Mental Development
November 19, 2023 23:35 - 29.5 MBBen and Matt compare iterative and incremental approaches to software development. To everyone's astonishment, they turn out to be different. Then they decide we need better names for these things, but it turns out naming things is hard.
Compression
October 23, 2023 12:35 - 59.5 MBMatt and Ben talk about how compression works, specifically deflate, which is apparently everywhere. Ben gets particular about compression ratios. Matt explains how to compress /dev/random by sorting it first.
Questionable Comments
September 18, 2023 19:05 - 49.1 MBBen and Matt comment on different types of comments in code. Join our hosts and they explore both good and bad types of comments, from the essential to the inexcusable. Matt explains how to bump the failure counter to 99. Ben suggests violence against cats.
Ben Walks A Tree
August 22, 2023 02:05 - 52.1 MBBen ventures into the forest, finds a tree traversal problem, and then fails his will save and gets fascinated by a hash map. Matt suggests zombies. Then they come up with a solution and talk about how to test it because of course they do.
Video Games and Other Diversions
July 17, 2023 05:44 - 47.5 MBMatt and Ben talk about what they would do if they founded a game studio. And ASICs. And testing because why not. Join our hosts as they speculate on whether anyone has made a successful open source video game instead of just taking 5 minutes to Google it.
Yak Shaving, Part 2, Also Live!
June 20, 2023 03:15 - 67.9 MBBen and Matt finish shaving the yak from the prior episode. While waiting for DNS certificate validation to complete, our hosts discuss the "branch based environment" approach to infrastructure, and consider how serverless services make that model a bit cheaper.
Yak Shaving, Live!
May 22, 2023 04:15 - 69.5 MBMatt and Ben hit the record button while shaving a yak and then attempt to pass it off as a podcast episode. Join our hosts as they troubleshoot DNS problems, fiddle with makefiles, and fail to remember the things that their prior selves did.
Integration Tests are a Scam
April 18, 2023 03:10 - 36.6 MBBen and Matt borrow a title from J.B. Rainsberger and talk about how integration tests want to take all your money. Or time. Same thing.
The Compiler Explorer Problem
March 20, 2023 02:20 - 35.8 MBHow do you solve a problem like Compiler Explorer sponsors? Matt digs into a surprisingly interesting algorithm problem that is in no way related to compilers. Ben explains how he nearly bankrupted himself by starting a bank.
Slightly Less Terrible Tech Interviews
February 17, 2023 16:20 - 44.9 MBBen and Matt descend like Orpheus into the horrifically awful world of tech interviews, to try and extract some sort of humanity from the process. They fail, of course, but discuss some interesting ideas along the way.
Not Invented, Hear?
January 17, 2023 04:00 - 40.7 MBMatt and Ben explore their mutual tendency to favor build over buy. Instead of using open source software that may be free-as-in-puppy, our hosts have sometimes built their own solutions, occasionally with hilariously regrettable results.
Time For Computers
December 18, 2022 05:30 - 53.4 MBBen and Matt examine how fast computers are by comparing them to humans. Turns out they're mind-boggling-ly fast. Or maybe humans are just slow? I don't know, let's not make the humans feel bad. They're trying their best with those adorable squishy meat brains.
A Bit Rusty
November 16, 2022 13:30 - 46.5 MBMatt and Ben discuss the Rust programming language, recall some hobby projects they've used it for, and speculate about where else it might be used, such as embedded rust. Ben tries to remember how Ethereum works, and fails. Matt makes a ray tracer and a Weird Al reference.
Swift (with Doug Gregor)
October 12, 2022 16:20 - 58.9 MBBen and Matt chat about the Swift programming language with special guest (and Swift creator) Doug Gregor. Doug teaches us a thing or two about Swift's design, and how it could possibly be a C++ successor. Matt rambles; Ben asks intelligent questions.
Carbon Footprint
September 14, 2022 19:00 - 64.5 MBBen and Matt talk Carbon, the new language backed by Google, designed to be a successor to C++. Matt discusses his involvement with the project. Ben asks questions and cracks wise.
Weird Webapps
August 15, 2022 21:20 - 63.6 MBMatt and Ben discuss the idiosyncratic way that they learned to build web applications for trading. If latency and correctness were paramount, and you could tell all your users which browser they had to use, what would you do? Here's what we did.
Virtual Infrastructure
July 15, 2022 13:00 - 64.4 MBBen and Matt compare container technologies like Docker to virtual machines, and discuss the tradeoffs when deploying applications. Matt explains the scary things that can happen when you share a VM with strangers. A visitor enters through the couch.
Golf for Hackers
June 19, 2022 00:00 - 47.9 MBMatt and Ben talk, about uh...golf? What? Is this right? Did you check this? Apparently, in this episode, Ben explains how technology and analytical advances in golf have dramatically changed the game. Matt gently prods him on.
Async Whatevers
May 18, 2022 13:08 - 57.6 MBBen and Matt talk about various styles of asynchronous programming, ranging from Node.js, Ruby's EventMachine, C++ coroutines, and the new JVM Project Loom. Schedule yourself a listen, won't you?
Terrible Business Ideas
April 16, 2022 15:08 - 42.2 MBMatt and Ben both recall their prior adventures founding companies that sold tools for software developers. What's the best approach to this business? Go play a nice video game instead.
Java and/or C++?
March 22, 2022 01:22 - 46.2 MBBen and Matt have a work conversation spill over into podcast. Join our hosts as they compare Java and C++ as two possible languages for a new project.
Compile-Time Programming (with Hana Dusíková)
February 20, 2022 23:36 - 58.7 MBBen and Matt are joined by Hana Dusíková and discuss panoramic photographs, Matt's career peak, and compile-time programming, including her ground-breaking regular expression library. Links from the show: Hana's Panoramic photos CTRE library Hana's slides
Performance
February 03, 2022 03:22 - 38.5 MBOur most efficient podcast ever. Ben and Matt talk performance testing and optimization in fewer than 30 minutes.
Building Games Two Ways
January 02, 2022 04:57 - 72.9 MBMatt and Ben talk about their experiences creating games, both digital and analog. Matt recalls building games for the XBox, Dreamcast, and PS2. Ben talks about what makes board games fun, and how to lose your friends through playtesting.
Lint and Other Fuzzy Bits
November 27, 2021 14:32 - 51.3 MBMatt and Ben talk about code linters, and meander into various topics. Matt describes the (approximately) 37 different ways to cast variables in C++. Ben argues that continuous integration was better in the 19th century.
The Language Menagerie
November 01, 2021 23:30 - 63.8 MBBen and Matt explore the world of programming languages. So many! Why are there so many? Wait, there's a Java Mobile Edition? Who would use such a thing? The hosts of the #1 top ranked programming podcast that my mom listens to, that's who.
Pull Requests and Pair Programming, Part 2
October 01, 2021 21:05 - 46.8 MBHey Ben, when are you going to release the second part of that podcast on pull requests and pair programming? I've really been looking forward to it. Oh, I don't know. I need to come up with a witty description first. Hopefully some time this week.
Pull Requests and Pair Programming, Part 1
September 15, 2021 03:50 - 46.9 MBMatt and Ben compare different methods of collaboration, and how they work for different personalities. Ben is not a psychologist, but plays one on this podcast. Matt gets very close to explaining what makes for a good pull request, and then doesn't.
CPUs are Clever
August 19, 2021 19:50 - 69 MBMatt and Ben discuss the kinds of things modern CPUs do behind the scenes. Branch prediction, caching, speculation, out-of-order processing, hyper-threading, register renaming... Lots of things most people don't need to know. Matt gets overly excited, and Ben channels Larry King to try and keep him on track.
Boring is Awesome
July 18, 2021 18:20 - 63.1 MBBen and Matt think boring things are good, and provide a few examples. Databases, for example, are boring...but even more boring options exist! Matt explains how boring tools make it easy to automate local development tasks on his funny side project. Ben reverts your commits because he wants you to be happy.
Unix Commands for Wizards
June 22, 2021 03:20 - 86.3 MBMatt and Ben discuss their favorite *nix command line tools, and make various movie references while doing so. Included in this episode are references to both Sergio Leone and gunzip, although the two are surprisingly unrelated. Matt recalls using System Tap to discover latency in a trading system. Ben explains a method for writing Wireshark plugins that sparks joy.
Source Control and Conway's Law
May 12, 2021 21:45 - 76.8 MBMatt and Ben compare monorepo vs multi-repo layouts, explain Conways Law, talk about what a 'team' is, and what Visual Source Safe isn't. Ben defines how big a service should be. Matt recalls a brief interlude with Clojure.
Pictures and Candy with Arduino
April 26, 2021 21:30 - 60.4 MBJoin our hosts as they talk about hobby hardware projects, past and present. Matt explains how he's building a digital picture frame out of a Raspberry Pi Pico and E-Ink display. Ben talks about building a Halloween candy dispenser using devices both serial and cereal. Matt and Ben discover they both liked MP3s in the early 00's.
Slow Builds and Fast Feedback
April 06, 2021 02:10 - 73 MBBen and Matt talk about builds and build systems, mostly in C++. Matt talks about lots of different ways to speed up builds for C++, and is very helpful. Ben questions whether you want a build that never fails, which is moderately helpful.
Semi-Solid Principles
March 24, 2021 13:45 - 65.2 MBMatt and Ben join an argument on the Internet, which is always a productive and rewarding use of one's time. They discuss the SOLID principles from two different perspectives, and judge them. Listen in for the verdict. Then, Ben ponders how programmers learn, and whether sailors are happy. Matt gets a new puppy.
Reverse Engineering the 6502
March 02, 2021 00:00 - 69.8 MBBen and Matt stop talking about testing, and everyone is relieved. Matt describes the process for reverse engineering microchips by stripping off layers of silicon to look at the transistors with a microscope. With this forbidden knowledge, he explains how to defeat the copy protection on a childhood video game. Ben pretends like he understands.
Special Guest: Clare Macrae
February 04, 2021 05:00 - 50.2 MBBen and Matt trick another live human being into joining them on the podcast. Clare Macrae joins to talk about her work with approval testing, her experiences dealing with legacy Fortran and C++ code, and an upcoming Webinar she's doing on refactoring-to-testability using CLion.
Manual Testing and Observability
January 26, 2021 03:00 - 63.5 MBMatt and Ben discuss whether the city of Portland exists, and decide they don't care. Ben argues that you should test your code manually. Matt talks about when government regulators made him build an observable system, and how great it was. Really, it was great!
Special Guest: James Grenning
January 13, 2021 20:00 - 72.2 MBOur first guest! We speak with James Grenning about his work (re)building embedded systems using Test Driven Development. Then we ask James about his involvement with the creation of the Agile Manifesto in Feburary of 2001, and find out how 'Agile' has changed over the last 20 years.
Testing in C++
January 07, 2021 20:00 - 57.1 MBMatt and Ben talk about the eXtreme Programming engineering practices, such as Test Driven Development, and how to apply them in C++. Matt tests a widget and some grommets. Ben complains about slow build times.
Episode 0 - The Origin Story
December 24, 2020 19:20 - 45.9 MBMatt and Ben talk about how their careers were on the same path in the late 90's, but then diverged at a critical juncture. Then they talk about automated testing. Ben gets out his soapbox. Matt is a kind, patient soul.