Written by Daniel R.
Last Updated: 09:54 11/09/2026
Concluding Summer of 2026
Nearing the end of August, it seems like summer has passed by so quickly. There was so much time to do all the things I wanted to do but now it seems like the time has slipped away! I did do a fair amount of work on my project and even read a good chunk of the C Programming Language we were set as reading for over the summer, but still it feels like the time went by too fast.
The amazing ‘C Programming Language’ by K&R. Some pretty tricky exercises in here!
The project is coming along pretty well. It’s big and it’s complicated
and it probably won’t last very well but it works and follows SOLID
principles like I intended it to. I don’t know whether I will be able
to finish the project this summer but already I have learnt a massive
amount from it, so it wasn’t all for nothing.
The app is created such that the UI is almost completely decoupled from the core logic,
making it very easy to potentially switch out the UI framework for
something else. I have been using lvgl with c++
bindings, which have been incredibly
useful and helped me to write the UI side declaratively.
Certainly I have made some mistakes with this project but I think it has turned
out okay so far. Currently I also need to implement a scheduling
mechanism so that alarms can actually be set and will ring. This was a
considerable design challenge when designing the project (the design
actually took up the bulk of my time).
I wasn’t sure how a scheduling approach would look like (both conceptually and in practice). Since I
wanted to make it SOLID I had design the system to abstract how timers are set, which can vary widely between systems, especially when using an embedded platform like the esp-32.
In July I also started working at a new job as a waiter, which took up a considerable chunk of my time. I couldn’t spend as much time working on much project and had to prioritize my work. I also couldn’t spend as much time reading our set text.
Emacs may be some of the best software I have ever tried in my life. Sometimes I
also think it can be some of the worst piece of software ever (but this is
entirely my fault and only due to my lack of experience with it). Emacs is what
I always wanted neovim to be. I of course still use vim keybindings with evil
mode but I just love the extensibility, the
being-able-to-do-anything-in-emacs-ness and not to mention org mode !! There is
a reason why Emacs is some of the longest-standing software in the world, it has
truly stood the test of time!
While I was initially tentative about switching to emacs because I thought it
would take a lot of time and relearing (and so it did), it has been absolutely
amazing and so worth it so far.
I started out using doom emacs but that quickly
felt wrong after only a couple of days. I knew I wanted to have my own
configuration and actually understand what was written in it too, without too
many abstractions.
It may interest the reader that this post is of course being written in Emacs!
My fairly minimalist Emacs setup with Treemacs and Evil Mode writing this website!
I am going to be starting 3rd year this year and that will mean things are going
to get a lot more difficult and be a lot more work. I won’t have a tonne of free
time so I need to get even more organised and choose how I want to spend my free
time wisely.
I also want to update this website and make it look a bit more professional,
while maintaining what I like about it - the retro look that is often associated
with the Indie web.
I also want to be applying to internships and working more on my project. I am
very excited for the coming year and we shall see how it goes!