cpressey / timeline Goto Github PK

Hi there, I'm Chris Pressey. Most of the things I make, I make under the auspices of Cat's Eye Technologies, so if you're looking for things I've made, you probably want to look at https://codeberg.org/catseye instead.

• 1993: Invented Befunge, an influential esolang
• 1995: Established Cat's Eye Technologies
• 1996: Coined the term "esoteric programming language", which eventually got shortened to "esolang"
• 1994-2019: Invented dozens of other esolangs, some of which have also been influential (e.g. SMITH, Mascarpone)
• 2009: Wrote an award-winning video game
• 2010: Developed the practice of Test-Driven Language Design (TDLD)
• 2011: Signed up for GitHub
• 2013: For the first NaNoGenMo, wrote The Swallows, an influential novel generator / generated novel
• 2014-2023: Wrote a number of other novel generators, some of which have also been notable (e.g. MARYSUE, Samovar)
• 2015: Wrote some award-winning 6502 code ... by hand
• 2022: Wrote a thing about state machines that got 700+ stars on GitHub
• 2023: Invented a grammar formalism for CSLs that can both parse and generate efficiently
• 2023: Stopped using GitHub¹
• 2023: Moved to Codeberg, a non-profit code host running open-source software

When Microsoft acquired GitHub, I didn't leave immediately. I wanted to give them a chance. Well, they had their chance.

It's not that I've suddenly become a Free Software zealot. But I do think open source should be more than just something that enables a "Community Tier (FREE!)" business model.

There is also a significant amount of irony in a code host based on an open-source distributed version control system becoming "too big to fail", and actually, when I say "significant", what I mean is "insupportable". So, I can no longer in good conscience support it.

¹ As far as is humanly possible. Actually, insofar as what I've done has been open sourced I can't actually prevent anyone from uploading it here, "stopping using GitHub" for me consists in (a) not visiting the site if I don't have a very good reason to, (b) not hyperlinking to content on GitHub if there is any other option, and (c) promoting viable alternatives, such as Codeberg.