systemhalted by Palak Mathur

Escaping GOTO: How We Learned to Make Programs Readable

Technology   Computer Science   Series 2 - Turtle, BASIC, and the Long Road to Taste
Line numbers made BASIC feel orderly. GOTO made it powerful. Then everything turned into spaghetti.

BASIC: The Language That Taught Me to Think Step by Step

Technology   Computer Science   Series 2 - Turtle, BASIC, and the Long Road to Taste
How BASIC’s “tell the machine exactly what to do” mindset shaped how I learned programming.

Vibe Coding and the Baby Genius Problem

Technology   Software Engineering   AI
Vibe coding is fun again. However, Agents are still baby geniuses. The fix is turning preferences into accountability.

Logo Looks Nothing Like Lisp and Yet It Is

Technology   Computer Science   Series 2 - Turtle, BASIC, and the Long Road to Taste
Why Logo can be called a Lisp dialect even though it does not look like one?

Project Jigsaw (JPMS) - Part 1 - What is Modularity?

Technology   Software Engineering   Series 3 - Project Jigsaw (JPMS)
A practical definition of modularity in Java, why Jigsaw existed even though we already had packages and JARs, and what the module system actually enforces.

Testing and the Perfect Software

Software Engineering
Testing matters, but choosing what to test is the real craft. A practical way to decide what must be tested, what should be tested, and what is good to have.

Hinduism, Hindutva, and the People Who Lit My Mind

Personal Essays
A reflection on Dr. Karan Singh’s idea of Hinduism and Hindutva, and the long line of people who quietly shaped my thinking.

Letter to Self - Passion

Personal Essays
This is a letter to my past self just beginning to grow into an adult.