The Curious Engineer

All blogs / C++

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

elbeno.com/blog

Thoughts both confusing and enlightening.

C++HaskellLisp / Clojure / SchemeGeneral

’05’10’15’20’25
Posts
684 from 13 Nov 2002 to 21 Sep 2026
Posting
monthly (7 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://www.elbeno.com/blog/?feed=rss2

2026 7

  1. Computers in the Simpsons Universe…
  2. operator<>: A Dream of Higher-order Metaprogramming Parity
  3. Partial application of class templates
  4. const_cast: A Necessary Evil
  5. A better bitset for enum flags
  6. The Global API Injection Pattern
  7. C++ Reflection: Another Monad

2025 3

  1. Functions are Asymmetric
  2. A Crossword for CppCon 2025 – Solutions
  3. A Crossword for CppCon 2025

2024 4

  1. Formatted Diagnostics with C++20
  2. Open Content at CppCon: One API for Types and Values
  3. A Crossword for CppCon 2024 – Solutions
  4. A Crossword for CppCon 2024

2023 3

  1. std::source_location is Broken
  2. Modern C++? How about Contemporary C++?
  3. In Support of Implication for C++

2022 3

  1. Monads are part of C++, and are in your code
  2. C++23’s new function syntax
  3. constexpr Function Parameters

2019 3

  1. Familiar Template Syntax IILEs
  2. Remember the Vasa! or, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
  3. Thoughts on Modern C++ and Game Dev

2018 3

  1. Pointer-to-member-functions can be tricky
  2. C++Now 2018 Trip Report
  3. 10 Non-C++ Book Recommendations for C++ Programmers

2017 5

  1. CppCon 2017 Trip Report
  2. Thoughts on Default Construction
  3. Development of an Algorithm
  4. C++17 Class Templates: Deduced or Not?
  5. C++Now 2017 – Report

2016 3

  1. CHRONO + RANDOM = ?
  2. An algorithmic sketch: inplace_merge
  3. ELI5: monoids

2015 39

  1. Lameness Explained
  2. The C++ Lame List
  3. Amaze your friends, and confound your enemies!
  4. Compile-time RNG tricks
  5. Compile-time counters, revisited
  6. More string hashing with C++11 constexpr
  7. C++11 compile-time string hashing
  8. More constexpr floating-point computation
  9. Floating-point maths, constexpr style
  10. Experimenting with constexpr
  11. CppCon 2015
  12. Exercising Ranges (part 8)
  13. Exercising Ranges (part 7)
  14. Exercising Ranges (part 6)
  15. Exercising Ranges (part 5)
  16. Exercising Ranges (part 4)
  17. Exercising Ranges (part 3)
  18. Exercising Ranges (part 2)
  19. Exercising Ranges (part 1)
  20. .emacs bankruptcy
  21. “The Lambda Trick”
  22. “In-place” might be less in-place than you think
  23. Recursive lambdas
  24. Rules for using
  25. C++ Tuples: the missing functionality
  26. Another myth, about C++ lambdas
  27. A persistent myth about STL’s remove (and friends)
  28. How many bugs are left? The Lincoln Index
  29. Adopting C++11: no-brainer features
  30. VS2010 woes: tuples as map keys
  31. A problem with C++ lambdas?
  32. Clang/GCC weirdness
  33. How to print anything in C++ (postscript)
  34. How to print anything in C++ (part 5)
  35. How to print anything in C++ (part 4)
  36. How to print anything in C++ (part 3)
  37. How to print anything in C++ (part 2)
  38. How to print anything in C++ (part 1)
  39. Holy Wars

2014 4

  1. Do-notation can be misleading
  2. C++ Guru Question – followup
  3. C++ Guru Question
  4. 2013 Books

2013 2

  1. Indiecade day 1
  2. An Interesting C++ Technique

2012 6

  1. The Year in Books
  2. How 6-year-olds think about evolution…
  3. The 4th Amendment and Email
  4. Late night stealth
  5. The Second Amendment
  6. A musical interlude

2011 22

  1. Merry Xmas
  2. Our UK Trip
  3. RIP drm
  4. It’s October
  5. Diablo III Beta goes public
  6. Explaining Maths
  7. Birthday
  8. Blizzard Haz Talent
  9. Maths is fun
  10. Keyboard fun
  11. Let’s not go overboard here
  12. French
  13. Home from GDC
  14. At GDC
  15. Some poems we like to read at bedtime
  16. Happy Valentine’s Day
  17. Bookish
  18. Taking Parenting Classes
  19. Dear Amazon…
  20. Now reading
  21. Postal Oddities
  22. Happy New Year

2010 28

  1. Attack of the Xmas murloc!
  2. Geek joke for kids
  3. A maths diversion
  4. War is over if you want it
  5. Blizzcon 2010 with friends
  6. Twelve times table
  7. It works!
  8. Cult of the Keyboard
  9. I’m still alive – here’s the latest
  10. StarCraft II Launch Event
  11. He likes a challenge
  12. The hardware is out
  13. Father’s Day
  14. My new phone number
  15. New Phone
  16. Little Bro is home
  17. Quick update
  18. Latest – a setback
  19. Tubes out
  20. Archie’s progress
  21. Boggle
  22. The machines
  23. Pre-op pic
  24. Successful op
  25. Op is tomorrow
  26. Awake today
  27. Update
  28. Elbeno v2.1 arrives

2009 22

  1. Quiz time again
  2. The post-Xmas lull
  3. Christmas, LA Style
  4. Some books I’ve read this year
  5. IFComp ’09
  6. School
  7. New PC
  8. Cleaning up at school
  9. Blizzcon 2009
  10. Micro-Elbeno is on the way!
  11. I’m still alive
  12. Happy Solstice
  13. Things You Didn’t Know Had Another Name
  14. Ow
  15. I’m Jaunty
  16. Fixed gate
  17. Battle of the Bands
  18. Book Festival
  19. Re April 1st
  20. How a Bug Made Me a Better Programmer
  21. I wrote my first Python program
  22. Tips for night owls, midnight snackers, etc

2008 100

  1. Functional Rainbow
  2. What I got for Xmas
  3. Merry $HOLIDAY
  4. Another CD for the mini-Elbeno
  5. I have one (UK) wish list item this Christmas
  6. Complexity Theory: 8 Things a Game Programmer Needs to Know
  7. For what it’s worth
  8. Personality profiling
  9. Blizzcon 08
  10. America comes to its senses
  11. Bad times for EALA
  12. The annual Windows re-install
  13. Goodbye EA, Hello Blizzard
  14. Stellarium is brilliant
  15. Knowing what to search for
  16. Rock the mix
  17. IFComp so far…
  18. 14th Annual IF Comp is underway!
  19. Cancelled
  20. Optician
  21. Money music
  22. How many programming languages do you know?
  23. Dreamhost backups: the appropriate incantation
  24. Book sale time again
  25. (Part of) what I do all day
  26. Tales of a full hard drive
  27. I finally played Portal
  28. GB cyclists dominate the Beijing Olympics…
  29. Adventures with GnuPG
  30. Quick music recc
  31. Periodic (Table) Videos
  32. I moved house
  33. Earthquake!
  34. What’s on your “quickstart bar”
  35. The next Big Thing is not a Big Thing
  36. Summer of Love
  37. Update
  38. Book Meme
  39. Miscellanea
  40. Antifeatures, and two requests to Google
  41. e-book reader
  42. Gasoline prices comparison
  43. End of the Vacation
  44. London Calling
  45. I’m in London
  46. Unexpectedly Valuable
  47. Unexpected CS Book Bonanza
  48. Embouteillage
  49. Schmap uses more of my photos
  50. Why Reading Books Matters to a Programmer
  51. Hardy Heron
  52. LA Times Book Festival
  53. Nostalgia corner: teletext
  54. The world’s worst-performing application
  55. Helium
  56. My Experiences with Radioactive Elements
  57. Miscellanea
  58. Vecto get!
  59. A bit of a new look
  60. Language memage
  61. Curve and Vector
  62. Approximating elliptical arcs with Bézier curves
  63. Functional Fills with Vecto
  64. The Hedgehog
  65. A bit of Pythagoras
  66. Even more on ellipses and splines
  67. On the Benefits of Showering
  68. Ellipses & Splines again
  69. Wish-it-was two-factor authentication
  70. On Being, and Raising, a Gifted Child
  71. LA Moments
  72. Splines and modulation
  73. And it was done
  74. More on ellipses
  75. On ellipses
  76. Bore da
  77. Profiling with SBCL
  78. Modern Correspondence
  79. Some interview questions I’m thinking about
  80. Experimenting with (cubic) Bézier subdivision
  81. Sneak preview
  82. Book sale time again
  83. Life defined by Lunch
  84. An experiment
  85. Participatory Culture
  86. Arc’s debut
  87. Super Luigi Galaxy
  88. “Smart and Gets Things Done”?
  89. Recent Readings
  90. Backup Solution, Evolved
  91. Journey to Bed
  92. A few trip pics
  93. Rock n Roll Marathon & 1/2
  94. Free digital camera
  95. French songs on the brain
  96. Soup up your Powershot
  97. You never forget a good teacher: part 2
  98. A look at the XO laptop
  99. New Year’s Day
  100. You never forget a good teacher

2007 172

  1. The Quiz is on
  2. Xmas is almost over
  3. Stairways to Heaven
  4. Happy Solstice
  5. Beatles geek
  6. Lisping towards enlightenment
  7. Xmas cards have been sent
  8. My Stuff
  9. Xmas Ornaments from the Elbeno household
  10. Xmas Playlist Highlights?
  11. Six languages worth knowing
  12. Book sale again
  13. Backup solution
  14. A night at the Magic Castle
  15. Building a MAME cabinet 18
  16. Snippets
  17. OLPC
  18. The Magic Castle Awaits
  19. Sandwich
  20. Building a MAME cabinet 17
  21. Building a MAME cabinet 16
  22. Building a MAME cabinet 15
  23. Guitar Hero 3
  24. Wrap party
  25. Building a MAME cabinet 14
  26. Wildfires in Socal again
  27. Building a MAME cabinet 13
  28. I’m not with Comcast…
  29. The library project continues
  30. Gutsified
  31. Games Library
  32. Excessive damages
  33. In Rainbows
  34. Building a MAME cabinet 12
  35. Building a MAME cabinet 11
  36. That’s my boy!
  37. Webular lisp
  38. Livejournal syndication comments
  39. Building a MAME cabinet 10
  40. Projects update
  41. IF Comp so far…
  42. Books I keep at work
  43. The leaders so far
  44. Managing Collections
  45. IFComp 2007 is on!
  46. Another Library Book Sale
  47. UPC scanning
  48. Internet People
  49. New PC
  50. Open barcode database, anyone?
  51. A bit wider
  52. Secret questions and two factor authentication
  53. Panoramics!
  54. Oz Report – Part 21 – The Journey Home
  55. Oz Report – Part 20 – Day trip to Belmont
  56. Oz Report – Part 19 – Parramatta
  57. Oz Report – Part 18 – Canberra to West Ryde
  58. Oz Report – Part 17 – Albury to Canberra
  59. Oz Report – Part 16 – Last Day in Melbourne, and on to Albury
  60. Oz Report – Part 15 – Melbourne Day 5
  61. Oz Report – Part 14 – Melbourne Day 4
  62. Oz Report – Part 13 – Melbourne Day 3
  63. Oz Report – Part 12 – Melbourne Day 2
  64. Oz Report – Part 11 – Melbourne Day 1
  65. Oz Report – Part 10 – Melbourne At Last
  66. Oz Report – Part 9 – Lakes Entrance
  67. Oz Report – Part 8 – Narooma and Tilba
  68. Oz Report – Part 7 – Narooma via Shellharbour
  69. Oz Report – Part 6 – Last Day in Sydney
  70. Oz Report – Part 5 – Harbour Tour and Taronga Zoo
  71. Oz Report – Part 4 – Sydney Aquarium
  72. Oz Report – Part 3 – Sydney Day 1
  73. Oz Report – Part 2 – The Flight
  74. Oz Report – Part 1 – Pre-Flight
  75. Exploring Pascal’s Triangle
  76. Project Euler
  77. Haskell – the videos
  78. Elevators in malls
  79. Concurrency in games
  80. Building a MAME cabinet 9
  81. OpenID support
  82. Stupid people, stupid laws
  83. Media consumption
  84. Building a MAME cabinet 8
  85. Elbeno, now with 50% more everything
  86. Sgt Pepper Mashup
  87. Thinking about ditching LJ
  88. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  89. Bye Bye Internet
  90. More on Tree Folds
  91. Arboreal Haskell
  92. Book Sale Haul
  93. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  94. Another Haskell question
  95. Haskell problem followup
  96. Haskell problem
  97. Building a MAME cabinet 7
  98. More wikihowery
  99. I made a wikihow entry
  100. Building a MAME cabinet 6
  101. Building a MAME cabinet 5
  102. Building a MAME cabinet 4
  103. Building a MAME cabinet 3
  104. Happy Solstice
  105. Building a MAME cabinet 2
  106. Building a MAME cabinet
  107. the scanner works
  108. score!
  109. photo slideshow on my desk
  110. The Camel Has Two Humps
  111. That new olympic logo – what?
  112. Cake
  113. It's my birthday
  114. The Gamer Test Revisited
  115. Back from vacation
  116. Games to play before you die
  117. Haskell wibblings
  118. new watch
  119. how much?
  120. Typical stages of appreciation of The Beatles
  121. Guitar Hero 3: My suggestions
  122. 3 new books
  123. Culver City Car Show
  124. Into the belly of the beast
  125. The Gamer Test
  126. Google's NDA: not evil, eh?
  127. About that HD-DVD AACS key…
  128. Microsoft bought me dinner last night
  129. LA Times Book Festival, Day 2
  130. LA Times Book Festival
  131. e-books: not a threat to real books any time soon
  132. Never could resist a challenge…
  133. Feisty Fawn
  134. Internet radio is dead, long live Internet radio?
  135. Star Wars Exhibition
  136. Quarterly book sale!
  137. RotateAVI updated
  138. I signed up with Dreamhost
  139. an interesting conversation
  140. new printer
  141. OpenWRT Port Triggering update
  142. KDevelop: so much promise, but a bit rough around the edges
  143. April
  144. printer maintenance
  145. fighting the code
  146. Castlevania: SOTN on XBL Arcade!
  147. port triggering with OpenWRT works!
  148. should I tell them?
  149. wireless (in)security
  150. port triggering iptables config
  151. kernel hacking
  152. new router
  153. Mini-Elbeno can read!
  154. you can tell someone's computer background…
  155. Some Linux/Unix commands worth knowing…
  156. it's old, but it still works!
  157. more linux fiddlings
  158. 97X… Bam! The future of Rock and Roll
  159. getting stuff working on Linux
  160. A large picture
  161. the email project part 2
  162. the email project
  163. The Amen Break
  164. A new car!
  165. nothing
  166. A Functional Weekend
  167. Videogame memorabilia!
  168. Videogame shirts!
  169. from the person who followed the orange meme…
  170. Amazon failed me…
  171. RotateAVI v0.91beta
  172. the orange meme

2006 107

  1. The Quiz
  2. Xmas 2006 stats
  3. Merry Xmas
  4. Highlights from the Xmas Playlist
  5. 2006: the good stuff
  6. Happy solstice
  7. The tree's up
  8. Ben and Em show up!
  9. Google patent search
  10. Geminid meteor shower? No thanks
  11. 5 hours' work, wasted
  12. Wii gubbins
  13. the yearly mail merge
  14. a thought experiment
  15. Book sale haul
  16. I have my Wii
  17. Wii!
  18. Windows Vista: Restrictive EULA?
  19. the only meme you need
  20. Halloween is almost here…
  21. Propositions 86 & 87
  22. my new ISP
  23. More appley baked goods
  24. When come back bring pie!
  25. Will the PS3 succeed?
  26. halloween is coming
  27. OK, what can I do with:
  28. IF Comp 06 is on!
  29. What's up with Weird Al?
  30. Talk Like a Pirate Day
  31. RotateAVI
  32. Flagrant System Error
  33. interests collage meme
  34. On this day in history…
  35. My CV, dateline 1995
  36. Line from a dream
  37. Nausicaa Perfect Collection is complete
  38. Bread review
  39. Step back in time…
  40. Summer book sale and New Amazon Meme
  41. Saturday morning surprise
  42. Money Masters
  43. A break in the weather
  44. free-range bee invasion
  45. Solve sudoku without thinking?
  46. dumb headline alert
  47. Yum
  48. a sad day
  49. Why programming is fun
  50. A fascinating read
  51. after 12 years, why not?
  52. just fine them already
  53. Saturday…
  54. it's all geek to me
  55. impressiver and impressiver
  56. Superman Returns
  57. Dungeon Fun
  58. Superman Returns
  59. A strange storm
  60. The backups worked
  61. The essentials
  62. Are you old?
  63. Happy "Summer" solstice
  64. RIP TOTP
  65. earphones
  66. Brain Age
  67. a maths day
  68. Bread news
  69. New stuff
  70. Windows broke my setup
  71. Quick update
  72. Interactive Fiction – I7 on Linux
  73. Linux vs Windows, number i in a series of 2^n
  74. interactive fiction – a new direction!
  75. E3 roundup
  76. Update
  77. Goodbye to WoW
  78. Eurovision
  79. adverts
  80. Heath Robinson machines again
  81. The Pile
  82. Happy $festival
  83. mini-Elbeno is here!
  84. cubism
  85. new tune for the playlist
  86. BSOL
  87. bread fraud
  88. unimpressed pt 2
  89. a nightmare
  90. Happy St Gertrude's Day
  91. engrish strikes again
  92. unimpressed
  93. how to impress people
  94. dyson adverts
  95. only in the UK…
  96. Doin' the Do
  97. Meme-a-tron
  98. Alphabetic animals
  99. Go
  100. E3 to enforce booth babe dress code
  101. VPNing and baby stuff…
  102. It starts…
  103. A wizard wheeze
  104. Mustn't forget….
  105. Winter-een-mas?
  106. That's it for another year
  107. Physics joke

2005 125

  1. Having a cool Yule
  2. The great Everquest giveaway
  3. It's Christmas again…
  4. By the way
  5. the old boys' network
  6. Go Totakeke!
  7. Katamari shirts
  8. Working Designs R.I.P.
  9. The Spike Video Game Awards
  10. UK vs USA
  11. Google spin
  12. that 12 days of Xmas meme
  13. Microwaves
  14. cutting edge gaming
  15. Audio memory
  16. Timeless
  17. IF Alert!
  18. after an hour's fiddling…
  19. Real Food
  20. Top 50 Sci-Fi shows of all time
  21. interests meme
  22. Okay lady…
  23. Think your blog is private? Anonymous?
  24. Another day…
  25. Tudor maths test
  26. How to blog anonymously
  27. Challenge?
  28. Challenge!
  29. Mini elbeno is on the way!
  30. Imminent IM wars?
  31. Ask the LJ readership…
  32. World of Warcraft
  33. Universal Studios
  34. My first crossword
  35. Computer niggles
  36. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  37. Doxygen and C++: not a marriage made in heaven
  38. I have found
  39. Sonic BOOM!
  40. DLL Hell
  41. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
  42. More about bread…
  43. Comic-Con
  44. Book sale!
  45. what I've been doing this week
  46. Meme me a meme
  47. Montreal
  48. cheddar and marmite on a toasted bagel
  49. disappointment
  50. As if I wasn't worked hard enough
  51. Summer Solstice
  52. Go Tim!
  53. Roundup
  54. 4th Round Roddick
  55. at the risk of sounding (and feeling) old…
  56. The great thing about the web is…
  57. MD5: more meaningful collisions
  58. Tim! Again!
  59. Glen Phillips @ Largo
  60. Spam survey
  61. The litigious society
  62. cups, foomatic & gimp-print excitement
  63. Fully functional and programmed in multiple techniques
  64. I talk in my sleep
  65. The great clothing cull of 2005
  66. Su Doku
  67. Things that happened today
  68. Voice actors threaten video game strike
  69. Tim!
  70. London Underground
  71. Tennis season
  72. More Star Wars movies? No!
  73. bang. and episode III (spoiler warning)
  74. E3 2005
  75. Stunt City
  76. Bulletproof bird toys
  77. E3 Approaches…
  78. What is up?
  79. Slashdot headers: Futurama quotes?
  80. Habari Xenu
  81. US vs UK
  82. Impulse buy!
  83. "You probably know a million songs…"
  84. The Da Vinci Code
  85. SOE announce "Exchange Servers"
  86. "London, England"
  87. MySQL 5!
  88. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  89. Jury duty
  90. Movies I have seen recently
  91. Easter weekend
  92. Hypnotic sort of game…
  93. How to Destroy the Earth…
  94. Tiddlywinks no more at Cambridge?
  95. Robots
  96. Infrared webcam fun
  97. WoW… same old crowd
  98. this weekend
  99. Another blow against Internet anonymity
  100. I was almost getting withdrawal symptoms…
  101. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  102. Girl Scout Cookies
  103. Oscars
  104. New bookshelves!
  105. Nanaca Crash!
  106. Physical security
  107. Thunderbird
  108. SHA-1 Followup
  109. Final Fantasy II
  110. Atomic brain to power, fingers to speed…
  111. SHA-1 now IHA-1
  112. Libraries are fun
  113. Bees
  114. iPod Shuffle
  115. Superbowl XXXIX
  116. Universal Studios
  117. eVest!
  118. A plea to wordsmiths…
  119. World of Warcraft
  120. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  121. A match made in heaven?
  122. the Internet has everything
  123. Proper English
  124. What happened to this decade?
  125. Rose Parade!

2004 16

  1. Electronics Boutique: Telemarketing in person
  2. Rain…
  3. LJ Experiment…
  4. Comedy memes
  5. Credit card
  6. Reasons not to fly
  7. Katamari!
  8. IFComp 2004
  9. Crossover fanfiction: Potter & Molesworth
  10. Livejournal makes me sad…
  11. St Swithin's Day
  12. Interests
  13. Midsummer…
  14. Harry Potter: film 3
  15. E3 2004 thoughts…
  16. Dear Friends

2003 1

  1. Why is a raven like a writing desk?

2002 6

  1. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  2. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  3. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  4. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  5. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
  6. Why is a raven like a writing desk?