258K views · Jun 7, 2024 · 22:15 · 4 HN recommenders · 7 mentions · discussed 2024–2026
Tom 7's pilot episode of a series that plays with type systems and absurd programming, presented as a parody of the GPL v3 license. It mixes a typesetting experiment with a long, story-driven intro on the origin of TeX. Source code and papers are linked from the author's site.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN readers point to it as an example of Tom7's ridiculous-but-brilliant programming projects, here tied to license parody and typesetting.
“this fun experiment in Typesetting which starts off with the amazing TeX origin story”HN comment, 2024
“Tom7, who has many amazing videos about doing ridiculous things with programming on YouTube.”
Tom7's talk on ridiculous programming work behind the license.
This was made by Tom7, who has many amazing videos about doing ridiculous things with programming on YouTube. The talk on this work is here: this video
“this fun experiment in Typesetting which starts off with the amazing TeX origin story”
Fun typesetting experiment opening with the TeX origin story
and for anyone in the TeX User Group there is this fun experiment in Typesetting which starts off with the amazing TeX origin story this video
“You can skip to 7:45 if the long intro bores you, but it's worth listening to it.”
More of the same kind of content, with a long but worthwhile intro
If you want more of this: this video . You can skip to 7:45 if the long intro bores you, but it's worth listening to it.
“You might enjoy this video”
Contrasts Knuth with LLMs as a framing device
You might enjoy this video: this video The connection to knuth is tangential to the actual video subject, but it does contrast knuth to LLMs as a framing device
“2007 is the date of the GPL v3, which this is a 2024 mimicry of”
Explains the video is a 2024 parody of the GPL v3
This should not have "(2007)" in the title; 2007 is the date of the GPL v3, which this is a 2024 mimicry of (as explained in this video ).
Do I win anything for noting, in a video about hyper-detail orientation, that, when the text on screen says "Is this the most beautiful ____", the voice-over says "This is the most beautiful ____"? this video (I'm not sure if it's also an error, or part of the joke, or if it just parses in a way that I can't accomplish on my own, that the text before the video reads "Way three (recommended) is to sit back and bathe in the 4k, 60Hz flashing lights that are Badness 0 (Apostrophe‛s version) is the newest installment in the Main Sequence:".)
That said, if Tom7 wasn’t meticulous about typesetting all his results, we would never have been blessed with this video
