Radovan Bast
LightNews LightNews
banner
radovan.xyz
Radovan Bast
@radovan.xyz
580 followers 1.5K following 39 posts
theoretical chemist turned research software engineer - CodeRefinery, open science, research, software, data, computing, teaching, oceanography, computational geometry, baking, occasional 8-bit stuff - he/him
Posts Replies Media Videos
radovan.xyz
TIL that SQLite has R-trees: www.sqlite.org/rtree.html

This means that I can have a lightweight and portable "mini-PostGIS" database all in one file for super fast range queries that I can take with me to any other computer.
The SQLite R*Tree Module
www.sqlite.org
February 4, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
olaren.dev
Here is what I've been doing this past week: git.olaren.dev/Olaren/mapto...
A little python program that generates poster for cities! You might have seen stuff like this around lately, but I modified it to put an emphasis on rail infrastructure :3
A picture showing an example output of the program on the city of Montréal and the autumn color scheme. You can see a map of the city with all the roads, trains, subways and light rail. At the bottom there the poster is titled MONTRÉAL - QUÉBEC. The latitude and longitude are also written under the title. A picture showing an example output of the program on the city of Paris and the emerald color scheme. You can see a map of the city with all the roads, trains, subways and light rail. At the bottom there the poster is titled PARIS - FRANCE. The latitude and longitude are also written under the title. A picture showing an example output of the program on the city of Tokyo and the japanese ink color scheme. You can see a map of the city with all the roads, trains, subways and light rail. At the bottom there the poster is titled TOKYO - JAPAN. The latitude and longitude are also written under the title. A picture showing an example output of the program on the city of Berlin and the noir color scheme. You can see a map of the city with all the roads, trains, subways and light rail. At the bottom there the poster is titled BERLIN - GERMANY. The latitude and longitude are also written under the title.
January 25, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
danabra.mov
formats over apps
A Social Filesystem — overreacted
Formats over apps.
overreacted.io
January 18, 2026 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
drmowinckels.io
My #RPackageAdvent2025 recap is live! 📦✨ Get the complete guide to modern R package development: setup, docs, testing, CI/CD, and CRAN submission. All 25 days of tips, tools, and best practices in one place! Dive in! #RStats #RPackageDevelopment
Link: https://drmo.site/8ny3eU
A festive digital illustration features the blue R logo wearing a red Santa hat with white trim on the left. To its right stands a green Christmas tree made entirely of curly braces arranged in a triangular shape. White and light-blue %>% pipe symbols float across a dark blue, starry background like snowflakes. A speech bubble above the R logo says “Ho Ho Ho! 📦” in red text. At the bottom, white text reads: “R Package Development Advent Calendar 2025” and below it, “25 Days of Coding Magic • Dec 1–25.
December 28, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
gankra.bsky.social
so pumped for the ty beta to finally be here, we did so much great work it rules! astral.sh/blog/ty
ty: An extremely fast Python type checker and language server
ty is an extremely fast Python type checker and language server, written in Rust, and designed as an alternative to mypy, Pyright, and Pylance.
astral.sh
December 16, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
drmowinckels.io
🎄 ANNOUNCEMENT: R Package Development Advent Calendar 2025! 🎄

Starting December 1st, I'm launching a 25-day journey through modern R package development. here's why you should follow along 🧵

#rstats #RPackageAdvent2025 #OpenSource
A festive digital illustration features the blue R logo wearing a red Santa hat with white trim on the left. To its right stands a green Christmas tree made entirely of curly braces arranged in a triangular shape. White and light-blue %>% pipe symbols float across a dark blue, starry background like snowflakes. A speech bubble above the R logo says “Ho Ho Ho! 📦” in red text. At the bottom, white text reads: “R Package Development Advent Calendar 2025” and below it, “25 Days of Coding Magic • Dec 1–25.”
November 30, 2025 at 10:03 AM
radovan.xyz
Diátaxis is an amazing resource that I recommend to everyone writing documentation or tutorials: diataxis.fr

I find myself returning to it every few weeks, and each time I learn something new.

#documentation
Diátaxis
Diátaxis is a widely-adopted, pragmatic and systematic approach to thinking about and creating documentation.
diataxis.fr
November 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
radovan.xyz
A bug in my code produced a psychedelic map. This was supposed to look very different but I liked the result. #dataviz
Screenshot from a buggy data visualization code which produced a psychedelic looking map.
September 13, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
code4thought.bsky.social
1st episode of 2025 winter season of #code4thought: radovan.xyz, Richard & samumantha.bsky.social explain how the coderefinery.org helps researchers get up to speed with the digital/software skills they all need. Out not on your podcast app, YouTube podcast and codeforthought.buzzsprout.com
Code for Thought
Welcome to Code for Thought, the podcast about software for research and the people who make it.  Languages: English, German, French
codeforthought.buzzsprout.com
September 2, 2025 at 8:44 AM
radovan.xyz
Today I watched "The Big OOPs: Anatomy of a Thirty-Five Year Mistake" [C. Muratori] - amazing presentation and a carefully researched history lesson about OOP, about where the core ideas came from and where some really good ideas got lost:

www.computerenhance.com/p/the-big-oo...
The Big OOPs: Anatomy of a Thirty-Five Year Mistake
My presentation from the inaugural Better Software Conference, with notes.
www.computerenhance.com
July 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
radovan.xyz
Looking back at years of doing web development with a tiny browser console log window and complaining about it until I learned that I can configure it to use a separate window.
Screenshot from movie "Being John Malkovich" where employees work in offices with very low ceiling.
July 24, 2025 at 5:52 PM
radovan.xyz
It is such a joy to browse the amazing interactive articles by Bartosz Ciechanowski - like this one (but there is so much more!): ciechanow.ski/mechanical-w...
Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski
Interactive article explaining how a mechanical watch works.
ciechanow.ski
June 25, 2025 at 9:07 PM
radovan.xyz
💡 TIL that G. Voronyi (of Voronoi diagrams) was the doctoral advisor of B. N. Delaunay (Delaunay triangulation) and W. Sierpiński (Sierpiński fractals).
June 13, 2025 at 2:28 PM
radovan.xyz
Trying out my first Windows installation in this century - what did I miss?
June 2, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
unidata.bsky.social
We at NSF Unidata are pleased to announce that we have now received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the next year of our five-year award. This allows us to end the current furlough of our staff and resume our operations. buff.ly/GafcZts
June 2, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
unidata.bsky.social
Due to the current gap in funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the NSF Unidata Program is pausing most operations effective 12 May 2025. Nearly all staff will be furloughed until funds from our existing NSF grant become available. For more information, see buff.ly/d2TC1Oy
NSF Unidata Pause in Most Operations
NSF Unidata Pause in Most Operations
www.unidata.ucar.edu
May 9, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
iancosden.bsky.social
US-RSE is here! 🎉
@us-rse.bsky.social
March 25, 2025 at 10:42 AM
radovan.xyz
I wrote about how I interface #Fortran and #rustlang: radovan.xyz/blog/fortran...
Fortran calling Rust
A tour of interfacing Fortran with Rust through a C interface
radovan.xyz
March 23, 2025 at 4:37 PM
radovan.xyz
Having fun typing a blog post about how to call #rustlang from #Fortran. It's all about choosing the right tools.
Image of the draft table of contents which looks like written with a typewriter.
March 22, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
jonah.duckles.nz
🧵 10 Simple Rules for Leadership Without Formal Authority

A resource to use when you're leading and growing teams you don't have formal authority over.

Full resoruce at: eoss-om-communitycalls.github.io/2024-08-27-1... y también en Español eoss-om-communitycalls.github.io/2024-08-27-1...
10 Simple Rules for Leadership Without Formal Authority
eoss-om-communitycalls.github.io
March 21, 2025 at 9:35 PM
radovan.xyz
This amazing space is recharging and inspiring like a visit to a museum or an art exhibition.
maxy.bsky.social Maxwell Neely-Cohen @maxy.bsky.social · Mar 20
The new issue of The HTML Review is here!

Twelve pieces of poetry, fiction, essays, and experiments, all of which use and explore the world wide web as medium.

The table of contents as always designed by my brilliant co-editor Shelby

thehtml.review/04/
the html review 04
thehtml.review
March 21, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Radovan Bast
richardsever.bsky.social
Big news: we are setting up a new non-profit organization to run bioRxiv and medRxiv. It's called openRxiv [no it's not a new preprint server; it's dedicated organization to oversee the servers] openrxiv.org 1/n
Homepage - openRxiv
openRxiv is an independent non-profit, the new organizational home for bioRxiv and medRxiv, enabling researchers to instantly share groundbreaking findings with the global scientific community.
openrxiv.org
March 11, 2025 at 1:20 PM
radovan.xyz
TIL about this very cool #map of bedrock by the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU): geo.ngu.no/kart/berggru...
Screenshot of the National bedrock database map.
March 10, 2025 at 8:26 PM
radovan.xyz
Time to archive data. #FiveThirtyEight
#!/usr/bin/env bash for repo in ap-election-loader \ data \ pym.js \ multi-slider \ uber-tlc-foil-response \ d3-pre-renderer \ d3-pre-cli \ d3-pre \ gulp-d3-pre \ oscar-ads \ react-color \ victory \ victory-chart \ guns-data \ nfl-elo-game \ redistricting-atlas-data \ russian-troll-tweets \ actblue-analysis \ checking-our-work-data \ twitter-overlap \ candidate-emails \ nba-player-advanced-metrics \ covid-19-polls \ WNBA-stats \ superbowl-ads \ police-settlements \ negro-leagues-player-ratings \ election-results \ github-actions \ ai2html; do git clone --mirror https://github.com/fivethirtyeight/${repo}.git done
March 7, 2025 at 10:11 PM
radovan.xyz
Typst is such a pleasure to work with: the usability, the documentation, the Typst Universe, the Open Source - thank you!
typst.app Typst @typst.app · Feb 19
Typst 0.13 releases today! This update is all about listening to feedback. Read on to find out which of the most highly anticipated changes we made.
Image saying Typst 0.13 with icons for entry, vector graphics, a globe (internet), a package, PDF, charts, fonts, indents, and attachments
February 27, 2025 at 7:49 PM