Series
Building from First Principles
Articles that build core ideas directly, from calculators and emulators to language models.
1. Building from First Principles··experimentalBuilding a Calculator EngineImplement a calculator engine with tokenization, ASTs, floating-point details, and natural input.2. Building from First Principles··experimentalHamssun: Building a Python LispBuild a small Lisp interpreter through S-expressions, evaluation traces, and a REPL.3. Building from First Principles··experimentalImplementing a Genetic AlgorithmImplement genomes, selection, crossover, and mutation, then observe evolution across generations.4. Building from First Principles··stableBuilding an ASCII 3D RendererBuild an ASCII 3D renderer from coordinate transforms, projection, rasterization, and shading.5. Building from First Principles··experimentalBuilding a 3D Illusion GameCombine projection, adjacency, and forced perspective to implement a 3D illusion puzzle.6. Building from First Principles··experimentalBuilding an NES EmulatorConnect a 6502 CPU, PPU, tiles, audio, and WebAssembly to emulate the NES in a browser.7. Building from First Principles··experimentalBuilding a Small Language ModelConnect embeddings, attention, transformers, and sampling to understand a small language model.8. Building from First Principles··experimentalBuilding a Coding AgentBuild a small coding agent through its loop, tool calls, context growth, and ablation tests.9. Building from First Principles··experimentalBuilding an Email Relay SystemDesign an email relay system from SMTP sessions, address tokens, and reply parsing.10. Building from First Principles··experimentalBuilding an Encrypted Sharing VaultDesign an encrypted sharing vault with key hierarchies, zero-knowledge boundaries, and share flows.