Articles

Nix for Robotics: Does It Fit?

Reproducible builds, hardware configuration as code, and the real trade-offs

Published: 2026-02-04
Est. reading time: 9–13 min.
Author: Platonic.Systems
Tags: nix; robotics; ros; embedded; reproducibility; devops

An honest assessment of Nix for robotics: what it solves, who should consider it, and the trade-offs involved.

Shelpers: A Better Approach to Development Shell Scripts in Nix

Published: 2026-01-28
Est. reading time: 10–16 min.
Author: Platonic.Systems
Tags: nix; devx; tooling

A library for building shell scripts that integrate cleanly with Nix development environments, solving directory independence, lazy loading, and self-documentation.

Eliminating the Frontend-Backend Cold War with Type-Level API Contracts

When types are the API, contract mismatches become impossible

Published: 2026-01-19
Est. reading time: 9–14 min.
Author: Isaac Shapira
Tags: haskell; typescript; apis; servant; type-safety

How Servant and custom TypeScript generators eliminate API contract drift by making the type system the single source of truth.

The Five Axes of Interface Design: Why "User-Friendly" Means Nothing

And What to Say Instead

Published: 2025-12-15
Est. reading time: 15–22 min.
Author: Isaac Shapira
Tags: design; ux; interfaces

A framework for thinking clearly about interface design by separating five distinct axes: simplicity, ease, size, certainty, and discoverability.

Nix Flake Architecture in Practice

A Beginner-friendly Tour following a Basic Vim Plugin

Published: 2023-08-31
Modified: 2023-10-01
Est. reading time: 11–16 min.
Author: toastal
Tags: nix; flakes; beginner; setup; architecture

Learn how to set up & think about your basic architecture skeleton with Nix Flakes by following an example

Introducing Secrix

A New Way of Looking at the Secrets Management Problem

Published: 2023-08-30
Modified: 2023-10-05
Est. reading time: 3–5 min.
Author: Chloe Kever
Tags: age; nix; secrets management

Making Secrets Management Easy

How to Sleep while Your Smart Contracts are in Production

Why your smart contract project needs Formal Verification

Published: 2022-10-14
Est. reading time: 4–7 min.
Author: Isaac Shapira
Tags: cardano; smart contracts; formal verification

What is the right tech for a web-based chat?

A retrospective on writing ChatStrike’s chat interface

Published: 2022-10-14
Est. reading time: 5–8 min.
Author: Isaac Shapira; Platonic.Systems
Tags: elm

Introduction to generics-sop

Published: 2022-05-23
Est. reading time: 19–29 min.
Author: Sridhar Ratnakumar
Tags: haskell

Introduction to `generics-sop`

Ensuring Your Personal Digital Security

Good security hygiene isn’t just for organizations

Published: 2021-11-10
Est. reading time: 13–19 min.
Author: Isaac Shapira
Tags: 2fa; security

Scaling with UTXOs

Transaction throughput scalability strategies for Plutus smart contracts

Published: 2021-10-05
Est. reading time: 30–45 min.
Author: Morgan Thomas
Tags: cardano; plutus; smart contracts; scalablilty