PLATE I · FRONTISPICIVM

lovable&dev

On the making of things people fall for, against the dashboard.

DE PRINCIPIIS

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES

CAPVT II

DE INSTRUMENTIS

ON THE TOOLS

FIG. II.i · FVNCTIO
argv[0] argv[1] return stack

Functio

A dissected verb. Sinews labeled by ordinal.

FIG. II.ii · CODA
HEAD TAIL enq deq

Coda

A queue, in cross-section. Head pulls, tail breathes.

FIG. II.iii · DEPLOY
v 1.4.2 prod canary

Deploy

A bell-jar. Vapor rises. The canary listens.

FIG. II.iv · ROLL-BACK
N E S W undo

Reditus

A sundial run anti-clockwise. The roll-back.

CAPVT III

DE LOVABILITATE

ON LOVABILITY

A thing is lovable when its maker took the long road on its behalf — when a smaller version of the same thing, shipped six weeks earlier, would have been a betrayal.

CAPVT IV

DE OPIFICIO

ON THE WORKSHOP

  1. 1. Begin with the thing itself, not the deck about the thing.
  2. 2. The user is reading; do not waste their reading.
  3. 3. Name a thing once, well, and then never rename it.
  4. 4. A migration is a promise; a rollback is a debt repaid.
  5. 5. Latency is contempt; lateness is craft.
  6. 6. A test is a letter to your future self — write legibly.
  7. 7. Ship the thing as if you alone will read its source on Sunday.

CAPVT V

DE COSIS AMABILIBVS

ON LOVABLE THINGS

CAPVT VI

COLOPHON

EX OFFICINA

STVDIO LOVABILIS · MMXXVI · DE RE AMABILI

Set in two cuts of one neo-grotesque. Printed in chrome on vellum.

Pressed by hand, pinned with steel, lit by morning.

— FINIS —