25 Fall
25 Fall Learning Record
25 Fall begins: RCompiler to rely on, chaotic Architecture course, two math courses, three 8 am physics classes, and TA work.
Turns out I am already a sophomore.
Some plans for the semester.
Please let me get out of here. Every day I fantasize about whether I can skip the remaining three undergraduate years and go straight to the US.
Most people live lives of quiet desperation: they want to speak, but stop.
Optimization is interesting.
Hot weather always gives me headaches. If I keep drinking Coke, I will become Coke.
Compiler is progressing well, but I owe a huge amount of physics coursework.
The day before yesterday I replied to a post on Shuiyuan: “I want to hear what people think about the end of life.”
JaneZ: You can think about what you still want to do, what scenery you have not yet seen, and all the crazy things. If none of those remain, then I guess it is time to start the afterlife.
My resentment toward 8 am physics reached a new high.
Small mistakes can become disasters. I almost burned the motherboard.
After reading coderaka’s post, I realized that my own year has not been much different. I have lost almost all sharpness.
During National Day, I made a spontaneous trip to Hong Kong and Shenzhen. I had wanted to visit HK for a long time, since the last time was 15 years ago. I departed on 10.3 and booked flights and hotels on 10.2. Both flights were with MU. To save money on the return trip, I arrived in Shenzhen the previous night and flew from Bao’an to Pudong at noon the next day.
The cause was simple: one noon I saw a video essay about Chungking Express on Bilibili, rewatched the film, and then decided to go see the city.
The trip cost around 5,000 RMB, with flights and hotels taking up about 4,000. But I saw many places: Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, The Peak, Log-On in Mong Kok, Donki in Causeway Bay, and I took many excellent photos.
Traveling without concerns is really good. In an exhausted city, I found the freedom I wanted.
The Z30 performed steadily. Details are in my shuoshuo and puq.
I think I will go to Hong Kong many, many more times in the future.
After returning from HK, I rushed the probability theory deadline and the compiler deadline. Everything was finally finished on the evening of 10.9. My head felt like it was about to explode.
After working all night, I added an Easter egg and made my first HTML interface. You are welcome to find it.
I want to write a blog post in detail about the many problems I encountered while configuring the assassyn environment. I will try to do it today.
On Friday I passed semantic-2, so semantic is basically finished. From early August to late October, two and a half months, cloc says the codebase is about 10,000+ lines. Overall the difficulty was not too high; I did not encounter any truly incomprehensible bugs, but the engineering volume was terrifying. It was also my first time writing something this large. IR is still ahead. I will catch up on classes and homework, then continue.
I watched Leonardo DiCaprio’s new film. Nowadays, when I watch revolutionary films, or those extremely typical American films, they all look silly to me.
Recently I watched some film recaps on Bilibili and saw several Hong Kong films, or maybe not entirely Hong Kong films, but I think they are classics: A Chinese Odyssey, Rouge, and Farewell My Concubine. I will watch the full versions when I have time.
Physics midterm next Monday.
After midterms, IR and CPU will both begin. IR seems not too difficult, especially since LLVM interfaces can be used. The CPU problem is that I am not yet familiar with assassyn’s syntax features, but implementing a five-stage pipeline plus OoO itself should not be too hard.
Getting up at 8 am every day to play basketball. Shooting is still too difficult.
There is also the physical fitness test. Truly the most painful episode.
I want to learn many things, but something always gets in the way, such as physics.
As expected, physics went badly. I was counting on wsy to rescue us, but we got raw scores. Still, given that I studied physics for no more than four days in the first two months of the semester, whatever.
I do not want to curse. I have cursed physics for seven or eight years. Nothing hurts more than losing four points on the physics multiple-choice section of the 2024 Jiangsu Gaokao and saying goodbye to PKU.
It seems possible to pour myself completely into one thing without being disturbed by the outside world.
It has been a long time since the last update. It looks like 25 Fall is over. It is now 1:00 am Beijing time on January 24, 2026.
In late December and early January, I unfortunately caught a serious cold plus bronchitis, with occasional headaches and low fever. My long-standing arrhythmia flared up again, so I had to postpone the physics exam. That pressure is now pushed to next semester. The compiler and CPU projects were completed fairly well. Although I wasted a lot of time on IR and went through one code refactor, at least I finished before the deadline. The CPU project was my first experience with vibe coding, and it was quite successful. It was also surprising to receive praise from wj. The two math courses went decently, though of course I cannot compare with the full-GPA people.
The high-pressure first semester of sophomore year has passed steadily.
During winter break, I will first go skiing in Jilin with npy, then go city walking in Singapore with my best friend, and before the Lunar New Year I will visit Changsha. Academically, I need not only to review physics but also to start contacting senior students in labs. I roughly know what I want, but it is better to understand more. I also selected Advanced Compiler, so I feel I can start doing something, although I will probably give up because of laziness.
