
Two's Complement
If you come to a fork in the road, take it! Two’s Complement is a programming podcast, hosted by Matt Godbolt and Ben Rady; two programmers who both grew up wanting to make video games. One of them did, one of them didn’t, but now they both work together despite coming from very different backgrounds.
Latest episodes

4 snips
Oct 12, 2022 • 54min
Swift (with Doug Gregor)
Doug Gregor, one of the original designers of the Swift programming language, shares his insights on its evolution and design philosophies. He discusses how Swift might serve as a successor to C++, emphasizing improvements in safety and usability. The conversation dives into Swift's unique features like witness tables for generics, value semantics for thread safety, and user-friendly optional types. Gregor also highlights the language's performance advantages and the importance of community involvement in its ongoing development.

Sep 14, 2022 • 49min
Carbon Footprint
Ben and Matt dive into Carbon, a programming language backed by Google, and discuss its aim to succeed C++. They explore the challenges of language evolution, drawing parallels to Python's transitions. The chat highlights the unique features of Carbon, emphasizing memory safety and interoperability with C++. They also share laughs over the quirky naming conventions in software development and the vibrant community culture, inviting listeners to engage in the discussion. Get ready for insights on the future of programming languages!

Aug 15, 2022 • 50min
Weird Webapps
Discover the quirky journey of building web applications for trading. From adopting a Chrome-only approach to simplifying code through WebSockets, Matt and Ben share their insights. They dive into the challenges of balancing user experience with programming correctness and transform testing with headless browsers. Tune in for experiments comparing custom protocols to JSON, and hear strategies for optimizing performance in real-time trading apps. It's a blend of nostalgia and technical revelations in the world of web development!

Jul 15, 2022 • 52min
Virtual Infrastructure
Ben and Matt compare container technologies like Docker to virtual machines, and discuss the tradeoffs when deploying applications. Matt explains the scary things that can happen when you share a VM with strangers. A visitor enters through the couch.

Jun 19, 2022 • 41min
Golf for Hackers
Matt and Ben talk, about uh...golf? What? Is this right? Did you check this? Apparently, in this episode, Ben explains how technology and analytical advances in golf have dramatically changed the game. Matt gently prods him on.

May 18, 2022 • 50min
Async Whatevers
Ben and Matt talk about various styles of asynchronous programming, ranging from Node.js, Ruby's EventMachine, C++ coroutines, and the new JVM Project Loom. Schedule yourself a listen, won't you?

Apr 16, 2022 • 37min
Terrible Business Ideas
Matt and Ben both recall their prior adventures founding companies that sold tools for software developers. What's the best approach to this business? Go play a nice video game instead.

Mar 22, 2022 • 39min
Java and/or C++?
Ben and Matt have a work conversation spill over into podcast. Join our hosts as they compare Java and C++ as two possible languages for a new project.

Feb 20, 2022 • 50min
Compile-Time Programming (with Hana Dusíková)
Ben and Matt are joined by Hana Dusíková and discuss panoramic photographs, Matt's career peak, and compile-time programming, including her ground-breaking regular expression library. Links from the show:
Hana's Panoramic photos
CTRE library
Hana's slides

Feb 3, 2022 • 29min
Performance
Our most efficient podcast ever. Ben and Matt talk performance testing and optimization in fewer than 30 minutes.
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