News

An Old News Post, and 20 Years of Pandoc

4 August 2026

I recently noticed that over the last day or so I’d got increased traffic to this rarely-visited website. Quite a few folks were reaching the home page, and a surprising number were landing on an old post of mine from 2004 about Haskell. Why on earth did that happen?

Well, on August 2, John MacFarlane posted a 20 year retrospective on his much-used document conversion toolkit, pandoc. In telling the tale, John mentioned that he got turned on to Haskell back in 2004/5 because that old post of mine.

Given the reach of John’s beautiful and useful toolkit, this may well—no joke—be the widest impact I’ve had on the profession or the wider world.

Anyway, thanks for the shout-out, John, and for all your hard work with the rest of the pandoc team on crafting a truly useful tool.

Of course, I also think that John’s side gig in philosophical logic is great.

Holy Saturday Reflection

5 April 2026

This Easter season, my church marked the occasion with an art exhibition on the theme of Betrayal, and some short reflective evening services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. For the Saturday service, I was asked to give a short reflection on the gospel text: John 19:31-42.

Since I have a website and somewhere to archive my presentations, I’ve uploaded the text of the reflection here.

Debating the Status of Mathematics

18 February 2026

The St Andrews Union Debating Society is a long-standing institution around these parts. Founded in 1794, this student-run society hosts regular debates. Last week, the society collaborated with SUMS, the St Andrews University Mathematics Society, to host a public debate on the status of mathematics, featuring the eminent Emeritus Professor Peter Cameron and my colleague Dr Walter Pedriali on one side, and on the other, Dr David Waszek (an historian and philosopher of mathematics working at the ÉNS in Paris), and me.

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The Shape of an Intermediate Logic Class

29 September 2025

Alongside coordinating and lecturing in PY2010: Intermediate Logic this semester, I have the fun task of teaching one of the tutorial groups, together with our enthusiastic and capable graduate student tutors. My Tuesday morning cohort is a microcosm of the diverse student body at St Andrews.

Of the 13 students, we have two each from England, China, and the USA, and we have one each from Botswana, Denmark, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Scotland and Spain. That’s a diverse bunch.

In addition, six of the 13 are Philosophy majors, six are Mathematics majors, five major in International Relations, and we have one each from French, Computer Science and Psychology. (I haven’t miscounted: some of our students are completing double majors.)

Finally, this cohort consists of eight women and five men. Given their submissions for our first tutorial, starting tomorrow—and given the engagement and enthusiasm that the whole group are showing in lectures—I’m looking forward to spending time with them.

Back in Edgecliffe

22 September 2025

I’ve returned from a productive semester of research leave, and I’m enjoying being back in the classroom teaching Intermediate Logic.

Now that my big book has a complete first draft, my writing energies are focused elsewhere. I’m gearing up to give the 2025 Wendy Huang Lectures in Taiwan next month, so from this coming Wednesday, I’ll be giving the material a test run with the home crowd.

Upcoming trip to North America

28 February 2025

In a few days, I’m heading off to North America, for a brief trip to give a few talks, at Chapman University in California, Calgary University in Alberta, and finally, a brief stop at CUNY in New York. I’m looking forward to meeting new friends and catching up with old ones, as well as the chance to talk with smart people about my research.

Meanwhile, I’ve managed to do a bit of reading during February, as I’ve been preparing for this trip.

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Books Read: January 2025

31 January 2025

This month’s reading was mostly nonfiction, featuring Kevin Hart’s Contemplation (The Movements of the Soul), Haruki Murakami’s essay collection Novelist as a Vocation, the harrowing Chasing Shadows: The Life and Death of Peter Roebuck by Tim Lane and Elliot Cartledge, Drew Neil’s Practical Vim (I’m trying to brush up my text editing skills), and finally, Timothy Larsen’s George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles.

I rounded off the month enjoying my next two instalments of Dan Moren’s Galactic Cold War series, the short story Showdown and the rollicking novel The Aleph Extraction. That was a fun read on the flight to Australia.