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A content/posts/salazar_slytherin_is_a_druid.md
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+---
+title: Bug in SPSS's Excel Writer
+date: "2024-01-08T05:39:23+00:00"
+draft: false
+---
+
+I was unpleasantly surprised to discover a corrupted Excel data file this week.
+Luckily I was fully prepared to rebuild it with my pipeline in SPSS, but rather
+puzzlingly, rebuilding did *not* cure the problem.
+I was returned the exact same corruption error in the new file.
+
+The first, and typically only, investigation for such issues is into the input
+data files.
+*Surely the corruption came from elsewhere.*
+But after a few minutes of poking and prodding, I found nothing wrong there.
+(No ASCII control characters, no embedded case delimiters, no unescaped value
+delimiters, etc., etc.)
+
+My next step was the excessive insertion of debug commands in my pipeline,
+trying to determine where and when the issue first appears.
+(Sadly SPSS lacks useful debug commands; LIST and some personal macros are the
+best available tools.)
+But the frustration continued, as everything seemed perfect up to the very end.
+
+I tried to re-import the corrupted spreadsheet and, strangely, I had no issues
+doing so.
+Whatever issue Excel identified in the file, SPSS was content to work with.
+This prompted me to do some comparisons, to see if any differences existed
+before and after the Excel round-trip.
+And finally I had a culprit:
+my data was magically mutating when written to an Excel file.
+Before, a string read like "Phase 2B: \_x0001\_".
+After, it was "Phase 2B: □".
+
+Now I export the mutated data into a text file for closer inspection of the
+byte literals.
+I found the ASCII control character for start of header.
+Surely it isn't a coincidence that SOH corresponds to `01`, which I suppose
+you can creatively write as `0001`?
+But I've never heard of an escape scheme like "\_xHHHH\_".
+Googling "\_x0001\_" gave me nothing of value.
+
+I used a simple data list to test all of the first 10 codepoints (`00`-`09`).
+These were all exported to an Excel file, read back into SPSS, and written to a
+text file.
+Interestingly the null byte turned into a space character.
+Aside from that, I got exactly what I expected; a series of ASCII control
+characters.
+So "\_x0001\_" clearly isn't a special case.
+
+The next thing I tested is whether the leading and trailing underscores were
+important.
+Indeed they are.
+Now I am convinced this is a scheme for encoding data.
+
+Finally I try "\_x0030\_", to be sure that this was a hexadecimal encoding.
+The decimal `30` codepoint refers to another control character, while the hex
+`30` codepoint refers to the zero character.
+And yes, when I saw the "0" upon re-importing, this confirmed that I was
+dealing with some sort of hexadecimal escape scheme.
+
+----
+
+The issue can perhaps best be demonstrated by trying to reconstruct the issue
+within a first-party, fully supported, WYSIWYG editor.
+I of course mean Microsoft Excel.
+
+I create a new Excel file containing just "foo \_x0001\_ bar" in the first cell,
+save, and exit.
+I can immediately re-open the file, so clearly Excel has not written a corrupt
+file.
+What did Excel do with that value?
+
+It requires some further digging, because modern Excel writes string values to
+a separate `sharedStrings.xml` file in an effort to be more efficient.
+But because I kept the reconstruction short and simple, it's a quick detour.
+Excel took "foo \_x0001\_ bar" and actually wrote "foo \_x005F\_x0001\_ bar".
+In case you don't have your handy ASCII codepage available, `5F` represents
+the underscore character.
+
+This is the neat parallel for the escaping strategy used on the web,
+e.g. `<`.
+`&lt;` wants to be read as "<" by any browser.
+That behavior is effectively 'deferred' by encoding the leading character
+instead,
+so that the first pass of the interpreter renders the intended result.
+
+----
+
+It occurred to me much later that SOH is a very rare and unhelpful control
+character.
+`09`, the tab character, was far more likely to give me a useful Google search.
+And in fact "\_x0009\_" was a much more informative search page.
+I was lead down a rabbit hole of the XML 1.0 spec, Microsoft's documentation
+for `DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet.CellValue` of the OpenXml API, and the
+`ST\_Xstring` type from ECMA-376.
+
+ASCII control characters must be escaped in an XML document like "\_xHHHH\_".
+In other words, when SPSS wrote an unencoded "\_x0001\_" into an XML file,
+it was inevitable that any spec-compliant XML parser would substitute that
+literal with SOH.
+SPSS should have written "\_x005F\_x0001\_" instead.
+
+----
+
+I had to jump through a variety of hoops to report this bug.
+I wasn't surprised by this;
+I certainly didn't expect any more from IBM.
+But I decided it was worthwhile anyway.
+This seems like a highly technical bug that could net me some 'internet cred'.
+

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+---
+title: Salazar Slytherin is a Druid
+date: "2023-12-29T06:18:06+00:00"
+draft: false
+---
+
+And now for something completely different.
+
+----
+
+A common method for teaching Dungeons & Dragons mechanics is to place them in
+cultural context.
+This is especially true for teaching races and classes.
+Human fighters are self-explanatory,
+but it's not obvious if elves are the *Santa's workshop* sort or the *JRPG*
+sort.
+Rogues can sound like an evil profile,
+but remember Robin Hood who gave to the poor.
+
+I personally believe that the druid class can be particularly challenging to
+teach.
+There are few druids in pop culture.
+I've mostly seen new players advised to think about 'the brown wizard in the
+Hobbit movies' (read: Radagast) for circumlocution.
+Many people come away thinking that druids are the ugly duckling of magic
+users.
+Others come away fixating on the 'animal' thing,
+with no respect to the intended philosophy of druids.
+
+I have a novel proposal:
+Salazar Slytherin from the Harry Potter universe is a prototypical druid.
+
+----
+
+One of core traits of the druid class,
+and indeed the trait that attracts the most interest from new players,
+is their connection to animals.
+Druids can use magic to speak with animals and shapeshift into animal forms.
+They partner with an animal familiar.
+Personality-wise, they are pet parents.
+
+Salazar was obviously a snake person.
+They are the mascot and motif of his Hogwarts house.
+
+His most well-known ability was Parseltongue,
+to the point that the Gaunts
+(up to and including Tom Riddle)
+only had to demonstrate that ability to make a claim on Slytherin's legacy.
+This is the clearest link to druidity for Salazar.
+And the ability to talk with animals is rather frequently the *entire reason*
+players pick that class.
+Salazar will effectively communicate these details,
+whereas Radagast's best parallel is having a rabbit-drawn sled.
+
+Salazar's basilisk is also one of the most prominent familiars in the
+Harry Potter universe.
+I'd argue the only competition is Hedwig and Fawkes.
+The basilisk and the chamber that Salazar built for it are the titular topics
+of an entire book, after all.
+
+And what a familiar it is!
+Basilisks have a range of abilities that are both role-play and combat oriented,
+while also being balanced by lore-derived weaknesses (i.e. roosters' crowing).
+This could go a long way to preparing new players for the choice of a familiar.
+
+Needless to say,
+the fact that Salazar made that labyrinth inside the school further emphasizes
+his care for the animal.
+There can be little doubt that he was a *bit obsessed*.
+While it can be unfortunate (as alluded to above),
+*this* is what many new players fixate on for thinking about druid.
+But surely Salazar's template could not make the misunderstanding *worse*.
+
+----
+
+Druids are also deeply connected to nature.
+In D&D, this largely means elemental magics
+(as opposed to god-derived magics;
+or unnatural, evil magics).
+The Harry Potter universe does not divide magic into elemental disciplines,
+instead preferring categories like Transfiguration and Divination.
+
+Let's leave aside the Dark Arts.
+
+Let's instead consider Hogwarts for what it is.
+A stone castle of traditional construction.
+Located in Middle Of Nowhere, Scotland with just a small commercial town
+nearby.
+Beset by by merpeople-inhabited lakes and forbidden forests.
+Isolated *not just* from the trappings of modern urbanism,
+but also from the *(unnatural?)* distractions of government and press and the
+consumer economy.
+Salazar and the co-founders certainly seem to have a disposition towards
+*nature*.
+
+----
+
+Druids are also devoted to a philosophy of balance that is colored by their
+worldview.
+Again, in D&D, this largely has to do with nature as elemental magics.
+They are motivated to action in defence of this balance.
+
+Salazar certainly had opinions about the balance of magical society.
+Unfortunately, his worldview was colored by racism and bigotry.
+He and his basilisk were happy to 'defend' that balance, too.
+
+This is a stretch, I know,
+but perhaps could demonstrate how an evil-aligned druid could be written?
+
+----
+
+In summary, while Radagast is an *option* for relaying the concept of druids in
+Dungeons and Dragons,
+I believe Salazar Slytherin is the *superior choice*.
+

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