Pragmaphilia Labs

A small laboratory for practical things: apps, games, and ideas worth thinking about. Practical work, done with care, aimed at a better future. That’s Pragmaphilia.

Latest from the lab

What’s Cooking RSS

On the bench: fall 2026

What's in the lab right now, from a 1987 game reborn to a new series of essays.

Notable Releases RSS

Word Salad Surgery 1.0.9 On the App Store

Fresh nonsense words stitched together from donated parts, each with a silly definition written by Apple Intelligence on your own device. Free on the App Store for iPhone; the Mac version is coming soon.

Lab Notes RSS

Lab Notes No. 2: A More Personal Tutor

Education has needed reform since long before AI arrived. Today's models know enough to tutor anyone in almost anything, and the remaining problem is presentation. Here's what we have learned by adding a "professor mode" to our own Claude Code assistant.

Coffee Break RSS

Word Salad Surgery

How the lab makes up playful nonsense words like Chronometrazzle and Sambyakuflimmer, in five easy steps, with no anesthetic required.

Everything, in one RSS feed

See all our apps, newest first, with what’s cooking in the lab.

Divisions

Entertainment

Games. First up: Space Flees 2100, a remake of a 1987 original.

Research Labs

Essays and dialogues, published as the numbered Lab Notes.

Education

Picture books that read themselves aloud, page by page, in your language. Opening soon.

Slack

Things we made while slacking, for others to use while slacking. First up: Word Salad Surgery.

Apps we love

SmartGo: Go books, games, and problems, done right.
RetroArch: the classics, on today’s machines.
Factorio: the factory must grow. Hundreds of hours, no regrets.

News we read

Daring Fireball: John Gruber on Apple, technology, and more.
And now it’s all this: Dr. Drang, engineer, on math, Macs, and scripting.
Six Colors: Jason Snell and friends on Apple and more.