My blog began as a blosxom (Perl) site running on a VPS. In 2011 I moved to the new GitHub Pages, with the site generated statically by Jekyll (Ruby) on a GitHub server. It was a no-brainer: easier, faster, and cheaper, better in every way. After 15 years of Jekyll, this week I replaced it with a new, custom-built static site generator, dubbed ssg, in “C with templates” C++20. The ~8KLoC source closely follows my personal coding style including templated arenas and slices, zero dependencies, and a libc-free core. It’s wicked fast, and a complete, cold generation of my blog takes 150ms on my…
The past year has been exciting for w64devkit, which like any software distribution is never complete. Peter0x44 joined as co-maintainer, and has pushed the project in good, new directions, with ideas I would never have considered. Many of his improvements have gone back upstream, and so you may benefit even if you don’t use w64devkit. I’d like to touch on the various odds and ends from the past year. Release security In April I announced that release packaging is now signed. Today all EXEs and DLLS in w64devkit are code-signed with my key. My signing key established a good reputation thanks…
This article was discussed on reddit and on Hacker News. This past Tuesday I typed C-x C-c in Emacs for the last time after 20 years of daily use. Though nearly half that time was gradually retiring it, switching to modal editing, then to Vim. Emacs is a platform, and I’d grown accustomed to its applications, especially those I built myself. There was no particular hurry, so replacements came slowly. With my newly-acquired superpowers I could knock out the last two pieces in a few days’ work, namely M-x calc with stackcalc and Elfeed with Elfeed2. I’m especially excited about the latter…
The new w64devkit release two weeks ago is the first to be code-signed with my identity, verified by Microsoft’s certificate chain. Currently only the release packaging is signed — the self-extracting archive and its payload — but I will soon code-sign individual EXEs and DLLs within the distribution. In fact, all Windows builds of my project releases have been code-signed the past two weeks, including dcmake, and so should everything going forward. My signing identity builds reputation with each download, so users will have an easier time with SmartScreen, and security software generally.…
CMake has a --debugger mode since 3.27 (July 2023), allowing software to manipulate it interactively through the Debugger Adaptor Protocol (DAP), an HTTP-like protocol passing JSON messages. Debugger front-ends can start, stop, step, breakpoint, query variables, etc. a live CMake. When I came across this mode, I immediately conceived a project putting it to use. Thanks to recent leaps in software engineering productivity, I had a working prototype in 30 minutes, and by the end of that same day, a complete, multi-platform, native, GUI application. I named it dcmake (“debugger for CMake”). I’ve…
In February I left my employer after nearly two decades of service. In the moment I was optimistic, yet unsure I made the right choice. Dust settled, I’m now absolutely sure I chose correctly. I’m happier and better for it. There were multiple factors, but it’s not mere chance it coincides with these early months of the automation of software engineering. I left an employer that is years behind adopting AI to one actively supporting and encouraging it. As of March, in my professional capacity I no longer write code myself. My current situation was unimaginable to me only a year ago. Like it…
Optional Google Analytics helps us understand visits. Microsoft Clarity records masked interactions to improve the site. Optional tools stay off unless you choose them. Privacy details.