Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Cross-Compiling Raylib Lisp Bindings and Games for Windows from Linux

2025-06-30

This article details the process of cross-compiling C code and an SBCL Lisp program for Windows from Linux, using Wine to run a Windows SBCL within a Linux-based Emacs, and loading .dll files into the Lisp image to produce a .exe executable. The author outlines cross-compiling C code using mingw-w64-toolchain, configuring the Raylib library for cross-compilation to generate .dll files, installing and using SBCL within Wine, leveraging vend for dependency management, and finally using sb-ext:save-lisp-and-die to create the Windows executable.

(www.fosskers.ca)

Development

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-06-30

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved share arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these principles and only partners with those who adhere to them. Have an idea to improve the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

Rust Error Handling: Evolving from Monolithic Enums to Elegant Error Sets

2025-06-30

Rust's error handling has been a point of contention. The traditional approach of defining massive error enums per module or crate leads to bloated and hard-to-maintain code. This article explores alternatives: representing individual errors with structs and managing error sets using tools like the `error_set` crate. `error_set` simplifies error enum definition and conversion via macros, supporting composition and subset relationships between error sets for cleaner, more efficient error handling. While extra work is still needed for complex errors requiring additional information, `error_set` provides a more elegant and maintainable approach to Rust error handling.

(felix-knorr.net)

Development

Blazing Fast In-Process Event Dispatcher for Go

2025-06-30

This Go package delivers a high-performance, in-process event dispatcher ideal for decoupling modules and enabling asynchronous event handling. Boasting speeds 4-10x faster than channels (processing millions of events per second!), it supports both synchronous and asynchronous operations with a focus on simplicity. Perfect for intra-process module decoupling, lightweight pub/sub, and high-throughput scenarios, but not suitable for inter-process communication, event persistence, or advanced routing.

(github.com)

Development Event Dispatcher

Scaling Customer Container Builds with the Depot API

2025-06-30

Many SaaS platforms need to run code on behalf of their customers, presenting challenges in container building. This post demonstrates building tools with the Depot API to create isolated build environments for a multi-tenant SaaS platform. Using a Go client, you can create projects, manage project caches, retrieve build metrics, and logs. The Depot API leverages Buf.build, offering client libraries for various languages, making integration into existing infrastructure seamless. The article details creating, deleting, and resetting project caches, fetching build metrics and step details, ultimately enabling scalable and secure customer container infrastructure.

(depot.dev)

Development container builds

Python Dataclasses: `kw_only=True` for Maintainability and Extensibility

2025-06-30

Python's dataclasses offer a convenient way to create data classes, but the default `__init__` method uses positional arguments, which can lead to maintenance and extension difficulties. This article introduces the `kw_only=True` parameter, which enforces keyword arguments, preventing issues caused by changes in argument order and allowing subclasses to add required fields flexibly. While this parameter was introduced in Python 3.10, the article also provides a solution for compatibility with older versions.

(chipx86.blog)

Development

Knuth's 'Premature Optimization is the Root of All Evil' Misunderstood?

2025-06-30

This article delves into the actual meaning of Donald Knuth's famous quote, "Premature optimization is the root of all evil." By analyzing examples from Knuth's paper on using goto statements and implementing multisets, the author shows that the quote doesn't entirely discourage small optimizations. Experiments comparing different implementations reveal that even minor optimizations (like loop unrolling) can yield significant performance gains for critical code and frequently used library functions, depending on benchmarking results. The author ultimately advocates for using well-optimized standard library functions to avoid unnecessary optimization efforts and leverage modern compiler optimization capabilities.

(probablydance.com)

Development

The Book of Shaders: A Gentle Introduction to Fragment Shaders

2025-06-30

The Book of Shaders, authored by Patricio Gonzalez Vivo and Jen Lowe, provides a step-by-step guide to understanding fragment shaders. It gently navigates the complexities of this abstract topic. The book includes author bios, acknowledging numerous contributors and translators who made multiple language versions possible.

(thebookofshaders.com)

Development

Bypassing Malware VM Detection: Spoofing a CPU Fan via Custom SMBIOS

2025-06-30

Malware often checks for the absence of hardware components typically not emulated in virtual machines (like a CPU fan) to evade analysis. This post details how to bypass this detection by modifying the virtual machine's SMBIOS data to spoof a CPU fan. The author thoroughly explains the steps for Xen and QEMU/KVM environments, including obtaining SMBIOS data, creating a custom SMBIOS file, and configuring the VM. The post also highlights the need to additionally handle SMBIOS Type 28 (temperature probe) data in Xen for successful WMI deception.

(wbenny.github.io)

Development

NativeJIT: A High-Performance JIT Compiler for Bing

2025-06-30

NativeJIT is an open-source, cross-platform library for high-performance just-in-time compilation of expressions involving C data structures. Developed by the Bing team for use in the Bing search engine, it's crucial for scoring documents based on keyword matches and user intent. Lightweight and fast, it relies only on the standard C++ runtime and runs on Linux, OSX, and Windows. Its optimized code, particularly its register allocation, enables efficient processing of large-scale queries.

(github.com)

Development

Budget Ampere Altra Dev Machine Build

2025-06-30

Needing a development machine with 64k page size support, the author built a system based on Ampere Altra. He chose an AsrockRack ALTRA8BUD-1L2T motherboard, a used Q80-30 processor (80 cores, 3.0 GHz), an Arctic Freezer 4U-M cooler, and eight 16GB SK Hynix HMA82GR7CJR8N-XN RAM sticks. After some troubleshooting, the system booted successfully. He also selected a suitable case and power supply, adding NVME storage and a graphics card. The total cost was around €1800, slightly over budget. Future plans include installing Fedora 42, creating RHEL and CentOS Stream VMs, experimenting with different GPUs, and desktop usage.

(marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl)

Development Development Machine

LLVM-MCA Performance Analysis: Pitfalls of Vectorization Optimization

2025-06-29

The author encountered a performance degradation issue when vectorizing code using ARM NEON. The initial code used five load instructions (5L), while the optimized version used two loads and three extensions (2L3E) to reduce memory accesses. Surprisingly, the 2L3E version was slower. Using LLVM-MCA for performance analysis revealed that 2L3E caused bottlenecks in CPU execution units, unbalanced resource utilization, and stronger instruction dependencies, leading to performance regression. The 5L version performed better due to its more balanced resource usage and independent load instructions. This case study highlights how seemingly sound optimizations can result in performance degradation if CPU resource contention and instruction dependencies aren't considered; LLVM-MCA proves a valuable tool for analyzing such issues.

(johnnysswlab.com)

Development

Bloom Filters: A Probabilistic Data Structure for Efficient Set Membership

2025-06-29

Bloom filters are probabilistic data structures designed for rapid and memory-efficient set membership testing. They use multiple hash functions to map elements to bits in a bit vector. If all corresponding bits are 1, the element *may* be present; otherwise, it's definitely absent. While prone to false positives, their speed and space efficiency make them ideal for large datasets. This article details Bloom filter principles, hash function selection, sizing, applications, and implementation examples across various systems.

(llimllib.github.io)

Development

Octelium: A Revolutionary Zero Trust Access Platform

2025-06-29

Octelium is a free and open-source, self-hosted, unified platform for zero trust resource access, designed as a modern alternative to VPNs and similar tools. It's incredibly versatile, functioning as a zero-config VPN, ZTNA platform, secure tunnel infrastructure, API gateway, AI gateway, PaaS for secure and anonymous containerized application hosting, Kubernetes gateway, and even a homelab infrastructure. Octelium offers a scalable zero trust architecture (ZTA) for identity-based, application-layer (L7) aware, secret-less secure access via WireGuard/QUIC tunnels and public clientless access.

(github.com)

Development VPN alternative

The Hidden Copyright War Behind Windows 95's Plug and Play

2025-06-29

Implementing Plug and Play in Windows 95 wasn't easy. To make older hardware work with the new feature, engineers employed ingenious workarounds. One amusing example involved manufacturers adding the string "Not Copyright Fabrikam Computer" to their BIOS. This was a clever trick to fool LitWare Word Processor's licensing check, unlocking the full version without actually being a licensed Fabrikam PC. This highlights the challenges of early PC compatibility and the lengths manufacturers went to for software licensing.

(devblogs.microsoft.com)

Development Plug and Play

IPv4 Down? Linux, WireGuard, and Hetzner Saved My Internet!

2025-06-29

A power outage knocked out my IPv4 internet connectivity, leaving only IPv6, but many websites were inaccessible. I used a Hetzner VPS, WireGuard, and Linux network namespaces to cleverly fix this. By setting up a WireGuard server on the VPS, I tunneled my IPv6 connection to restore IPv4 functionality. Network namespaces allowed me to run my work VPN and Docker without interfering with WireGuard. I also solved WireGuard MTU issues. This whole process highlighted the flexibility and problem-solving power of Linux.

(jamesmcm.github.io)

Development

Two Enigmatic Mathematica Programs

2025-06-29

This code showcases two Mathematica programs that generate numerical sequences. The first employs `Do` and `While` loops to iteratively build a sequence whose growth pattern depends on the position of preceding elements. The second program extends the sequence by cumulatively adding prior differences, continuing until the length surpasses 50. Both programs highlight Mathematica's capability in generating intricate sequences, with algorithms warranting further investigation.

(oeis.org)

Development Sequence Generation

XLibre: A Rebellious Fork of X11 Challenges Wayland's Dominance

2025-06-29

2025-06-28

The Whitesmiths C compiler, originally released in 1978, supported architectures like DEC PDP-11 and Intel 8080, is poised to become open source! Its creator, P.J. Plauger, has granted permission for non-commercial use. Binaries and some source code for versions including CP/M-80 and an IBM System/36 cross-compiler are now available for download. This historically significant compiler will be a valuable resource for studying the history and development of the C language.

(github.com)

Development

Bare-Metal Nim on Raspberry Pi: A Headless Adventure

2025-06-28

This project details a bare-metal environment for Raspberry Pi 1/Zero using the Nim programming language. It features a cooperative scheduler, asynchronous programming model, and direct hardware access without vendor-specific APIs. The project includes memory management, exception handling, and runtime monitoring, along with comprehensive setup instructions. Future plans involve expanding to more target platforms and adding more peripheral drivers.

(github.com)

Development

Generative AI: A Paradigm Shift in Programming

2025-06-28

Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing software development, a change comparable to the shift from assembly language to high-level programming languages. The author argues that LLMs not only raise the level of abstraction but also introduce non-determinism, fundamentally altering the nature of programming. The evolution from Fortran to Ruby improved efficiency but didn't change the core essence of programming. The non-determinism introduced by LLMs requires programmers to adapt, presenting both challenges and opportunities.

(martinfowler.com)

Development

Category: Development