Benki → Bookmarks

A proposal for a dialect of C that is free of undefined behavior.

Now, undefined behavior is, of course, useful to compiler vendors because it enables certain optimizations. But in my mind it just makes a C a strange language without a clear idea of itself: It is not the portable assembly language that many of its users treat it as, one that you can rely on to translate into predictable hardware-level instructions; yet at the same time it is not a high-level language either, unsafety and machine specifics lurking behind every corner.

The same author later follows up rejecting the idea of achieving broad consensus before implementing such a dialect as unrealistic. Instead, they argue, someone influentual enough should just pave the way by writing their code in a Friendly C and making it the quasi-standard.

A modern Scheme implementation derived from Gambit Scheme. Batteries included. Implements R⁷RS (as a separate module).

It is clearly a bad idea to use jakarta.json.Json, which looks up jakarta.json.spi.JsonProvider using java.util.ServiceLoader for each method call:

perf: Reuse a single JsonProvider.

This speeds up the formatter significantly.

Before:

    Benchmark                                         Mode  Cnt     Score      Error  Units
    FormatterBenchmark.massivelyStructuredLogRecord  thrpt   10  6552.727 ± 2169.572  ops/s
    FormatterBenchmark.simpleLogRecord               thrpt   10  8126.699 ± 2259.912  ops/s
    FormatterBenchmark.structuredLogRecord           thrpt   10  5594.849 ± 1129.151  ops/s

After:

    Benchmark                                         Mode  Cnt       Score        Error  Units
    FormatterBenchmark.massivelyStructuredLogRecord  thrpt   10  137879.001 ±  30467.644  ops/s
    FormatterBenchmark.simpleLogRecord               thrpt   10  896085.217 ± 249890.421  ops/s
    FormatterBenchmark.structuredLogRecord           thrpt   10  553428.807 ± 194787.754  ops/s

Creates WebAssembly components from JavaScript by embedding a full SpiderMonkey runtime in each component.

The resulting components are large, but not as slow as you might think.

Core images for WebAssembly.

An interface definition language for WebAssembly components.

Compiles WebAssembly components that target the WebAssembly System Interface into JavaScript for web browsers as well as Node.js.

Another real-time operating system for embedded devices.

A real-time operating system for embedded devices.

A runtime for WebAssembly programs.

Targets somewhat bigger systems than the embedded-focused WebAssembly Micro Runtime does.

Implements the WebAssembly System Interface.

A specification for how WebAssembly programs can interact with the outside world.

Based on object capabilities.

Also defines a component model.

Implemented by Wasmtime.

Extensions for cap-std, an alternative Rust standard library based on object capabilities.

A version of the Rust standard library that is based on object capabilities.

An introduction to object capabilities.

A safe systems programming language inspired by Swift.

A safe and fast programming language without garbage collection.

A new paper confirming significant negative labor market effects of minimum wage regulation, casting doubt on a prior, widely cited study which did not find such effects by improving on its way of defining the boundaries of local labor markets.

A systems programming language that is a superset of Python. Targets AI development. Has an ownership model similar to Rust’s, but has an otherwise simpler type system with a focus on compilation speed.

If someone can pull it off, Chris Lattner can.

An io_uring tutorial.

A small, Rust-only embedded operating system with preemptive multitasking and message-passing IPC.