From my experience, WASM is great for easily porting existing codebases to the browser. It took me less than a day to download Emscripten, learn a little about WASM, make one toy project, and then port a 20-year-old, 40-KLOC C++ project to the browser [1]. The last part only took me half an hour, and I don't even write C++.
I am reverse-engineering a PKCS#11 module for Gemalto smart cards and re-implementing it in Zig (https://github.com/ubavic/srb-id-pkcs11). The original module is published only for Windows, and my implementation targets *nix platforms. This is my first project in Zig, and I am very happy with the language.
I am currently working on a custom markup language called atex. It's syntax reminds of latex syntax, but with @ instead \ as a special character (very similar to the Lout language, if anyone remembers it). Also, the atex language hasn't any predefined commands. Instead, all commands are defined via schema specified in a separate YAML file. Schema defines commands that can be used and means of "rendering" those commands to different targets (HTML, Tex, Typst, whatever...)
Just today, I finished first working version of the new compiler (https://github.com/ubavic/mint). It is written in Go, and there are lot of things on the TODO list, but it works :)
This is actually the second compiler for the atex. The first one was written in Haskell and compiled fixed document schema. I used it for writing a book on Haskell (https://github.com/ubavic/programming-in-haskell).
This year marks 40 years of Galaksija, and the magazine PC Press with the author of the Galaksija Voja Antonic released a reprint of the original special issue which introduced Galaksija. Building kit is also available. More information is available on: https://racunari.com/
Not Pascal Pascal, but a spinoff: AL for Business Central (Microsoft's ERP system). It is a very old system, but Microsoft heavily develops it (every year new language and std lib features, first class VS Code integration). Userbase is pretty big (and seems like it is growing).
I am actually thinking these days about building a BASIC compiler for another Z80 retro machine (Galaksija). But I am a little bit afraid about the machine code generation part. How hard was it to target Z80?
Hmm, I always disliked coordinate approach to (multi)linear algebra. To me, the notion of a tensor product clicked with the following definition:
Tensor product v₁⊗v₂ of vectors form V is bilinear form on the dual space V* defined by v₁⊗v₂(ω₁,ω₂) = v₁(ω₁)v₂(ω₂). Tensor product V⊗V is space of all bilinear forms on V*,
This can easily be generalized to products of forms (covariant tensors), and mixed tensor products. Getting coordinate representation in basis (E₁ ... Eₙ) is trivial: (v₁⊗v₂)ₖ,ₗ = v₁⊗v₂(εₖ,εₗ) where εₖ is dual to Eₖ...
A little off-topic: I am seeing the same design in 1/3 of links that get to to HN front page. The design is clearly a copy of the Vercel's design (and maybe they stole it from somewhere else). The same typography, gradients, border radius, and definitely the same blur effect.
I am happy that 'Corporate Memphis' is dying, but I am not happy it is getting replaced with another fad.
Makes me wonder, does someone keep track of web design trends trough history?
If you are in Belgrade you will maybe interested into Decentrala (https://dmz.rs). Decantrala is a new tech-community/hackerspace organized around idea of decentralization and knowledge sharing. We try to organize talks/workshops every week and we covered many topics: form lambda calculus to Mail servers and PGP.
We all share love for technology, but we try to organize as much as possible events live because we believe that live contact is very important today. If you are seeking friends and you love technology, come and visit us.
I am interested in simulators, especially in simulators of analogue circuits. Do you have any recommendations on where to start reading about algorithms that lie at the core of simulators?
Also, how was the experience developing such product with JS?
For anyone that wants to try this type of coding, I would recommend just to start. Pick your favorite language and just start drawing things. You will often need some thing that you don't know, but you will learn as you go. It often feels like 'hacking' to get result. Coding train, reddit, and personal blogs are perfect starting points. Remember, like in any art, it is about process, not result.
BTW: Every January is month of creative coding (https://genuary.art/), so you can join hundreds of other artists in 'solving' daily prompts. I did last Genuary (well not all prompts), and I got some some results that I am proud of (https://github.com/ubavic/genuary2022). That was the first time I coded in Processing.