JSON on the Brain
By Jeffrey M. Barber
Since I am tweaking the API, I am going to write some pre-docs here on my passion for JSON. I’m only using JSON because I’m lazy and don’t want to write yet another binary encoder for Java, JavaScript, and eventually Rust. I may at some point, but I’m kind of OK with JSON for now. The key thing I like about JSON is that you can treat it algebraically.
A manifesto of user interface architectures
By Jeffrey M. Barber
The chat demo scripts work with an implicit mental model using the browser, and this post aims to take that model out of my head and make it explicit. For lack of better words, this has turned into a manifesto for user interface.
Thoughts, rust, the dip, strategy forward
By Jeffrey M. Barber
Well, February was a fun month, and I thought about many things. I’d like to share some of them now.
First, I’m learning rust and I love it. It’s a good language, and it triggers the special feeling that I’m making something that will last. Part of this is from the discipline of the borrow checker where I have to be very careful with how I do memory. Sure, I could try to mimic the niceness that a garbage collected language provides or just go sloppy with how C++ works, but that’s just digging a hole. With rust, I have to plan, think hard, and design the shape of the beast more upfront. As an example, I’m writing a JSON parser to flex some parser skills. I’m proud to say that it was not easy, and I like the results so far.
Some Thinky Thoughts for 2021
By Jeffrey M. Barber
So, as promised, I’ve been thinking about things.
First up, I am having this deep well of regret that I fucked up by targeting Java as the platform. For one, companies like Cloudflare are investing deep in WebAssembly, and their offering around durable objects is exciting. It feels like the right infrastructure for my language to target. Now is it going to be perfect? Doubtful, but perfect is the enemy of good which is a common fight I enjoy because I’m stupid. Furthermore, dfinity is introducing WebAssembly canisters to run in a decentralized way. IF ONLY I had the fucking to wisdom target WebAssembly, then I could leverage other people’s infrastructure. However, WebAssembly feels way too low-level for my patience, and there are a swarm of problems in targetting that directly. What if I translated to Rust?
A New Year, What is Up for 2021?
By Jeffrey M. Barber
It is a new year, and I have been incommunicado up until now. So, I’ll scream into the void of digital ether.
Last Performance Update (for July?)
By Jeffrey M. Barber
From last time, the performance and user cost was sitting at: