20 random bookmarks

2025-09-23

134.

Cap'n Web: A new RPC system for browsers and web servers

blog.cloudflare.com/capnweb-javascript-rpc-library

Cap'n Web is a new open source, JavaScript-native RPC protocol for use in browsers and web servers. It provides the expressive power of Cap'n Proto, but with no schemas and no boilerplate.

2025-06-12

116.

Always do Extra

www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2021/always-do-extra.php

Extra is different than More. Extra is finishing those two screens, but then researching a new library for form validation that might reduce the boilerplate code. Or it's learning ways to protect against common security vulnerabilities from data entry. These little off-ramps from the main highway of Normal Work could be dead-ends and not have any practical value to the project. But they might also be important contributions. And that's the thing with Extra. While the tangible value to the project is uncertain (it could be nothing this time or it could be something), the value to you is real.

2025-05-15

108.

Writing that changed how I think about PL

bernsteinbear.com/blog/pl-writing

Every so often I come across a paper, blog post, or (occasionally) video that completely changes how I think about a topic in programming languages and compilers. For some of these posts, I can’t even remember how I thought about the idea before reading it—it was that impactful.

2025-03-18

102.

CASCII - ASCII Diagram Builder

cascii.app

A well-equipped ASCII diagram builders freely available on the internet.
It stresses portability, simplicity, and immediateness.

2025-01-09

97.

if got, want: A Simple Way to Write Better Go Tests

mtlynch.io/if-got-want-improve-go-tests

2024-10-21

84.

init.py files are optional. Here’s why you should still use them

dev.arie.bovenberg.net/blog/still-use-init-py

2024-09-30

79.

On Leaving Apple

typesanitizer.com/blog/leaving-apple.html

2024-07-05

60.

JavaScript-Free Sidenotes in Hugo

danilafe.com/blog/sidenotes

2024-06-26

55.

A (more) Modern CSS Reset

piccalil.li/blog/a-more-modern-css-reset

2024-06-24

51.

Deriving Dependently-Typed OOP from First Principles -- Extended Version with Additional Appendices

arxiv.org/abs/2403.06707

The expression problem describes how most types can easily be extended with new ways to produce the type or new ways to consume the type, but not both. When abstract syntax trees are defined as an algebraic data type, for example, they can easily be extended with new consumers, such as print or eval, but adding a new constructor requires the modification of all existing pattern matches. The expression problem is one way to elucidate the difference between functional or data-oriented programs (easily extendable by new consumers) and object-oriented programs (easily extendable by new producers). This difference between programs which are extensible by new producers or new consumers also exists for dependently typed programming, but with one core difference: Dependently-typed programming almost exclusively follows the functional programming model and not the object-oriented model, which leaves an interesting space in the programming language landscape unexplored. In this paper, we explore the field of dependently-typed object-oriented programming by deriving it from first principles using the principle of duality. That is, we do not extend an existing object-oriented formalism with dependent types in an ad-hoc fashion, but instead start from a familiar data-oriented language and derive its dual fragment by the systematic use of defunctionalization and refunctionalization. Our central contribution is a dependently typed calculus which contains two dual language fragments. We provide type- and semantics-preserving transformations between these two language fragments: defunctionalization and refunctionalization. We have implemented this language and these transformations and use this implementation to explain the various ways in which constructions in dependently typed programming can be explained as special instances of the phenomenon of duality.

50.

Microfeatures I Love in Blogs and Personal Websites

danilafe.com/blog/blog_microfeatures

In this post, I talk about pleasant but seemingly minor features in personal sites

2024-06-18

39.

Understanding a Python closure oddity

utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/python/UnderstandingClosureOddity

2024-06-14

33.

A useful shell prompt

blog.meain.io/2022/my-shell-prompt

Featureful zsh prompt.

32.

Putting Go's Context package into context

blog.meain.io/2024/golang-context
30.

litterbox - IRC logger

git.causal.agency/litterbox/about

2024-06-13

24.

Category Theory in Context

math.jhu.edu/~eriehl/context.pdf
20.

My personal C coding style as of late 2023

nullprogram.com/blog/2023/10/08
16.

Avoid Linux locking up in low memory situations using earlyoom

dataswamp.org/~solene/2022-09-28-earlyoom.html

This article presents the program earlyoom to prevent a Linux system to lock up in low memory situations.

2024-06-12

12.

I really like the RP2040

dgroshev.com/blog/rp2040

2024-06-11

7.

NetBSD 10 on a Pinebook Pro laptop

www.idatum.net/netbsd-10-on-a-pinebook-pro-laptop.html

I've been running NetBSD on a RockPro64 since NetBSD 10-BETA, and I'm still happy with it now with NetBSD 10-RELEASE. I'm always looking for hardware to hack NetBSD though, and I recently watched a FOSDEM 2024 video: NetBSD 10: Thirty years, still going strong!. The Pinebook Pro laptop was mentioned at one point, which has the same RockChip SoC as the RockPro64. That reminded me I'd been wanting to give this inexpensive ARM 64 laptop a try.