macleod's recent activity

  1. Comment on We can fix the future, Star Trek shows us how in ~humanities

    macleod
    Link Parent
    lives for and loves bartending for the interactions works a professional job in "higher" education so cool that you got to meet guinan - did they give you any advice?

    I just had a conversation with someone who talked about how much they loved bartending because of the interactions and how fun it is to make something people like.

    • lives for and loves bartending for the interactions
    • works a professional job in "higher" education

    so cool that you got to meet guinan - did they give you any advice?

    3 votes

  2. Comment on Zig creator weighs in on the Bun Rust rewrite in ~comp

    macleod
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    For people interested in Odin or C3 and put off a bit by Zig either because of this post (of which I like), or because of the ergonomics or syntax or instability on zig, here are my thoughts on...
    • Exemplary

    For people interested in Odin or C3 and put off a bit by Zig either because of this post (of which I like), or because of the ergonomics or syntax or instability on zig, here are my thoughts on comparing Odin to Zig. (a lot said about Odin can be applied to C3, I really like C3, and plan on using it a lot more in the future)

    I have written a lot of Zig, and a lot a lot of Odin over the past five years, specifically using them as control systems language for motor drivers on robotics. I might be one of the only people do this in any real environment, I have had great experiences, and bad, but overall I enjoyed it more than hated.

    Before I say anything about Odin, I have come to learn I really dislike the politics of the Odin creator (he leans a bit too hard to the right for my taste, while every interaction I've had with him is pleasant). Because of his possibly too-far-right-for-my-taste views, I have started to use Odin less and less. It's a small language, a small world, I need to keep some semblance of happiness in my life.

    Now, on the language - Odin is far more advanced in many ways compared to Zig where it matters. Odin is incredibly stable, easier to use, has more of 'the things that directly matter' baked into the language. While the std library is written in Odin, and is often even better than the documentation, the documentation is still a little bit missing, and I agree with him that a language should really never become self-hosting, or at the very least waits until it is a major version with non-breaking changes at its core before doing so, unlike Zig that is still making major breaking changes and pushed as fast as possible to become self-hosting.

    For Odin, the biggest 'gain' is the ergonomics, the level of which and ability has not been seen in programming in decades - Odin just has much better syntax - Odin's syntax is inspired by Pascal/Oberon/Modula-2 which was designed by Wirth (who I see as a god among language designers, his languages and internal code was pure poetry).

    Zig's call to fame was their 'no hidden control flow' but turns out, hidden control flow is what programs do best - to generalize internal structures for easier changing and updates, and the ability to drop down into them is what they should have sought after, similar to Odin, or even C3.

    Zig's second call to fame was the way they use general allocators, they weren't the first (hell, every C program I've ever written - that was the first thing I would implement), but they really help popularize it as an alternative to GC, and simplified manual memory management by doing so by having it built right into the core. Odin takes this and expands it, where every context has its *own contextual allocator, making it so you don't even have to think about it - its there, its controllable, every function has a 'hidden' or optional variable declaration to pass or take allocators and set them to the scope, removes a lot of the boilerplate most people never need, that they mess up because its so cumbersome, and it just makes your code look like a right mess. Odin's method of optional, hidden, contextual allocators really helps remove a lot of the boilerplate, and in many cases not even think about memory, until you need or want to.

    [ I am personally ignoring their OG call-to-fame, which was comptime, that I actually don't like the implementation of, and can be shoe horned into practically any language in much more ergonomic and less error-prone ways ]

    C3 is similar in all of these regards, even if I dislike their C++ inspired Function::Named scheme ;-) Maybe I'll write an Odin-like syntax bridge for C3...

    C3 is even nicer in many ways since it's not a revolution, you don't need to create wrappers for C libraries, it just works out of the box. It's a progressive enhancement for C, and it looks nice, feels clean, and light, and just works. They aren't reinventing entire paradigms, everything they do has been done for decades, but they add some nice additions, make the ergonomics as perfect as possible, while still letting users get get get low in the system code. While C3 has an even smaller community compared to Odin, which is even smaller than Zig, which is monumentally smaller compared to Rust, C3 works with any and all C libraries natively, which means pre-written battle tested code is ready for use, for the taking. This is horrible (misleading) phrasing, but C3 is to C, as Typescript is to Javascript. Odin is Pascal for Systems (and games).

    11 votes

  3. Comment on Zig creator weighs in on the Bun Rust rewrite in ~comp

    macleod
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    The AI onslaught hasn't really changed him, he is exactly the same in cadence and tone as he was from the start, if anything he has mellowed out an incredible amount. Just take a look through his...

    The AI onslaught hasn't really changed him, he is exactly the same in cadence and tone as he was from the start, if anything he has mellowed out an incredible amount. Just take a look through his blog, this is pretty cordial and I stand by what he said, this makes sense to me and he needed to get in front of it after that Rewrite to Rust article from Bun, which was pretty harsh. The Bun codebase has always been known in the community as surprising that it even ran and could even be massaged into working by anyone since it broke so many standard conventions, and caused many more to be created of what not to do in a codebase at that size and depth.

    That being said, Zig is not ready for production even if a few companies somehow took that risk. Their API is always breaking, their syntax is hideous (and I love C), but they do some interesting and novel allocation logic, and their goals are admirable, but they re-invent too many wheels. With this said, I actually admire the overall philosophy that Kelley has about programming, development, community, if anything he is a masterful systems philosopher, and that comes with a fair amount of intensity, I miss this tone and vibe by creators and BDFL in the OSS world, having strong stances and beliefs about your project is vital, not pleasing everyone, just doing what you think is best and standing by it.

    [ Removed notes about Odin and C3, moving them to another thread]

    8 votes

  4. Comment on Obsidian Entertainment reportedly lays off a quarter of staff, cancels multiple projects, and begins work on new Fallout game in ~games

    macleod
    Link Parent
    You need to play the Metro series, the first two are some of the best games ever made, and the third game is a lot more open world and Fallout inspired. Still quite good.

    As far as speculation goes, I'm not the biggest Fallout fan, but I'd like to see something set in a colder area.

    You need to play the Metro series, the first two are some of the best games ever made, and the third game is a lot more open world and Fallout inspired. Still quite good.

    10 votes

  5. Comment on REO Runabout, gas truck starting at $21,500 in ~transport

    macleod
    Link Parent
    I have the hybrid, and regularly get 42-55mpg on the hour drive into work, it's great for a car, insane for a truck.

    I have the hybrid, and regularly get 42-55mpg on the hour drive into work, it's great for a car, insane for a truck.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on The meaning of 'hack' in ~tech

    macleod
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    id1: Friar Tuck... I am under attack! Pray save me!

    id1: Friar Tuck... I am under attack! Pray save me!

    3 votes

  8. Comment on ‘Donkey’: Eddie Murphy ‘Shrek’ spinoff sets summer 2028 release in ~movies

    macleod
    Link
    How they keep milking this property is beyond me, but I guess it makes some people happy? I've never heard anything negative about anything past the second movie (which I saw in theaters, to my...

    How they keep milking this property is beyond me, but I guess it makes some people happy? I've never heard anything negative about anything past the second movie (which I saw in theaters, to my grandfathers disgust after seeing it), so that's something.

    6 votes

  9. Comment on We can fix the future, Star Trek shows us how in ~humanities

    macleod
    Link Parent
    She talks about this in the video, it appears that the credit system is for use when needing to trade or work with (or appease) other planets and organizations that rely on currency, such as the...

    But, as a contradiction, there are multiple times in TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY where "federation credits" are referenced in relation to buying and selling things. It's clear there's some form of currency. It's not clear how you actually get that currency and what exactly it's used for. I think that's what @V17 was referring to.

    She talks about this in the video, it appears that the credit system is for use when needing to trade or work with (or appease) other planets and organizations that rely on currency, such as the ferengi.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Tides Eye | Trailer in ~movies

    macleod
    Link Parent
    Not really, it's just we are ridiculously low on new pirate-type media, especially movies. Plus, it's an indie film without any major backers, which is exciting in itself for how high quality this...

    Not really, it's just we are ridiculously low on new pirate-type media, especially movies. Plus, it's an indie film without any major backers, which is exciting in itself for how high quality this looks.

    Edit: They also have been documenting their filming on socials in real time for awhile, and that extreme behind-the-scenes process is cool to watch happen.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Tides Eye | Trailer in ~movies

    macleod
    Link

    When a rebellious pirate and a sworn monk-warrior battle over a legendary relic, they are captured by a common foe and must survive deadly storms, ancient rivalries, and each other.

    ⚔️ Shot on real ships with real steel
    🌊 Practical stunts and real locations
    🎬 Directed by Alexandra Celestin and Ryan Chidester
    🏴‍☠️ Produced by Celestin Productions

    7 votes

  14. Comment on ISOTOPE WARS - Part 0 (Full Pilot Episode) in ~tv

    macleod
    Link
    This was incredible. Voice acting is dodgy, but outside of this - the sounds, the minimal exposition, the style, just incredible and mesmerizing.

    This was incredible. Voice acting is dodgy, but outside of this - the sounds, the minimal exposition, the style, just incredible and mesmerizing.

  16. Comment on Godot 4.7 released in ~games

    macleod
    Link
    wait, is that a three.js rendered animation developed from godot in that mast header? at first I thought it was a video, but looking at the source looks like its a canvas element with a three.js...

    wait, is that a three.js rendered animation developed from godot in that mast header? at first I thought it was a video, but looking at the source looks like its a canvas element with a three.js embed??

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Disclosure Day | Official teaser in ~movies

    macleod
    Link
    Just watched this. Fairly decent. Felt like a movie that would have come out around the time of Jumper or Knower in the aughts. The religious aspect was rather grating and boring, but it doesn't...

    Just watched this. Fairly decent. Felt like a movie that would have come out around the time of Jumper or Knower in the aughts.

    The religious aspect was rather grating and boring, but it doesn't take center stage and ends without any of it.

    This is certainly a sequel to ET and Close Encounters of Third Kind.

    I would suggest checking it out if you liked those last two movies.

  20. Comment on Kingdom Hearts IV | Gameplay teaser trailer in ~games