Notices by Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social), page 46

@zens Didn't notice the comments support, not surprised given it's time!

Since I have shift registers it'd be trivial for me to incorporate cheap stack(s) operations into the machinecode, which could reduce the demands on a register allocator. Without removing the need.

An optimizing compiler would be very useful for implementing shaping, & to allow for the nicer syntax abstracting away controlflow!

4.5/4.5

This lower-level language would still operate in terms of numeric-arrays for a datamodel. But now I'd add explicit controlflow, includes loops over arrays & (binary-tree) children.

If I incorporate immutability that'd simplify most standard optimizations LLVM or GCC implements.

It'd especially help to eliminate common-subexpressions between branches (since branching is inefficient in SIMTs), propagate constants, & generating formulas for array lookups. As for register allocation...

4/4.1!!

Tree-traversals would be triggered in that language by referencing parent or child data. I'd probably have this language lower arbitrarily-structured trees into binary trees that easier to implement in hardware.

---

However CSS layout isn't the only thing I'd want to run on this tree-SIMT, & the nicer language would likely yield code which would heavily benefit from further optimization.

Text layout can be heavily involved. And I'd involve it in rasterizing vector graphics like fonts.

3/4?

My ideal language for implementing CSS layout would let me write formulas for each CSS unit, keyword, or function emitting number(s). From there the compiler could compute a partial ordering controlflow. Letting me specify fallback values to break cycles.

I'd need the ability to wrap these formulas in pattern-matched conditions upon other properties.

All data would be fixed-length arrays of numbers.

I'd be tempted to lower this language using the tree-SIMT it'd target, should be capable.

2/?

Let me revisit my hypothetical about designing hardware to reimplement a browser (like the ones I actually am implementing) & it's underlying OS upon.

https://adrian.geek.nz/docs/web-cpu-hypothetical.html

What sort of programming language would be ideal for implementing webpage layout in?

The language for parsing input is straightforward: I'd want something resembling YACC. May need some software optimization, but mostly I'd have cause to mostly do that in hardware as a "decoder" to bitmask-addressed microcode.

1/?

Picked up a #FrameworkLaptop
and there are a lot of nice things about a laptop designed to be taken apart and put back together again!

Running #Debian bookworm and it mostly works ok.

Unfortunately, for a while I was convinced the USB-A adapters were not working, but apparently, they work fine on the left side ports, just not on the right side.

HDMI and USB-C work fine on the right side ports, so the ports are not completely broken...

Anyone else encountered this issue?

@frameworkcomputer

P.S. I think I'll take the style for webform inputs from Simple.CSS! My first inkling would be to use native styles, but:

1) Doesn't apply so much when targetting TVs.
2) I'd have to go far out of my way to implement that.
3) Webdevs are just going to restyle them anyways so that the designs don't clash.
4) That is a nice form styling...

A feature I'm planning for Haphaestus: If a website doesn't provide their own stylesheet, I'll use https://simplecss.org/ . If you don't like a stylesheet pressing the "angle" (or yellow) button on your remote will cycle through alternative stylesheets including Simple.CSS!

Maybe I should have a configuration screen you letting you configure the parameters for this stylesheet?

Algorithms are NOT neutral. Anything based on that premise is inherently wrong.

@parkermolloy Something I appreciate in The Red Panda Adventures is that when confronted with someone from an alternate (cartoony) future initially thought that the nazis were just "some german political party". Wasn't paying much attention as a canadian.

Changed tune in future episodes!

Cold take: As much as I'm reading assertions that there's a lot of smart people working on AI tech like ChatGPT & it'll continue getting better, I'm skeptical.

It may be wishful thinking but my understanding of the technology indicates that this'll glow short & bright. Small tech variants will glow long & dim.

* Utils for running build commands.
* Utils for locating build commands.
* Internal utils (used for linking common libraries) for loading "multilibs".

DejaGNU looks more like a proper testrunner, & more, than Expect!

2.1/2.1 Fin! Publish tomorrow.

Soon: FreeType SFNT support
Next: Solr's plugins system (in place of revisitting BinUtils)
Then: FreeType smoothing
Later: GNU MultiPrecision library

...
* Record test results with all relevant information to XML as per global configuration. Now this here looks a proper testrunner! Has numerous wrappers for different success statuses.
* Counters to be run during that recording.
* Access containing testsuite & configure where it logs to.
* Assemble "target" strings.
* Run all tests in a testsuite.
* Run a test validating its output as per global config.
* Many configurably-remote testrunning utils, with oens to wait on a command.
...

2/3!

is it really a blog if it doesnt have a rss feed

Reading through the rest of DejaGNU extended libs for Expect, the TCL-based testrunner, I see:

* Nicer debugger commands abstract (mostly) TCL's `uplevel` builtin-command.
* It's own error handling for unknown TCL commands, or rather ones which throws exceptions upon being dynamically loaded.
* Clear global state.
* Log status & exit.
* Log test results to XML, building upon custom XML serialization utilities.
* Configure whether/how to expect failures.
...

1/3?

ControlNet - Lyumin Zhang: https://github.com/lllyasviel/ControlNet/blob/main/README.md (GitHub)
Simon Willison's summary: https://simonwillison.net/2023/Feb/22/controlnet/
ControlNET and Stable Diffusion: A Game Changer for AI Image Generation - Tristan Wolff @ UX Design Bootcamp: https://scribe.rip/controlnet-and-stable-diffusion-a-game-changer-for-ai-image-generation-83555cb942fc (Medium via Scribe)

@Raptorrrr Kiwi copaganda is a bit different in this regard... Though one episode did appear to feel the need to remind us, in a B plot, about the shows it's riffing against.

@Pedro Yeah, CSS animations will be a little tricky to implement. In terms of how it interacts with layout...

I'm thinking of naming my animation engine Fleischer!

And at least in Firefox this isn't really an issue anymore, but it at least used to be the case that some CSS properties are more efficient than others. When CPU-rendering is being (partially) used. Not to mention those properties I have which require relayout!