I spoke about code generation in Hare back in May when I wrote a tool for generating ioctl numbers. I wrote another code generator over the past few weeks, and it seems like a good time to revisit the topic on my blog to showcase another approach, and the improvements we’ve made for this use-case. I...

I spoke about code generation in Hare back in May when I wrote a tool for generating ioctl numbers. I wrote another code generator over the past few weeks, and it seems like a good time to revisit the topic on my blog to showcase another approach, and the improvements we’ve made for this use-case.In...

Plan 9 is an operating system designed by Bell Labs. It’s the OS they wrote after Unix, with the benefit of hindsight. It is the most interesting operating system that you’ve never heard of, and, in my opinion, the best operating system design to date. Even if you haven’t heard of Plan 9, the design...

Plan 9 is an operating system designed by Bell Labs. It’s the OS they wrote after Unix, with the benefit of hindsight. It is the most interesting operating system that you’ve never heard of, and, in my opinion, the best operating system design to date. Even if you haven’t heard of Plan 9, the design...

Today I would like to show you the implementation of the first userspace driver for Helios: a simple serial driver. All of the code we’re going to look at today runs in userspace, not in the kernel, so strictly speaking this should be “notes from OS hacking in Hare”, but I won’t snitch if you don’t....

Today I would like to show you the implementation of the first userspace driver for Helios: a simple serial driver. All of the code we’re going to look at today runs in userspace, not in the kernel, so strictly speaking this should be “notes from OS hacking in Hare”, but I won’t snitch if you don’t....

Time-based one-time passwords are one of the more secure approaches to 2FA — certainly much better than SMS. And it’s much easier to implement than SMS as well. The algorithm is as follows: Divide the current Unix timestamp by 30 Encode it as a 64-bit big endian integer Write the encoded bytes to a ...

Time-based one-time passwords are one of the more secure approaches to 2FA — certainly much better than SMS. And it’s much easier to implement than SMS as well. The algorithm is as follows:Divide the current Unix timestamp by 30Encode it as a 64-bit big endian integerWrite the encoded bytes to a SHA...

After a few busy and stressful months, I decided to set aside October to rest. Of course, for me, rest does not mean a cessation of programming, but rather a shift in priorities towards more fun and experimental projects. Consequently, it has been a great month for Helios! Hare upstream has enjoyed ...

After a few busy and stressful months, I decided to set aside October to rest. Of course, for me, rest does not mean a cessation of programming, but rather a shift in priorities towards more fun and experimental projects. Consequently, it has been a great month for Helios!Hare upstream has enjoyed s...

My last “In praise of” article covered qemu, a project founded by Fabrice Bellard, and today I want to take a look at another work by Bellard: ffmpeg. Bellard has a knack for building high-quality software which solves a problem so well that every other solution becomes obsolete shortly thereafter, ...

My last “In praise of” article covered qemu, a project founded by Fabrice Bellard, and today I want to take a look at another work by Bellard: ffmpeg. Bellard has a knack for building high-quality software which solves a problem so well that every other solution becomes obsolete shortly thereafter, ...

I am known to be a bit of a polemic when it comes to Rust. I will be forthright with the fact that I don’t particularly care for Rust, and that my public criticisms of it might set up many readers with a reluctance to endure yet another Rust Hot Take from my blog. My answer to the question posed in ...

I am known to be a bit of a polemic when it comes to Rust. I will be forthright with the fact that I don’t particularly care for Rust, and that my public criticisms of it might set up many readers with a reluctance to endure yet another Rust Hot Take from my blog. My answer to the question posed in ...

I have long promised that Hare would not have multi-threading, and it seems that I have broken that promise. However, I have remained true to the not-invented-here approach which is typical of my style by introducing it only after designing an entire kernel to implement it on top of.1 For some backg...

I have long promised that Hare would not have multi-threading, and it seems that I have broken that promise. However, I have remained true to the not-invented-here approach which is typical of my style by introducing it only after designing an entire kernel to implement it on top of.1For some backgr...

In 1988, “Resin Identification Codes” were introduced by the plastic industry. These look exactly like the recycling symbol ♺, which is not trademarked or regulated, except that a number is enclosed within the triangle. These symbols simply identify what kind of plastic was used. The vast majority o...

In 1988, “Resin Identification Codes” were introduced by the plastic industry. These look exactly like the recycling symbol ♺, which is not trademarked or regulated, except that a number is enclosed within the triangle. These symbols simply identify what kind of plastic was used. The vast majority o...

I have COVID-19 and I am halfway through my stockpile of tissues, so I’m gonna keep this status update brief. In Hare news, I finally put the last pieces into place to make cross compiling as easy as possible. Nothing else particularly world-shattering going on here. I have a bunch of new stuff in m...

I have COVID-19 and I am halfway through my stockpile of tissues, so I’m gonna keep this status update brief.In Hare news, I finally put the last pieces into place to make cross compiling as easy as possible. Nothing else particularly world-shattering going on here. I have a bunch of new stuff in my...

One of the goals for the Hare programming language is to be able to write kernels, such as my Helios project. Kernels are complex beasts which exist in a somewhat unique problem space and have constraints that many userspace programs are not accustomed to. To illustrate this, I’m going to highlight ...

One of the goals for the Hare programming language is to be able to write kernels, such as my Helios project. Kernels are complex beasts which exist in a somewhat unique problem space and have constraints that many userspace programs are not accustomed to. To illustrate this, I’m going to highlight ...

qemu is another in a long line of great software started by Fabrice Bellard. It provides virtual machines for a wide variety of software architectures. Combined with KVM, it forms the foundation of nearly all cloud services, and it runs SourceHut in our self-hosted datacenters. Much like Bellard’s f...

qemu is another in a long line of great software started by Fabrice Bellard. It provides virtual machines for a wide variety of software architectures. Combined with KVM, it forms the foundation of nearly all cloud services, and it runs SourceHut in our self-hosted datacenters. Much like Bellard’s f...

powerctl is a little weekend project I put together to provide a simple tool for managing power states on Linux. I had previously put my laptop into suspend with a basic “echo mem | doas tee /sys/power/state”, but this leaves a lot to be desired. I have to use doas to become root, and it’s annoying ...

powerctl is a little weekend project I put together to provide a simple tool for managing power states on Linux. I had previously put my laptop into suspend with a basic “echo mem | doas tee /sys/power/state”, but this leaves a lot to be desired. I have to use doas to become root, and it’s annoying ...

I have recently had cause to start looking into mainline Linux phones which fall outside of the common range of grassroots phones like the PinePhone (which was my daily driver for the past year). The postmarketOS wiki is a great place to research candidate phones for this purpose, and the phone I la...

I have recently had cause to start looking into mainline Linux phones which fall outside of the common range of grassroots phones like the PinePhone (which was my daily driver for the past year). The postmarketOS wiki is a great place to research candidate phones for this purpose, and the phone I la...

Context for this post: Pine64 should re-evaluate their community priorities The Pine Formula Why I left PINE64 A response to Martijn’s blog I know that apologising and taking responsibility for your mistakes is difficult. It seems especially difficult for commercial endeavours, which have fostered a...

Context for this post:Pine64 should re-evaluate their community prioritiesThe Pine FormulaWhy I left PINE64A response to Martijn’s blogI know that apologising and taking responsibility for your mistakes is difficult. It seems especially difficult for commercial endeavours, which have fostered a cult...