On one hand, I want to learn more arcane lowl-evel stuff that almost nobody knows, like how to make a NIC or a switch or how PCIE works, etc.
On the other hand, I already feel like I have noone to talk to about "simple" things like use-after-free.
wrt. post upthread, do you feel the same?
@Shamar don't use a computer, problem solved.
@Shamar to be clear:
it's not about a use-after-free in my code, it's not about me not knowing how to deal with it.
It's about finding a fun bug and not being able to share the excitement.
My point is that if you think about it, even mundane issues like memory allocation might be solved in arcane ways, sometimes removing whole class of bugs.
@Shamar yes, avoiding dynamic memory allocation can be fun. Implementing your own allocator can be more fun. Debugging someone else's custom allocator's interaction with a custom event loop is even more fun.
@zudlig actually that's pretty cool, did you figure out why exactly that happened?
@zudlig hmm do you have still the buggy version around?
I know this doesn't make practical sense but I think it would be fun to actually see what part of the code was modifying which part of the moon's memory structures and why that caused it to fall (as opposed to crashing the whole program, or replacing the moon's texture).
@wolf480pl Tons of jobs in embedded computing, and highly paid too. When the embedded guys have a scrum meeting in my office they're all talking enthusiastically about stuff that sounds like "reroute power to the main deflector dish" to me
> use-after-free.
ASAN is your friend
@wolf480pl
@p no, it's not about fixing the bug, it's about admiring how cool the bug is, you don't get it
(also zig doesn't have ASAN)
@p (or maybe you do get it, I mean you didn't initially)
@newt
the low-level stuff? it is a shit-show but our whole computing is built on top of it.
And it's not like software, incl. high-level, is not a shitshow. Especailly the web stuff.
Your pc still has, albeit these days purely in software, A20 gate that was used to extend the amount of memory 40 years ago. Despite not even needing that and not even having a dedicated keyboard controller.
Also, if you take a look at Linux kernel, it has an enormous amount of hacks for some particular hardware not adhering to standards. ACPI used to be and probably is one of the biggest offenders.
@newt the A20 hack is beautiful.
(I probably say that because I never had to interact with it directly)
@newt
In any case, if it's cursed, tell me how it's cursed, so that if I ever need to rebuild civilization from scratch I know not to do it :P
@newt I mean, not to make the same mistake.
You won't convince me to not rebuild the civilization given the opportunity.
But anyway, hardware is just software except printed in silicon. If you wanna play around really low level stuff, but yourself an FPGA and learn VHDL or Verilog.
@newt I had an FPGA course at uni and know some Verilog, but wish I could do more stuff... more high-speed stuff. We only did LEDs, buttons, EPP and VGA. DVI and PS/2 were demoed but not part of any assignment. PCIE wasn't described. DDR, USB and SATA were "it's cursed, don't even ask about it".
@newt got any howtos, or is it "read the spec or use existing IP core"
@newt also, errors in webshit can't be phased out in a few years because there is an ubderfunded government website still using $deprecated_feature
Conversely, because things keep changing and being phased out all the time, you can't ever finish the thing, because updates to the dependencies will always break it sooner or later.
I'll take hacks set in stone over hacks changing under me every month.
At least in webshit, there is a rather easy way to debug a problem. Hardware is a gay mess.
tfw. you just understood that wizards don't want to be alone in their towers, it's just that none of their friends understand this stuff they're doing