My memory of it is how unnecessarily arcane it is. I had (and still have) a better understanding of assembly than COBOL. COBOL has hundreds of keywords. And while an instruction set can have thousands of instructions, COBOL still felt more difficult.

Also, nearly any executable can be decompiled to assembly. If you understand assembly, it has a plethora of uses. COBOL can make big bank, but it currently has very limited use.

1mo ago

There was no other way!

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

I'd much rather write in assembly than COBOL

1mo ago

There was no other way!

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

Haven't heard or read about it since it was kicked out of the kernel! Does it still exist?

1mo ago

There was no other way!

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

Ho boy. Don't ruin the good ol' memory of the dude. Some things should be left untouched, just like the movies you watched as a child.

1mo ago

Back-end programmer for gig economy company describes how the sausage is made.

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

No thanks. This sounds entirely plausible and he gig economy should be highly regulated. I want my stuff delivered, yes, but I want it delivered by somebody who isn't doing it as a last measure to survive and it won't get them out from the heel they are under.

We need whistleblowers like this. If you're a software developer and see shady business practices, fucking say something. If not to your superior, then to an authority. Companies shouldn't get away with this unethical behavior. If even one thing is true of what OP is saying, they should be fucking sued and forced to improve or die.

1mo ago

Reminder: System76 is not to be trusted

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

While I dislike the look and GNOME's approach to things ("we know better what the user wants than they do" aka the crApple approach), I do appreciate that they do provide an alternative for crApple users. They also write a lot of libraries and software that are undeniably good and useful. No one is forced to use GNOME so I'm glad they exist.

Of course this blog post only has one view of the issues and I'm not going to spend a morning going down the rabbit hole to make an opinion on it. But if System76 really does have a problem with upstream for whatever reason, they are free to fork their stuff and cut all communication. Since they did write COSMIC, it looks like that's their goal. Good on them. It may just decrease the drama and make GNOME developers' lives easier.

1mo ago

Software taketh away faster than hardware giveth: Why C++ programmers keep growing fast despite competition, safety, and AI

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

Microsoft will add 1 million lines of Rust code per month to their repositories and replace all C/C++ code by 2030. C/C++ doesn't stand a chance!

(At least according to LinkedIn)

1mo ago

Keep Android Open

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

I don't expect a short term solution. Where did you read that?

If we keep android the way it is and just slowly boil the frog, there will be little to no incentive to spend lots of money and time on alternatives. If you seriously believe the majority isn't already getting fucked over by Scroogle and their spy devices, what world do you live in?

There isn't going to be an acceleration for a non-android phone if android still stays "acceptable". It's not like investments and developments in alternatives are going faster than bureaucracy. When do you expect we get a big third or fourth competitor in the smartphone OS market? Harmony by Huawei?

1mo ago

Keep Android Open

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

You want immediate change. You're asking for the impossible and disappointed you're not getting it or that it isn't happening.

🤷

1mo ago

Keep Android Open

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

You accept that EU has started doing something and then demand they mandate something which they are in the process of doing.

Crapple built up their position to this point over 20 years in a time where the US were considered allies. Trump has luckily come about to change that perception and to allow the EU to stop being a bunch of pansies clammering to their daddy protector. They cannot piss of the US completely at the moment as it would take a single presidential order from a rampantly maniacal orange man to switch of most of Europe.

Change doesn't happen immediately. It's slow. Give it time.

1mo ago

A SOLID Load of Bull

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

Yep, I enjoyed the article. Unfortunately, it won't convince zealots. Reason rarely does.

1mo ago

`ffmpReg`: a complete rewrite of ffmpeg in pure Rust

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

Good luck. Isn't a lot of ffmpeg in assembly? I wonder how that will be handled. If faster code can be compiled that'd be crazy.

1mo ago

`ffmpReg`: a complete rewrite of ffmpeg in pure Rust

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

Big tech loves Apache and MIT 💕

1mo ago

`ffmpReg`: a complete rewrite of ffmpeg in pure Rust

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

Kink? Wat?

1mo ago

Keep Android Open

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onlinepersona @programming.dev 1mo ago

The EU commission has multiple ongoing cases against Apple. The opened a new one in April regarding their non-compliance on multiple fronts, including the app store (which is related to Google's bullshit). They have to give a response within 12 months which means that by 25 April 2026 we should have a response on what the EU will be doing.

The EU forced Apple to make their phones more repairable, they forced them to introduce USB-C charging for all their mobile devices (laptop, phone, and smartwatch IIRC), forced them to implement an alternative app store (very flawed implementation but see above), and probably more that I'm unaware of.

The EU isn't perfect, it's being influenced by the US, which have the goal of breaking it up), but they are doing something, which is more than can be said about most countries. I understand cynicism, but in this case, I still maintain that letting google fuck up Android would do the world a service, just like Trump is doing the world a service by fucking his country up. We may go through a few years (maybe decades if the US succeed in breaking up the EU) of difficulty because of it, but we will come out stronger afterwards.

Most people cannot and will not appreciate the EU and everything is has until they are impacted themselves.