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diff --git a/src/content/posts/apr_29_2026.md b/src/content/posts/apr_29_2026.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e504ea6 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/apr_29_2026.md @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +--- +title: "Update April 29, 2026" +date: "2026-04-29" +tags: ["update"] +--- + +## What have I been up to? + +Miracle v0.9.0 is released: https://github.com/miracle-wm-org/miracle-wm/releases/tag/v0.9.0 🪐! +This release was a long, long time in the making, so I am very excited to +finally get it out the door. It introduces the new WebAssembly-based plugin +system for window management, configuration and more. I daily drive Miracle and +feel entirely at home inside of it, and I hope you do too! + +On the Mir side of things, I have been busy rewriting our dependency on +libwayland in [wayland-rs](https://github.com/Smithay/wayland-rs) instead. This +has been an *absolute whirlwhind* of an exercise, and I'm sure it's something +that the team will want write about officially later on. https://cxx.rs/ has +been amazing in the meantime, but the interactions between C++ and Rust - +especially in terms of lifetime managemen and standard library coherence - are +quite difficult to deal with. + +In Flutter land, all is moving smoothly. The multi-window effort is continuing +as expected, and we're even starting to land some windowing concepts in the +Material API, which is exciting. Look out for `showDialog` creating a *true* +dialog window sometime soon! + +## AI, AI, AI... + +I've finally been swept up in the mass psychosis that is AI in the software +industry. Like everyone else, I'm constantly shifting back and forth between +"Wow, what magic!" and "Why am I trying to coerce this machine into doing +something that I already know how to do". For straighforward things that are not +very "interesting" in the technical sense, it's amazing. For example, I prompted +Claude to convert this website to astro.js in basically a single prompt with a bit +of hand-holding. That's pretty incredible seeing as I wouldn't have been +motivated to do that prior to this. On the other hand, Claude has been next to +useless for my work migrating parts of Mir from C++ to Rust. I am probably one +of a handful of people in the world doing that on a large product, so it is +hardly represented in the data set. As a result, Claude takes forever to +reason about even simple things, and it even tends to get those wrong. +Especially when it comes to metaprogramming, it tends to fall apart as that +involves a lot of higher level, abstract thinking. + +All this goes to say: AI is generally useful, but I expect to find gainful employment +for the forseeable future. I think that certain areas of software development +that are particularly well-represented in the training set will be largely +automateable. If you've noticed, everybody and their parents are busy building +new "dashboards" for just about every piece of data under the sun. I don't think +that this is an accident. Dashboards are probably the most well-represented and +most straightforward problem to solve in computing currently. Data goes in, it +gets shown, and maybe it gets compared to other data. That's about it. On the +other hand, I don't think we'll be seeing any AI-generated MMORPGs anytime soon. + +That being said, I'll keep using Claude to find the edges of its capability, but +I'll keep using my ol' noggin to do the interesting stuff that requires +second-order thinking. + +## One final point: AI Design + +I understand that it is tempting to accept the initial design that the AI gives +you, but it's really starting to bug me. Here are some hallmarks of the design: + +- Gradient text with letter-spacing changed +- Animated Hero with some tech-y feel +- Gradient box shadow +- Solid color text on a background of the same color but with opacity +- Traffic light fake toolbars to make it look like a MacOS app + +That probably sums it up poorly, but I know it when I see it. It's turning into +the Ikea desing of websites: it's not bad, but it makes me think that you're not +that invested in the long-term quality of your site. |