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Four Years of Jai (2024)

(smarimccarthy.is)
166 points xixixao | 5 comments | 15 Apr 25 23:17 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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sph ◴[18 Apr 25 09:07 UTC] No.43726312[source]▶
Surprising deep and level headed analysis. Jai intrigues me a lot, but my cantankerous opinion is that I will not waste my energy learning a closed source language; this ain’t the 90s any more.

I am perfectly fine for it to remain a closed alpha while Jonathan irons out the design and enacts his vision, but I hope its source gets released or forked as free software eventually.

What I am curious about, which is how I evaluate any systems programming language, is how easy it is to write a kernel with Jai. Do I have access to an asm keyword, or can I easily link assembly files? Do I have access to the linker phase to customize the layout of the ELF file? Does it need a runtime to work? Can I disable the standard library?

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az09mugen ◴[18 Apr 25 11:01 UTC] No.43726853[source]▶
There is this streamer that does a lot of interesting language exploring on his own. I don't say you will find all the answers to your questions, but I think you will get a good sense of what you can or cannot do in jai : https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tsoding+jai
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sph ◴[18 Apr 25 11:55 UTC] No.43727223[source]▶
Tsoding is great. Don’t be put off by the memelord persona, he’s a genuinely smart guy always exploring some interesting language or library, or reimplementing something from scratch to truly understand it.
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1. estebank ◴[18 Apr 25 20:56 UTC] No.43731801[source]▶
> Don’t be put off by the memelord persona

One can be put off by whatever one is put off by. I've gotten to the point where I realized that I don't need to listen to everyone's opinion. Everyone's got some. If one opinion is important, it will like the shared by more than one person. From that it follows that there's no need to subject oneself to specific people one is put off by. Or put another way: if there's an actionable critique, and two people are stating it, and one is a dick and the other isn't, I'll pay attention to the one who isn't a dick. Life's to short to waste it with abrasive people, regardless of whether that is "what is in their heart" or a constructed persona. The worst effect of the "asshole genius" trope is that it makes a lot of assholes think they are geniuses.

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2. AlchemistCamp ◴[19 Apr 25 01:03 UTC] No.43733316[source]▶
> If one opinion is important, it will like the shared by more than one person.

Sometimes nobody else shares the opinion and the “abrasive person” is both good-hearted and right in their belief: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

Personally, I’d rather be the kind of person who could have evaluated Semmelweis’s claims dispassionately rather than one who reflexively wrote him off because he was strident in his opinions. Doctors of the second type tragically shortened the lives of those under their care!

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3. sph ◴[19 Apr 25 06:50 UTC] No.43734717[source]▶
Geez, no need to get upset over a recommendation. If you watch him or don’t, I don’t care either way.

I don’t see what is on topic or constructive about your outburst.

4. globnomulous ◴[19 Apr 25 11:08 UTC] No.43735631[source]▶
Being abrasive is different from being a "memelord." The former is excusable and socially valuable and politically healthy, even essential. The latter is immature, antisocial, and socially and politically corrosive.
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5. AlchemistCamp ◴[22 Apr 25 12:37 UTC] No.43761404{3}[source]▶
Ah, okay. I thought a "memelord" just meant someone who makes and shares lots of memes.