Show HN: Xcc700: Self-hosting mini C compiler for ESP32 (Xtensa) in 700 lines
Why look into this project? A compiler you can fully grasp and tweak, on a modern platform where small is still cool. Basic features, not too entrenched, easy to morph into your language of choice. Reusable ELF writer, and a basic Xtensa bytecodes emitter. Possibly useful for hotfixes, CI, quick test/debug turnaround on esp32. Sample […]
Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster
We always thought of the Macintosh as a fast computer, since its 68000 microprocessor was effectively 10 times faster than an Apple II, but our Achilles heel was the floppy disk. We had limited RAM, so it was often necessary to load data from the floppy, but there we were no faster than an Apple […]
LearnixOS
”If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein Hello there!1 In this book we are going to write and learn about operating systems together! We are going to implement an entire POSIX compliant OS in Rust and not use ANY2 external libraries. All of the thought process, code […]
Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
Getting into reading again this year after a long break. The most memorable read of this year was ”The Count of Monte Cristo” (1846) by Alexander Dumas . It’s one of the greatest stories ever told. It’s ~1250 pages but I sped through it in 3 weeks even if I’m a slow reader. Highly recommended! […]
Package managers keep using Git as a database, it never works out
Using git as a database is a seductive idea. You get version history for free. Pull requests give you a review workflow. It’s distributed by design. GitHub will host it for free. Everyone already knows how to use it. Package managers keep falling for this. And it keeps not working out. Cargo The crates.io index […]
ChatGPT conversations still lack timestamps after years of requests
It would be fine to have timestamp displayed for every piece of conversation! It would be useful for searching stored conversations, but also for the evidence when the discussion took place. 70 Likes Yes, could help a lot in sorting and hovering to a particular time or day 6 Likes Yes, it’d be very helpful. […]
Unix ”find” expressions compiled to bytecode
December 23, 2025 nullprogram.com/blog/2025/12/23/ In preparation for a future project, I was thinking about at the unix find utility. It operates a file system hierarchies, with basic operations selected and filtered using a specialized expression language. Users compose operations using unary and binary operators, grouping with parentheses for precedence. find may apply the expression to […]
I’m a laptop weirdo and that’s why I like my new Framework 13
This month I sold my 2021 M1 Max Macbook Pro and bought a Framework 13 DIY Edition laptop. After I got everything setup I sat down to write about the experience. Some ~4500 words later I realized I needed to break my thoughts into multiple posts. See also: My new Framework 13 laptop just arrived. […]
Codex vs. Claude Code (today)
Dec 22, 2025 | 5 min read Every programmer has their favorite language. Some prefer Python, while others swear by TypeScript1. Many teams build their apps on Postgres, while others use MySQL. These choices are often flame-war bait for programmers with strong opinions, but most of these decisions are centered around pragmatism, priorities, and tradeoffs. […]
Geometric Algorithms for Translucency Sorting in Minecraft [pdf]
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