Issue 2021-W50

Published on

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This week has been about Jamstack jargon, a data generator in Rust, a self-contained HTTP server for files, a tool to organise image boards, a comparison between WebAssembly and Kubernetes and a paper on value-oriented and object-oriented programming languages.

# Values and Objects in Programming Languages (pdf)

A paper on the differences between value-oriented an object-oriented programming languages. A must-read from 1982.

This paper attempts to elucidate the differences between values and objects and argues that their proper discrimination can be a valuable aid to conquering program complexity.

# PureRef

A tool to organise image boards for creative reference.

# miniserve

A small, self-contained cross-platform CLI tool written in Rust to serve files via HTTP. For a long time I've been using devd but now I'm switching to miniserve just because it's easier to install and keep up to date.

# webassembly: the new kubernetes?

An article comparing WebAssembly and Kubernetes. I would say a better comparison would be with OCI containers which seems to be the conclusion as well:

I compare WebAssembly to K8s, but really it's more like processes and private namespaces. So one answer to the question as initially posed is that no, WebAssembly is not the next Kubernetes; that next thing is waiting to be built, though I know of a few organizations that have started already.

As noted in the comments, Krustlet is a project to keep an eye on.

# Understanding Rendering in the Jamstack

An article diving into the Jamstack jargon (SSR, ISR, DPR, DSG) and some recommendations for when it might be sensible to use one approach over the other.

# Synth

A tool for generating realistic data using a declarative framework for specifying constraint based data generation.