'Compiled languages have long provided access to the OpenGL API, and
even most scripting languages have had OpenGL bindings for a decade or
more. But, one significant language missing from the list is our old
friend/nemesis Bash. But worry no longer! Now you can create your
dazzling 3D visuals right from the comfort of your command line!
"You'll need a system with both Bash and OpenGL support to experience
it firsthand," explains software engineer Michael Conrad, who created
the first version 13 years ago as "the sixth in a series of 'Abuse of
Technology' projects," after "having my technical sensibilities
offended that someone had written a real-time video game in Perl.
"Back then, my primary language was C++, and I was studying OpenGL for
video game purposes. I declared to my friends that the only thing
worse would be if it had been 3D and written in Bash. Having said the
idea out loud, it kept prodding me, and I eventually decided to give
it a try to one-up the 'awfulness'..."'
-- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/18/04/07/0035203
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
'Intel has scaled back its plans to produce microcode updates for some
of its older processors to address the "Spectre variant 2" attack.
Core 2 processors are no longer scheduled to receive updates, and,
while some first generation Core products have microcode updates
available already, others have had their update cancelled.'
-- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/intel-drops-plans-to-develop-spectr…
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
'Today, version 28 of the Fedora finally achieves beta status. After a
short delay -- it was scheduled to be available a week earlier -- the
distro is back on track, and looking better than ever. As is typical
now, there are three versions of the operating system -- Atomic Host,
Server, and Workstation. While all three have their places, normal
desktop computer users will want to focus on Workstation. While there
are plenty of new features (and bugs), the most exciting aspect of
Fedora 28 Workstation is the inclusion of the GNOME 3.28 desktop
environment.'
-- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/04/03/1846233
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
Looking at the source code
<https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/> for the latest (4.16)
Linux kernel, I see support for 31 different major processor
architectures currently
<https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/arch>.
However, the next, 4.17 kernel is due to drop the ability to run on 8 of
them
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/03/linux_kernel_4_16_released/>,
due to the fact that nobody is using them any more--or at least, nobody
with an interest in implementing new kernels
<http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1804.0/00306.html>.
Interesting to read Arnd Bergmann’s observations on what these dead-end
architectures have in common:
In the end, it seems that while the eight architectures are
extremely different, they all suffered the same fate: There was one
company in charge of an SoC line, a CPU microarchitecture and a
software ecosystem, which was more costly than licensing newer
off-the-shelf CPU cores from a third party (typically ARM, MIPS, or
RISC-V). It seems that all the SoC product lines are still around,
but have not used the custom CPU architectures for several years at
this point. In contrast, CPU instruction sets that remain popular
and have actively maintained kernel ports tend to all be used
across multiple licensees.
