I started exploring this way back in May but other things got in the way. This had to wait and stay in my backlog but it is something I have been thinking about quite a bit along with what mature use of modules in C++ might look like. I would preface this with the fact that even with many months of delays in me writing this up that modules and the import of the standard library in particular are both at a relatively nascent stage…
It is hard to believe that I have been with Voltron Data for over a year now! It was a tough decision for me when choosing what to do next last year and I was filled with hope and fear along with questioning whether I wanted to leave science behind. One year on it completely feels like it was the right move for me. It has not been without challenges, but the right kind of challenges that push me to grow.
Fernanda recently posted about her GTC journey and it got me thinking about mine. Our careers have been somewhat adjacent for many years but it wasn’t until I joined Voltron Data that we actually worked at the same company. I was taking a look trying to remember, and I see photos from GTC 2014 that I think was my first, then speaking at GTC 2015 and there was a tutorial I gave the following year.
I have been using Vcpkg a little and getting to know it better. I also took a look at Conan but haven’t really dove into Spack recently. I am interested in them all through the lens of a developer who wants to improve the handling of third-party dependencies. This isn’t intended to be exhaustive but more to examine a specific use case that interests me most: handling the dependencies for my project in the most elegant was possible where some dependencies are large needing some caching.
I really wanted to be one of the cool kids and blog on a leap day yesterday but everything got a little hectic and if I am honest I just opened a bottle of wine when I finished work. So here we are on a mundane 1st of March, where we joined what I would consider one of the most mundane gym brands and went on our first workout there. Above you can see what my watch thinks of my efforts, summarizing it as overreaching!
And now for something completely different…a random glimpse into my mind and how I keep things fresh. I am not sure I have ever stated this for the internet at large but I like building Lego and you can see some of my Lego air and space exhibit in the photo. I was thinking about this in the context of programming projects and giving space to explore what is possible along with learning new skills without other pressures.
A few years ago I heard about a new database project called DuckDB, a new kind of database embracing columnar storage over the traditional row storage. The other thing, possibly the main thing at the time, was that it was designed to be embedded in your application. Even better it was developed in C++ and seemed to have extensive API coupled with a permissive license. Looking Back I started out writing stuff using what was the typical (at the time) LAMP stack where the database was always MySQL.
It is hard to believe my wife and I became naturalized US citizens six years ago! It was a long journey filled with uncertainty. I had friends while studying in England who were on similar journeys and while I empathized I had no idea what it was like. We held off from buying a home until we got green cards, and even then felt some apprehension at times and naturalization represented the final step where I finally felt like I belonged.
I was a Gentoo developer before I got serious about C++ software development, and one of the things we hated most about packages was when they copied libraries into their codebase. From the developers point of view they just want to be able to build their codebase, and copying in code so you can just build it all in one go is the easiest way to achieve that if there is no solid packaging story.
I have been thinking about creating a new project for a while, one that abandons a lot of my previous style where I needed to support old compilers, operating systems, etc. I have no idea where this project leads, but it is something of a playground to approach the state-of-the-art as I see it. Using the latest features in C++, CMake and other parts of the ecosystem. It is targeting my preferred development environment which is a completely up to date Arch Linux desktop and other places may catch up at some point or this may be generalized to work more widely.