davlgd tech blog

Back to write

Tue, 06 May 2025 13:37:00 +0000

It’s been about 6 months since my last post on this blog. Why? I was focused. Mostly because of work stuff, but also due to personal changes, managing my fun/office balance, exploring AI and how it changes my relationship to technology, the way I produce things.

The main effect was that I lacked time to share what I was discovering on a regular basis, and that’s bad. I devoted a significant part of my life to tech stuff in order to learn things and share them widely. I did so as a journalist for 20 years, and I still see this as a deep commitment.

How to create a CLI in V

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 13:37:00 +0000

As some of you may know, I’m a fan of V, a programming language inspired by Go but trying to do better on many fronts, with great tooling and native libraries. You can learn more in its documentation, using its playground or watching this quickie session from Devoxx France 2024.

I’ve already covered some aspects of V in a previous article detailing how to create a tiny web server, which led me to publish tVeb. More recently, I decided to explore the cli module of V, whose aim is to provide a simple way to create applications with commands, flags, help, man, etc.

Chroot to any Linux (to test it)

Sat, 11 May 2024 13:37:00 +0000

In a previous article, I talked about what’s a (minimal) Linux and explained how to launch such a system with only a compiled kernel, an initramfs and BusyBox to get some tools. You should now understand that a Linux based system needs a filesystem to be working and useful.

Rules are defined in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS). That’s what initramfs and BusyBox provided in a very basic way. But a Linux distribution brings more: lots of tools, libraries, config files, etc. Except from its prebuilt kernel, it’s what makes it different from another.

What's a (minimal) Linux?

Wed, 01 May 2024 13:37:00 +0000

If you read this post, this blog, you certainly know (and use?) Linux. And even if you don’t, it’s probably part of your life. Because Linux won!

These days, it’s everywhere: in the Cloud, its servers, but also phones, tablets, TVs, cars, fridges, watches, cameras, routers, IoT devices, supercomputers, space stations, Mars rovers, nuclear submarines, airplanes, drones, robots, game consoles, smart speakers, smart homes, smart cities, smart grids, smart factories, smart farms, smart hospitals, smart cars, smart everything. Sometimes, in desktop computers too…

Why I do not use WordPress for this blog

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 04:02:01 +0000

Yesterday, there was a blog post published at this URL, entitled “Why I now use WordPress for this blog”. Of course, it was an April fool’s joke. I am not using WordPress for this blog, nor do I plan to.

I’m using a static site generator, and I’m happy with it. Of course, I edit my Markdown files with an IDE, but I’m fine with that, and I’m free to write my posts with nano if I like. But the most important thing to me is that this website fits into a few MB, it’s fast and clear to read.

A road story to my first Exherbo Linux packages

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:37:00 +0000

As a kid, after years using an Amstrad CPC 464 (with a green/green screen), drawing rosettes in BASIC and playing video games through the cassette deck, I discovered the PC ecosystem through friends and family in the 90s.

Shortly after, I got my own Intel 486 DX2 (66 MHz with Turbo) and started to learn MS-DOS 5.x, reading the official user guide in my spare time. Then MS-DOS 6.x, Windows 3.x, Pentium, and so on. You know what’s next.

Zig and WASM: your best friend here is the compiler

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 13:37:00 +0000

Some days ago, MJ Grzymek published an interesting piece on his blog about how Zig can be compiled in WASM and used for efficient web development. It reminded me I’ve wanted to write about Zig and WASM for months.

Not because I’m in love with this language, I find it messy (and I’m not a low level guy). But its compiler is dope! Notably, it allows you to compile C/C++ code to WASM/WASI. And that could be a game changer!

Having fun with (Franken)PHP

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:37:00 +0000

PHP is an old language, born in 1995. It’s so old that when, as a teenager, I made my first “dynamic” curriculum vitae with a CRUD interface, it was based on PHP. I was proud of it, I was a web developer (kinda)!

The former star returns#

Like lots of old languages, it progressively became a (heavy) mess, leaving the hype to newcomers. But unlike many others, it has been able to reform.

Anchor () element: do you know its download and ping attributes?

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:37:00 +0000

One thing I like about technology, is how I can discover new things every day, even about the most basic tools. For example, last week I read a tweet about the <a> element and its download attribute. Although I’ve been creating web pages since the 90s, I didn’t know about it. So, I made some tests.

Download a file or open it: let’s decide #

When you create a link to a file, maybe you want the user to open it directly in the browser or to get a download link. By default, the browser will take its own decision, based on MIME type, file extension, etc. But you can send an extra signal, by using the download attribute. For example:

How I developed my own static hosting web server, in V

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 13:37:00 +0000

Those who follow me on social networks or work with me know how much I love V. I first heard of this language a few years ago, but really started to learn it last year, during a small project about binary size.

Have you ever heard of V?#

I won’t try to convince you how great it is, I don’t need to. Just give it a try, you’ll find out by yourself. The GitHub repository contains documentation, examples, how to make scripts, resources about vlib. You’ll find more about vpm packages here, the stdlib reference there.

Do you know the yes command?

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 13:37:00 +0000

Whether you are running GNU/Linux, macOS or even one of the BSD derivatives, you’re using a UNIX-based system. Developed in the 70s, this family of multi-user, multitasking OS is now a major standard in the IT industry.

Better know UNIX#

It comes with many tools. You probably use some of them on a daily basis, like ls, cd, cp, mv, rm, mkdir, etc. But there are many more, and some you may not be familiar with. A good example is the yes command.

How I use Linux distributions on my Mac, with a single command

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 13:37:00 +0000

As mentioned in a previous article, I use aliases to ease my (CLI) life. In addition to day-to-day actions, they allow me to automate “boring” stuff, which requires me to remember multiple commands, launch them the same way over and over again. A good example of this is Docker.

For me, Docker is a great tool for local development. If I need to test something in a specific distribution or context, it’s easy to download an image and use it. To cover my needs on GNU/Linux, I prefer Podman. I can use it with the same command but no sudo. Under macOS, I use Docker Desktop.

Put an ‘up’ alias in your life (to start with)

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 13:37:00 +0000

I’m an update junkie. I like my system and my applications to be up to date. In the new mobile « App Store » centric approach to the world, it’s quite simple. But that word is too bland and centralized to please me. I’m more of a terminal, scripts & packages manager guy. So, how do I update my desktop?

Update everything with a short command#

On GNU/Linux and macOS I rely on aliases for this kind of stuff. My Shell is zsh, but it works too with bash, fish or whatever. And the most important alias to me is up. It’s the one I use to update all the things and launch actions I need to do on a regular basis to feel nice.

Convert images to WebP from Finder in macOS, thanks to Automator and Quick actions

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:37:00 +0000

On this blog, I often publish screen captures, pictures or AI generated images. Most of the time, I get files in JPEG or PNG format. Both are good, but not as optimized as I’d like for a thrifty static website. WebP is better for that, can be lossless and is widely supported.

Keep it lean#

I could rely on Astro, which optimizes files during build. But this means I’d have to store large files with the source code and host them in my repositories. In such a situation, I prefer to solve “by design”.

Zed: your next IDE to try

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 13:37:00 +0000

Multi-purpose text editors and IDE market space is wide, from vi to Visual Studio. But some tools have always been massively used as they provide a good response to the current needs of developers and (Markdown) writers.

Fresh days for IDE lovers#

9 years ago, Atom was the rising star, part of the GitHub tools family. Microsoft bought GitHub, driving efforts to make Visual Studio Code the next big thing. You know the rest of the (déjà vu) story.

EasyGit: a git server… based on iCloud Drive

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 13:37:00 +0000

You know how I love git. In recent years, it has become the go-to VCS for developers around the world. It’s fully distributed: anyone can act as a client or a server. But in most cases, we rely on external services such as GitHub, hosted GitLab, Gitea, etc. Humans remain gregarious creatures.

But some developers looked for ways to integrate git with another kind of platform, more and more popular in recent years: Cloud storage services. It’s where I discovered EasyGit, a free to use solution that combines the power of git with the convenience of… iCloud Drive.

Schedule article publication in an AstroPaper blog

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 13:37:00 +0000

As a tech editor, I used to write several articles a day. Most of the time, it was enough to prepare content to publish later. In some cases, I had to wait due to a NDA, requiring to hold off until a specific date/time.

Thus, my common practice is to batch-write stories when inspiration strikes, and then spread them out over time. It’s also how I work on this blog. But as it’s a static generated website, things aren’t that simple.

asitop: monitor your Apple Silicon SoC, power consumption included

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 13:37:00 +0000

When you want to monitor a UNIX system, top is a good command to know. It provides information about CPU, RAM, processes, storage and network usage, with some interesting details (in a messy way). htop is a more modern and flexible alternative, as are btop, gtop or bottom (previously ytop).

But sometimes, your main concern isn’t to use a cross-platform tool. You want “close to metal” data. One of the best-known examples of this is nvidia-smi, familiar to Linux gamers and AI developers.

GitHub Desktop became my best friend to rewrite (git) history

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 13:37:00 +0000

I love git. Versioning things is key in my world and git made this popular, distributed, thanks to Merkle trees (among others). But it’s complicated too. You must practice a lot to really master such a tool.

And when you’re good enough to think you have it, you suddenly realize you’re way off the mark. The good thing is, though, that you are constantly amazed by the new things & tricks you discover (jq does this to me, too).

How I've upgraded this blog to Astro(Paper) 4.0

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 21:42:00 +0000

Some weeks ago, I decided to launch this tech blog based on the AstroPaper theme. After the release of Astro 4.0, it’s been upgraded with VS Code snippets, modDatetime and slug support, packages updates, share buttons, back to top link, fixes, etc. You can learn more here.

So, I decided to make the move. As it’s a static blog with no 1-click process, I had to follow manual steps. First, backup some folders and files. I thank my idea to create a commit with items modified during configuration: