commit: 8bda407deeef39adbe0cb491bf53977e25fcccdb
parent 276441b9cf1f3a2ff0841bd83ce60106e06facfa
Author: Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 10:39:44 +0200
Status update
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diff --git a/content/blog/Status-update-July-2022.md b/content/blog/Status-update-July-2022.md
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+---
+title: Status update, July 2022
+date: 2022-07-18
+---
+
+Hello there! It's been a hot July week in Amsterdam, and I expect hotter days
+are still to come. I wish air conditioning was more popular in Europe, but alas.
+This month of FOSS development enjoyed a lot of small improvements in a lot of
+different projects.
+
+For Hare, I have introduced a number of improvements. I wrote a new standard
+library module for string templates, [strings::template], and a new third-party
+library for working with pixel buffers, [pixbuf]. The templating is pretty
+simple — as is typical for the standard library — but allows a
+fairly wide range of formatting options. We'll be extending this a little bit
+more in the future, but it will not be a complete solution like you see in
+things like Jinja2. Nevertheless, it makes some use-cases, like code generation,
+a lot cleaner, without introducing a weighty or complex dependency.
+
+[strings::template]: https://docs.harelang.org/strings/template
+[pixbuf]: https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/pixbuf
+
+pixbuf is pretty neat, and is the first in a line of work I have planned for
+graphics on Hare. It's similar to pixman, but with a much smaller scope —
+it only deals with pixel buffers, handling pixel format conversions and doing
+small operations like fill and copy. In the future I will add simple buffer
+compositing as well, and extending modules like [hare-png] to support loading
+data into these buffers. Later, I plan on writing a simple vector graphics
+library, capable at least of rendering [TinyVG] images and perhaps later TinySVG
+as well. I'm also working on [hare-wayland] again, to provide a place to display
+these buffers.
+
+[hare-png]: https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/hare-png
+[TinyVG]: https://tinyvg.tech
+[hare-wayland]: https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/hare-wayland
+
+I also introduced [format::tar], which will serve as the basis of
+initramfs-alike functionality for Helios. On the subject of Helios, much work
+has been completed. I have implemented a PCI driver and a small proof-of-concept
+AHCI driver (for reading from SATA disks). Alexey Yerin has also been hard at
+work on the RISC-V port, and has successfully implemented a virtio ethernet
+driver which can send and receive ICMP (ping) packets. I also completed IRQ
+control for userspace, so that userspace device drivers can process interrupts,
+and used it to write a keyboard driver for a functional [DOOM port]. The full
+DOOM port required a fair bit of work — check out that blog post for the
+complete details. The idle thread was also added, so that all processes can be
+blocked waiting on interrupts, signals, endpoints, etc. Non-blocking send,
+receive, and wait syscalls were also added this month.
+
+[format::tar]: https://docs.harelang.org/format/tar
+[DOOM port]: https://drewdevault.com/2022/07/01/Porting-DOOM-to-Helios.html
+
+I'm working on splitting memory capabilities into separate device- and
+general-purpose capabilities, then adding support for destroying capabilities
+when they're no longer required. I also implemented pre-emptive multi-tasking
+early this month, and the vulcan test suite now has several multi-threaded tests
+to verify IPC functionality. However, a couple of pieces are missing — the
+ability to create and work with new cspaces and vspaces — in order to
+spawn new processes. I'll be focusing on these tasks in the coming weeks. With
+these pieces in place, we can start working on Mercury and Vulcan: the driver
+system.
+
+I'll save the SourceHut news for the "what's cooking" post later today, so
+that's all for now. Until next time!
