2.7 KiB
+++ title = "Links for 2020-03-11" date = 2020-03-11
[taxonomies] tags = ["links", "google", "agpl"] +++
Google Policy towards AGPL software, Swift vs Rust, Open Source Economics, JUnit 5, cfg(doctest), Firefox on Flathub.
AGPL Policy
Google policy towards using AGPL software. Basically, because AGPL says "source is always available", Google says "maintain an aggressively-broad ban on all AGPL software"
Take away: Release everything under the AGPL.
Impressions of Rust as a Swift Developer: Memory Management
A take on the way Rust and Swift manages memory. While I agree with the drawbacks of Rust, the author forgets to mention the price Swift pays for its simplicity: A runtime.
Having a runtime is bad? Well, it depends: If you're not using anything the runtime offers (your application does a full allocation upfront and never deallocates, it completes its job before it has time to actually use the garbage collector), you're basically wasting resources. Sure, you pay this in development time, but this has to be measured.
Also, a runtime means another problem: Runtime errors. Unless your compiler picks those and stop you from creating code that can generate those errors, you'll get those.
(Also, fun fact: Graydon Hoare, the creator of Rust, worked on Swift.)
cfg(doctest) is stable and you should use it
Speaking of Rust, here's a feature I was not aware of: You can create testing modules that test Markdown documentation. Why would anyone do that? Well, markdown is usually the way people document their applications and you want your examples to actually work, right?
Can We Make Open Source More Sustainable?
A big problem with open source is that actually nobody cares about how it is developed: Sure, there is a person (or persons) behind it, but how are those people paying for their living, eating and health? The post points some things open source developers can do to get something out.
Improve your tests with JUnit 5
A few tips on using JUnit 5 -- some that I was not aware of.
Mozilla makes Firefox Beta available on Flathub
Mozilla is making Firefox available on Flathub, which means now it is even easier to test Firefox without breaking your system -- 'cause Flatpak keeps the whole package in its own container and it does not touch your system.