Patrick Smith

QIP: a fresh take on WebAssembly components: world is your computer:

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

My WebAssembly debugger lets you time-travel with your scroll wheel.

WebAssembly (and Ghostty) are so fast that a step back just reruns from scratch.

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

I’m working on a WebAssembly debugger. You can even time-travel backwards!

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@mitchellh Amazing! Do you repair invalid utf-8 instead of hard rejecting it?

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@badlogicgames Weave the agents into your shell: https://t.co/eqkVj2PcKi

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@econcallum Curious why Tim Berners-Lee is on the list?

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@brandur I think long form is pretty niche already. I agree this is a problem but I expect the demand for great long form will go up as it will rarer.

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@fardarter @RyanCarniato @devwrite_ @AdamRackis @Meliketoast21 @jdkornac @ggs4ns The database holds durable data, a server responds with transient data.

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

It’s called setting your editor font to italics

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@rauchg I think we’ll see new super strict languages that make the constraints of Rust look like a pair of fluffy handcuffs

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@RyanCarniato @devwrite_ @AdamRackis @Meliketoast21 @jdkornac @ggs4ns IMO endpoints returning JSON is a special protocol. Especially if it has a shape crafted for the needs of an interactive client.

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@fardarter @RyanCarniato @devwrite_ @AdamRackis @Meliketoast21 @jdkornac @ggs4ns These are not the same thing

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@zack_overflow This is what I’m seeing:

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

Is Jensen too big to fire?

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@birch_js None of it feels native

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@SebAaltonen Point it at my site and get it to copy anything it needs:

https://t.co/LAvC3EGvj1

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@sebastienlorber Is there evidence of people selling these vibe-coded games? Or of traditional games having fewer sales?

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@aaronp613 Under the Claris brand?!

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@mattpocockuk Agents are incredibly good at gaming metrics. That’s why you have to point them at things that are objectively good for users, like lower memory usage, less CPU time, lower latency, less network traffic.

Number of PRs has zero correlation to UX.

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

@poteto I agree. We can flatten the layers. Understand every line of code. Less is more.

[Patrick Smith @patrickgwsmith]

100% agree: “Code is a strange shape-shifting substance because to a business it’s both an asset and a liability. If code is understood by no one in the org then its liabilities risk compounding faster than its value. If you are tethered to coding agents for making any progress then all your understanding is leased.”

https://t.co/nuHPRkCEer

[LaurieWired @lauriewired]

UX latency is the most frustrating (lack of) advancement in computing over the last ~50 years.

IBM, way back in the 80s, found that user productivity shot up *exponentially* as system response time dropped. The "Doherty Threshold" was defined as ~400 milliseconds; the maximum amount of tolerable UX latency before interrupting user flow state.

It's unbelievable how many modern operating systems (*cough* win11) violate this threshold constantly.

Literally all you need to do as a Dev is pay attention. Add a "Doherty Threshold" to your test suite. There's so many different profiling tools, and especially with how good models are, really no excuse. Sure, some stalls are unavoidable, but that's when you pull out other UX tricks to at least give the illusion of responsiveness.

Crazy how much vintage computing hardware feels immeasurably more responsive despite having thousands of times less overall performance.