Posts by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
(DIR) Post #A0qNn2HfNOgKg4r0ds by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-04T04:37:08Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
A reminder to US voters (and spectators) that counting the surge of mail-in ballots will take time in certain states and we are unlikely to have election results tonight.
(DIR) Post #A0sYIrNwDnbuBXyCAK by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-05T01:45:25Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Outside of Mastodon, I communicate with others almost exclusively via email; many days, I live in it. Since my MUA (Gnus) is integrated into my editor (Emacs), and my mail is in plain text, it's easy for me to manipulate.It therefore makes sense for me to use it as a means of aggregating data.One such example is RSS: I use r2e (rss2email) to gather RSS feeds and convert them to email, which is then sent to my local Dovecot server. I can then read them comfortably, offline.#thanksfreesw
(DIR) Post #A15jN7wAB5cGYV1ttg by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-10T02:13:35Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@civodul I see complexity as one of the modern barriers to practical software freedom. If a reasonably skilled person can't comprehend a system, one can't exercise the freedom to make any meaningful changes, letalone redistribute those changes.Projects that describe themselves as open source may not begin to consider that point.I feel a modern interpretation of software freedom requires mindfulness to complexity. Unfortunately, the backbones of modern systems are the opposite of that.
(DIR) Post #A15jN99JffjQJaBv2O by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-11T01:22:59Z
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@ArneBab @civodul Yes, unfortunately it's not atypical for 100s of MiB (or even >1GiB) worth of dependencies in JavaScript projects using NPM. I can't speak to Go.This has also been a packaging headache in Guix. And for a FSDG distro, there's also the problem of trying to determine whether a program is actually free, given all of those dependencies.
(DIR) Post #A16CMBy0bhibR0ncTA by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-11T01:34:24Z
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@colby @vu3rdd @civodul @jfred Ah, thanks for sharing. I've always used "practical software freedom" informally, and I'm not sure if I've used the term publicly before or not.But there's a careful balance to be had. We can't take "practical" to mean "anyone can modify without any training". As @civodul said, some projects have inherent complexity.Some projects are also complex simply because they are poorly factored, planned, or authored.
(DIR) Post #A16CMD30abJOmo97tw by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-11T01:53:46Z
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@jfred @colby @vu3rdd @civodul The most notable project I can think of and use that has the equivalent of "view source" for complex programs is Emacs, where you can jump to the source code of any definition, even if it's part of the C sources.I agree that it could be more front-and-center. Many developers can't make it easy _for other developers_, let alone less familiar users.I've found what Guix has done with `guix envionment` to be really helpful for building software. (and `guix edit`)
(DIR) Post #A16CMER9QKDZ5yRvAe by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-11T18:21:50Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@roptat @jfred @colby @vu3rdd @civodul Indeed, `guix environment` is the really important part there. Any decent package manger will have a means to acquire sources (e.g. apt-get source in Debian), but there's usually additional steps to build it (apt-get build-deps), and then your system configuration may be insufficient for building.`guix environment` Just Works. And you can build in an isolated environment with `-C`. It's not only convenient, but wonderfully empowering.
(DIR) Post #A182aoajOfJ9fbXbEW by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-12T01:49:48Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@danielcassidy @ArneBab @civodul This seems more like an explicit recognition of how bad the problem is.
(DIR) Post #A1AEWPZ25rqGemKhnM by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-11-13T01:40:28Z
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@colby @cwebber @civodul @ArneBab @codeberg Dependenices are not typically committed to the repo itself (they're downloaded after cloning via the package manager) and so do not contribute to the repository size.Even showing the size of the repository post-checkout isn't simple, since each package can run arbitrary scripts and perform environment/platform-specific tasks, including compilation.
(DIR) Post #A2sgEnv96ULcIpaXVg by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2020-08-12T04:24:49Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Over the 15+ years I've been using GNU/Linux, there are many programs that have become second nature to me. As a hacker, I enjoy tinkering with my system---why use a desktop environment when I could do the same thing with 100s of programs and hand-written scripts...!?Each day I feel up to it, I'll give thanks to a free/libre program that has made a positive impact on my life, from every corner of my operating system, with the hope that others will find them interesting too.#thanksfreesw
(DIR) Post #A3CWZrPhfUZwMbLchM by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-01-13T03:06:52Z
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@jeffcliff @cowanon @mangeurdenuage @bigl0af Yes, that's my LibrePlanet 2017 talk. You can find the slides, references, and other information here: https://mikegerwitz.com/talks
(DIR) Post #A4YUGQA7NwARpkGtI8 by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-02-23T05:06:45Z
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I will be speaking at #LibrePlanet2021 on March 20th. More information to come.
(DIR) Post #A4cVKvzDslAYHOjNk8 by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-02-25T03:22:25Z
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LibrePlanet 2021: Adopting Free Software Idealshttps://mikegerwitz.com/2021/02/libreplanet-2021I will be speaking again at this year's LibrePlanet on March 20th, which will be online. This year, I’ll be talking about challenges with adopting free software ideals and the impact that it can have not only on individuals, but also on our community as a whole. This talk will be personal, drawing upon my evolution over the past fifteen or so years.
(DIR) Post #A5P717p14XOSk0r6Q4 by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-03-20T14:29:43Z
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We have over 1000 registered #LibrePlanet2021 attendees this year from all around the world! As an activist, it's inspiring to see!https://libreplanet.org/2021
(DIR) Post #A5UjSJNq0IXKG1ce8G by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-03-21T02:36:27Z
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My kids had a lot of fun playing on the #LibrePlanet2021 Minetest instance, and plan to hop back on tomorrow. Everyone was really kind, and it's been a great way for them to be involved in the conference.I also like that they got to interact with others that have a passion for software freedom, since it shows that it's not just Dad that thinks about free software.
(DIR) Post #A5doLs3vaHuLqxBgLg by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-03-27T16:42:29Z
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@redstarfish This is not okay. Calling for the arrest of someone whose speech you do not agree with, even if you consider it libelous, is wrong. What example does this set?
(DIR) Post #A6Gk2rNVG0flA1SAqG by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-04-10T06:07:05Z
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Working on a TLC2 (TLA+ model checker) package for Guix, until I found that one of its dependencies is lsp4j (not yet packaged), which is built with Gradle, which is not currently packaged in Guix.This escalated quickly. I should probably try to build without Gradle. My Java skills are weak, so I guess we'll see how this goes...
(DIR) Post #A6Gk2rqDXFdob4t6bA by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-04-12T05:42:45Z
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I'm pretty excited that I have a working #TLA+ Tools package for #guix working now (tla2tools.jar). But I have a lot of cleanup (for it and new dependencies) to do before offering a patch, and some more wrapper scripts to write. Also need to figure out why some pcal tests are failing.This allows for model checking, simulation, and LaTeX output generation, among some other things as well.
(DIR) Post #A6Gk2sLPfGaw9pU1Ds by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-04-15T04:36:19Z
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TLA+ Tools patch series submitted after ~17 hours of work:https://issues.guix.gnu.org/47789I'll consider tackling TLAPS (the proof system) in the near future, if I have the energy and it's not too involved.
(DIR) Post #A6xe2gLVvyxFlYLNmi by mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com
2021-05-06T02:18:55Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
tla2tools (TLA+ tools) for Guix has been merged! You can now enjoy model checking, typesetting, and more on your Guix system. If you're into that kinda thing.https://issues.guix.gnu.org/47789Enjoy!#guix #TLA