> Flags are ephemeral – you have to share the command line or wrap it in a script. Scripts depend on environment, which can break portability. Filenames solve both: the program describes itself, requires zero setup, and any configuration can be shared by simply renaming the file.

[Emphasis added] Although I find a script that wraps the command and calls it more versatile, there might be some value in this idea for some very simple cases, like example #4.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46001622

To produce plots out of data files, Python and R are probably the best solutions.

It took just a couple of minutes to have a working example that fully supported C++ modules and `import std`:

    set_languages("c++23")

    add_rules("mode.debug", "mode.release")

    target("mytest")
        set_kind("static")
        add_files("src/*.cpp")
        add_files("src/*.cppm", {public = true})
        set_policy("build.c++.modules", true)

That four new CVEs (two high-severity!) were found in a mature and well-tested library like png reminds me how non-trivial and unforgiving software engineering can be.

Security flaws are often just waiting behind the corner: this should be humbling lesson for all of us.

- I use several symbols as Greek letters (α, β, γ…) and mathematical operators (×, −, ·, ∂…), and after much digging I found that the only way I could make keyd work with them was to choose a US keyboard layout. So, I had to write a configuration file for keyd to remap not only the special characters listed above, but every character of the Italian keyboard (è, é, ò, à, ù…). This extensive remapping required then an exception for Espanso to prevent `keyd` from intercepting its virtual keyboard output.

- However, this forced US-layout setup created a conflict with VirtualBox that I was unable to solve. When I installed Windows and selected the Italian layout inside the VM, the guest OS received the raw key codes corresponding to a US physical keyboard (due to the keyd remapping layer). Since the guest OS expected Italian key codes, all the standard Italian keys (like è, à, ò) stopped working correctly. Without keyd enabled, the standard Italian layout worked perfectly in the VM.

- The attempts to create application-specific exceptions (e.g., to disable keyd for the VM window) using tools like keyd-application-mapper did not function correctly in my KDE environment because of known issues in these tools.

- Finally, introducing new hardware like my Corsair keyboard added another layer of complexity, as its Linux driver (ckb-next) was incompatible with the active keyd remapping layer. This was the point when I decided to revert to X11.

I should definitely collect all these details and write a blog post about it…

- Italian layout for my keyboard with heavily-customized AltGr keys for mathematical notation (in X11 it's just a matter of having a Xmodmap file)

- Using Espanso for many common shortcuts like :date: (current YYYY-MM-DD date) and :pidigits:

- A reasonable way to run Windows in a VM while using an Italian layout for my keyboard

- The possibility to use automation scripts using something as close as possible to xdotool

- Sometimes I use my home keyboard, sometimes I use my work keyboard, and sometimes I use my laptop keyboard. I expect the system to work in the same way regardless of my input device

It's not that Wayland prevents one from doing all this stuff, but the available solutions were fragile and complicated and took me so long before figuring solutions that only worked partially... For instance, to make keyd work as expected, I was forced to set up my Italian keyboard as an English keyboard and then remap all the keys manually... And every time I plugged a new keyboard, I had to tell keyd to enable my customizations on it, because telling it to use the layout with any keyboard conflicted with VirtualBox.

I understand that X11 is too complicated to be maintained, but from an user's perspective, so far I am far more efficient in X11.

We used the same trick (git hash + git diff to monitor uncommitted changes) in a Python simulation framework we are developing for the JAXA/EU space mission "LiteBIRD." [1]

[1] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/11...

The email mentions that the last time they changed it was 5 years ago in GCC 11, and the link <https://gcc.gnu.org/projects/cxx-status.html#cxx17> indeed says

> C++17 mode is the default since GCC 11; it can be explicitly selected with the -std=c++17 command-line flag, or -std=gnu++17 to enable GNU extensions as well.

which does not imply a change in an obscure feature (bootstrapping) that would only affect a few users.

I believe that Nano and Pico copied it from Wordstar.

[1] https://yazi-rs.github.io/

[2] https://github.com/simonschoelly/KittyTerminalImages.jl

[3] https://github.com/hzeller/timg

- Banquiao (China, 1975): between 26.000 and 240.000 [1]

- Derna (Lybia, 2023): between 6000 and 20.000 deaths [2]

- Machchu (India, 1979): 5000 deaths [3]

- Vajont (Italy, 1963): 2000 deaths [4]

- Möhne dam (Germany, 1943): 1500 deaths [5]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Banqiao_Dam_failure

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Derna_dam_collapse

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morvi_dam_failure

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6hne_Reservoir

A couple of examples found in a book I read recently about the Fukushima incident:

- “Tokyo, a capital in agony. «We will never live here again.»”, from La Repubblica (March 20th, 2011) [1] The lead paragraph of the article reads, “Fear and nightmare of radiations: four million have already fled what was perceived as a model city”. At the time, Tokyo had 13 million people; a loss of 4 million would have meant a catastrophic collapse of the city and would have been recorded by the local media. None of this happened.

- “Fukushima, ten years after the tsunami and nuclear disaster. A return to normalcy amid abandoned lands and fears of radiation”, from Il Fatto Quotidiano (March 11th, 2021, ten years later) [2]. The lead paragraph says, “It was the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Twenty thousand people died.” The number 20,000 refers to the victims of the tsunami, but there is only one (disputed) victim caused by the nuclear accident.

[1] https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2011/03/20/news/tokyo_capit...

[2] https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2021/03/11/fukushima-dieci-...