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Why is this news? Thousands of projects are in this position where they are porting to a new platform. This is normal.

by st3fan 6y ago

sfgweilr4f 6y ago
I'm not seeing this as newsworthy either. All porting involves some changes and instability. This is "Water is wet" style news. Are we learning something new from this being widely reported? (very little from what I can see) Should be infer that there's something inherently wrong with Apple Silicon in that Elixir has an issue? (doubtful - its just new. no surprises multiple projects will need various bugfixes or code changes) Perhaps that this is insurmountable? (unlikely) Is this a case where large numbers of eyeballs being focused on it is somehow worthwhile or there are wide implications, eg its a major security incident? (no, unlikely) Is there some technical quirk that sparks interest? (not particularly) I don't understand how this is news.
ogre_codes 6y ago
The words Apple and Elixir are both involved, two topics that many HN readers like to read about (including me). Even so, as you suggest, there are likely thousands of projects going through this transition right now. It's certain that the first retail Macs will lack some support for some things.
karmakaze 6y ago
How interesting this might be depends on why it crashed. It's likely the compiler that compiled the Beam VM not producing the correct code for Apple silicon. If it turns out to be in the Apple ARM OS or possibly hardware, then it gets more interesting. Also, many top posts on HN these days I don't find newsworthy but I wouldn't say so categorically, just to me.
justinmchase 6y ago
If it was caused by an underlying hardware problem with the chip not properly implementing arm then it would be very interesting but it seems like without that conclusively being the cause, its likely some other complex but much less interesting issue.

Why is this news? Thousands of projects are in this position where they are porting to a new platform. This is normal.

by st3fan 6y ago

Why is this news? Thousands of projects are in this position where they are porting to a new platform. This is normal.

I'm not seeing this as newsworthy either. All porting involves some changes and instability. This is "Water is wet" style news. Are we learning something new from this being widely reported? (very little from what I can see) Should be infer that there's something inherently wrong with Apple Silicon in that Elixir has an issue? (doubtful - its just new. no surprises multiple projects will need various bugfixes or code changes) Perhaps that this is insurmountable? (unlikely) Is this a case where large numbers of eyeballs being focused on it is somehow worthwhile or there are wide implications, eg its a major security incident? (no, unlikely) Is there some technical quirk that sparks interest? (not particularly) I don't understand how this is news.

ogre_codes 6y ago

The words Apple and Elixir are both involved, two topics that many HN readers like to read about (including me). Even so, as you suggest, there are likely thousands of projects going through this transition right now. It's certain that the first retail Macs will lack some support for some things.

karmakaze 6y ago

How interesting this might be depends on why it crashed. It's likely the compiler that compiled the Beam VM not producing the correct code for Apple silicon. If it turns out to be in the Apple ARM OS or possibly hardware, then it gets more interesting. Also, many top posts on HN these days I don't find newsworthy but I wouldn't say so categorically, just to me.

justinmchase 6y ago

If it was caused by an underlying hardware problem with the chip not properly implementing arm then it would be very interesting but it seems like without that conclusively being the cause, its likely some other complex but much less interesting issue.