5 ms·

He also created QuickJS, that's javascript server side, like NodeJS but much faster to start programs. Just type "qjs your-script.js". I use it in my server bec

He also created QuickJS, that's javascript server side, like NodeJS but much faster to start programs. Just type "qjs your-script.js". I use it in my server because of its low overhead to start and run my microservices. https://bellard.org/quickjs/ https://bellard.org/quickjs/

the_duke 6y ago
And qemu... and ffmpeg. The productivity of Bellard is truly admirable.
- kizer 6y ago
  Bellard is one of those 1%’ers.
  - acmj 6y ago
    Only 1%? At least one per million, if not per billion (depending on how you count the denominator).
    - twic 6y ago
      He's not just 10x, he's 0x10x.
    - kizer 6y ago
      You’re right. Let’s say he’s a 1%’er under a linear view of a logarithmic ranking of all programmers.
    - boogies 6y ago
      ~0.00001‰
  - montroser 6y ago
    I wonder if he's lonely, with not too many people in the world who can communicate, operate, execute at his level...
    - carapace 6y ago
      That reminds me, Edward Teller said "von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us."
- fullstop 6y ago
  He worked on ffmpeg under a pseudonym. He may very well be secretly involved in other projects.
  - jtxx 6y ago
    damn that’s ballin, I didn’t even know people did that with code
  - jsmith45 6y ago
    Worked on might be an understatement, given that he was the initial ffmpeg developer, and thus founded that project.
    - astrange 6y ago
      There have been many more ffmpeg developers since then. I think it was originally a mpeg1/2/4 codec only, which is something one person can do. Although hardly anyone has done it with acceptable performance like he did, usually they like to get abstract and object-oriented for no actual benefit.
- masklinn 6y ago
  jslinux as well, it's more of a cool demo than anything useful but the "cool" factor is super high. And led to tinyemu (which underlies the current jslinux implementation). The current version can run Windows NT inside QEMU inside JSLinux. In your browser.
- mometsi 6y ago
  And around a week ago, his text compressor topped the enwik9 (Hutter Prize) benchmark. Not prize-eligible though-- that would require a single core, non-GPU build to run in <100h. His nncp 2.1 benchmark took 140h to run on a GTX 3090. https://bellard.org/nncp/ https://bellard.org/nncp/ http://www.mattmahoney.net/dc/text.html http://www.mattmahoney.net/dc/text.html
- yudlejoza 6y ago
  I'm happy for him. I also wonder his employer might be the nicest do-whatever-you-want-in-your-free-time employer on earth. Not only that, I wonder what kind of day-job roles he has since I assume there is significant cognitive load in his personal projects (we still think he's a human not a superhuman right?). For context, my last employer was "Oh you're doing something in your free time? let me utterly destroy you." (and they did).
  - soegaard 6y ago
    No worries on that front: https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/ https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/
    - yudlejoza 6y ago
      Founded in 2012. That's like yesterday. 80% of his stuff was done by then. edit: Even then, now he probably has the world's nicest co-founder instead. Who does cognitively demanding open source software projects made available for free online, while running a startup?
  - 1996 6y ago
    > For context, my last employer was "Oh you're doing something in your free time? let me utterly destroy you." (and they did). How could they? And what was their motivation for doing this? An employee doing something in their free time is a rare and valuable asset.
    - yudlejoza 6y ago
      Boy I got news for you. They also had a policy that everyone should spend at least 4 hours every week (outside of the 40 hour work-week) doing some personal project, or learning. The more the better. (it was a recommendation, not a requirement, and there was no monitoring). Well what I had in mind was a bit more ambitious than four hours. It did not infringe on their bottom-line (I wasn't using their tech or competing with my day-job; it was completely unrelated). But for me they were like "Oh, no, no ... we were just kidding. We really didn't mean that you should do something in your free time". The encouragement to do something in free-time is a lie! ... they know most of the engineers don't do that. But if someone actually does something, then the lie gets exposed. Try it yourself. Take them up on their offer and see what happens.
mhd 6y ago
Do you run your microservices as CGIs or from inetd? Or why does the start overhead matter that much?
codazoda 6y ago
I hadn't seen QuickJS before and it looks amazing. It's a small, fast implementation of JS plus wrappers for the C standard library. That standard library includes output, reading and writing files, and a lot more. It's both an interpreter and a compiler. So you can build small console apps in JS.
dingdingdang 6y ago
QuickJS Main Features: * Small and easily embeddable: just a few C files, no external dependency, 210 KiB of x86 code for a simple hello world program. * Fast interpreter with very low startup time: runs the 75000 tests of the ECMAScript Test Suite in about 100 seconds on a single core of a desktop PC. The complete life cycle of a runtime instance completes in less than 300 microseconds. * Almost complete ES2020 support including modules, asynchronous generators and full Annex B support (legacy web compatibility). * Passes nearly 100% of the ECMAScript Test Suite tests when selecting the ES2020 features. A summary is available at Test262 Report. * Can compile Javascript sources to executables with no external dependency.

the_duke 6y ago

And qemu... and ffmpeg. The productivity of Bellard is truly admirable.

kizer 6y ago
Bellard is one of those 1%’ers.
- acmj 6y ago
  Only 1%? At least one per million, if not per billion (depending on how you count the denominator).
  - twic 6y ago
    He's not just 10x, he's 0x10x.
  - kizer 6y ago
    You’re right. Let’s say he’s a 1%’er under a linear view of a logarithmic ranking of all programmers.
  - boogies 6y ago
    ~0.00001‰
- montroser 6y ago
  I wonder if he's lonely, with not too many people in the world who can communicate, operate, execute at his level...
  - carapace 6y ago
    That reminds me, Edward Teller said "von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us."
fullstop 6y ago
He worked on ffmpeg under a pseudonym. He may very well be secretly involved in other projects.
- jtxx 6y ago
  damn that’s ballin, I didn’t even know people did that with code
- jsmith45 6y ago
  Worked on might be an understatement, given that he was the initial ffmpeg developer, and thus founded that project.
  - astrange 6y ago
    There have been many more ffmpeg developers since then. I think it was originally a mpeg1/2/4 codec only, which is something one person can do. Although hardly anyone has done it with acceptable performance like he did, usually they like to get abstract and object-oriented for no actual benefit.
masklinn 6y ago
jslinux as well, it's more of a cool demo than anything useful but the "cool" factor is super high. And led to tinyemu (which underlies the current jslinux implementation). The current version can run Windows NT inside QEMU inside JSLinux. In your browser.
mometsi 6y ago
And around a week ago, his text compressor topped the enwik9 (Hutter Prize) benchmark. Not prize-eligible though-- that would require a single core, non-GPU build to run in <100h. His nncp 2.1 benchmark took 140h to run on a GTX 3090. https://bellard.org/nncp/ https://bellard.org/nncp/ http://www.mattmahoney.net/dc/text.html http://www.mattmahoney.net/dc/text.html
yudlejoza 6y ago
I'm happy for him. I also wonder his employer might be the nicest do-whatever-you-want-in-your-free-time employer on earth. Not only that, I wonder what kind of day-job roles he has since I assume there is significant cognitive load in his personal projects (we still think he's a human not a superhuman right?). For context, my last employer was "Oh you're doing something in your free time? let me utterly destroy you." (and they did).
- soegaard 6y ago
  No worries on that front: https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/ https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/
  - yudlejoza 6y ago
    Founded in 2012. That's like yesterday. 80% of his stuff was done by then. edit: Even then, now he probably has the world's nicest co-founder instead. Who does cognitively demanding open source software projects made available for free online, while running a startup?
- 1996 6y ago
  > For context, my last employer was "Oh you're doing something in your free time? let me utterly destroy you." (and they did). How could they? And what was their motivation for doing this? An employee doing something in their free time is a rare and valuable asset.
  - yudlejoza 6y ago
    Boy I got news for you. They also had a policy that everyone should spend at least 4 hours every week (outside of the 40 hour work-week) doing some personal project, or learning. The more the better. (it was a recommendation, not a requirement, and there was no monitoring). Well what I had in mind was a bit more ambitious than four hours. It did not infringe on their bottom-line (I wasn't using their tech or competing with my day-job; it was completely unrelated). But for me they were like "Oh, no, no ... we were just kidding. We really didn't mean that you should do something in your free time". The encouragement to do something in free-time is a lie! ... they know most of the engineers don't do that. But if someone actually does something, then the lie gets exposed. Try it yourself. Take them up on their offer and see what happens.

mhd 6y ago

Do you run your microservices as CGIs or from inetd? Or why does the start overhead matter that much?

codazoda 6y ago

I hadn't seen QuickJS before and it looks amazing. It's a small, fast implementation of JS plus wrappers for the C standard library. That standard library includes output, reading and writing files, and a lot more. It's both an interpreter and a compiler. So you can build small console apps in JS.

dingdingdang 6y ago

QuickJS Main Features: * Small and easily embeddable: just a few C files, no external dependency, 210 KiB of x86 code for a simple hello world program. * Fast interpreter with very low startup time: runs the 75000 tests of the ECMAScript Test Suite in about 100 seconds on a single core of a desktop PC. The complete life cycle of a runtime instance completes in less than 300 microseconds. * Almost complete ES2020 support including modules, asynchronous generators and full Annex B support (legacy web compatibility). * Passes nearly 100% of the ECMAScript Test Suite tests when selecting the ES2020 features. A summary is available at Test262 Report. * Can compile Javascript sources to executables with no external dependency.