3 ms·
WebKit, clang, the llvm backend for arm64
by zer0zzz 28d ago
WebKit, clang, the llvm backend for arm64
- LtWorf 28d agowebkit is a fork from KDE, so "initiated" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. llvm also existed from before although apple supported the development. I was curious if apple had actually started any FOSS project.
- brewmarche 28d agoSwift comes to mind, and this website has more https://opensource.apple.com/projects/ https://opensource.apple.com/projects/ (it lists WebKit, but I guess they count WebKit after it split from KHTML, I’d agree with you there) Also, Bonjour originated at Apple and it is cross-platform, although Avahi probably is more popular CUPS is associated with Apple as well, but it seems that it also did not originate there
- LtWorf 28d agoLast I heard from CUPS they fired the only guy who was working on it? last thing i found https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/03/26/apples-dormant-cups/ https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/03/26/apples-dormant-cups/
- zer0zzz 27d agoI was going to say swift, but I figured someone would undercount that because it is so overly relevant as an iOS/Mac development language even though it really is a pretty good portable language. But man... undercounting webkit and clang+llvm is a new level of ignorance..
- LtWorf 27d agoIt is ignorance to call them apple projects when they really aren't. The copyright notice of webkit is full of emails like @kde.org… wonder why it's not entirely @apple.com?
- zer0zzz 27d agoThe majority of the advancements done to make the standards compliant browser with great js performance were done at Apple. Going by the copyright notice as the the source of a vast majority of the dev in the 2000s seems pretty special.
- brewmarche 27d agoThey asked about ‘originated’ in particular.
- zer0zzz 27d agoClang and the arm64 backend did literally originate at Apple. Not sure what you want me to tell you.
- LtWorf 26d agoThat's the first thing I saw in the copyright file Copyright: 2003-2017 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- zer0zzz 26d agoDo you think it was made at Urbana because it uses the uiuc license? I suppose you think everything that uses the mit license originated in cambridge
- brewmarche 26d agoApologies, I focused on LLVM as a whole. You are right about clang (and I didn’t know about the arm64 backend)
- zer0zzz 26d agoActually the arm64 backend is a grey area. I knew some guys that worked on it in secret at Apple. They definitely created and Developed it at Apple and dropped it on the community after the iPhone 5s launched, replacing the existing aarch64 backend. I’m not 100% certain if they started with any bits of the previous aarch64 backend or not though.
- gord288 28d agoGoing back a few years, they open source’d their media streaming server, DSS: https://github.com/macosforge/dss https://github.com/macosforge/dss
- zer0zzz 25d agoOne of my favorites is also ALAC.
- zer0zzz 27d agoIn both cases you're undercounting apples investment just to make a really dense point on HN. 1) khtml was a really minimal renderer in KDE before apple pumped tens of millions into turning it into the first really modern web2.0 browser, you really can not underestimate the amount of money jobs was willing to pump to make that thing what it became by the time the iphone launched. 2) llvm was essentially apple's bet on a grad student hire and him and his lab's academic project. I knew and worked with several of those former uiuc guys. llvm and clang as we know them today were heavily built at apple. Also, you are totally (and purposefully probably) misquoting me. I said __clang__ and the __llvm arm64 backend__ were done by apple, and they were almost entirely from scratch from the start at Apple.
- LtWorf 27d agoI believe the word "originated" has a very precise meaning.
- zer0zzz 27d agoA meaning which seems definitely lost on you for two of my three examples.
- rrr_oh_man 26d agoDon’t get baited into discussing with a troll (who’s not discussing to gain a shared understanding)
- zer0zzz 26d agoYou’re right