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Epiktistes is my home in the Fediverse. It is an instance of Ktistec, a single-user ActivityPub server like Mastodon, but with fewer users and fewer commits. Here's my introduction (last updated early-2025).
I wrote a series of posts about optimizing the performance of the Ktistec server, its build time, and its executable size: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.
Some things I regularly write about, organized by hashtag:
I also wrote some #pointfreeverse.
i've been working and wearing my nreal/xreal air glasses on this flight.
it's a trip when the plane is banking and turning. i also have a virtual ultrawide screen. i'm sure the guy next to me wonders what i'm studying over there...
many, many languages show up in my fediverse timeline. firefox translate selection (browser.translations.select.enable) appears to be what i need, but its language support seems limited.
When you optimize a Crystal program, pay attention to language features that inline code. For example, pay attention to how you use blocks (consequences here and here).
Also pay attention to how you use macros. Macros, like ECR.embed and Slang.embed, inline code at the point where they are invoked. This can be powerful, because macros actually generate code—but, ten invocations later, you have ten copies of the code.
Here's a case of too many copies, but with a very happy ending...
Ktistec uses both ECR.embed and Slang.embed to generate web pages from views and partials. I wrote code to count the number of places Ktistec used embed for each view and partial it renders. There's a long tail, but here are the big ones:
| src/views/layouts/default.html.ecr | 204 | | src/views/partials/modals.html.slang | 204 | | src/views/partials/header.html.slang | 204 | | src/views/partials/footer.html.slang | 204 | | src/views/pages/generic.html.slang | 155 | | src/views/partials/object/label.html.slang | 36 | | src/views/partials/object/content.html.slang | 36 | | src/views/partials/collection.json.ecr | 28 | | src/views/partials/thread.html.slang | 12 | | src/views/partials/detail.html.slang | 12 | | src/views/partials/object.html.slang | 12 | | src/views/partials/actor-panel.html.slang | 11 | | src/views/partials/object.json.ecr | 11 | | src/views/partials/paginator.html.slang | 11 | | src/views/objects/thread.json.ecr | 8 | | src/views/partials/activity/label.html.slang | 6 | | src/views/mentions/index.json.ecr | 6 | | src/views/remote_follows/index.json.ecr | 6 | | src/views/settings/settings.json.ecr | 6 | | src/views/tags/index.json.ecr | 6 | | src/views/activities/activity.json.ecr | 5 | | src/views/partials/editor.html.slang | 5 | | src/views/objects/object.json.ecr | 5 | | src/views/actors/remote.json.ecr | 4 | ...
The layout is part of every page and is rendered with every view, so lots of copies. Every page has a header and a footer (and some default modal dialogs) so you get those, too. The generic view is a little less obvious. It's used to render pages for which there is no more specific view—typically pages served for 400 Bad Request or 401 Unauthorized. Objects (posts) are rendered in a variety of contexts, so it's no surprise label.html.slang and content.html.slang are popular.
ECR.embed and Slang.embed inline templates at the point where they are invoked, but beyond that they don't really customize the generated code—they just duplicate it. What we want is one function for each view or partial, which wraps embed and returns JSON or HTML.
Those changes mostly occur in commits from 399287cf to 4b025f50. To say that they made a huge difference is a gross understatement. Executable size decreased by ~13%. Build time decreased by ~50%, and the memory required to build decreased by ~30%.
One of my favorite threads on the Crystal language forum right now is comparing compilation performance. So far, the Macs are winning.
https://forum.crystal-lang.org/t/cpu-compile-speed-benchmarks/6690/5?u=jgaskins #crystal
i can't tell you how often i write echo instead of cat and vice versa.
i need a utility called echocat that just does the right thing...
I just released v2.0.0-11 of ktistec. This release picks up a few small improvements I wanted to get into v2.0.0.
it think i've just been made a fan of the oxford comma
someone somewhere said that the best way to get yourself back into the flow when you have to step away from your work is to leave a broken test for the next thing you have to build. that’s been valuable advice and works for me even for gaps as long as a week!
We are thrilled to announce the release of Crystal 1.12.0
https://crystal-lang.org/2024/04/09/1.12.0-released/
It's a big release which brings progress on many fronts. Happy Crystalling!
it feels like there might have just been a low magnitude earthquake in nyc...