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Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

amber-lang.com

71–80 of 330 posts

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#72

Why does the documentation need WebGL? I have WebGL disabled in my main browser for privacy reasons (super-easy to fingerprint), and I only get to see 'Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).' with an error about ThreeJS initialization in the console. I assume it's for the fancy animation, and I find that ridiculous. Loading a whole 3D library just to sh…

The reality is that in disabling WebGL, you have an incredibly unusual configuration and the author didn’t test for it. Stop making this a philosophical argument. Why does the documentation need WebGL? It doesn’t, but the web has moved beyond just addressing “needs”. Why do you need to be on HN? You don’t. Yet here you are. I’m not arguing that the juice is worth the squeeze here, but your argument has a false premise that you’re exploiting to make the situation sound more absurd than it is.

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#73
post #70

Quick note to the creators: the website looks almost exactly like every other "here try this cool command-line utility so we can hook you and start charging a service fee for it" startup website and I instantly distrusted it. The design communicates that you're selling a product , not providing an open-source utility. That said, very interesting syntax. I agree with others about the $...$ being kind of odd, but other…

It's not a big deal by I second that. I also thought, "let's see how they are making money out of this". I clicked on the github link and found out it's GPL 3.0, all of it, no open core or similar stuff. Maybe a tiny note about it being open source could help.

Also a note about it being Free as in Beer.

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#74

Why does the documentation need WebGL? I have WebGL disabled in my main browser for privacy reasons (super-easy to fingerprint), and I only get to see 'Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).' with an error about ThreeJS initialization in the console. I assume it's for the fancy animation, and I find that ridiculous. Loading a whole 3D library just to sh…

'WebGL disabled' is a pretty strong fingerprint anyways

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#75
post #63

Why would someone need to compile to bash.. how about just use python instead

You certainly should. Even if you know some bash and zero python I suppose, because bash is just so "special".

But only if your target environment has python, and that's not a given, not a zero-cost change, in this age of short-lived containers. The use case for a "compile to bash" language would be compile in a dev-operated environment and commit both source and output, which would then run on later stages in the CI/CD pipeline that might very well not have python. And those stages will absolutely not have your "compile to bash" tool, which would ideally be included along with the source unless it's somehow as near-omnipresent as python. This one appears to be implemented in rust, I'd certainly feel more optimistic about depending on it as a script authoring tool if it was e.g. a python script that could be included with my "pre-bash" source, and/or packaged in, say, npm.

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#77

Why does the documentation need WebGL? I have WebGL disabled in my main browser for privacy reasons (super-easy to fingerprint), and I only get to see 'Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).' with an error about ThreeJS initialization in the console. I assume it's for the fancy animation, and I find that ridiculous. Loading a whole 3D library just to sh…

The reality is that in disabling WebGL, you have an incredibly unusual configuration and the author didn’t test for it. Stop making this a philosophical argument. Why does the documentation need WebGL? It doesn’t, but the web has moved beyond just addressing “needs”. Why do you need to be on HN? You don’t. Yet here you are. I’m not arguing that the juice is worth the squeeze here, but your argument has a false premis…

I don't think it's incredibly unusual. On sensitive machines in corporate settings you commonly disable pretty much everything on every page that isn't in the 'trusted zone' or whatever.

Personally, by default I shut down all the browser crap that might needlessly allocate RAM or allow memory leaks or slurp cycles without giving me some kind of value. I think this allows me to hold at least a few hundred extra tabs open. For technical documentation I expect text, hypertext and static images, if you're going to require JS and WebGL and whatnot I'm going to assume you aren't entirely honest with me about the information we're about to share and I'll probably sandbox a scrape of the documentation if I really need it.

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#78
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a big deal by I second that. I also thought, "let's see how they are making money out of this". I clicked on the github link and found out it's GPL 3.0, all of it, no open core or similar stuff. Maybe a tiny note about it being open source could help.

Also a note about it being Free as in Beer.

No as I really don't understand that - beer costs money.

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#79
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the runtime for those utilities is available on just about every Linuxy OS there is. Saves you having to install the runtime separately, eg in your CI pipeline.

It's not much of a "runtime", though. How is it better than a plain executable?

Ok if your scripting language compiles to plain stand-alone executables and has good built-in support for processing shell commands and their IO.

Re: Amber: Programming language compiled to Bash

#80

Why does the documentation need WebGL? I have WebGL disabled in my main browser for privacy reasons (super-easy to fingerprint), and I only get to see 'Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).' with an error about ThreeJS initialization in the console. I assume it's for the fancy animation, and I find that ridiculous. Loading a whole 3D library just to sh…

> Even if you're convinced you need the fancy animation, why not gracefully fallback to not showing it and still make the docs usable?

Yeah, it's not like adding a try/catch block around the webGL invocation was hard anyway…

But I agree with the sibling comment about disabling WebGL likely being a fingerprinting liability more than a win.

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