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diff --git a/posts/2013-09-30-gnu30.md b/posts/2013-09-30-gnu30.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d42bf3 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/2013-09-30-gnu30.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +title: GNU 30th Anniversary Hackathon +date: 2013-09-30 22:00 +tags: gnu, fsf, free software +summary: Happy birthday, GNU! +--- + +I spent my weekend at MIT at the GNU 30th anniversary hackathon. I had +never participated in a hackathon before and was excited to see what +it was like. Developers from many GNU and non-GNU projects were there +to hack and help others get involved, and RMS was there to give the +keynote speech. + +On Saturday, I spent nearly the entire day in the GNU FM room. About a +year ago I wrote an +[installation guide](http://bugs.foocorp.net/projects/fm/wiki/How_to_install) +on the GNU FM wiki, and so Matt Lee asked me to walk some newcomers +through getting a development environment up and running. I was able +to help four people with this. They all had a functioning GNU FM +server and they were able to scrobble their music to it. Setting up +GNU FM can be quite a pain, and the guide I had written was missing +some information and gave some bad advice. I simplified and rewrote +some of it so that it’s easier to follow. Hopefully this will benefit +a future contributor to GNU FM. + +At 5PM on Saturday, RMS gave a talk about the future of free software +and the GNU project. He discussed the value of reverse engineering +proprietary applications and device drivers in order to write free +replacements. He also talked about the dangers of +software-as-a-service and the “iThings”. His +[new article](http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/09/why-free-software-is-more-important-now-than-ever-before/) +on Wired covers much of the same subject matter. After his speech, he +raffled off a stuffed baby gnu and an “adorable” GNU 30th anniversary +mug. Chris, owner of ThinkPenguin, won both items! After the speech +came the reception in which I ate some delicious vegan cupcakes and +acquired two 3D printed gnu logos that were sitting atop each +cupcake. After the reception, I briefly went out to a pub with Matt +Lee and Matthew Garrett. Donald Robertson of the FSF joined in later. + +On Sunday, I spent the first couple of hours helping out more with GNU +FM because Matt Lee was sick. For lunch, I went with a large group to +a chinese restaurant. Included in the group was the John Eaton, the +GNU Octave author, and Zak Rogoff, Campaigns Manager at the FSF. It +was interesting to talk to John about the challenges that he faced and +continues to face when trying to keep up with Matlab and maintaining +compatibility even when the Matlab engineers make bad design decisions. + +After lunch, I met up with Mark Weaver, one of the GNU Guile +developers. He helped me write my first patch for Guile: a new REPL +option called “read-wrapper” that allows external code to hook into +the part of the REPL that waits for user input. Guile-2D needs this +functionality in order to create a REPL that plays nice with the game +event loop. Since the main thread is in an event loop, waiting for +user input at the REPL prompt would stop the game entirely. To get +around this, we used the “read-wrapper” option to pass the procedure +that reads user input into another thread so that Guile-2D’s event +loop can continue running. We achieved this functionality in less than +100 lines of code. This hack showed me how great it is to use a +language with first-class continuations. + +tl;dr: The hackathon was a great time. Happy birthday, GNU. + + |