Ross A. Baker

Ross A. Baker

@rossabaker.com

Never daunted. #Rustlang #Python #Typelevel #Emacs #Nix #Indieweb Languages: en,de,es 🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://social.rossabaker.com/@ross, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

I have begun my 2025 December Adventure. KBBL will be an implementation of Webmention in Rust. Tonight was just the repo setup. Follow along: - https://rossabaker.com/series/december-adventure-2025/ - https://codeberg.org/rossabaker/kbbl #DecemberAdventure #Webmention

rossabaker.comDecember Adventure, 2025: Day 1The first step is a new repository. I’m open to collaboration, so this will be hosted on Codeberg. It is named KBBL after the radio station on The Simpsons. > No sports, no rock, no information; for mindless chatter, we’re your station! I like sports, rock, and information, but I also like the early seasons of the Simpsons. Tonight was just a basic Nix and Cargo skeleton. It’s a long month.
Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

Visiting the alma mater today and told my son it's where I met the two loves of my life, his mom and Emacs. I thought it was funnier than my wife did.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

The year of Linux, on the desktop Needs NetBSD, just to dodge the slop And isn't it ironic, don't you think? A little too ironic And yeah, I really do think

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

If you joined the @ThePSF when they rejected the NSF grant for its anti-DEI poison pill, that was almost a year ago. If you're able, consider showing your ongoing appreciation with a renewal. #Python

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

> 9007199254740991 unreleased commits on series/0.25 since v1.0.0-M38 The next GitHub outage is going to be me clicking the "generate release notes" button. Sorry in advance.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

Conventional commits aren't reliable for semver automation, don't result in good release notes, and carry a faint stench of agent. Write your commit summaries for people.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

I called a brazenly offside forward a scrutinee at soccer practice tonight, marking the word's first use outside the Scala compiler.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

My thoughts tonight are with the casual concertgoer who saw Beethoven on the program, bought tickets, and got Stravinsky in the second half. Both were fabulous. #IndySymphony

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

There should be a name for a run where you suddenly regain your former pace, and realize the struggles over the last several weeks were not the irreversible decline into old age, but just a summer that was too damn humid. It is chilly and gray and I feel alive again.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

I wasn't sure whether to say "platitudinal" or "platitudinous" or if I made both up. They're both in Merriam-Webster, along with my new favorite adverb, "platitudinously."

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

My Forgejo instance is down for a rethink. I have once again lost the upper hand in the anti-scraper arms race and lost 180GB of disk space while I slept. It wasn't even an adequate sleep. Remember when open source was a communal act of learning instead of a stubborn act of defiance?

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

Trying to register a fourth-level "locality" .us domain. I see no evidence Indianapolis has had one since 2007, but we've got 900,000 people, and I think at least one of us ought to have a website. Stay tuned. #Indianapolis #Indiana #IndieWeb

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

I heard back on the locality domain. They will do it if I send a notarized letter on my organization's official letterhead. I'm not an organization, but I can dust off LaTeX to make a letterhead to behold, and I know a notary public. The quest continues.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

I am stepping back from http4s-1.x maintenance, including security patches. Withdrawals will continue until burnout improves. https://github.com/http4s/http4s/discussions/7945 #http4s

github.comStepping back from 1.x, including security releases · http4s http4s · Discussion #7945In the Age of Slop, security releases are consuming most of my time. It's getting worse. Preparing releases locally so there is a patched version before disclosure is laborious, and doing so on par...
Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

Up until 2am the night before Labor Day preparing security releases and barbecue. Those who pointed their Slop-o-Matic 2000™ at me will receive credit in the CVEs but are ineligible for my smoked salmon.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

A colleague wondered if he is safer from phishing attacks by not updating his LinkedIn for a few years. I think he just invented the resume cooldown period.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

A key difference between me now and me 25 years ago is that now I'm compiling Emacs at 6:30am because I'm up early instead of compiling Emacs at 6:30am because I'm up late.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

As the weather guy for a soccer league in Indiana, I've been missing the balloons we used to launch over the Great Plains. It's not just the weather that's getting worse: it's also our ability to forecast it.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

The school's new bus app has animated raindrops falling onto the map. What it does not have is the location of the bus. Also, it is not raining.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

I was the guitarist of a band called the Damn Pigeons in high school. We had no songs, talent, or transportation to even all meet together at once. But our first album would have been called "Don't Shit on my Sidewalk" and it would have been fucking rad.

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

Rust Book for Scala Developers, Chapter 7: packages, crates, and modules https://rossabaker.com/blog/rust-book-ch07/ #Rust #Scala

rossabaker.comRust Book, Chapter 7: Packages, Crates, and ModulesThe way Rust organizes code can be tricky for Scala developers. The concepts do not map one-to-one. Further confusing matters, Rust packages are not the closest thing to Scala packages. There are loose translations to Scala to help us get our bearings. ## Packages and crates # In Rust, a crate is the unit of compilation. It’s either a binary crate or a library crate. The binary artifact is either one executable or one library. It’s a bit like a Scala `.class`, which is runnable if it’s an object with the right `main` signature, or may be added to the classpath to be loaded and linked with other code. A crate is coarser: multiple Rust files may compile into one crate, while it’s common for a single Scala file to compile into multiple clases. Rust crates are bundled into a package. It may have multiple binary crates and optionally a library crate. This is close to a Scala `.jar`, which bundles library classes, any number of which may be runnable. ## Modules # A Rust module is closer to Scala packages than Rust packages are. It’s a means to organize code into logical namespaces. Scala pcakages are typically organized into files according to Java conventions, but a single package can be split across arbitrary files on the source path. Rust modules are more prescriptive: the module name is reflected in the filename, and the hierarchy in the directory structure. ### Visibility # In Rust, visibility is private by default. In Scala, it’s public. If a definition is public in Scala, it can be imported and accessed anywhere. The Rust equivalent is `pub` on the definition within the module plus `pub mod` where the module is included. If a module is included with `mod` instead of `pub mod`, it’s similar to declaring it package private in Scala. Because Rust does not have subtyping, we are spared the complications of Scala’s `protected`. ## `use` # Rust’s `use` is about like Scala’s `import`, where `::` is the delimiter instead of `.`. Importing the full path of structs and enums in Rust is idiomatic, but that functions are typically referenced via their parent. This is different from Scala, where functions are often imported into the current scope either to be found implicitly or to be referenced tersely. Rust has `pub use` to re-export definitions as though they originated in the using package. Scala 3 introduces `export` for similar functionality, but it requires manual forwarders in Scala 2. The wildcard import in Rust is `*`. Scala 2 uses `_`, but many projects use `*` via a compiler flag for Scala 3 compatibility. ## `foo.rs` vs. `foo/mod.rs` # Rust allows module `foo` to be declared in either `foo.rs` or `foo/mod.rs`. Scala package objects may similarly live in either `foo.scala` or `foo/package.scala`, but also `something/nonsensical.scala`. The book prefers `foo.rs`, but not all Rust developers agree. If `foo` has its own submodules, it will be a directory anyway, and `foo/mod.rs` is nice. Some developers may find many files named `mod.rs` awkward, and it’s more common than `package.scala`. My opinion in both Rust and Scala is agree to one convention on the project, be consistent, and pick your battles elsewhere.
Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

My wife figured out the discolorations I sometimes get in my clothes. It's Prime, the dechlorinator I use changing water in my fish tanks! #Aquariums

Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com

Rust for Scala Developers, Chapter 6, on `enum`. https://rossabaker.com/blog/rust-book-ch06/ Not new if you follow my RSS, but I just added a section on how Rust variants are not types. #Rust #Scala

rossabaker.comRust Book, Chapter 6: Enums and Pattern MatchingChapter Six I am still primarily a Scala 2 developer, so I’ll continue to lean into sealed traits in these examples. Scala 3 `enum` covers many of the same ideas, and in a syntax closer to Rust’s! ## Defining an enum # A Rust enum implements sum types, as Scala 2 does with sealed traits. The variants `V4` and `V6` are like the case classes and objects that extend the trait. CC-BY-SA-4.0 enum IpAddrKind { V4, V6, } CC-BY-SA-4.0 sealed trait IpAddrKind object IpAddrKind { case object V4 extends IpAddrKind case object V6 extends IpAddrKind } All the struct types we saw in the previous chapter are available here. The Scala `Write` is not a zero-cost newtype like Rust’s mostly to avoid a lengthy digression into Scala 2’s various encodings and tradeoffs. CC-BY-SA-4.0 enum Message { Quit, Move { x: i32, y: i32 }, Write(String), ChangeColor(i32, i32, i32), } CC-BY-SA-4.0 sealed trait Message { case object Quit extends Message case class Move(x: Int, y: Int) extends Message case class Write(value: String) extends Message case class ChangeColor(r: i32, g: i32, b: i32) extends Message } ### `Option` # Rust’s `Option` is familiar to Scala’s. CC-BY-SA-4.0 enum Option<T> { None, Some(T), } CC-BY-SA-4.0 sealed trait Option[+A] case class Some[+A](a: A) extends Option[A] case object None extends Nothing A couple headaches are gone in Rust: * Rust has no `null`, so there is no `Some(null)`. This doesn’t come up often in practice in Scala, but it’s a cost of Java interop. * No variance or quirks thereof! ## Pattern matching # Rust’s pattern matching is syntactically different from Scala’s, but conceptually almost identical. As a new Rustacean, this made it frustrating to write but intuitive to read. The important bits are the same: * Matches are exhaustive. This is good today when you forget one, and great tomorrow when you add another variant and the compiler tells you what you need to fix everywhere in your app. * Matches can bind values: `Some(x) =>` safely gets `x` out of the `Option` if and only if it’s `Some`. The only tricky bit here is that Rust’s ownership rules still apply. * Literal values can be matched. ## Rust variants are not types # Scala’s sealed trait model is based on on subtyping. `Some(42)` is both a `Some` and `Option`. `None` is both a `None.type` and `Option`. Rust enums are more like having just `apply` and `unapply`: we can construct and pattern match `Some` and `None`, but because there is no subtyping, the values have just one type: `Option`. ### Nested sum types # Scala’s model easily extends to multiple levels. A URI may have an authority, which is either a registered name or an IP address. The IP address may be either IPv4 or IPv6. CC-BY-SA-4.0 sealed trait Authority case class RegName(value: String) extends Authority sealed trait Ip extends Authority case class IpV4(…) extends Ip case class IpV6(…) extends Ip We can just as easily define functions that accept or return `Authority`, `Ip`, and `IpV4`, operating at the right level of abstraction for the task at hand. In practice, what Rust gives us is often enough: how often does a Scala signature explicitly refer to `Some` or `None.type`? In cases that it’s not enough, we can define structs for each concrete data type, and then each variant can wrap either a struct or another enum. CC-BY-SA-4.0 enum Authority { RegName(RegName), Ip(Ip), } enum Ip { IpV4(IpV4), IpV6(IpV6), }; struct RegName(String); struct IpV4(u32) struct IpV6(u64, u64); ## Control flow # Rust has two control flow syntaxes that are unfamiliar to Scala developers. ### `if...let` # Rust: CC-BY-SA-4.0 let config_max = Some(3u8); if let Some(max) = config_max { println!("The maximum is configured to be {max}"); } In Scala, we have to explicitly map the `None` to `()`. CC-BY-SA-4.0 val configMax: Option[Int] = Some(3) configMatch match { case Some(max) => println("The maximum is configured to be {max}") case None => () } As a functional Scala developer, I’d use `IO`. #+begin_aside I’d actually use `Console[F]`, but we’re here to learn Rust, not fight the old Scala wars. println(“The maximum is configured to be {max}”)#+end_aside CC-BY-SA-4.0 val configMax: Option[Int] = Some(3) configMatch match { case Some(max) => IO.println("The maximum is configured to be {max}") case None => IO.unit } Because `Option` can be traversed and `IO` is applicative, we can turn the `Option` into an `IO` by giving a function of what might be in the `Option` (`Int`) to `IO`: CC-BY-SA-4.0 configMatch.traverseVoid(max => IO.println(s"The maximum is configured to be $max")) Imperative Scala is more verbose than Rust in this case, but once we get back to working with pure values, Cats can be more concise!