C

Evidence (14)

• 6InfoQ·8/12/2026research
  CHERI Adopts Memory Safety and Fine-Grained Compartmentalization

  David Chisnall describes how the CHERI hardware architecture strengthens pointer safety to address isolation and sharing problems in C and C++. The presentation also highlights CHERIoT for microcontrollers and shows how CHERI can replace expensive OS-level RPC with lightweight, auditable compartmentalization without major rewrites.

• 4Hacker News·8/10/2026research
  Tail-call optimization in C is now practical in GCC and Clang

  The post argues that tail-call optimization in C was historically limited by calling-convention constraints and was not broadly available in older compilers. It notes that modern GCC and Clang can now perform the kind of tail calls needed for interpreter dispatch, enabling techniques such as direct-threaded code and large-scale snippet generation. The discussion cites Gforth and WebAssembly interpreter implementations as examples of why this matters.

• 6Hacker News·8/4/2026funding
  City of Munich funds libexpat maintenance for up to six months

  libexpat, a widely used C-based XML parser, has secured up to six months of funded maintenance support from the City of Munich through its Open Source Sabbatical program. The maintainer says priorities include fixing five known vulnerabilities, adding XML 1.0r5 support, and improving robustness and maintainability.

• 3Hacker News·7/29/2026product_launch
  DIY ESP32 Stepper Motor Hack Makes a Window AC Smart

  The post describes a low-cost DIY project that automates an apartment AC unit with analog knobs by mechanically turning the controls using an ESP32-driven stepper motor. The setup integrates with Home Assistant over MQTT and uses a temperature sensor to switch the AC on and off while avoiding changes that could affect a rental security deposit.

• 6InfoQ·7/27/2026framework_update
  .NET 11 Preview 6 Adds C#, ASP.NET Core, MAUI, and EF Core Updates

  Microsoft has released .NET 11 Preview 6 with updates spanning C#, ASP.NET Core, .NET MAUI, and Entity Framework Core. The preview adds extension indexers and union support types in C#, async validation and automatic CSRF protection in ASP.NET Core, Windows support for CollectionView in MAUI, and FULL OUTER JOIN translation in EF Core.

• 3Hacker News·7/26/2026open_source
  ESP32 Plane Radar Desktop Build Gets Firmware Upgrades

  A Hacker News post highlights an open-source ESP32-C3 project that turns a 1.28-inch round display into a live ADS-B aircraft radar. The author also describes firmware improvements such as richer flight context, weather and time data, configurable display options, and browser-based authenticated OTA updates.

• 4Hacker News·7/25/2026research
  Debate Over Memory Safety and Fil-C

  The article argues that discussions around memory safety in systems programming are becoming more contentious, especially as Fil-C offers a way to make C and C++ programs detect invalid memory access at runtime. It also criticizes claims that Rust is inherently memory-unsafe, noting that Fil-C and similar approaches still come with trade-offs such as slower performance, GC, and ABI incompatibility.

• 3Hacker News·7/23/2026research
  Bare C++ Tutorial for Building a Software Renderer

  The article presents a step-by-step series on how modern 3D graphics APIs work by implementing a simplified software renderer from scratch in about 500 lines of bare C++. It uses no third-party graphics libraries and starts from basic pixel drawing and TGA image handling to render triangulated 3D models. The goal is educational, helping learners understand the fundamentals behind OpenGL, Vulkan, Metal, and DirectX.

• 7Hacker News·7/17/2026open_source
  Minikotlin compiles Kotlin to WebAssembly in the browser

  Minikotlin is a Kotlin compiler written in C that runs entirely in a browser tab and emits WebAssembly GC bytecode directly. It supports a broad subset of Kotlin features, including classes, inheritance, null safety, generics, coroutines, and standard-library helpers, with end-to-end tests and no external toolchain required.

• 4Hacker News·7/13/2026research
  Using a branchy "useless" if to speed up a loop

  The post describes a micro-optimization for a compressor’s path-reconstruction loop, where a dependent memory access limits performance. By adding a branch that usually predicts the common case, the author aims to let the CPU speculate more effectively and reduce loop latency. The article argues that an apparently useless conditional can improve throughput when the branch is rarely taken.

• 6Hacker News·7/9/2026open_source
  Colibrì runs GLM 5.2 on a slow laptop by streaming MoE experts from disk

  A Hacker News post introduces Colibrì, a single-file C engine designed to run the GLM 5.2 mixture-of-experts model on modest hardware. The author says the system keeps the dense model parts in RAM at int4 precision and streams routed experts from disk, enabling use on a 32 GB laptop without running out of memory.

• 5Hacker News·7/8/2026product_launch
  Anthropic Fable classifiers block a Rust rewrite prompt

  A Hacker News post argues that Anthropic’s Fable model is overly restrictive when handling a prompt to rewrite the open-source RNA-seq tool Salmon from C++ to Rust. The author says the safety classifier incorrectly flagged the request because of biological terminology in the codebase and documentation, and that Fable would not explain the refusal in detail.

• 5Hacker News·7/2/2026open_source
  Crustc translates rustc to C

  Crustc is an open-source project that translates the Rust compiler, rustc, into C. The repository has drawn attention on Hacker News because it attempts a large-scale source-to-source translation of a major compiler codebase. The project is notable as a developer tool experiment, but it is still a technical proof-of-concept rather than a finished replacement.

• 4Hacker News·6/28/2026open_source
  Decomp Academy teaches GameCube decompilation

  Decomp Academy is a free, open-source interactive site for learning how to decompile GameCube games by translating PowerPC assembly back into matching C. It uses a live Metrowerks CodeWarrior GC/2.0 compiler to verify that student code reproduces the exact target assembly, and it includes more than 250 lessons plus examples drawn from real decompilation projects.