The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past day
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Show HN: AV1 and WebRTC
Show HN: AV1 and WebRTC
Show HN: Add live runnable code to your dev docs
Hi HN community,<p>I'm Vasek, co-founder, and CEO of Devbook [0]. Devbook is an SDK that you add to your docs website and then every time a user visits your dev docs, we spin up a VM just for that user. The VM is ready in about 18-20 seconds. We haven't had enough time to work on optimization but from our early tests, we are fairly confident we can get this to about 1-2 seconds.<p>In the VM you can run almost anything. Install packages, edit & save files, run binaries, services, etc.<p>You as a documentation owner have full control over the VM. We give you full access to filesystem, shell, stdout, and stderr. You don't have to worry about any infrastructure management. It's just one line of code on your frontend.<p>On the backend, the VM is a Firecracker microVM [1] with our custom simple orchestrator/scheduler built on top that just gets the job done.
We chose Firecracker for 4 reasons:<p>* (1) the security with a combination of their jailer<p>* (2) its snapshotting capabilities<p>* (3) quick booting times<p>* (4) option to oversubscribe the underlying server resources<p>This allows you to create a whole new set of interactions between your dev docs and a developer visiting the docs.
We've had users building coding playgrounds [2] to show how their SDK works or adding embedded terminals to a landing page [3] to show how their CLI works.<p>The way Devbook works is that you use our frontend SDK [4] on our website. The SDK pings our backend and we boot up a VM. The VMs are ephemeral and get destroyed after a while of not getting pinged.
You can predefine what the VM filesystem will look like through our CLI via a simple Dockerfile [5].
We also have an open sourced UI library for components like terminal, file system explorer, or code editor [6].<p>The need for Devbook came from our own frustration with dev docs. It has always felt strange that dev docs contain so much code but none of it is actually runnable. You as a developer have to set up full environments to see how the API works and get a deeper understanding.<p>We are very early so we don't offer self-serve for now. A bit of manual work is still required when we are onboarding new customers.
We are looking for some specific use-case that would make our go-to-market strategy much easier. It feels like the product we offer is way too general. We basically say "here's a whole computer, have fun".<p>I'd love to know what you think about it. I'll hang out here and I'm happy to answer your questions!<p>[0] <a href="https://usedevbook.com/" rel="nofollow">https://usedevbook.com/</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker</a><p>[2] <a href="https://app.banana.dev/docs/carrot?ref=navmenu" rel="nofollow">https://app.banana.dev/docs/carrot?ref=navmenu</a><p>[3] <a href="https://runops.io/" rel="nofollow">https://runops.io/</a><p>[4] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/sdk" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/sdk</a><p>[5] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/devbookctl" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/devbookctl</a><p>[6] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/ui" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/ui</a>
Show HN: Add live runnable code to your dev docs
Hi HN community,<p>I'm Vasek, co-founder, and CEO of Devbook [0]. Devbook is an SDK that you add to your docs website and then every time a user visits your dev docs, we spin up a VM just for that user. The VM is ready in about 18-20 seconds. We haven't had enough time to work on optimization but from our early tests, we are fairly confident we can get this to about 1-2 seconds.<p>In the VM you can run almost anything. Install packages, edit & save files, run binaries, services, etc.<p>You as a documentation owner have full control over the VM. We give you full access to filesystem, shell, stdout, and stderr. You don't have to worry about any infrastructure management. It's just one line of code on your frontend.<p>On the backend, the VM is a Firecracker microVM [1] with our custom simple orchestrator/scheduler built on top that just gets the job done.
We chose Firecracker for 4 reasons:<p>* (1) the security with a combination of their jailer<p>* (2) its snapshotting capabilities<p>* (3) quick booting times<p>* (4) option to oversubscribe the underlying server resources<p>This allows you to create a whole new set of interactions between your dev docs and a developer visiting the docs.
We've had users building coding playgrounds [2] to show how their SDK works or adding embedded terminals to a landing page [3] to show how their CLI works.<p>The way Devbook works is that you use our frontend SDK [4] on our website. The SDK pings our backend and we boot up a VM. The VMs are ephemeral and get destroyed after a while of not getting pinged.
You can predefine what the VM filesystem will look like through our CLI via a simple Dockerfile [5].
We also have an open sourced UI library for components like terminal, file system explorer, or code editor [6].<p>The need for Devbook came from our own frustration with dev docs. It has always felt strange that dev docs contain so much code but none of it is actually runnable. You as a developer have to set up full environments to see how the API works and get a deeper understanding.<p>We are very early so we don't offer self-serve for now. A bit of manual work is still required when we are onboarding new customers.
We are looking for some specific use-case that would make our go-to-market strategy much easier. It feels like the product we offer is way too general. We basically say "here's a whole computer, have fun".<p>I'd love to know what you think about it. I'll hang out here and I'm happy to answer your questions!<p>[0] <a href="https://usedevbook.com/" rel="nofollow">https://usedevbook.com/</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker</a><p>[2] <a href="https://app.banana.dev/docs/carrot?ref=navmenu" rel="nofollow">https://app.banana.dev/docs/carrot?ref=navmenu</a><p>[3] <a href="https://runops.io/" rel="nofollow">https://runops.io/</a><p>[4] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/sdk" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/sdk</a><p>[5] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/devbookctl" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/devbookctl</a><p>[6] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/ui" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/ui</a>
Show HN: Add live runnable code to your dev docs
Hi HN community,<p>I'm Vasek, co-founder, and CEO of Devbook [0]. Devbook is an SDK that you add to your docs website and then every time a user visits your dev docs, we spin up a VM just for that user. The VM is ready in about 18-20 seconds. We haven't had enough time to work on optimization but from our early tests, we are fairly confident we can get this to about 1-2 seconds.<p>In the VM you can run almost anything. Install packages, edit & save files, run binaries, services, etc.<p>You as a documentation owner have full control over the VM. We give you full access to filesystem, shell, stdout, and stderr. You don't have to worry about any infrastructure management. It's just one line of code on your frontend.<p>On the backend, the VM is a Firecracker microVM [1] with our custom simple orchestrator/scheduler built on top that just gets the job done.
We chose Firecracker for 4 reasons:<p>* (1) the security with a combination of their jailer<p>* (2) its snapshotting capabilities<p>* (3) quick booting times<p>* (4) option to oversubscribe the underlying server resources<p>This allows you to create a whole new set of interactions between your dev docs and a developer visiting the docs.
We've had users building coding playgrounds [2] to show how their SDK works or adding embedded terminals to a landing page [3] to show how their CLI works.<p>The way Devbook works is that you use our frontend SDK [4] on our website. The SDK pings our backend and we boot up a VM. The VMs are ephemeral and get destroyed after a while of not getting pinged.
You can predefine what the VM filesystem will look like through our CLI via a simple Dockerfile [5].
We also have an open sourced UI library for components like terminal, file system explorer, or code editor [6].<p>The need for Devbook came from our own frustration with dev docs. It has always felt strange that dev docs contain so much code but none of it is actually runnable. You as a developer have to set up full environments to see how the API works and get a deeper understanding.<p>We are very early so we don't offer self-serve for now. A bit of manual work is still required when we are onboarding new customers.
We are looking for some specific use-case that would make our go-to-market strategy much easier. It feels like the product we offer is way too general. We basically say "here's a whole computer, have fun".<p>I'd love to know what you think about it. I'll hang out here and I'm happy to answer your questions!<p>[0] <a href="https://usedevbook.com/" rel="nofollow">https://usedevbook.com/</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker</a><p>[2] <a href="https://app.banana.dev/docs/carrot?ref=navmenu" rel="nofollow">https://app.banana.dev/docs/carrot?ref=navmenu</a><p>[3] <a href="https://runops.io/" rel="nofollow">https://runops.io/</a><p>[4] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/sdk" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/sdk</a><p>[5] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/devbookctl" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/devbookctl</a><p>[6] <a href="https://github.com/devbookhq/ui" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/devbookhq/ui</a>
Show HN: Monocle – bidirectional code generation library
I just published a bidirectional code generation library. Afaik it's the first of its kind, and it opens up a lot of possibilities for cool new types of dev tools. The PoC is for ruby, but the concept is very portable. <a href="https://blog.luitjes.it/posts/monocle-bidirectional-code-generation/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.luitjes.it/posts/monocle-bidirectional-code-gen...</a>
Show HN: Monocle – bidirectional code generation library
I just published a bidirectional code generation library. Afaik it's the first of its kind, and it opens up a lot of possibilities for cool new types of dev tools. The PoC is for ruby, but the concept is very portable. <a href="https://blog.luitjes.it/posts/monocle-bidirectional-code-generation/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.luitjes.it/posts/monocle-bidirectional-code-gen...</a>
Show HN: Discover the IndieWeb, one blog post at a time
Inspired by the "Ask HN: Share your personal site" last week, I finally came around and built a thing I wanted for a long time: a simple website to randomly explore all the awesome personal blogs without having to subscribe to them all.<p>So this is what I built over the weekend. You click a button and indieblog.page will redirect you to a random page from a personal page...<p>I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
Show HN: Discover the IndieWeb, one blog post at a time
Inspired by the "Ask HN: Share your personal site" last week, I finally came around and built a thing I wanted for a long time: a simple website to randomly explore all the awesome personal blogs without having to subscribe to them all.<p>So this is what I built over the weekend. You click a button and indieblog.page will redirect you to a random page from a personal page...<p>I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
Show HN: Discover the IndieWeb, one blog post at a time
Inspired by the "Ask HN: Share your personal site" last week, I finally came around and built a thing I wanted for a long time: a simple website to randomly explore all the awesome personal blogs without having to subscribe to them all.<p>So this is what I built over the weekend. You click a button and indieblog.page will redirect you to a random page from a personal page...<p>I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
Show HN: Discover the IndieWeb, one blog post at a time
Inspired by the "Ask HN: Share your personal site" last week, I finally came around and built a thing I wanted for a long time: a simple website to randomly explore all the awesome personal blogs without having to subscribe to them all.<p>So this is what I built over the weekend. You click a button and indieblog.page will redirect you to a random page from a personal page...<p>I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
Show HN: I made an emoji URL shortener
Show HN: A poem inside HTTP response headers
Show HN: A poem inside HTTP response headers
Show HN: How to compile C/C++ for WASM, pure Clang, no libs, no framework
A little help for programmers, who wants to run C/C++ code in the browser.<p>(This is my second attempt to show it, first time I got banned bcoz of my personal page domain, I don't really understand it why is is suspicious.)
Show HN: How to compile C/C++ for WASM, pure Clang, no libs, no framework
A little help for programmers, who wants to run C/C++ code in the browser.<p>(This is my second attempt to show it, first time I got banned bcoz of my personal page domain, I don't really understand it why is is suspicious.)
Show HN: How to compile C/C++ for WASM, pure Clang, no libs, no framework
A little help for programmers, who wants to run C/C++ code in the browser.<p>(This is my second attempt to show it, first time I got banned bcoz of my personal page domain, I don't really understand it why is is suspicious.)
Show HN: Multiplayer Demo Built with Elixir
Hey HN, I’m an engineer at Supabase [0] and one of the creators of this demo. My team and I have been working hard to bring developers the next version of Supabase Realtime.<p>The current version of Realtime [1] is a Change Data Capture (CDC) server for a PostgreSQL database that broadcasts changes via WebSockets to authorized subscribers. It’s written in Elixir/Phoenix.<p>The server utilizes PostgreSQL’s logical replication functionality, which writes database changes to Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) segment files, and a replication slot, responsible for managing and retaining WAL files.<p>Database changes are polled from WAL by the server using PostgreSQL’s replication function pg_logical_slot_get_changes and changes converted to JSON objects using the wal2json [2] extension by setting it as the output plugin.<p>Security is enforced through two checks - each check ensures only authorized client subscribers are sent database changes. The first check validates a JWT that is sent by clients subscribing to database changes. This JWT must contain an existing database role and optional claims, both of which can be referenced in Row Level Security (RLS) policies. Every valid client subscription is then inserted into the realtime.subscription table with an assigned UUID, database role, and claims. The second check calls the realtime.apply_rls SQL function from Write Ahead Log Realtime Unified Security (WALRUS) utility lib [3]. This function takes the database changes, executes a prepared statement to verify if the database role and claims have SELECT permissions on the changes, and outputs an array of authorized UUIDs. Then, the server finds all the subscribers whose UUIDs are in that array and broadcasts the changes to them.<p>The next version of Supabase Realtime will offer three features: Broadcast, Presence, and Extensions.<p>Broadcast, our Pub/Sub offering, can be used to pass ephemeral data from client to client such as cursor movements. This runs on a distributed cluster of nodes built on top of Phoenix PubSub + Channels.<p>Presence, can be used for tracking online/offline users and their state. This is built into Phoenix, and uses replicated state across a cluster using an Observe-Remove-Set-Without-Tombstones (ORSWOT) CRDT [4] which prefers adds over removes when resolving conflicts.<p>Extensions, are a way for the community to add additional functionality to take advantage of the WebSocket infrastructure. We have converted the existing Change Data Capture system to an extension that supports connecting to multiple customer databases (multi-tenancy). Other possible extensions include listening to other databases like MySQL and getting stock market events server-side [5], then broadcasting them to connected clients.<p>This demo is built using a Supabase project, Supabase Realtime, and Next.js and deployed on 20 Fly [6] nodes located around the world. You can find an introduction and walkthrough of the demo here [5].<p>Supabase Realtime is entirely open source and you can find the demo code here [7]. Once we have stabilized the release we will add it to the self-hosted offering [8]. This demo is a way to highlight the upcoming features and gather feedback/ideas.<p>Feel free to ask me anything and let me know what you think!<p>[0] <a href="https://supabase.com" rel="nofollow">https://supabase.com</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/realtime" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/realtime</a><p>[2] <a href="https://github.com/eulerto/wal2json" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/eulerto/wal2json</a><p>[3] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/walrus" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/walrus</a><p>[4] <a href="https://gsd.di.uminho.pt/members/cbm/ps/delta-crdt-draft16may2014.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://gsd.di.uminho.pt/members/cbm/ps/delta-crdt-draft16ma...</a><p>[5] <a href="https://supabase.com/blog/2022/04/01/supabase-realtime-with-multiplayer-features" rel="nofollow">https://supabase.com/blog/2022/04/01/supabase-realtime-with-...</a><p>[6] <a href="https://fly.io" rel="nofollow">https://fly.io</a><p>[7] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/realtime/tree/multiplayer" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/realtime/tree/multiplayer</a><p>[8] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/docker" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/docker</a>
Show HN: Multiplayer Demo Built with Elixir
Hey HN, I’m an engineer at Supabase [0] and one of the creators of this demo. My team and I have been working hard to bring developers the next version of Supabase Realtime.<p>The current version of Realtime [1] is a Change Data Capture (CDC) server for a PostgreSQL database that broadcasts changes via WebSockets to authorized subscribers. It’s written in Elixir/Phoenix.<p>The server utilizes PostgreSQL’s logical replication functionality, which writes database changes to Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) segment files, and a replication slot, responsible for managing and retaining WAL files.<p>Database changes are polled from WAL by the server using PostgreSQL’s replication function pg_logical_slot_get_changes and changes converted to JSON objects using the wal2json [2] extension by setting it as the output plugin.<p>Security is enforced through two checks - each check ensures only authorized client subscribers are sent database changes. The first check validates a JWT that is sent by clients subscribing to database changes. This JWT must contain an existing database role and optional claims, both of which can be referenced in Row Level Security (RLS) policies. Every valid client subscription is then inserted into the realtime.subscription table with an assigned UUID, database role, and claims. The second check calls the realtime.apply_rls SQL function from Write Ahead Log Realtime Unified Security (WALRUS) utility lib [3]. This function takes the database changes, executes a prepared statement to verify if the database role and claims have SELECT permissions on the changes, and outputs an array of authorized UUIDs. Then, the server finds all the subscribers whose UUIDs are in that array and broadcasts the changes to them.<p>The next version of Supabase Realtime will offer three features: Broadcast, Presence, and Extensions.<p>Broadcast, our Pub/Sub offering, can be used to pass ephemeral data from client to client such as cursor movements. This runs on a distributed cluster of nodes built on top of Phoenix PubSub + Channels.<p>Presence, can be used for tracking online/offline users and their state. This is built into Phoenix, and uses replicated state across a cluster using an Observe-Remove-Set-Without-Tombstones (ORSWOT) CRDT [4] which prefers adds over removes when resolving conflicts.<p>Extensions, are a way for the community to add additional functionality to take advantage of the WebSocket infrastructure. We have converted the existing Change Data Capture system to an extension that supports connecting to multiple customer databases (multi-tenancy). Other possible extensions include listening to other databases like MySQL and getting stock market events server-side [5], then broadcasting them to connected clients.<p>This demo is built using a Supabase project, Supabase Realtime, and Next.js and deployed on 20 Fly [6] nodes located around the world. You can find an introduction and walkthrough of the demo here [5].<p>Supabase Realtime is entirely open source and you can find the demo code here [7]. Once we have stabilized the release we will add it to the self-hosted offering [8]. This demo is a way to highlight the upcoming features and gather feedback/ideas.<p>Feel free to ask me anything and let me know what you think!<p>[0] <a href="https://supabase.com" rel="nofollow">https://supabase.com</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/realtime" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/realtime</a><p>[2] <a href="https://github.com/eulerto/wal2json" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/eulerto/wal2json</a><p>[3] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/walrus" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/walrus</a><p>[4] <a href="https://gsd.di.uminho.pt/members/cbm/ps/delta-crdt-draft16may2014.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://gsd.di.uminho.pt/members/cbm/ps/delta-crdt-draft16ma...</a><p>[5] <a href="https://supabase.com/blog/2022/04/01/supabase-realtime-with-multiplayer-features" rel="nofollow">https://supabase.com/blog/2022/04/01/supabase-realtime-with-...</a><p>[6] <a href="https://fly.io" rel="nofollow">https://fly.io</a><p>[7] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/realtime/tree/multiplayer" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/realtime/tree/multiplayer</a><p>[8] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/docker" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/docker</a>
Show HN: Multiplayer Demo Built with Elixir
Hey HN, I’m an engineer at Supabase [0] and one of the creators of this demo. My team and I have been working hard to bring developers the next version of Supabase Realtime.<p>The current version of Realtime [1] is a Change Data Capture (CDC) server for a PostgreSQL database that broadcasts changes via WebSockets to authorized subscribers. It’s written in Elixir/Phoenix.<p>The server utilizes PostgreSQL’s logical replication functionality, which writes database changes to Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) segment files, and a replication slot, responsible for managing and retaining WAL files.<p>Database changes are polled from WAL by the server using PostgreSQL’s replication function pg_logical_slot_get_changes and changes converted to JSON objects using the wal2json [2] extension by setting it as the output plugin.<p>Security is enforced through two checks - each check ensures only authorized client subscribers are sent database changes. The first check validates a JWT that is sent by clients subscribing to database changes. This JWT must contain an existing database role and optional claims, both of which can be referenced in Row Level Security (RLS) policies. Every valid client subscription is then inserted into the realtime.subscription table with an assigned UUID, database role, and claims. The second check calls the realtime.apply_rls SQL function from Write Ahead Log Realtime Unified Security (WALRUS) utility lib [3]. This function takes the database changes, executes a prepared statement to verify if the database role and claims have SELECT permissions on the changes, and outputs an array of authorized UUIDs. Then, the server finds all the subscribers whose UUIDs are in that array and broadcasts the changes to them.<p>The next version of Supabase Realtime will offer three features: Broadcast, Presence, and Extensions.<p>Broadcast, our Pub/Sub offering, can be used to pass ephemeral data from client to client such as cursor movements. This runs on a distributed cluster of nodes built on top of Phoenix PubSub + Channels.<p>Presence, can be used for tracking online/offline users and their state. This is built into Phoenix, and uses replicated state across a cluster using an Observe-Remove-Set-Without-Tombstones (ORSWOT) CRDT [4] which prefers adds over removes when resolving conflicts.<p>Extensions, are a way for the community to add additional functionality to take advantage of the WebSocket infrastructure. We have converted the existing Change Data Capture system to an extension that supports connecting to multiple customer databases (multi-tenancy). Other possible extensions include listening to other databases like MySQL and getting stock market events server-side [5], then broadcasting them to connected clients.<p>This demo is built using a Supabase project, Supabase Realtime, and Next.js and deployed on 20 Fly [6] nodes located around the world. You can find an introduction and walkthrough of the demo here [5].<p>Supabase Realtime is entirely open source and you can find the demo code here [7]. Once we have stabilized the release we will add it to the self-hosted offering [8]. This demo is a way to highlight the upcoming features and gather feedback/ideas.<p>Feel free to ask me anything and let me know what you think!<p>[0] <a href="https://supabase.com" rel="nofollow">https://supabase.com</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/realtime" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/realtime</a><p>[2] <a href="https://github.com/eulerto/wal2json" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/eulerto/wal2json</a><p>[3] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/walrus" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/walrus</a><p>[4] <a href="https://gsd.di.uminho.pt/members/cbm/ps/delta-crdt-draft16may2014.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://gsd.di.uminho.pt/members/cbm/ps/delta-crdt-draft16ma...</a><p>[5] <a href="https://supabase.com/blog/2022/04/01/supabase-realtime-with-multiplayer-features" rel="nofollow">https://supabase.com/blog/2022/04/01/supabase-realtime-with-...</a><p>[6] <a href="https://fly.io" rel="nofollow">https://fly.io</a><p>[7] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/realtime/tree/multiplayer" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/realtime/tree/multiplayer</a><p>[8] <a href="https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/docker" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/docker</a>