Athan Reines

@areines.bsky.social

Core developer of stdlib. Engineering manager at Quansight. PhD in Biophysics.

https://github.com/stdlib-js/stdlib

@areines.bsky.social

This isn't a plug, but we've developed and used github.com/stdlib-js/st... for 8+ years and have never needed anything more than the max rate, despite the fact that numerical/statistical computing is our entire thing.

github.comstdlib/lib/node_modules/@stdlib/bench/harness at develop · stdlib-js/stdlib✨ The fundamental numerical library for JavaScript and TypeScript. ✨                   ⭐️ Star to support our work! - stdlib-js/stdlib
@stdlib.ioReposted by @areines.bsky.social

V8, the JavaScript engine in Chrome and Node.js, has influenced a number of our design decisions.

In this post, we discuss those decisions & explain why we do some of the things we do. The lessons are not exclusive to V8, being generally applicable to all JS engines.

blog.stdlib.io/write-it-lik...

blog.stdlib.ioWrite It Like C: What V8's Optimizing Compilers Explain About the Zen of stdlibWhat V8's optimizing compilers explain about the Zen of stdlib—and why write it like C actually works.
@stdlib.ioReposted by @areines.bsky.social

We've been taught that being indispensable is a sign of success.

In open source, it can also be a liability.

The healthiest projects aren't built around heroes. They're built so that others can eventually take the work farther than we could alone.

blog.stdlib.io/build-for-in...

blog.stdlib.ioBuild for InheritanceBuilding for inheritance means ensuring others can carry on the work of open source without you and thrive in your absence.
@dataandme.bsky.socialReposted by @areines.bsky.social

Not every open-source project wants more contributors right now, and that's fine. Four shapes maintainers run — walled castle, clique, university, hippie commune — and your `CONTRIBUTING.md` is saying the quiet part out loud. No wrong answer, just an honest one.

blog.stdlib.io/do-you-want-...

blog.stdlib.ioDo you WANT contributors?Four ways to run an open-source project—castle, clique, university, commune—and which one you're really running.
@areines.bsky.social

Yeah, there are definitely some rough edges with webgpu. Things are improving, albeit a bit slowly. As more use cases and needs arise, I expect this to accelerate capabilities. Tooling and infra definitely need to improve, which is something we have only just recently started exploring.

@stdlib.ioReposted by @areines.bsky.social

Most people still think of browsers as thin clients.

They're not.

Modern browsers can run scientific computing, ML, and GPU workloads locally with no servers and no data leaving your device.

A post by @gunjjoshi.bsky.social explains why that changes everything:

blog.stdlib.io/the-largest-...

blog.stdlib.ioThe Largest Compute Platform on EarthBrowsers can run machine learning and GPU-accelerated workloads locally. Here's why that changes everything.
@areines.bsky.social

Definitely in agreement here. And having followed the replacements repo for a while now, I can confirm that there are politics and lobbying at play with folks, including some of the maintainers, writing their own “nano” replacements and then advocating for their own utils over existing pkgs.

@stdlib.ioReposted by @areines.bsky.social

A surprising thing we learned when mapping our community: the people who contribute to an open-source project aren't always the people who use it.

This post from @dataandme.bsky.social explores the Open-Source Ecosystem Canvas & the questions it surfaced for stdlib.

blog.stdlib.io/open-source-...

blog.stdlib.ioThe Open-Source Ecosystem CanvasAn ecosystem canvas makes an open-source project say who it's really for. Here's what ours surfaced about stdlib's value propositions for contributors and users—and why they're not the same.
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