PWS2 Update #1

Dear PWS2 heads,

I write to you right now to tell you about the progress of our beloved sequel. The progress is not much but I have learned a lot.

What I have done

So in terms of writing code all I have really done is set up the Github repo with the libraries set up. I have made a models repo with Protobuf that is going to hold all the schemas for the whole app. Setting that repo up with CMake and the models repo as a dependency was harder than anticipated. In the end I decided that I should have a Github action that compiles the Protobuf code into C++ and put into a tar file that gets downloaded by CMake.

A problem that was happening was that the folders weren't named correctly because CMake's FetchContent automatically flattens the tar file when using a tar file So I had to wrap everything in another dummy folder in order for the includes to not get messed up. That took me way longer than I am willing to admit to figure out.

name: Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "v*"

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v5

      - name: Install buf
        uses: bufbuild/buf-setup-action@v1
        with:
          version: "1.72.0"
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Install protoc
        uses: arduino/setup-protoc@v3
        with:
          version: "35.1"

      - name: Generate code
        run: buf generate

      - name: Create tarball
        run: tar -czf pws2model-${{ github.ref_name }}.tar.gz -C gen cpp

      - name: Create release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v3
        with:
          files: pws2model-${{ github.ref_name }}.tar.gz

FetchContent_Declare(
  models
  URL ${MODELS_URL}
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(models)

add_library(pws2_models INTERFACE)
target_include_directories(pws2_models INTERFACE ${models_SOURCE_DIR})

What I have learned

C++

I finally finished the Tour of C++ book. I kind of sped through the last parts of the book knowing that I can just use the book as a reference whenever I need to.

CMake

I have also had to learn CMake. For my C projects I always used plain GNU Make but now that I have learned C++ I think it is time to learn CMake as well. I used the tutorial exercises on the CMake website. I also decided to use Ninja as the build system but I haven't learned Ninja itself, I just use it through CMake which seems to be the intended way but a part of me still wants to do a deep dive on it just to be able to say I did that but I have already spent a lot of time on the learning part, I gotta start doing.

Cryptography

After that I thought I was ready to roll so I started thinking about how to design authentication. The more I thought and researched about it I realized I never really learned how cryptography works. So I decided to postpone the designing stage in order to start actually learning this important part of computer science. Again as much as I want to do a deep dive on the whole topic by reading a whole textbook on it, I decided to go for something that allows me to learn just enough so I can start coding ASAP. I found just the resource Crypto101. I am halfway through the book and even though it's a very informative book, it seems to still be a bit incomplete because there are still some TODO parts in it. The last commit in the Github page was 2 years ago so I don't think it will be completed later either. Either way I could not ask for anything better because it is pretty short and it does not get too stuck in all the math that is required to fully understand it.

Typing

This is a bit embarrassing to admit but I have also decided to actually learn typing. I never formally learned typing so during my whole life I have kind of invented my own (wrong) way of typing. I can type at reasonable speeds in that way but I want to type at my full potential and I can already feel a difference even though I am a bit slower right now. I was never the most accurate typist but now even though I am slower, I have been looking at the keyboard less and make less mistakes. EdClub is the website I am using and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to learn the most efficient ways to type. Writing blogs is also pretty good practice.

PWS2 When?

Honestly without AI I think the MVP for this project is going to be ready sometime Q1 next year assuming that I don't have a lot of work during this time (but hopefully I will). The scope of the project is bigger than what I wanted to do in the beginning but I really think it's a good and useful idea, so I am willing to take the risk.

By next month I hope to have a design for a protocol for how the client and server are supposed to communicate and I hope to not have to run into any other thing that I feel like I have to learn. Another optional milestone I am defining is having a lot of detailed tasks defined that will make the coding part a lot more straightforward.

I have been a bit busy this month as well so I did not spend as much time as I wanted to on this project but I feel like the time I have spent has been spent pretty well. This blog has been a bit drier than I want it to be but this information had to be communicated to all you PWS2 heads and there is no other way to put it really.

Anyways I have to go to a family gathering now. Bye.