Steffen Mueller

• Website: steffen-mueller.net
• About: Physicist turned software developer. Working on Infrastructure Development at Booking.com. Apparently the only person who thinks the perl internals aren't nearly as bad as people make them. See also: the Booking.com tech blog, CPAN.

Recent Actions

• Commented on Convert::Binary::C anyone?
  Indeed, C::B::C is awesome. I poked Marcus. He promised to cut a new release soon....
• Commented on Let's delete 10,000 files from CPAN
  I'm also a regular deleter. Added 74 files to the count nonetheless....
• Commented on Statistics for perl hash tables
  For the record: I'm with Yves on this. If you do find a hash function (or a change to how the data structure is implemented) that speeds things up while retaining security, I'll be very happy and grateful!...
• Commented on Statistics for perl hash tables
  To my knowledge, there was only one thing that was available in the private thread that shouldn't be exposed still. That was a complete exploit of the original weakness that Yves fixed. Now, what I mean by that was "a...
• Commented on Statistics for perl hash tables
  Reini, Perl 5.18/19 is NOT using siphash. Python uses siphash nowadays. Perl uses a hardened version of one-at-a-time unless you explicitly edit header files to choose a different hash function. The hardened one-at-a-time is a lot faster than siphash. So...
• Commented on On the relative readability of Perl and Python
  @QM: For debugging, I think you want Data::Dump::Streamer if you want to be able to dump the absolute maximum of Perl data structures including coderefs. It optionally comes with a shortcut name “DDS”: perl -MDDS -e 'sub foo { my...
• Commented on Storable-like Modules
  @Steve: One of the potential Sereal features that could have helped your case hit the chopping block. We considered partial deserialization using something like dpath. Fundamentally, I think that's still implementable, but I don't think I'd want to add that...
• Commented on Storable-like Modules
  It sounds like in all practical situations, your disk is going to be the bottleneck. :)...
• Commented on Storable-like Modules
  @Mike B: Thank you for pointing out Sereal. We put a lot of work into it. As for performance and compression size: We believe we're better than the competition in both, but ultimately it's a trade-off. For example, there's an...
• Posted Sereal v2 Finally Released as Stable to Steffen Mueller

  Just now, I've uploaded three distributions to PAUSE: Sereal-Encoder-2.01, Sereal-Decoder-2.01, and Sereal-2.01.

  This means that version 2 of the Sereal serialization protocol is finally considered public, stable, and ready for production use. There was a ="http://blog.booking.com/t…

• Commented on JSON and alternatives and an extension proposal
  Clearly, somebody needs to volunteer to implement the Sereal spec in JS. I'm a terrible JS dev, otherwise I would've done it myself already. I'll see if somebody at work wants to do it at the next hackathon. :)...
• Commented on I want mop rest capability to define fast accessor
  @Yuki: Technically, Class::XSAccessor accessors are no longer full function calls after they're first invoked by a given call site. They are an entersub-OP alike custom OP. The whole thing is quite devious. Most cleverness was contributed by chocolateboy....
• Commented on I want mop rest capability to define fast accessor
  @Toby Inkster: Gotcha. For a more serious attempt at matching things to optimize, maybe have a look at https://github.com/tsee/jit-experiments...
• Commented on I want mop rest capability to define fast accessor
  @Toby: What you really want is using Class::XSAccessor (which is the actual accessor implementation that AutoXS uses) directly. AutoXS was a fun experiment and I hope the docs say something to that effect. IIRC Moo can use Class::XSAccessor for some...
• Commented on XS::TCC, another tinycc-based jit compiler
  Full disclosure: The timing wasn't random. I had the code on github for four months now and never released it for a few reasons. When Rafael pointed out your module, I gave myself a shove and pushed it to PAUSE....
• Commented on Once More Unto The Breach
  Ready for some serious C hacking then? Looking forward to it! :)...
• Posted Test ExtUtils::ParseXS 3.18_04 before it's too late! to Steffen Mueller

  ExtUtils::ParseXS is the module that translates XS to C. There have been development releases (newest: 3.18_04) for some time now. No CPAN…

• Commented on Type::Tiny rescues Moo
  I fail to see how you can do type coercion without knowing the types (which requires the run-time type checks in a dynamic language)....
• Commented on Type::Tiny rescues Moo
  Do keep in mind that type validation (and it’s evil brother, coercion) are the main offenders when it comes to Moose-alikes feeling slow. My advice: Don’t use type validation except at the outermost API layer of a project where you...
• Commented on On the removal of some core modules
  While I am not quite sure that I would eject it from core, do note that with configure_requires, Module::Build can always be installed from CPAN. Nobody is suggesting deprecating M::B altogether. Just kicking it out of the core since it’s...
• Commented on A call to action for CPAN authors
  @James: We only broke modules that were already subtly broken. In certain circumstances, Perl would actually change the order of the hash contents (rehashing due to collisions or hash growth) and two hashes with the same content could actually have...
• Commented on Fractal Diamond-Square Terrain Generation in Perl
  C implementation? Here you go. Straight conversion from Perl, though: https://gist.github.com/tsee/5461671 It's pretty naively implemented. On top of that, if you use the TCC hack (see test.pl in the gist and https://github.com/tsee/p5-XS-TCC) to compile & run in memory, then the...
• Commented on Names And All That
  Thank you for this voice of reason in the big waste of time that the recent storm of talk has been....
• Commented on $3M says Perl5 needs a new major version number
  @David: I've used PDL in the past, but am not a current user. It's a fine tool! I simply have no need for it. At work, Perl code uses the CPU time of millions and millions of EUR worth of...
• Commented on Does Perl (5) have a future?
  brian: I doubt it’d be that hard to get working on your Mac!...
• Commented on Perl 5, Perl 6, Perl 7, Perl 2013, whatever
  It's this sort of useless, energy-draining, and laughable discussion that makes the people capable of real technical innovation want to give up on perl, perl5-porters, the interwebs, and life in general. Just say no and let's all go back to...
• Commented on Does Perl (5) have a future?
  Choosing very specific bits to comment on: a) You can use ROOT from Perl. It works quite well. b) if you think writing XS is a lost cause before there’s a perl implementation even on the horizon that doesn’t support...
• Commented on $3M says Perl5 needs a new major version number
  John, 1M$ is not very useful even if you manage to raise it. Having a plan for how you're going to spend it well is what gives the value. In other words: 1M$ is a lot of money for just...
• Commented on $3M says Perl5 needs a new major version number
  The NumPy project is an investment in specific improvements. Who says that the organizations giving significant cash to TPF wouldn't shell out a lot more if there was a ambitious but specific plan that would bring major benefits for them?...
• Commented on A funny thing happened on the way to the p5-mop...
  Just for the record. I believe that your (plural) work on p5-mop is immensely valuable to the community regardless. I feel greatly indebted to you for tackling the hardest problems so I don't have to....

Comment Threads

• daixtr commented on Does Perl (5) have a future?

  I DO NOT get and CANNOT understand WHY WHY WHY that if Perl6 will not come will eventually led to the death of Perl????

  What?

  Look, I remember I started doing my first computer program on a programmable calculator in high school. I have exhausted all the APIs of the calculator and so what remains available to me are the infinite possibilities of how to solve a problem in the most efficient means. Now, when i moved the world of PC computer programming, I AM a bit surprised there. I am surprised that there seems to be an ever growing set of API and no matter how much I waited, …

• Manuel Ceron commented on On the relative readability of Perl and Python

  I’m a Python developer but I started coding Perl full time since a little bit more than a year. It’s true that Python has many quirks. That happens with any language that is more than 20 years old. But I think Perl probably has more quirks than Python.

  I think one reason why people think that Python is more readable is because it’s simpler. Both syntax and semantics are simpler. Less operators, less constructs, less ways of doing things. In practice this means that you can understand any Python code after an afternoon. While the same thing for Perl takes years.

  …
• jjolla888 commented on On the relative readability of Perl and Python

  All languages suck. I have only come across one syntax that I mostly like (unfortunately you cant do much with that particular one).

  So Perl v Python arguments centered around syntax are somewhat irrelevant. You will find godawful things in both of them.

  For me, the only things that matter are:

  (i) lots of powerful libraries
  
  (ii) good documentation
  
  (iii) helpful communities
  
  (iv) speed [for some things]
  

  My main toolkit is made up of Perl, Python, Go, and C.

  Perl nails (i), (ii), and (iii). It is the super-glue that allows me to write small prog…

• Graham Ollis commented on Convert::Binary::C anyone?

  Great. Thanks for connecting us. Everything has been resolved.

• whirlyperly commented on Your benchmarks suck!

  Dumbbench doesn't seem to be very well maintained anymore.