“Listen: David Smith has come unstuck in time.” — Kurt Vonnegut, probably

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ireneista
@ireneista

The official post-Cohost permanent URL for this piece is https://irenes.space/leaves/2024-09-29-inscrutable

we say that line a lot, along with "our mandate also includes weird bugs"

we would like people to know what we're referencing :)

those characters were amazing role models for a young autistic plural system, so much so that even the gender stuff was bearable



mcc
@mcc

WebGPU is the new WebGL. That means it is the new way to draw 3D in web browsers. It is, in my opinion, very good actually. It is so good I think it will also replace Canvas and become the new way to draw 2D in web browsers. In fact it is so good I think it will replace Vulkan as well as normal OpenGL, and become just the standard way to draw, in any kind of software, from any programming language. This is pretty exciting to me. WebGPU is a little bit irritating— but only a little bit, and it is massively less irritating than any of the things it replaces.

WebGPU goes live… today, actually. Chrome 113 shipped in the final minutes of me finishing this post and should be available in the "About Chrome" dialog right this second. If you click here, and you see a rainbow triangle, your web browser has WebGPU. By the end of the year WebGPU will be everywhere, in every browser. (All of this refers to desktop computers. On phones, it won't be in Chrome until later this year; and Apple I don't know. Maybe one additional year after that.)

If you are not a programmer, this probably doesn't affect you. It might get us closer to a world where you can just play games in your web browser as a normal thing like you used to be able to with Flash. But probably not because WebGL wasn't the only problem there.

If you are a programmer, let me tell you what I think this means for you.

Sections below:

  • A history of graphics APIs (You can skip this)
  • What's it like?
  • How do I use it?
    • Typescript / NPM world
    • I don't know what a NPM is I Just wanna write CSS and my stupid little script tags
    • Rust / C++ / Posthuman Intersecting Tetrahedron