Shafik Yaghmour
LightNews LightNews
shafik.bsky.social
Shafik Yaghmour
@shafik.bsky.social
960 followers 240 following 660 posts
Compiler Engineer clang front end. Interests: C++, C, and undefined behavior. Martial Artist, Book Worm and Dad. he/him


Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@shafik
Blog: https://shafik.github.io/


#cplusplus #compilers
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
shafik.bsky.social
Shafik Yaghmour @shafik.bsky.social · Sep 10
C++ quiz #302

Answer here: hachyderm.io/@shafik/1151...

#Cplusplus
#Cpppolls
#302 Given the following in C++ struct S { void f(int); private: void f(double); }; void g(S* sp) { sp->f(2); // Does overload resolution // work even though f(double) is private? } Without checking: A. Yes B. No
shafik.bsky.social
Great story on why the 50 year mortgages makes no sense at all: www.marketplace.org/story/2025/1...
According to the American Enterprise Institute, a 50-year mortgage would, initially, increase a homeowner’s buying power by 8%. “Over time, maybe months, maybe years, that would fade,” said Edward Pinto, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Basically, if everyone’s buying power goes up, so does the price of housing. And a longer mortgage also means it takes longer to build up equity.
November 21, 2025 at 12:15 AM
shafik.bsky.social
C++ Retro Quiz #46

Answer here: hachyderm.io/@shafik/1155...

#Cplusplus
#Cpppolls
Retro C++ quiz #46 #include <iostream> #include <string> int main() { using namespace std::string_literals; std::string s1("hello world",5); std::string s2("hello world"s,5); std::cout<<s1<<s2; // What is the output? } Without checking: A. hellohello B. world world C. hello world D. worldhello
November 20, 2025 at 5:36 PM
shafik.bsky.social
"Learning with AI falls short compared to old-fashioned web search": theconversation.com/learning-wit...

Not shocking. What was interesting, is this held over many studies and w/ a large pool of participants.

#ai
The data revealed a consistent pattern: People who learned about a topic through an LLM versus web search felt that they learned less, invested less effort in subsequently writing their advice, and ultimately wrote advice that was shorter, less factual and more generic. In turn, when this advice was presented to an independent sample of readers, who were unaware of which tool had been used to learn about the topic, they found the advice to be less informative, less helpful, and they were less likely to adopt it.
November 20, 2025 at 4:58 PM
shafik.bsky.social
C++ quiz #307

Answer here: hachyderm.io/@shafik/1155...

#Cplusplus
#CppPolls
#307 Given the following in C++ template<class T> void f() { struct Y { using type = int; }; Y::type y; // Missing typename? } Without checking: A. Yes B. No
November 19, 2025 at 6:57 PM
shafik.bsky.social
"Fake Christmas trees will cost more this year, thanks in part to tariffs": www.npr.org/2025/11/16/n...

What is facinating about this story is all the jobs, salaries and projects they had to cut in order to not raise prices.

So to make it clear this is also costs jobs and reducing folks take pay,.
Fake Christmas trees will cost more this year, thanks in part to tariffs
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Mac Harman, the CEO of Balsam Hill, about how tariffs are pushing up the prices of artificial Christmas trees this holiday season.
www.npr.org
November 16, 2025 at 4:05 PM
shafik.bsky.social
Why can't they privatize air traffic controllers and prevent outages during shutdown you ask?

B/c private jets under the current system pays very little under a privatized system they would pay based on their real cost and they fight it tooth and nail.

www.npr.org/2025/11/15/n...
A transportation policy expert explains the pros of privatizing U.S. air traffic control
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Bob Poole, with the Reason Foundation, who argues that privatizing air traffic control in the U.S. would bring more stable funding and fewer travel disruptions.
www.npr.org
November 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
shafik.bsky.social
I love that folks are still submitting patches for SPARC to llvm.
November 14, 2025 at 4:48 AM
shafik.bsky.social
Retro C++ quiz #46 Multiplying shorts C style

answer here: hachyderm.io/@shafik/1154...

#CppPolls
#Programming
Retro C++ quiz #46 Given the following in C: unsigned short x=0xFFFF,y=0xFFFF; Without checking, assuming LP64. What is the correct format specifier X below and result: printf( “%X\n”, x*y); % | result ========= A. d | -131071 B. u | 4294836225 C. d | UB D. u | UB #CPolls #Programming
October 31, 2025 at 4:44 PM
shafik.bsky.social
Retro C++ quiz #45 Multiplying shorts

Answer here: hachyderm.io/@shafik/1154...

#Cplusplus
#Cpppolls
Retro C++ quiz #45 Given the following in C++: unsigned short x=0xFFFF; unsigned short y=0xFFFF; auto z=x*y; std::cout << z; Without checking, assuming an LP64 system what is the result: A. 4294836225 B. -131071 C. fffe0001 D. Undefined behavior
October 31, 2025 at 4:42 PM
shafik.bsky.social
#23 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

Remember folks this is an ambiguous time of year for your programmer colleagues.

If you invite them to trick or treat and they come dressed up as Santa Claus, it actually works out but it is because

DEC 25 = OCT 31

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 31, 2025 at 3:47 PM
shafik.bsky.social
#22 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

Why does Yoda use -fno-exceptions

👻🎃👻🎃

because there is no try

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 30, 2025 at 4:55 PM
shafik.bsky.social
#21 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

Why are C++ devs so bad at Halloween

👻🎃👻🎃

Because they do short-circuit evaluation of Trick or Treat

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 27, 2025 at 5:32 PM
shafik.bsky.social
I am just reading an article trying to convince folks that data centers are not causing the rapid rise in power prices and this is ludicrous claim to make: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
Al boom on the power market with unprecedented granularity. The locations and prices were tracked and aggregated monthly by Grid Status, an energy data analytics platform. Bloomberg analyzed this data in relation to data center locations, from DC Byte, and found that electricity now costs as much as 267% more for a single month than it did five years ago in areas located near significant data center activity.
October 25, 2025 at 11:42 PM
shafik.bsky.social
Apparently today is Mole Day: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day

Happy Mole Day!

This seems like a apropos time to share "A Mole of Moles": what-if.xkcd.com/4/

While it sounds quite amusing it gets very grim very quickly.
The mole planet is now a giant sphere of meat. It has a lot of latent energy (there are enough calories in the mole planet to support the Earth’s current population for 30 billion years). Normally, when organic matter decomposes, it releases much of that energy as heat. But throughout the majority of the planet’s interior, the pressure is over a hundred megapascals, which is enough to kill all bacteria and sterilize the mole remains—leaving no microorganisms to break down the mole tissues.
October 23, 2025 at 2:50 PM
shafik.bsky.social
#20 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

How do you find your black cat?

🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

You have to follow the void pointer

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 23, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Shafik Yaghmour
shafik.bsky.social
#19 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

int f() {
int indeterminate_value;

return /*of the*/
indeterminate_value;
}

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 31, 2024 at 3:27 PM
shafik.bsky.social
C++ quiz #306 This

Answer here: hachyderm.io/@shafik/1154...

#Cplusplus
#Cpppolls
#306 Given the following in C++ struct A {}; struct B { void f(this A); // A void f(this int); // B }; Without checking, which is well-formed? A. A B. B C. Neither D. Both
October 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM
shafik.bsky.social
Just finished read "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" and 🤯

The book started out one way and ended up someplace I could not have predicted.
October 22, 2025 at 5:01 AM
shafik.bsky.social
"Your diet’s impact on the planet depends on where you live. Look up your city.": wapo.st/4ocwoy8

I get a lot of pushback from people when I say cutting beef is the best thing you can do. Apparently there are a lot of influencers who say beef is not that bad.
Bar graph showing alternative to cut carbon hoofprint Swap half your beef for chicken 33% Cut food waste in half 16% Meatless Mondays 14% Combined impact 51% On average, 73 percent of every city’s hoofprint comes down to beef. Not only is it more popular, producing beef generates far more planet-warming pollution compared with raising hogs and chickens. However, raising cattle in feed lots can be more energy efficient, despite its other environmental and ethical costs. And the type of feed a farm uses and how it manages waste can tip these cows’ emissions the other way. The distance that cattle feed is transported, as well as how far cows travel to be slaughtered, also matters, since this can span thousands of miles.
October 21, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Shafik Yaghmour
shafik.bsky.social
#18 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

What is a dragons favorite algorithm

🐲🐲

std::accumulate

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 31, 2024 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Shafik Yaghmour
shafik.bsky.social
#17 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

Why did the scarecrow make such a good C++ dev?

🌾
🌾

Because they were always outstanding in their field.

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 30, 2024 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Shafik Yaghmour
shafik.bsky.social
Cursed diff highlighting here.

How can github be so bad.

#programming
Diff it higghlights the middle paren as opposed to the outher paren - assert(!Success || !Trap.hasErrorOccurred() && - "Substitution failures must be handled " - "by CheckConstraintSatisfaction."); + assert((!Success || !Trap.hasErrorOccurred()) &&
October 20, 2025 at 3:07 AM
shafik.bsky.social
Cursed diff highlighting here.

How can github be so bad.

#programming
Diff it higghlights the middle paren as opposed to the outher paren - assert(!Success || !Trap.hasErrorOccurred() && - "Substitution failures must be handled " - "by CheckConstraintSatisfaction."); + assert((!Success || !Trap.hasErrorOccurred()) &&
October 20, 2025 at 3:07 AM
shafik.bsky.social
First Stollen Bread of the year from my local bakery 😋
October 17, 2025 at 4:13 PM
shafik.bsky.social
#16 Spooky Halloween C++

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

Who called it a ghost when we had temporary materialization right there?

👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃

#cplusplus
October 17, 2025 at 3:46 PM