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<title>Squibid's Blog</title>
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<title> 'Serializing data in C'</title>
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<title>'Serializing data in C'</title>
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<h1>Serializing data in C</h1>
<p>
I've started work on a new project! The project in question is one that
I have wanted to tackle for a long time but did not have the courage to
do so. However at long last it is time...
</p>
<p>
time to get funky...
</p>
<p>
I'm writing a music player, and not one that simply plays music like
spotify. This music player falls more inline with MPD in which it's a
daemon running in the background playing the music and clients may
communicate with it to tell it what to play when and the likes.
</p>
<p>
Currently I'm at that very important part in which the daemon needs to
communicate to clients via a protocol *fancy*, and to do so I have decided
to go with a socket that way <i>in theory</i> I can control my daemon from
other devices on the network. With the communication method decided I now
have to define what data goes between devices. At the current moment I've
settled on an enum for different signals.
</p>
<p>
As seen here:
</p>
<pre>
<span class="Structure"><span class="Keyword">enum</span></span> <span class="Type">libmoo_signal</span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* core signals are in the &lt; 100 range */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_ESTCON</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">1</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_ESTDCON</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">2</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_INCOMPATABLE_VERSION</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">3</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_OK</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">50</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* previous message received was ok */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_NOK</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">51</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* previous message received was not ok */</span></span></span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* setting/adding data happens in the 100 range */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_ADD_SONG</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">101</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_SET_PLAY</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">103</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_SET_PAUSE</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">104</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_SET_TOGGLE_PAUSE</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">105</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_SET_SKIP_NEXT</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">110</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_SET_SKIP_PREV</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">111</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* removing data happens in the 200 range */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_REM_SONG</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">201</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* getting data happens in the 300 range */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_GET_CUR_SONG</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">301</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_GET_PAUSE</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">303</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Constant"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_SIGNAL_GET_PROGRESS</span></span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">310</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
As for how I actually transmit the signals, I've settled on a format which
defaults to 42 bytes of data being sent with the option to send more by
setting the 41st-42nd bytes to a uint16 containing the additional number
of bytes being sent.
</p>
<pre>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* byte - data</span></span><span class="-spell">
<span class="Comment"> *</span>
<span class="Comment"> * 0-7 - libmoo protocol version</span>
<span class="Comment"> *</span>
<span class="Comment"> * 8-31 - reserved for the future</span>
<span class="Comment"> *</span>
<span class="Comment"> * 32-40 - libmoo_signal</span>
<span class="Comment"> *</span>
<span class="Comment"> * 41-42 - uint16 more_data</span>
<span class="Comment"> *</span>
<span class="Comment"> * 43-8191 - char *data</span>
<span class="Comment"> */</span></span><span class="Comment"></span></span>
<span class="Structure"><span class="Keyword">typedef</span></span> <span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">char</span></span> <span class="Operator">*</span> <span class="Type">libmoo_payload</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
I'm not sure how this compares to other protocols used to transmit data,
but I'm quite proud of how I've laid this out.
</p>
<p>
Moving on to actual the point of this article: serialization. For the sake
of useablilty I've defined a datatype which models our payload which you
can see here:
</p>
<pre>
<span class="Structure"><span class="Keyword">typedef</span></span> <span class="Structure"><span class="Keyword">struct</span></span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="Structure"><span class="Keyword">enum</span></span> <span class="Type">libmoo_signal</span> <span class="-property">signal</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span> <span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* the signal */</span></span></span>
<span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">uint16_t</span></span> <span class="-property">more_data</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span> <span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* the number bytes of the additional data */</span></span></span>
<span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">char</span></span> <span class="Operator">*</span><span class="-property">data</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span> <span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* additional data */</span></span></span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span> <span class="Type"><span class="Type">libmoo_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
And a function which allows you to easily create libmoo_data:
</p>
<pre>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell"><span class="Comment">/**</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @brief create a new libmoo_data</span>
<span class="Comment"> *</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @param signal the signal to set</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @param data the data to set</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @return the data object</span>
<span class="Comment"> */</span></span></span></span>
<span class="Type">libmoo_data</span> <span class="Operator">*</span><span class="-variable"><span class="Function">libmoo_create_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Structure"><span class="Keyword">enum</span></span> <span class="Type">libmoo_signal</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="-variable-parameter">signal</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">char</span></span> <span class="-variable-parameter"><span class="Operator">*</span><span class="-variable">data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
I've provided this so that you don't have to deal with manually setting
the size of the data that you pass into the object, although (if you so
choose) you may easily override it.
</p>
<h2>Serializing</h2>
<p>
Now that we've gone over the interface for interacting with the payload
let's get to the intersting stage in which we get the data ready for
launch.
</p>
<pre>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell"><span class="Comment">/**</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @brief convert data into a payload.</span>
<span class="Comment"> * The payload must be allocated prior to calling this function it should be</span>
<span class="Comment"> * LIBMOO_PAYLOAD_SIZE chars long unless you think you know better.</span>
<span class="Comment"> *</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @param payload pointer to the payload</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @param data data which will be serialized</span>
<span class="Comment"> * @return the size of the resulting payload</span>
<span class="Comment"> */</span></span></span></span>
<span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">size_t</span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">libmoo_serialize_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Type">libmoo_payload</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="-variable-parameter">payload</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Type">libmoo_data</span> <span class="-variable-parameter"><span class="Operator">*</span><span class="-variable">data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">void</span></span> <span class="Operator">*</span><span class="-variable">ptr</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-variable">ptr</span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="-variable">payload</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* add LIBMOO_VERSION */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">mempcpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">ptr</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_VERSION</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Function">strlen</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_VERSION</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* skip the reserved space */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable">ptr</span> <span class="Operator">+=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">24</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* add the signal type */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">mempcpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">ptr</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Operator">&amp;</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">signal</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">signal</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* add the size of the more data */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">mempcpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">ptr</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Operator">&amp;</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* the more data */</span></span></span>
<span class="Conditional"><span class="Keyword">if</span></span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">mempcpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">ptr</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Function">strlen</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span>
<span class="Statement"><span class="Keyword">return</span></span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_HEADER_SIZE</span></span> <span class="Operator">+</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="Operator">+</span> <span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span>
</pre>
<p>
As you may have noticed in the code snippet above libmoo_serialize_data is
a function that takes in a pre-allocated payload, and the data to
serialize. I've opted to allow the user to allocate space for the payload
if they determine that they know what they're doing incase my dumb
function is too generous. Moving onto the body of the function you'll see
an unfamiliar function called mempcpy which is a macro for copying data
into the payload. This macro takes in the same arguments as memcpy (dest,
src, size), but in addition it increments dest by size so I can append
data to the payload without making this code horrible to read.
</p>
<p>
In earlier stages of development I didn't actually return the size of the
resulting payload, thinking that I could just strlen it. This was a rookie
mistake. Because I've included extra space (bytes 8-31) when you run
strlen on any payload it results in 5 (the length of the version string).
After finding this out I decided that I do actually want to send more
than the version information, and so now libmoo_serialize_data returns a
size_t continaing the number of bytes that have been serialized.
</p>
<h2>Deserializing</h2>
<p>
Now that we've serialized and <i>presumably</i> sent the data to a client
we need to do the magic part which completes this transaction:
deserialization.
</p>
<p>
Below is my method of deserializing the data. It's pretty much the
opposite of the serialization function with the key exception that we
need to do some validation. <i>Which I haven't implemented yet.</i>
</p>
<pre>
<span class="Type">libmoo_data</span>
<span class="Operator">*</span><span class="-variable"><span class="Function">libmoo_deserialize_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Type">libmoo_payload</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="-variable-parameter">payload</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">unsigned</span></span> <span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin"><span class="-type-builtin">int</span></span></span> <span class="-variable"><span class="-variable-parameter">payload_size</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="Type">libmoo_data</span> <span class="Operator">*</span><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">char</span></span> <span class="-variable">libmoo_version</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">[</span><span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_VERSION_LEN</span></span> <span class="Operator">+</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">1</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">]</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* ensure that there's enough data to comply to spec */</span></span></span>
<span class="Conditional"><span class="Keyword">if</span></span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">payload_size</span> <span class="Operator">&lt;</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_HEADER_SIZE</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="-variable">errno</span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">EBADE</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Statement"><span class="Keyword">return</span></span> <span class="Constant"><span class="-constant-builtin">NULL</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* attempt to allocate space and if we fail return NULL errno contains the</span></span><span class="-spell">
<span class="Comment"> * error</span>
<span class="Comment"> */</span></span><span class="Comment"></span></span>
<span class="-variable">data</span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Function">calloc</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Number"><span class="Number">1</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">libmoo_data</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Conditional"><span class="Keyword">if</span></span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">data</span> <span class="Operator">==</span> <span class="Constant"><span class="-constant-builtin">NULL</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="-variable">errno</span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Constant"><span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">ENOMEM</span></span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Statement"><span class="Keyword">return</span></span> <span class="Constant"><span class="-constant-builtin">NULL</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* get the libmoo_version */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">memscpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">libmoo_version</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable">payload</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_VERSION_LEN</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-variable">libmoo_version</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">[</span><span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_VERSION_LEN</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">]</span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="SpecialChar"><span class="Character">'<span class="-string-escape"></span>'</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/*<span class="TodoBgNOTE"> </span></span></span><span class="-spell"><span class="TodoBgNOTE"><span class="Todo">TODO</span><span class="Comment"><span class="TodoFgNOTE">:</span></span></span><span class="Comment"><span class="TodoFgNOTE"> check that the version of the library we're talking to and our</span></span>
<span class="Comment"> * <span class="TodoFgNOTE">version are compatable</span></span>
<span class="Comment"> */</span></span><span class="Comment"></span></span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* gotta tell the client that we're incompatible */</span></span></span>
<span class="Conditional"><span class="Keyword">if</span></span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable"><span class="Function">strcmp</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">libmoo_version</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">LIBMOO_VERSION</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="Operator">!=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">0</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="-variable">errno</span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="Constant"><span class="-variable"><span class="Constant">EINVAL</span></span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">free</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Statement"><span class="Keyword">return</span></span> <span class="Constant"><span class="-constant-builtin">NULL</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* skip the reserved space */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable">payload</span> <span class="Operator">+=</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">24</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* get the signal */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">memscpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Operator">&amp;</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">signal</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable">payload</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">signal</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* get the more data marker */</span></span></span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">memscpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Operator">&amp;</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable">payload</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* get the data */</span></span></span>
<span class="Conditional"><span class="Keyword">if</span></span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="-punctuation-bracket">{</span>
<span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">data</span></span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="-variable"><span class="Function">malloc</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span> <span class="Operator">+</span> <span class="Number"><span class="Number">1</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span> <span class="Operator">*</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Type"><span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">char</span></span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-variable"><span class="Function">memscpy</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-variable">payload</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">,</span> <span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span> <span class="Operator">*</span> <span class="Operator"><span class="Keyword">sizeof</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">(</span><span class="Type"><span class="Type"><span class="-type-builtin">char</span></span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">)</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">[</span><span class="-_parent"><span class="-variable">data</span><span class="Operator">-&gt;</span><span class="-property">more_data</span></span><span class="-punctuation-bracket">]</span> <span class="Operator">=</span> <span class="SpecialChar"><span class="Character">'<span class="-string-escape"></span>'</span></span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span> <span class="Comment"><span class="Comment"><span class="-spell">/* null terminate this string, yo */</span></span></span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span>
<span class="Statement"><span class="Keyword">return</span></span> <span class="-variable">data</span><span class="-punctuation-delimiter">;</span>
<span class="-punctuation-bracket">}</span>
</pre>
<p>
And that's kinda it just like with the mempcpy macro I've made a memscpy
macro which increments the src by the size of the data to make reading
the data easy.
</p>
<p>
See you next year o/
<sub>I might have my project done by then, who knows</sub>
</p>
<br>
<br>
]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Why "suckless" software is important</title>
<guid>https://squi.bid/blog/Why-"suckless"-software-is-important/index.html</guid>
<link>https://squi.bid/blog/Why-"suckless"-software-is-important/index.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jan 2024 20:22:27 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<title>'Why "suckless" software is important'</title>
<meta name="date" content="2024/01/14">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css">
<style> html, body {
display: unset !important;
max-width: 80ch;
margin: auto;
} </style>
<body id="blog">
<p>
When it comes to learning how to program there are a few things you can
do:
</p>
<ol>
<li>Read a textbook</li>
<li>Watch videos</li>
<li>Read some source code</li>
</ol>
<p>
Of these options I find the best way to truly learn how to program is to
read someone else's program and try and understand it. For example
recently I've been working on my own
<a href="https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu">dmenu</a> clone for Wayland.
Throughout working on it instead of looking for tutorials on how to render
a square using pixman I decided to take a look at
<a href="https://github.com/djpohly/dtao">dtao</a> which is a clone of
dzen for Wayland. By just reading the code and messing around with the
program I was able to get an understanding for how rendering is done in
pixman.
</p>
<p>
Now you may be asking yourself something like: "But what does this have to
do with suckless software?". The answer to that is in their philosophy
which is about: "keeping things simple, minimal and usable". The idea of
keeping things minimal and useable allows them to create wonderful
programs that not only work, but also showcase how to do things without
extra fluff that something like i3 might have.
</p>
<p>
Even if you don't like suckless software it still serves as a great place
to learn how to do the bare minimum. And for those who do enjoy using it,
it can serve as a great starting place to hack upon until you get the
software of your dreams.
</p>
]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>What is a squibid?</title>
<guid>https://squi.bid/blog/What-is-a-squibid/index.html</guid>
<link>https://squi.bid/blog/What-is-a-squibid/index.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:47:05 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<meta name="date" content="2023/10/30">
<title>'What is a squibid?'</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/blog/style.css">
<body style="background-color: #161617;">
<p>
Recently, a few people have been asking me: "what is a squibid?" or
"where did your name come from?". In this blog post I will answer those
questions.
<br>
<br>
A few years ago I came up with a drawing of an animal
reason to do anything with it, but regardless I chose to name it a
squibid. Eventually, when trying to find a good username I chose squibid
because that would cover both the username and profile picture.
</p>
]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>librex and dots</title>
<guid>https://squi.bid/blog/librex-and-dots</guid>
<link>https://squi.bid/blog/librex-and-dots</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jun 2023 12:17:35 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
<p>
Hello!
<br><br>
In my first post
<a href="https://squi.bid/blog/state-of-the-site">state of the site</a> I
talked about a searxng instance however I found something better! I am now
running a <a href="https://github.com/hnhx/librex/">librex</a> instance @
https://librex.squi.bid. My only modification to the site is changing the theme
to the <a href="https://github.com/kvrohit/mellow-theme">mellow theme</a>.
<br><br>
As for my dots. I have continued to update my Neovim dotfiles, and I am
currently in the process of making some MPV dot files. After I am done with
my MPV config I'll get to work on putting together a git repo with my dotfiles
(using submodules for the bigger parts of the config like Neovim).
<br><br>
I will also soon be setting up a Matrix account (not instance) but for now
feel free to <a href="mailto:me@zacharyscheiman.com">email me</a>.
<!-- secret message: there also might be some more blogs coming soon -->
</p>
]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>It's Alive!</title>
<guid>https://squi.bid/blog/It's-Alive!</guid>
<link>https://squi.bid/blog/It's-Alive!</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Apr 2023 13:22:03 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
<p>
Cloning via http(s) now works!
<br><br>
btw I will be posting my dotfiles soontm
</p>
]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>state of the site</title>
<guid>https://squi.bid/blog/state-of-the-site</guid>
<link>https://squi.bid/blog/state-of-the-site</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 11 Mar 2023 15:00:32 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
<p>
Hello o/, and welcome to my website!<br>
As of right now I am still setting things up, I have a git server running but I am
still working on getting cloning to work via https. On top of the git server I also
have a cgit instance which I have gotten close to perfect (for some reason the site
is only sometimes in darkmode).
<br><br>
As of right now that is all I've got running but I might be setting up a SearXNG
instance soon.
<br><br>
However somethings that I will never put on my server are: <br>
- social media frontend's eg: invious, and mastadon <br>
- probably some other things that I can't think about right now <br>
</p>
]]></description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
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