Weeknotes 69

I spent a long time rewriting re2’s CI configuration to test against Ruby versions 1.8 through to 3.0 and all six ABI versions of the underlying Google re2 library using GitHub Actions.

My previous setup, based on using the Brightbox Ruby packages for Ubuntu and the official Rubinius binary releases, stopped working when I ran it for the first time in ten months.

Thankfully, RSpec’s rspec-core also uses GitHub Actions to test against legacy Ruby versions and their custom Docker images were the basis for my own.

I hope that by switching to the official Ruby setup-ruby GitHub Action, it will prevent further bit rot but I suspect the necessary workarounds for legacy Ruby versions will only get worse over time (see Joshua Stein’s “Plaintext HTTP in a Modern World”).

I hoped this work would mean I could add TruffleRuby as a supported version of Ruby but alas, it doesn’t seem to work with Ubuntu on GitHub Actions.

We celebrated Pancake Day which doubles as the anniversary of C first eating solid food. While he demonstrated what difference a year makes, we introduced the concept of savoury pancakes to my sceptical parents.

I dropped the ball from my trackball onto the sheet of smoked glass covering my desk, accidentally recreating the Tesla Cybertruck bulletproof window demo.

I enjoyed sending my mum to the hardware shop to buy a specific adhesive to fix a broken window blind: “Sticks Like Sh*t”.