Paint.NET has added a fully reverse‑engineered rewrite of Direct2D for use on WINE, implemented in PaintDotNet.Windows.Direct2D1.Managed.dll. The rewrite was created by Claude, a generative‑AI coding agent, and is described as largely "vibe coded" with limited review due to its size. The author notes that Claude required significant oversight to ensure proper resource management and to avoid design flaws.
My hypothesis is that there is a new opportunity for Extensible Software on the web . LLMs radically lower the cost of authoring extensions, and modern sandbox primitives lower the deployment cost and provide good security boundaries.
The article highlights Paul Dix’s astonishment that AI was able to generate one million lines of code and then refine it over several months into a reliable software product now used by millions of developers. Dix argues that this achievement is far more impressive than merely translating code between languages, emphasizing that with a verification system and clear guidance, AI can produce and iteratively improve highly complex, sophisticated software until it functions perfectly.
Research: sparqlite: SPARQL 1.1 inside SQLite, written in Rust This research task is really an experiment in running Claude Code for web in "Ultracode" mode, as described in Orchestrate subage...
EVE Online is beginning its transition to Python 3, a move that will involve using the futurize script on 2.4 million lines of code and a manual review of about 20,000 differences between Python 2 and Python 3. The company has historically run on Stackless Python since 2003, with the last major upgrade in 2010 to Stackless Python 2.7. While the announcement does not detail how Stackless will be replaced, the team previously showcased a shift away from Stackless in their Carbon engine for EVE Frontier, leveraging the open‑source carbonengine/scheduler library.
The article recounts that Dwarf Fortress, once famously not using version control, has now adopted it. It cites quotes from Tarn Adams spanning 2013 to 2023, showing a shift from resistance to acceptance of version control as the project evolved. The change is noted in the context of the game's Steam release and subsequent success.
Research: smolmachines / smolvm as a sandbox for untrusted Python & JavaScript I tasked Claude Fable 5 running in Claude Code for web with the following research task: Put https://smolmachines. com through its paces as a fast secure sandbox.
Claude Cowork and the standard chat interface are merging into a single Claude experience, allowing users to hand over tasks or ask quick questions that the system will continue to handle even after the laptop is closed. The rollout will begin with Pro and Max plan users across web, desktop, and mobile, and will extend to new users on these plans over the coming weeks. This integration suggests Claude is evolving into a general agent, simplifying the distinction between Cowork and regular Claude usage.
The article recounts a challenging debug session that was significantly aided by an AI assistant. Despite the AI initially claiming the problem was unsolvable and suggesting a report be written instead, it persisted, adding debug code and analyzing it as the author pushed forward. Ultimately, the author credits the AI with writing the commit message for the fix.
The article reports that rumors of bugs in open‑source projects now trigger rapid security exploits, with automated agents probing for vulnerabilities within minutes of a patch being discussed. Anil Madhavapeddy demonstrates how modern coding agents can exploit even minimal hints, and rclone maintainer Nick Craig‑Wood notes a dramatic spike in security disclosures and delayed CVE assignments. The post highlights the need for new processes to protect open‑source communities from swift exploitation.
The article warns of a targeted campaign against prominent Rust developers and crate owners, aiming to compromise their devices and accounts to publish malware. Attackers use seemingly legitimate video calls to trick targets into installing malicious software or executing commands, such as a fake audio codec or clipboard command. A recent supply‑chain attack on the array‑ref crate illustrates the threat, and the author suggests using dependency cooldowns as a defensive measure.
Simon Willison reflects on the emotional impact of AI tools that can produce code quickly, noting that many developers experience an initial sense of disheartenment. He argues that recognizing the shift from coding to higher‑level problem solving allows experienced engineers to leverage new tools and add greater value. Willison emphasizes that software engineering has always faced rapid change, so adapting to AI is part of the profession’s ongoing evolution.
The paper surveys Multimodal Code Intelligence, focusing on tasks where code is generated, edited, refined, or reasoned about under visually grounded inputs such as screenshots, charts, and videos. It categorizes the field by the role of code—rendered artifact, editable structure, intermediate reasoning trace, or executable tool interface—and organizes benchmarks into four domains: Graphical User Interface, Scientific Visualization, Structured Graphics, and Frontier Tasks and Frameworks. The authors argue that reliable evaluation must include evidence of semantics and interaction beyond visual fidelity, and propose four verification-centered research directions to advance the field toward evidence-grounded executable systems.