In eBPF-land you're going to be calling C functions in the kernel, and using (generally) C data types like structs and null-terminated strings. You can't do loops (loops are unrolled by the compiler), you can't do variadic functions, and you definitely can't take advantage of all the cool Go stuff like goroutines, select, context, etc.
I'm not really sure why you'd want to use this. If you're writing eBPF, you already need to know how to read C kernel source.
I feel like every language has its fans. What invariably happens is that people want their favorite language to work in every situation that they might need to work.
Personally I would choose Rust as well, but I would choose Rust for almost everything I do. I can see why a Go developer would want a similar experience.
'berkeley packet filters', these days 'extended berkeley packet filters', are little program snippets you can inject into the linux kernel from userland programs to run logic on hooks on various events without the need to switch back to userspace.
> Acronyms often confuse readers. Avoid them whenever possible. If an acronym is necessary for future reference, spell the full word and follow with the acronym in parentheses on the first reference. For example, The General Services Administration (GSA).
In fairness to the authors README, there isn't really any other BPFs in this domain and if someone didn't already know what BPF was, then this project wouldn't be of any interest to them (and would be a bad place to start on an BPF journey too).
So I can't blame the project's author for the lack of explanation about what BPF is. Particularly when it's just someone's personal project.
And before anyone complains about this comment: I do think the GP is completely fair in asking for clarification as to what BPF is too. There sometimes seems to be backlash on HN against people asking for a term to be explained. This comment isn't that.
Sure, but if you are sharing with a general audience (where people aren't necessarily coming from your own domain) it's a good idea to make the writing accessible.
My first thought would have been Band-Pass Filter, which is also a filter potentially related to computer systems.
I work in an industry with a lot of Three-Letter Acronyms (TLAs) and eXtended Three-Letter Acronyms (XTLAs) (sometimes known as Four-Letter Acronyms (FLAs)), and there they are often overloaded in their meanings. So in my experience, being clear about the definition is helpful to readers so they can immediately understand the document without having to triangulate meanings from the rest of the document.
But again, this isn't intended for a general audience.
Anyone who might need this would already know what BPF is. And anyone who isn't familiar with the term BPF in this context wouldn't be the target audience for this.
It's also worth noting that BPF isn't ever referred to in it's non-acronym form. Literally no-one in the field calls this "Berkeley Packet Filter". Just like nobody calls PHP "PHP: Hypertext Processor" (or whatever backronym they've decided on this week), nor SQL as Structured Query Language. The name for this technically literally is just referred to as "BPF".
So while I agree with your point in general -- it's not really a fair complaint in this specific occurrence.
Well, it's posted on Hacker News which is a general audience including people working on electrical/signal/audio/RF systems among other things (not just low-level network code) where BPF has a different meaning, so I think disambiguation is appropriate.
Well, if you asked a randomly-chosen person (technical or non-technical) they would probably say NASA is "the organization that does the space things" — it's pretty well-known
On the other hand, BPF means different things in different domains, and isn't ubiquitous in the same way
In eBPF-land you're going to be calling C functions in the kernel, and using (generally) C data types like structs and null-terminated strings. You can't do loops (loops are unrolled by the compiler), you can't do variadic functions, and you definitely can't take advantage of all the cool Go stuff like goroutines, select, context, etc.
I'm not really sure why you'd want to use this. If you're writing eBPF, you already need to know how to read C kernel source.
I'm primarily a Go developer and love the language and will defend it for most use-cases, but to be honest BPF seems like Rust's place to shine.
I feel like every language has its fans. What invariably happens is that people want their favorite language to work in every situation that they might need to work.
Personally I would choose Rust as well, but I would choose Rust for almost everything I do. I can see why a Go developer would want a similar experience.
What is BPF?
'berkeley packet filters', these days 'extended berkeley packet filters', are little program snippets you can inject into the linux kernel from userland programs to run logic on hooks on various events without the need to switch back to userspace.
It's a low level networking interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Packet_Filter
I'm guessing Berkeley Packet Filter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Packet_Filter
This is why NASA's guidance is the following:
> Acronyms often confuse readers. Avoid them whenever possible. If an acronym is necessary for future reference, spell the full word and follow with the acronym in parentheses on the first reference. For example, The General Services Administration (GSA).
https://nasa.github.io/content-guide/abbreviations-and-acron...
There is also this longer memo on the NASA Technical Reports Server: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19950025292
In fairness to the authors README, there isn't really any other BPFs in this domain and if someone didn't already know what BPF was, then this project wouldn't be of any interest to them (and would be a bad place to start on an BPF journey too).
So I can't blame the project's author for the lack of explanation about what BPF is. Particularly when it's just someone's personal project.
And before anyone complains about this comment: I do think the GP is completely fair in asking for clarification as to what BPF is too. There sometimes seems to be backlash on HN against people asking for a term to be explained. This comment isn't that.
Sure, but if you are sharing with a general audience (where people aren't necessarily coming from your own domain) it's a good idea to make the writing accessible.
My first thought would have been Band-Pass Filter, which is also a filter potentially related to computer systems.
I work in an industry with a lot of Three-Letter Acronyms (TLAs) and eXtended Three-Letter Acronyms (XTLAs) (sometimes known as Four-Letter Acronyms (FLAs)), and there they are often overloaded in their meanings. So in my experience, being clear about the definition is helpful to readers so they can immediately understand the document without having to triangulate meanings from the rest of the document.
But again, this isn't intended for a general audience.
Anyone who might need this would already know what BPF is. And anyone who isn't familiar with the term BPF in this context wouldn't be the target audience for this.
It's also worth noting that BPF isn't ever referred to in it's non-acronym form. Literally no-one in the field calls this "Berkeley Packet Filter". Just like nobody calls PHP "PHP: Hypertext Processor" (or whatever backronym they've decided on this week), nor SQL as Structured Query Language. The name for this technically literally is just referred to as "BPF".
So while I agree with your point in general -- it's not really a fair complaint in this specific occurrence.
Well, it's posted on Hacker News which is a general audience including people working on electrical/signal/audio/RF systems among other things (not just low-level network code) where BPF has a different meaning, so I think disambiguation is appropriate.
To be honest BPF is one of those acronyms that I think might be more recognizable as the acronym than what it actually stands for.
Not quite as much as Radar or Laser, but halfway there.
What's NASA :)
Well, if you asked a randomly-chosen person (technical or non-technical) they would probably say NASA is "the organization that does the space things" — it's pretty well-known
On the other hand, BPF means different things in different domains, and isn't ubiquitous in the same way
BPF == 'Berkeley Packet Filter'
Here you go: https://github.com/pratyushanand/learn-bpf
Sorry, why wouldn’t I write in the native language?
This transpiles to the native language.