Julio Merino

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245 Posts
Operating systems, build systems, and programming languages. Mostly Unix, Bazel, and Rust. Author of a tech blog, EndBASIC, and more.
Blog System/5https://blogsystem5.substack.com/
Homepagehttps://jmmv.dev/
EndBASIChttps://www.endbasic.dev/
Reflections on vibecoding ticket.el

1 comment

Lobsters
I actually just had some fun revamping the EndBASIC website (upgrade to Bootstrap 5, make the front page look modern, add Win 3.x borders to code samples, add sidebar...) and it's looking pretty cool, I think šŸ˜€
So... I ended up playing with Claude Code for a week and I'm somewhat satisfied by what it unlocks. Game-changer for some scenarios, poor fit for others. See what I mean here: https://jmmv.dev/2026/02/one-week-with-claude-code.html
Grumpy Julio plays with CLI coding agents - Julio Merino (jmmv.dev)

Or the more tired ā€œOne week with Claude Codeā€-type article. It’s no secret that I’ve been grumpy about the new AI-based coding trend. I’ve been grumpy about the ā€œpush from above to use AI or elseā€. I’ve been grumpy about the eye-rolling hype I see on LinkedIn. I’ve been grumpy about being on the receiving end of vibe-coded PRs that over-engineer solutions to simple problems. I’ve been grumpy about the thought that we are about to see an amount of bloat like we have never imagined before. But, at the same time, I’ve been using LLMs to review my articles, to perform deep research, to generate cover pictures, and before last week, I had even dipped my toes into AI-based coding agents to help me with boring, repetitive tasks. And you know what? I see their promise of increased productivity, yet the amounts of slop I’ve witnessed make me skeptical and I have had little experience with coding agents myself to judge their promised usefulness. So… surprise! Last weekend I decided to start a Claude Code subscription and, after spending a week on it, I am uncomfortably excited to use it more. How has this happened? Let’s take a look at how I ended here, the kinds of mini-projects I worked on throughout this past week, and the (semi-expected) downsides I encountered.

Julio Merino (jmmv.dev)
Spending time with NixOS and using Claude to fill in the gaps for things I need. I'm not too familiar with nixpkgs so I'm holding off sending the PRs until I can actually read the docs and validate what AI has done for me.
Time to drink the kool-aid? (Experiment motivated by two recent articles: the one about Guix vs. NixOS, and the one about micro VMs with Nix.) h/t @zekjur

A little over a week ago, I hinted at writing an article on my journey to take a couple of web services out of Azure Functions and to self-host them on FreeBSD. Well, here it is! Enjoy.

https://jmmv.dev/2025/12/from-azure-functions-to-freebsd.html

From Azure Functions to FreeBSD - Julio Merino (jmmv.dev)

Putting FreeBSD’s ā€œpower to serveā€ motto to the test. On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up to one of my web services being unavailable. All HTTP requests failed with a ā€œ503 Service unavailableā€ error. I logged into the console, saw a simplistic ā€œRuntime version: Errorā€ message, and was not able to diagnose the problem. I did not spend a lot of time trying to figure the issue out and I didn’t even want to contact the support black hole. Because… there was something else hidden behind an innocent little yellow warning at the top of the dashboard: Migrate your app to Flex Consumption as Linux Consumption will reach EOL on September 30 2028 and will no longer be supported. I had known for a few weeks now, while trying to set up a new app, that all of my Azure Functions apps were on death row. The free plan I was using was going to be decommissioned and the alternatives I tried didn’t seem to support custom handlers written in Rust. I still had three years to deal with this, but hitting a showstopper error pushed me to take action. All of my web services are now hosted by the FreeBSD server in my garage with just a few tweaks to their codebase. This is their migration story.

Julio Merino (jmmv.dev)
The recording of my EndBASIC talk at BSDCan 2025 is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZFYTInWAqc — Watch to learn about the inner makings of the "EndBASIC OS" RPI disk image. Thanks to the A/V team for getting it out!
An embedded dev kit for EndBASIC with NetBSD by Julio Merino

YouTube
Happy Friday! The instructions to build your very own EndBASIC microcomputer (aka the EndBOX), including links to components AND the very first public disk images 😱, are now available. Have fun! https://www.endbasic.dev/2025/07/endbox-diy-kit.html
EndBOX DIY kit now available - EndBASIC

Components to build the EndBOX I and the assembled EndBOX I Micro. About a month ago, I officially unveiled the EndBOX: a retro-style micro-computer designed to run the EndBOX OS. And what is the EndBOX OS, you ask? It’s a small NetBSD system engineered to launch you into an EndBASIC interpreter as fast as possible. Today, I’m excited to announce the DIY guide to build your very own EndBOX and the first official disk images of the EndBOX OS!

EndBASIC
Instructions for the DIY kit ready and the very first release builds are in the oven. Interested in early, privileged access? https://coff.ee/jmmv !
Work on the EndBOX continues (and you've seen some of it via tweets here), so... here is the first weekly progress report! https://buymeacoffee.com/jmmv/weekly-progress-report-2025-06-22