Systems Programming, Game Dev, and DevOps

Inter-process communication (or IPC) doesn't typically cause programmers to feel warm fuzzies. "Wait, I just want my programs to talk to each other, why is this hard???" is a sentiment that I very much understand. Recently when working on Mixologist I came to a point where I needed a CLI, a GUI, and a daemon to all run and communicate with one another, sending info back in forth in a wonderfully concurrent, unordered fashion. Those two words being used together usually send shivers down the spine of any experienced programmer but, with a little legwork, the problem is solveable.

One of the things Linux users nearly always complain about is audio. From it flat-out not working, to it not getting picked up in screen shares, it always seems to be behind most of the issues that users cite with any distro (that and NVIDIA drivers but I digress). Fortunately in recent years, the audio situation has gotten a ton better with the introduction of PipeWire.