Lowyat.NET: Latest topics in Codemasters

RapidKL GTFS Realtime Bus WebService, RapidKL GTFS Realtime Bus WebService

yunalesca — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 19:41:00 +0800

Hi,

Found out that RapidKL do provide real-time bus location data service. The data is every 30 seconds.

https://data.gov.my/

I created a webservice to display the bus locations in a map.

https://rapidkl-gtfs.onrender.com/

Hope it is useful and can get some feedback.

Windows' C & C++ code to be replaced with Rust,

Taikor.Taikun — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:59:09 +0800

Windows won’t be rewritten in Rust using AI, according to a senior Microsoft engineer, but the company still has bold plans for embracing the popular programming language.

Microsoft plans to replace C and C++ with Rust within the next five years as part of a major engineering modernization project – but a senior company figure insists AI won’t be doing the heavy lifting after a social media backlash.

In a post on LinkedIn advertising a job opening last week, Galen Hunt, Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, said the tech giant plans to “eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030”.

The scale of the project here is significant, with Hunt suggesting that developers will be working toward refactoring upwards of one million lines of code on a monthly basis.

“Our North Star is ‘1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code’,” Hunt wrote. “To accomplish this previously unimaginable task, we’ve built a powerful code processing infrastructure. Our algorithmic infrastructure creates a scalable graph over source code at scale.”

“Our AI processing infrastructure then enables us to apply AI agents, guided by algorithms, to make code modifications at scale,” he added. “The core of this infrastructure is already operating at scale on problems such as code understanding.”

The move from Microsoft marks the latest in its shift to the Rust programming language in recent years. In 2022, David Weston, corporate VP for OS security and enterprise at Microsoft, revealed the company was investing around $10 million in Rust to make it the company's "1st class language" for engineering systems.

As ITPro reported back in 2023, the company made a significant leap on this front with the introduction of Rust-based kernel features on Windows as part of the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25905.

Progress has continued at pace in the intervening years. During a keynote presentation at RustCon 2025 in September, Azure CTO Mark Russinovich detailed the company’s efforts to embrace Rust, per reports from The New Stack.

Microsoft's Rust project courts controversy

Initially, Hunt hinted at the use of AI in helping Microsoft deliver on the goal of rewriting some of the company’s largest codebases.

The suggestion tracks with how the tech giant is using the technology in software development over the last two years. In May this year, CEO Satya Nadella revealed up to 30% of the company’s code is now written by AI.

However, Hunt’s comments appear to have courted controversy, prompting an edit on the original post to clarify that “Windows is *NOT* being rewritten in Rust with AI”.

Hunt insisted this is a research project aimed at “building tech to make migration from language to language possible”.

“The intent of my post was to find like-minded engineers to join us on the next stage of this multi-year endeavor—not to set a new strategy for Windows 11+ or to imply that Rust is an endpoint,” he wrote.

Rust is in vogue

Microsoft isn’t the only company making the shift to Rust. Last year, Lars Bergstrom, director of engineering at Google’s Android team, said developer teams embracing the programming language have unlocked marked productivity and efficiency benefits.

A 2024 project from DARPA also saw the US government agency announce plans on this front, this time actually using AI tools to translate C code to Rust.

A key factor behind the shift to Rust lies in security. Popular languages such as C and C++ have suffered from recurring security-related issues, making them vulnerable to bugs due to how they use memory.

These ‘memory-safety vulnerabilities’ have become a frequent pain point for enterprise security teams and developers alike, and have caught the attention of security agencies on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 2022, the US National Security Agency (NSA) urged organisations to shift to memory-safe programming languages, such as Rust, Python, or Java. More recent guidance from the NSA and CISA, meanwhile, once again urged devs to make the shift.

https://www.itpro.com/software/development/...odernization-ai

How the world has changed...

What to learn to get a job in the coding industry?, First time

hyperwavedrift — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 11:29:48 +0800

I've worked in graphics design and digital art, but I want to switch lane and get into programming. Thing is I have 0 programming knowledge, I realize right now might not be a good time with AI and all that. But just humor me for a second and tell me what programming language for me to learn and get a job in current time. Let's say I have 3-4 months to learn. For context I am looking at the Programming Tutorial Thread, and I feel clueless. Am I meant to learn everything from top to bottom?

Zork Go Open Source, games

Taikor.Taikun — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 13:17:31 +0800

Preserving code that shaped generations: Zork I, II, and III go Open Source

Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO), Team Xbox, and Activision are making Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III available under the MIT License.

Zork 1 GitHub repository here

A game that changed how we think about play

When Zork arrived, it didn’t just ask players to win; it asked them to imagine. There were no graphics, no joystick, and no soundtrack, only words on a screen and the player’s curiosity. Yet those words built worlds more vivid than most games of their time. What made that possible wasn’t just clever writing, it was clever engineering.

Beneath that world of words was something quietly revolutionary: the Z-Machine, a custom-built engine. Z-Machine is a specification of a virtual machine, and now there are many Z-Machine interpreters that we used today that are software implementations of that VM. The original mainframe version of Zork was too large for early home computers to handle, so the team at Infocom made a practical choice. They split it into three games titled Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III, all powered by the same underlying system. This also meant that instead of rebuilding the game for each platform, they could use the Z-Machine to interpret the same story files on any computer. That design made Zork one of the first games to be truly cross-platform, appearing on Apple IIs, IBM PCs, and more.

Preserving a piece of history

Game preservation takes many forms, and it’s important to consider research as well as play. The Zork source code deserves to be preserved and studied. Rather than creating new repositories, we’re contributing directly to history. In collaboration with Jason Scott, the well-known digital archivist of Internet Archive fame, we have officially submitted upstream pull requests to the historical source repositories of Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III. Those pull requests add a clear MIT LICENSE and formally document the open-source grant.

Each repository includes:

Source code for Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III.
Accompanying documentation where available, such as build notes, comments, and historically relevant files.
Clear licensing and attribution, via MIT LICENSE.txt and repository-level metadata.
This release focuses purely on the code itself. It does not include commercial packaging or marketing materials, and it does not grant rights to any trademarks or brands, which remain with their respective owners. All assets outside the scope of these titles’ source code are intentionally excluded to preserve historical accuracy.

Source: https://opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/...-go-open-source

Shortest code for a hexdump program, Anyone?

MatQuasar — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 16:28:15 +0800

The code must be able to open a file, and print the address, hex value, and ASCII char side-by-side like below:

CODE

00000000 7F 45 4C 46 02 01 01 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............
00000010 02 00 3E 00 01 00 00 00 B0 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 ..>.......@.....
00000020 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 @...............
00000030 00 00 00 00 40 00 38 00 02 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 ....@.8...@.....

Anyone want to try?

My shortest code is in FASM, but you can try in other programming language.

You can use third-party library or system library.

My solution: (you can import the function in C/ C++ / C#)

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

A Hair Guide to Software Engineers,

Taikor.Taikun — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 09:45:49 +0800

Your hair changes according to levels.

A simple PE analysis tool for reverse engineers,

MatQuasar — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 23:44:13 +0800

Hi, in April 2025, I created a small Win32 app (minimum requirement: Windows XP) in FASM that can let you open an executable file (e.g. EXE, DLL, SYS) and you'll get simple description such as:
1. "32-bit Console App"
2. "32-bit GUI App"
3. "64-bit Console App"
4. "64-bit GUI App"

For any other type of subsystem, it will just merely states:
1. "32-bit PE file"
2. "64-bit PE file"

The source code (pemenu.txt) is included.

I have published this program in SherpaSec cybersecurity Discord server before. To get the source code to compile, you'll need Flat Assembler for Windows.

The command-line version is only available upon request, since it is not popular. Many prefer GUI app.

My first database program in Assembly language, Based on SQLite3

MatQuasar — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:42:21 +0800

My latest hobby project is a Win32 database program written in FASM, based on SQLite3.dll.

It allows CRUD, but I have issue with Update and Remove in indexing if you start remove items in the middle of the list, it won't update the database although it appears correctly in GUI window.

SQLite3.dll is decades old, I got the example and file from another fellow Malaysian "yeohhs", who had uploaded several FASM tutorial examples.

The code to fetch SELECT query in my program is different than what I did last time in Visual Basic 6, the result set returned by 'sqlite3_get_table' function is in memory pointer format, and the first row is always column header. If I have two columns, then each cell is 4-byte long (memory address), which mean each row is 8-byte long.

Nonetheless, it was fun to program a SQL database program in Assembly language. If you are in Developer Kaki group, you may already see I have showcased this in last July.

If you want to run, here's how:
1) Download 'dbform.txt' and 'sqlite3.zip'
2) Unzip sqlite3.zip and you'll get one file - sqlite3.dll
3) Rename dbform.txt to dbform.asm
4) Download Flat Assembler for Windows
5) Run FASMW.EXE and open dbform.asm
6) Click Compile (or Run)
7) Please make sure sqlite3.dll and dbform.exe are in the same directory
8) After you run, you'll notice dbform1.dat file-based database is created

BGGP6 is happening this Saturday, Oct 18, 2025 Eastern Time

MatQuasar — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 18:40:49 +0800

BGGP is an annual small file competition.

Past challenges were:

- BGGP1 (2020) - Palindrome
- BGGP2 (2021) - Polyglot
- BGGP3 (2022) - Crash
- BGGP4 (2023) - Replicate
- BGGP5 (2024) - Download

For BGGP4 and BGGP5, participants sent in a lot of entries in multiple file formats and programming languages.

BGGP6 for 2025, is expected to begin this Saturday (Oct 18 Eastern Time) as the organizer has postponed it from northern summer to northern fall.

Get your hex editor ready. I will post more once it has begun.

Announcement:
https://haunted.computer/@netspooky/115357200184400163

Website: https://binary.golf

[SOLVED] Trying to connect to MYSQL via c++,

kirakosmos — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 14:27:27 +0800

I'm learning a bit of c++ a long ago so I try to connect with MYSQL

CODE

#include <iostream>
#include <mysql_driver.h>
#include <mysql_connection.h>
#include <cppconn/statement.h>
#include <cppconn/prepared_statement.h>

int main()
{
sql::mysql::MySQL_Driver* driver;
sql::Connection* conn;
sql::PreparedStatement* pstm;

std::string nama;
int a, umur;

std::cout << "Masukkan jumlah data: ";
std::cin >> a;

try {
driver = sql::mysql::get_mysql_driver_instance();
conn = driver->connect("tcp://127.0.0.1:3306", "root", "password"); // adjust credential after test
conn->setSchema("test1"); // databaseName
//}

for (int i = 0; i < a; ++i) {
std::cout << "Masukkan nama perserta: ";
std::cin >> nama;
std::cout << " Masukkan umur perserta: ";
std::cin >> umur;

pstm = conn->prepareStatement("INSERT INTO userData(nama, umur) VALUES (? , ? )");
pstm->setString(1, nama);
pstm->setInt(2, umur);
pstm->execute();

std::cout << " Data " << i + 1 << " dimasukkan.\n";
delete pstm;
}
delete conn;
std::cout << "Hello World! Data sudah disimpan.\n";
return 0;
}
catch (sql::SQLException& e) {
std::cerr << "SQL Error: " << e.what()
<< "\nMySQL Error Code: " << e.getErrorCode()
<< "\nSQLState: " << e.getSQLState()
<< std::endl;
}
}

I try to connect but it throws me an exception that it Can't connect with MYSQL. Basically the error I got is:

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

but on he console it said unable to connect (gibberish) 3306

Firewall already allowed port 3306 because it connect in workbench... Can someone help me in this? Or because of my latop spec?

SOLVED> Thank fr anyone who help

managing multiple repo without pnpm,

15cm — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 01:44:35 +0800

last time when i was working on js/ts stack we have this thing that manages the multiple repos called pnpm

now i switch tech stack and i found out living without pnpm is torture.

say u have 15 microservices, thats 15 repo.

your repos have to be perfectly synced. if one repo is not, and another depends on this repo that is behind, there will be problem running it together.

unlike pnpm where everything is under 1 repo, 1 fetch 1 pull u got the latest.

how do u manage this situation?

n8n AI Automation Workflow, n8n workflow kaki sharing here

akecema — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 12:19:07 +0800

anyone into n8n AI automation workflow
we can share our workflow here and helping each other to setup or error

https://n8n.io/

Having hard time understanding OOP,

EncikSejati — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 20:37:51 +0800

can anyone give me example ,i seem to struggle with understanding Object Oriented Programming . pening lalat woo

[WTA] Making word fit, in HTML Page

UbuntuClient — Sun, 25 May 2025 06:54:12 +0800

Hi,

I have issue from mobile view, the page can be zoom. So i don't want this. I want the page is fit. How to do that?

Please advice.

Thanks,

Debugging in MacOS using Visual Studio Code,

ragk — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 19:17:45 +0800

Hi,

Recently I'm working on moving our app to support in MacOS using Visual Studio Code, currently I'm working on a Electron App (typescript project which could be run as application), and this app often need to access to local directory, and the app keep throwing EACCESS (permission) error, usually what's the standard way to tackle this kind of scenario?

I tried to add "asRoot": true to the debugging configuration, but I got a prohibited warning. And I also tried to open the VS Code as root, it still giving me same error.
I knew the straight forward solution would be giving full access to the location I wanted to access, but I wasn't very familiar with MacOS development, will doing so causing me having the access issue when I release the application if I did not proper tackling this problem?

how to auth websocket or EventSource ?,

15cm — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:18:41 +0800

Websocket and EventSource cannot carry custom header on browser. well then how can i have it carry my token to be authed?

the only other way i can think of is to carry it via url, which is not secure

[WTA] How to get those finance news link,

officeBoy — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 14:10:02 +0800

Good day,

I'm working on a stock analysis site. I would appreciate it if someone could enlighten me on how to get those finance news links and keep them on the site.

Does it depend on subscription?

Thanks in advance.

Pseudocode - Initialization understanding, requesting help - a noob in programming

Gon Freaks — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 15:28:00 +0800

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are doing well. in health and wealth.

anyway, just wanted to get some idea on the Initialization setup for Psuedocode.

If there are a couple of input requirements, should it be stated in the initialization section based on the sequence?

eg;

a program to calculate game platform, game price, payment method and maybe game type (physical/digital)

so should there be a sequence on which should be first in the initialization? will it be based on the flowchart process? if there is a gap between the requirement of input. does it mean that we need to split the initilization between process?

eg: select item ---> select item color ----> calculate price ----> apply discount ----> select location ----> calculate total cost. ---> select payment method ---End

so in the example above; the initialization is

Input Item

Input item color

Input location

Input payment method.

but since input location and payment method is not required in the earlier process (anything before calculating the prices process), should the initialization be split into 2 segments?

some like this.

Begin

Initialization
SET item_price = INPUT “Enter the item ”

SET color_tag = INPUT “Enter the item color tag (Blue, Red, Green,): ”

Calculate Price. ----> Apply discount

Initialization

Set location = INPUT "Location for delivery"

Set payment method = INPUT "payment method"

Or we can just prepare everything in the first initialization section without any issues?

Appreciate the help on this.

Thanks!!!

what do u guys think about employers who force AI,

15cm — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 16:15:56 +0800

Employers who force their developers to use AI to code.

I was told by someone that in the US this is already a thing. Some companies buys the sub for LLM and then force their developers to use it. (not optional)

They ask them to just use prompt. after prompt, test the code. If it doesnt work, change the prompt or provide it with more information. Rinse and repeat until the LLM provides you a satisfactory code.

And their workload is adjusted based on that. Means 1 dev will be given 3-4 tickets a day to close and they are expected to close it in one day.

if they cant, developers can get scolded for coding manually. When one guy is behind his deadline the project manager will ask him "have you been coding manually? This should only take you 30 minutes using the LLM"

What do u guys think about this practice. I find it hard to believe . wouldnt that lead to crazy tech debt?

My first Win32 game prototype,

Mat Quasar — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 15:49:33 +0800

Hi, this Win32 game prototype took me about 9 months from start to finish.

I started with console interface first, then finalized with GUI version.

It is written purely in FASM, using raw Win32 API.
Although it is in GUI, I use TextOutA function in GDI32.dll, which is just displaying text in GUI window, no graphics at the moment.

There is no collision detection yet, no scoring. What you can do with this program is:
1) Move the caret (gun) to the left or to the right
2) Shoot one bullet at one time
3) Watch the enemies moving around

For the enemies to move around, I use random number generator to predict the direction of movement.

I have included the source code here (EXE is not included as it is falsely detected as virus).
If you are interested to run the program, you can....
1) Download SHOOT.txt
2) Rename SHOOT.txt to SHOOT.asm
3) Download Flat Assembler for Windows
4) Run FASMW.EXE and open SHOOT.asm
5) Click Compile
6) Go to the File Explorer, and you'll see SHOOT.EXE along with SHOOT.asm.

Note: If you compile yourself, Windows Security won't detect this as virus. Of course, my code does nothing malicious.

But my game is still very crude, I might consider using GDI+ or SDL2 to develop my graphical version of 2D game.