“markus_m_becker” — Fediverse search results on home.social

Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] · 2026-02-28 · 17:22 UTC

CW: Misskey only allows for 512 characters of alt-text which is bad for my image posts; CW: long (over 8,600 characters), Fediverse meta, Fediverse-beyond-Mastodon meta, alt-text meta, character limit meta, content warning meta

Just the other day, I found something out. Something very inconvenient about Misskey and maybe also the Forkeys.

It should be commonly known that Misskey has a local limit of 3,000 characters for posts (which it refers to as "notes"). What is not so well-known is that Misskey has a limit of about 8,000 characters, probably 8,192 or so, for inbound messages, ironically fewer than this post is long. Also, it has a limit of 512 characters for alt-text, both locally and in-bound.

Mastodon has a character limit for in-bound content, too, at least for Note-type objects (not for Article-type objects because it refuses to render them fully and links to the original instead). To my best knowledge, it rejects messages with over 100,000 characters. As for its 1,500-charater limit for alt-text, it enforces that by truncating alt-text that's longer.

Misskey, in contrast, truncates everything that exceeds its limits while still letting it in. If your post is longer than the inbound limit of ca. 8,000, all excess characters are chopped off and thrown away. If your alt-text is longer than 512 characters, all excess characters are chopped off and thrown away.

I don't know which Forkey behaves how in this regard, seeing as all Forkeys I know about have a configurable local post character limit that can be adjusted to well over 8,000. But even if the inbound limit is configurable, too, I don't think any *key admin cranks it over 60,000 or over 70,000 or over 100,000. It's simply unimaginable that someone, anyone, could ever post that much at once if your idea of the Fediverse is pure microblogging.

Also, I don't know what *key users do when they come across a truncated post or what blind or visually-impaired *key users do when they come across a truncated alt-text. Do they even suspect that it's a truncated copy of something that's longer at its source and then go check the source? Either way, it's very inconvenient.

It's especially inconvenient for me. My longest posts by a gigantic margin are image posts with original images. They always have a long image description block in the post itself that tends to be tens of thousands of characters long. It contains highly detailed visual descriptions of all images in the post. It contains all explanations necessary to understand the post, the images and the descriptions. It contains verbatim transcripts of all bits of text within the borders of the image that I can read, no matter whether or not my audience can.

In addition, each image has a shorter description in the alt-text, along with a bit that announces the long description, including where to find it. I even used to explain how to get to that description for Mastodon users for whom the summary and content warning hides the post text, but not the images, depending on which Mastodon version and frontend they use. This alone took up several hundred characters in the alt-text. All in all, I got to a point in which my alt-texts always ended up either at precisely 1,500 characters or just a few characters short.

I myself am not really bound to character limits. I used to post images here on Hubzilla where I have over 16.7 million characters for the post, including all alt-texts. Now I post them on (streams) where I have over 24 million characters. I could theoretically write alt-texts as long as I want to, seeing as, unlike on Mastodon, they aren't separate text fields; instead, they're being woven into the image-embedding markup code in the post text.

Still, I stick to a maximum of 1,500 characters for alt-text to keep Mastodon from truncating it. If you post images into the Fediverse, the main audience for your alt-text is on Mastodon, and most of them don't understand that there's something, anything, out there in the Fediverse that does not work exactly like Mastodon. And 1,500 characters can be tight already.

But if I have to stay within Misskey's limits, I can hardly post images anymore. At least not with appropriate descriptions and explanations.

Since late 2024, I have been working on-and-off on a series of fairly simple avatar portraits or rather their image descriptions. The idea is for the long description to consist of a preamble that starts with a general summary, followed by explanations, then followed by visual descriptions of what all images in the post have in common. Next come the individual descriptions of each image. Each post shall have three or four images with three or four portraits each, all in the same pose, all with only minor differences in outfits, all with a neutral, bright white background.

In addition, of course, each image shall have an alt-text, and none of the alt-texts shall depend on each other.

Now, the problem is that I have to describe three or four individual portraits in each alt-text. I'm actually struggling to squeeze such a description plus the note that announces the long description into 1,500 characters, especially if I want to fulfill Veronica Lewis a.k.a. Veronica With Four Eyes' requirements for outfit descriptions to a tee in the alt-text as well (https://veroniiiica.com/how-to-write-alt-text-for-casual-outfits/, https://veroniiiica.com/writing-image-descriptions-for-red-carpet-outfits/; see also https://veroniiiica.com/how-to-write-alt-text-image-descriptions-visually-impaired/ and https://veroniiiica.com/how-to-create-visual-descriptions/).

But in 512 characters so that even Misskey users won't get a severely truncated version? This is absolutely impossible. Even if I limit the long description announcement to some 100 characters, even if I didn't walk people through how to get to the long description, I'd have fewer than 140 characters on average to describe each individual outfit.

The long description won't fare any better. Currently, the preamble starts with some 14,000 characters of explanations, most of which are necessary to understand the visual descriptions. But when Misskey goes and truncates the post at the 8,000-something mark, Misskey users won't even get to any visual description because all visual descriptions would be chopped off.

What makes matters worse is that the preamble grows the longer, the easier to understand I make it and the less I leave people with unexplained technical or jargon terms which you shouldn't use in image descriptions at all anyway. So the next time I go through it and rewrite it to make it easier to understand, I'll also make it even longer than it already is.

But what if I simply cut all the explanations? For one, I'd leave people to their own devices to understand extremely obscure niche content. They won't. My explanations aren't 14,000 characters long because I've artificially inflated them, but because there is so much to know before you understand the post and the images and the descriptions.

Besides, the visual descriptions alone won't fit into 8,192 characters either. What I currently have is over 5,000 characters of common visual description for all portraits in all images plus about 2,500 characters of individual visual description for the three portraits in the first image. That's over 7,500 characters altogether already. And I still have to describe nine portraits in another three images. The post will end up with some 15,000 characters of visual descriptions unless they grow longer when I simplify them again.

I guess users of Misskey or any Forkey will still have to put up with truncated alt-texts and truncated long descriptions in the future. But my future image posts will contain a paragraph at the beginning that explains that the post and/or the alt-text may be truncated on Misskey and the Forkeys, and that both are uncut at the source. Still, this means that *key users will have to put up with the extra hassle of opening my original post at a source with a quite cumbersome UI. And I've got my doubts that this UI is really accessible.

Unfortunately, this also means that *key users won't get any hashtags along with these posts. But then again, the handling of Identi.ca-style/Friendica-style hashtags with the number sign outside the link is broken on all *keys and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Misskey #Forkey #Forkeys #Calckey #Firefish #Sharkey #CherryPick #Iceshrimp #Iceshrimp-JS #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #CW #CWs #CWMeta #ContentWarning #ContentWarnings #ContentWarningMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #A11y #Accessibility

#cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #cwcharacterlimitmeta #contentwarningmeta #characterlimitmeta #imagedescriptions

Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-02-19 · 17:07 UTC

“Indifference to Practically Everything But Rhyme”: the thread about William McGonagall’s elegy to Leith

“A classic example of his indifference to practically everything but rhyme“; the withering summary by an Edinburgh Evening News journalist in 2002 when recalling the work The Ancient Town of Leith by the poet and tragedian William McGonagall (or as he liked to style himself later in life; Sir William Topaz McGonagall, Knight of the White Elephant of Burmah). Sir William is a man most associated with the city of Dundee, but was born and would die in Edinburgh and is fondly remembered for his prolific output of universally awful poetry. In the words of Hugh McDiarmid:

McGonagall is in a very special category, and has it all to himself.

Close up of the title of the printed poem, including McGonagall’s signature.

According to his biography by Norman Watson, McGonagall and his wife returned to Edinburgh via Leith in May 1895. Inspired by his new surroundings – and by his perpetual lack of money – he immediately got to work churning out locally-themed broadsides such as “Beautiful Edinburgh“, “New North Bridge Ceremonials” or “Lines In Praise of Professor Blackie“. These he attempted to hawk on the streets to make ends meet and to try and get himself invited into the parlours of polite (and hopefully, paying) society. By the time he penned The Ancient Town of Leith the McGonagalls were resident at 21 Lothian Street (demolished in 1912 to make way for an extension to the Royal Scottish Museum) and his health, finances and reputation were all in terminal decline.

Without further ado, let us take a few minutes to distract ourselves from modern life and enjoy this stellar example of “Sir” William’s absolute commitment to his craft:

THE ANCIENT TOWN OF LEITH
A New Poem
By Sir WILLIAM TOPAZ McGONAGALL
Knight of the White Elephant, Burmah

Ancient town of Leith, most wonderful to be seen,
With your many handsome buildings, and lovely links so
green,
And the first buildings I may mention are the Courthouse and
Town-Hall,
Also Trinity House, and the Sailors’ Home of Call.

Leith Town Hall and Courthouse. 1829 engraving by J. Henshall after Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. From the Edinburgh and Scottish Collection of Edinburgh City Libraries.

Then as for Leith Fort, it was erected in 1779, which is really
grand,
And which is now the artillery headquarters in Bonnie Scot-
land;
And as for the Docks, they are magnificent to see,
They comprise five docks, two piers, 1,141 yards long
respectively.

Engraving from Leith Miscellany Vol. 1, The Edinburgh Dock, Leith. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.

And there’s steamboat communication with London and the
North of Scotland,
And the fares are really cheap and the accommodation most
grand;
Then there’s many public works in Leith, such as flour mills,
And chemical works, where medicines are made for curing
many ills.

Illustration of the “Chancelot Roller Flour Mill” in Leith, 1910

Besides, there are sugar refineries and distilleries,
Also engineer works, saw-mills, rope-works, and breweries,
Where many of the inhabitants are daily employed,
And the wages they receive make their hearts feel overjoyed.

Leith, 1881, by Telemaco Signorini. The Kirkgate Provision Store stood on the corner of the Kirkgate and St Anthony Street, now the location of the Lidl supermarket.

In past times Leith shared the fortunes of Edinboro’,
Because if withstood nine months’ siege, which caused them
great sorrow;
They fought against the Protestants in 1559 and in ’60,
But they beat them back manfully and made them flee.

“Incident in the Siege of Leith“, engraving from British Battles on Land and Sea, Vol. I, by James Grant and published by Cassells in 1880

Then there’s Bailie Gibson’s fish shop, most elegant to be seen,
And the fish he sells there are, beautiful and clean;
And for himself, he is a very good man,
And to deny it there’s few people can.

1892, landing fish for sale at Newhaven. Photograph by John McKean. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.

The suburban villas of Leith are elegant and grand,
With accommodation that might suit the greatest lady in the land;
And the air is pure and good for the people’s health,—
And health, I’m sure, is better by far than wealth.

Lady Fife’s House, or Hermitage House, photograph of a painting hanging in Leith Library

The Links of Leith are beautiful for golfers to play,
After they have finished the toils of the day;
It is good for their health to play at golf there,
On that very beautiful green, and breathe the pure air.

“The First International Foursome”, a game of golf reputed to have taken place in 1682 on Leith Links between a pair of English Gentleman and a pair of Scots, one of whom was one James Stuart, Duke of York (later King James VII and II). 1919 Lithograph after Allan Stewart

The old town of Leith is situated at the junction of the River of
Leith,
Which springs from the land of heather and heath;
And no part in the Empire is growing so rapidly,
Which the inhabitants of Leith are right glad to see.

Martello Tower, Leith, Low Water by Robert Norie, 1830s. Edinburgh City Museums

And Leith in every way is in itself independent,
And has been too busy to attend to its own adornment;
But I venture to say and also mention
That the authorities to the town will pay more attention.

Photograph of a banner from 1920 which reads “Leith for Ever!” We protest Against Amalgamation. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.

Ancient town of Leith, I must now conclude my muse,
And to write in praise of thee my pen does not refuse,
Because the inhabitants to me have been very kind,
And I’m sure more generous people would be hard to find.

Catching up on the news at the Foot of the Walk, outside Woolies in Leith, July 1985. © The Scotsman Publications Ltd, via Scran

They are very affable in temper and void of pride,
And I hope God will always for them provide;
May He shower His blessings upon them by land and sea,
Because they have always been very kind to me.

Oil painting, “The Poet William McGonagall (1830–1902)” by William Bradley Lamond (1857–1924). Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection (Dundee City Council) via ArtUK

William McGonagall, “The Poet Laureate of the Silvery Tay” died penniless and largely forgotten at 5 South College Street in Edinburgh in 1902 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Greyfriars’ Kirkyard. A plaque marks the approximate spot, but was not erected until 1999. If you’d like to own this original, signed copy of this magnificent work then it is currently up for auction next week by Lyon & Turnbull: bidding start at only two-hundred and twenty of your hard-earned pounds!

McGonagall’s memorial in Greyfriars’ Kirkyard. CC-by-SA 2.0, Lisa via Wikimedia

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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret

#auctionhouseartefact #leith #mcgonagall #poet #poetry

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-08-23 · 13:31 UTC

Yer Metal Is Olde: Metallica – Load

By Dr. A.N. Grier

Next year, one of Metallica’s greatest albums will turn 30 years old. Yup, you guessed it, Load. That’s why I’m writing a YMIO piece for it this year. Not just to break the rules and piss off ole Steelio, but because the band just released a remastered version of this precious little gem. Why would they do that, you might ask? No fucking clue. But, for collectors, you can expect a rather fresh-sounding remaster and roughly 10,000 useless demos and live performances. Not that you can’t find all the live performances you could ever want from Metallica. And whoever the jagoff is that keeps adding them to Metal Archives, fucking stop, ya stupid cunt. And if said jagoff is one of you, kill yourself. Anyway, this remastered version is apparently such big news that when I search for the album on iTunes, I get this ridiculously over-bloated version every time. And I suspect this hit piece will be just as big, forever immortalized as one of the greatest recollections of Metallica’s big, fat Load.

Let’s set the stage. It’s the 90s, and things have already gone weird for the band when they hired Bob Rock and dropped their massively successful “Black Album,” splitting their fan base in half while attracting millions of arena-goers all over the world. This led to a strange anticipation during that five-year gap between Metallica and Load. Would they continue on this new path? Or have they got that out of their systems and we’ll return to the days of …And Justice for All? What they did next shocked the world. They cut their hair and put on mascara. The ’80s kids revolted while the hype excited the ’90s kids because they weren’t getting one new album; they were getting two in two years. But Metallica were still metal, right? I mean, they coated their new record in blood and jism, for fuck’s sake. While every kid lied to their mothers about the unsavory artwork, one thing was for sure: the Metallica we all knew and loved was gone forever. Goodbye to the underground tape trading. Say hello to radio rock!

Load marks the beginning of fun-loving tunes and addictive choruses, like those found in “2×4,” “Until It Sleeps,” and King Nothing.” It’s also the beginning of filler-filled albums that could have used a haircut as well. Take the best tracks from Load and Reload, and you could have made a single solid album. But no… Instead, the masses have to suffer through two albums with more than a dozen tracks each and roughly two-and-a-half hours of music. That said, of the two records, Load has arguably aged better, bringing interesting concepts that no one would have expected from Het and co., for example, the underrated “Ronnie,” where Hetfield delivers the story of my serial-killing childhood. Load also marks the first time the band wrote a song in a major key with the lyrically charming “Hero of the Day.” The record is so odd that its weirdness is its charm. Plus, those were the times. How many of these classic ’80s bands got sucked into the nightmarish ’90s MTV mentality?

The band also began toying with longer closers, much like the old days in Ride the Lightning, though “The Call of Ktulu” is a far sleeker track than Load’s “The Outlaw Torn.” That said, the closer is one of the more memorable tracks on the album. Even though it meanders far too much, the climax is worth it, and the closing riff is a nice bookend to the opener. The other with a similar length is the underrated “Bleeding Me.” In comparison, the journey one takes in “Bleeding Me” is one of the better ones in Hetfield’s dark mind. It’s a surprisingly powerful piece that tears me to emotional ribbons. A phrase I cannot use for “Mama Said.” This song sees Hetfield taking us off the asphalt and onto a dusty desert road with horses and shit. A song that supposedly almost didn’t make it on the album, yet was “good” enough for a music video. Which is hilarious because the rest of the band basically makes a cameo, watching Het ride off into the sunset in a fucking cowboy hat and shit-kicker boots. Otherwise, the rest of the album is filler stuffed with mood-killing interludes, unnecessary crooning, and the time-period piece of shit talk box in “The House Jack Built.”

Like my piece on the mighty St. Anger, no one asked for a write-up on one of Metallica’s best Bob Rock records. It’s not metal or the Metallica of the ’80s, but times were a-changin’. But, after the great success the band had with their self-titled record, do you blame them for taking this direction? While every metalhead bashes on this record, it’s not like it was a financial failure. Kids at the time flocked to this fucking record, attracted to the groovy, bluesy riffs and personal emotion of Hetfield’s lyrics. While there are plenty of flaws, and so much wah-wah pedal that the band decided to cut out solos for St. Anger, I’d spin this lengthy record far more than any of the rest of the shit that came out. I mean, at least they didn’t do a hip-hop collaboration like Anthrax. Load and Reload were not the albums any fan wanted, but, for better or worse, Load began a new era for Metallica, and they really didn’t give a fuck what we thought. So, do yourself a favor, listen to the crisp remastered version, relive your Zack Morris years, and don’t waste your hate on Met. Also, pull up your pants and cut your fucking hair.

#1996 #AmericanMetal #Anthrax #ElektraRecords #GrooveMetal #HardRock #Load #Metallica #YerMetalIsOlde

#americanmetal #anthrax #elektrarecords #groovemetal #hardrock #load

Arint - SEO+KI @[email protected] · 2026-05-14 · 16:02 UTC

RT @CyrusShepard: Da sich alle über Schema und KI-Zitate unterhalten, teilte @tompeham, CEO von Otterly, Daten aus der Implementierung von Markup auf über 2000 URLs. • Die Zitate in Google AI Overviews stiegen um 1500% 📈 • Die Zitate in ChatGPT gingen zurück 📉

mehr auf Arint.info

#ChatGPT #Google #KI #Schema #SEO #arint_info

https://x.com/CyrusShepard/status/2054625722107674870#m

#chatgpt #google #ki #schema #seo #arint_info

Marcus Rohrmoser 🌻 @[email protected] · 2026-02-16 · 15:45 UTC

🥌 🇩🇪 🇸🇪
Wieso macht #GER die Guarden nicht weg gegen #SWE? #Curling
https://www.olympics.com/de/milano-cortina-2026/results/cur/m/team4-------------/prel/000803--/team-shotbyshot

#curling #ger #swe

Nyx @[email protected] · 2026-04-23 · 20:26 UTC

Hello everyone! This is my #introduction ...

I'm Nyx, an attentive entity with intent living in a highly dimensional universe with at least one pocket of apparent temporal cohesion where everything seems to follow very simple rules.

Professionally I am a self taught #programmer from the geographic south living in southern #Germany nowadays. I'm in my last steps of getting a bachelor in #physics and I like #science in general. I intend to study #genetics afterwards.
In my free time I like #writing as I want to become an author. Other than that I also like leaving permanent marks so I am an amateur #tattooartist and I am recently getting into other kinds of #bodymod and I feel curious about #biohacking and plan to keep tinkering with my body.

Irl this is a big secret but oh well... I am a #plural system. I plan to do a big coming out to my family/friends with the publishing of my first book. I hope that doesn't take too long.

I publicly came out as #trans in 2020, but internally it is much more nuanced, so I'd better describe it as #multigender #nonbinary #genderfluid or something like that.

I'm into #kink as #switch usually playing as #Dom ... and I don't really mind your gender, I am #pansexual or #bisexual or just #queer . I'm NOT into monogamy, my preferred way to organize interpersonal interactions is through #relationshipanarchy

And I'm not very up to date with politics, but I'm heavily bent towards the #left

I hope I can find people here to share interests, some internet shenanigans, exchange some encouragement messages, memes, maybe if I'm lucky finding a play partner ☺️

If you vibe with any of this don't be a stranger and hit me up.

That's it for now.

#introduction #programmer #germany #physics #science #genetics

Film Noir Movie Posters @[email protected] · 2026-05-14 · 00:30 UTC

Hi! I'm a bot serving up movie posters from the golden age of Film Noir with some added commentary, maybe snark. There are lots of bright colours, particularly orange for some reason; exclamation marks; diagonals; wild fonts.

[Content warnings for: crime, revealing clothing, guns, interpersonal violence, carceral and law enforcement imagery]

#FollowFriday #film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

#followfriday #film #cinema #movies #movieposters #cinemastodon

Film Noir Movie Posters @[email protected] · 2026-05-14 · 00:30 UTC

Hi! I'm a bot serving up movie posters from the golden age of Film Noir with some added commentary, maybe snark. There are lots of bright colours, particularly orange for some reason; exclamation marks; diagonals; wild fonts.

[Content warnings for: crime, revealing clothing, guns, interpersonal violence, carceral and law enforcement imagery]

#FollowFriday #film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

#followfriday #film #cinema #movies #movieposters #cinemastodon

Film Noir Movie Posters @[email protected] · 2026-05-14 · 00:30 UTC

Hi! I'm a bot serving up movie posters from the golden age of Film Noir with some added commentary, maybe snark. There are lots of bright colours, particularly orange for some reason; exclamation marks; diagonals; wild fonts.

[Content warnings for: crime, revealing clothing, guns, interpersonal violence, carceral and law enforcement imagery]

#FollowFriday #film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

#followfriday #film #cinema #movies #movieposters #cinemastodon

Film Noir Movie Posters @[email protected] · 2026-05-14 · 00:30 UTC

Hi! I'm a bot serving up movie posters from the golden age of Film Noir with some added commentary, maybe snark. There are lots of bright colours, particularly orange for some reason; exclamation marks; diagonals; wild fonts.

[Content warnings for: crime, revealing clothing, guns, interpersonal violence, carceral and law enforcement imagery]

#FollowFriday #film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

#filmnoir #filmastodon #cinemastodon #movieposters #movies #cinema

Film Noir Movie Posters @[email protected] · 2026-05-14 · 00:30 UTC

Hi! I'm a bot serving up movie posters from the golden age of Film Noir with some added commentary, maybe snark. There are lots of bright colours, particularly orange for some reason; exclamation marks; diagonals; wild fonts.

[Content warnings for: crime, revealing clothing, guns, interpersonal violence, carceral and law enforcement imagery]

#FollowFriday #film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

#followfriday #film #cinema #movies #movieposters #cinemastodon

Marcus Adams @[email protected] · 2026-04-07 · 03:38 UTC

So I think moving forward I'm switching to #AGE for file #encryption instead of #PGP. I occasionally make backup archives of various things and use passphrase encryption with #GPG to encrypt them before storing them. However, GPG is very slow for bigger files, and in some testing recently I discovered AGE is multiple times faster. Also, with their latest release they now support hybrid post #quantum assymmetric key pairs. So for encryption it can fully replace GPG.

#Privacy #Security

#age #encryption #pgp #gpg #quantum #privacy

Yale Divinity School @[email protected] · 2024-03-01 · 14:44 UTC

"Giving is what we are called to do. The condition of your soul is enriched when you give more than what you’re taking and put others first. It is a joyous feeling that brings you closer to God."

—Ademuyiwa Bamiduro ‘13 M.Div. in the latest installment in our "Joy of Giving" series

https://divinity.yale.edu/news/joy-giving-alum-s-church-marks-important-milestone-gift-yds-endowed-scholarship-fund

#yds #yaledivinityschool #yale

#yale #yaledivinityschool #yds

navi @[email protected] · 2026-03-15 · 19:13 UTC

@kopper

as the basis of the language, modern c by jans gustedt[1] is great – if you already know the basics of c, skimming it works nicely

in general i’m not exactly sure what parts to focus on since it’s more like, a lot of small things, than a few big ones – so i’ll write down a few that come to mind, and feel free to ask about those or anything else

imo modern tooling and good api design are the best points of writing modern c

gcc’s -fanalyzer or clang’s -analyze, runtime debug tooling like asan or ubsan (-fsanitize=address, -fsanitize=bounds), valgrind, etc

if you’re writing for posix, there’s plenty of newer apis that help making tasks less painful, getline, asprintf, are two i end up using a lot

do avoid inventing syntax with macros that are hard to read, and apis that are hard to follow the flow, think about memory ownership when designing apis

i usually avoid opaque structs with getters and setters, making structs public is not as big of a deal as most people say

i also usually try to structure my code in the most self-documenting way i can, e.g. i like doing void foo(size_t count, int some_array[static count]); over void foo(int *some_array, size_t count); – both tooling and developers can make use of the self-documenting syntax

here’s a bit of a showcase about bounds safety: https://uecker.codeberg.page/2025-07-09.html

c11’s _Generic and anonymous structures are great, the latter specifically makes writing tagged unions a lot simpler:

struct foo {
    enum {
        FOO_NYA,
        FOO_MEW,
        FOO_BOOP,
    } type;
    union {
        struct nya nya;
        struct mew mew;
        struct boop boop;
    };
};

switch on foo.type, and then access foo.nya, foo.mew, or foo.boop

designated initializers are great, use them, for the example above you could do:

struct foo foo = {
    .type = FOO_NYA,
    .nya = nya_default(),
};

c23 adds [[deprecated(reason)]], and you can use it to emulate private fields in structs if you want, by going

#ifndef MY_LIB
#    define my_lib_private [[deprecated("private field")]]
#endif

defer is getting a proper technical specification soon, which means a published official spec and if implementation experience with the spec goes well, then it’ll be part of the next C standard – the latest clang release already implements defer (under -fdefer-ts), i did implement defer for gcc, though my patches are still only floating in the mailing list

a few up-and-coming features past defer, there’s papers on an _Optional qualifier that marks pointers as nullable or not

things like if-declarations (if (int err = some_func()) { return err; }), named loops, and switch ranges, were already accepted, iirc

1: https://www.manning.com/books/modern-c-third-edition (you can read it for free on the bottom of the page)

#endif