Tech Stack and Choices

From day one, Hahaha has aimed for education-first and a pragmatic balance with performance, so the technology choices are modern but intentionally restrained.

Core language: C++23

We chose the latest C++23 standard.

• Why so new? C++23 brings stronger template metaprogramming expressiveness (Concepts) and features like std::stacktrace, which help express tensor operations cleanly and improve debugging.
• Educational value: demonstrate how modern C++ tackles complexity in high-performance computing, instead of piling up C-style code.

Build system: Meson + Ninja

The project uses Meson:

• Readability: meson.build is easy to follow, lowering the barrier for contributors to understand the build.
• Speed: the Ninja backend provides a very fast incremental compile experience.

Core dependencies (extern libs)

We avoid heavy dependencies and only bring in a small set of key components:

• GoogleTest (GTest): ensure each math operator has solid unit tests.
• ImGui + GLFW: for MLVisualizer, rendering real-time training curves and parameter distribution.
• CUDA 13.0 (reserved): architecture hooks are prepared for future GPU acceleration.

Tooling and infrastructure

• Docker/Devcontainer: provide a standardized C++23 build environment.
• clang-format/clang-tidy: enforce style via scripts such as format.sh.