4 ms·

4043 byte PC emulator (2013)

126 points by luu 8y ago

berbec 8y ago
Code golfing taken to its extreme can be as scary as other extremists.
Stratoscope 8y ago
This is awesome! I would love to see a version of it written to be as readable as possible. (If there is such a thing already out there, pointers are welcome, thanks!)
- torgoguys 8y ago
  Here is the fully commented, non obfuscated version of this same emulator: https://github.com/adriancable/8086tiny https://github.com/adriancable/8086tiny
  - Stratoscope 8y ago
    Sweet! That is some nice code, many thanks for the link.
fernly 8y ago
Oddly, megalith.co.uk, specified in both the OP page and on the github header, is now "for sale". Edit: 8086tiny.freeforums.net is functional and has had a few recent posts.
- TorKlingberg 8y ago
  The Internet Archive has a working copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20150424213422/http://www.megalith.co.uk:80/8086tiny/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150424213422/http://www.megali...
tasty_freeze 8y ago
Link to the IOCCC source code: http://ioccc.org/2013/cable3/cable3.c http://ioccc.org/2013/cable3/cable3.c There are some nice easter eggs in the source
- dokem 8y ago
  That's gotta be generated with a tool, right?
  - jibanes 8y ago
    yes
  - jstanley 8y ago
    Not necessarily. The first part is clearly hand-edited at minimum, if not completely handwritten: I n t,e,l[80186],*E,m,u,L,a,T,o,r
    - tromp 8y ago
      My 2012 entry similarly started with the self documenting Int L[A],m,b,*D=A, *c,*a=L,C,*U=L,u;s requiring compile time defs -DInt=int/long -DA=500000. But it did include its own Basic I/O System in the source: char*B,I,O;S(){b=b ... "-,&,,/.--/,:-,'/" ".-,-,,/.-,*,//..,"
  - lifthrasiir 8y ago
    Uh, not really? I'm pretty sure that identifiers are automatically replaced somehow with conventional editors but a general minification to the degree required by IOCCC is never automatic. If you are interested in an actual minification process of a winning IOCCC entry, Don Yang [1], who has eight (!) winning entries, has put a compressed screencast alongside with recent winning entries (example: [2] is a screencast for [3]). My experience (I too have one winning entry) had been similar. [1] http://uguu.org/ http://uguu.org/ [2] http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/spoiler.html http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/spoiler.html [3] http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/prog.c http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/prog.c
basementcat 8y ago
I think this “cheats” a bit by putting quite a bit of emulator functionality in the custom bios image. Nevertheless very impressive.
- szc 8y ago
  The "cheats" are 1879 bytes of table data stored in the bios image :-). If you liked this, I also suggest take a look at Christopher Mills entry from 2018, which is a PDP-7 emulator, which doesn't use the BIOS tables trick. http://www.ioccc.org/2018/mills/hint.html http://www.ioccc.org/2018/mills/hint.html [disclaimer: I am an IOCCC Judge]
jacobush 8y ago
I didn't get it until I read the page. 4043 bytes, 8086 nibbles!

126 points by luu 8y ago

Code golfing taken to its extreme can be as scary as other extremists.

This is awesome! I would love to see a version of it written to be as readable as possible. (If there is such a thing already out there, pointers are welcome, thanks!)

torgoguys 8y ago
Here is the fully commented, non obfuscated version of this same emulator: https://github.com/adriancable/8086tiny https://github.com/adriancable/8086tiny
- Stratoscope 8y ago
  Sweet! That is some nice code, many thanks for the link.

fernly 8y ago

Oddly, megalith.co.uk, specified in both the OP page and on the github header, is now "for sale". Edit: 8086tiny.freeforums.net is functional and has had a few recent posts.

TorKlingberg 8y ago
The Internet Archive has a working copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20150424213422/http://www.megalith.co.uk:80/8086tiny/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150424213422/http://www.megali...

tasty_freeze 8y ago

Link to the IOCCC source code: http://ioccc.org/2013/cable3/cable3.c http://ioccc.org/2013/cable3/cable3.c There are some nice easter eggs in the source

dokem 8y ago
That's gotta be generated with a tool, right?
- jibanes 8y ago
  yes
- jstanley 8y ago
  Not necessarily. The first part is clearly hand-edited at minimum, if not completely handwritten: I n t,e,l[80186],*E,m,u,L,a,T,o,r
  - tromp 8y ago
    My 2012 entry similarly started with the self documenting Int L[A],m,b,*D=A, *c,*a=L,C,*U=L,u;s requiring compile time defs -DInt=int/long -DA=500000. But it did include its own Basic I/O System in the source: char*B,I,O;S(){b=b ... "-,&,,/.--/,:-,'/" ".-,-,,/.-,*,//..,"
- lifthrasiir 8y ago
  Uh, not really? I'm pretty sure that identifiers are automatically replaced somehow with conventional editors but a general minification to the degree required by IOCCC is never automatic. If you are interested in an actual minification process of a winning IOCCC entry, Don Yang [1], who has eight (!) winning entries, has put a compressed screencast alongside with recent winning entries (example: [2] is a screencast for [3]). My experience (I too have one winning entry) had been similar. [1] http://uguu.org/ http://uguu.org/ [2] http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/spoiler.html http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/spoiler.html [3] http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/prog.c http://ioccc.org/2018/yang/prog.c

basementcat 8y ago

I think this “cheats” a bit by putting quite a bit of emulator functionality in the custom bios image. Nevertheless very impressive.

szc 8y ago
The "cheats" are 1879 bytes of table data stored in the bios image :-). If you liked this, I also suggest take a look at Christopher Mills entry from 2018, which is a PDP-7 emulator, which doesn't use the BIOS tables trick. http://www.ioccc.org/2018/mills/hint.html http://www.ioccc.org/2018/mills/hint.html [disclaimer: I am an IOCCC Judge]

jacobush 8y ago

I didn't get it until I read the page. 4043 bytes, 8086 nibbles!