5 ms·

I was there at Function when it was shown on the big screen, we brought something for c64. At first I expected something else to show up, but then I remembered

I was there at Function when it was shown on the big screen, we brought something for c64. At first I expected something else to show up, but then I remembered it was 64 bytes. Sixty four bytes! 256byte scene is insane. I've noticed recent 256b releases are high res. Not sure how they do it, definitely not 13h. Anyways, this 256b still takes the cake: https://youtu.be/eYNoaVERfR4 https://youtu.be/eYNoaVERfR4

peterkelly 7y ago
My cynicism about the widespread disregard for software bloat in the industry is tempered whenever I see stuff like this. Ask a javascript developer to do this and they'll end up with 1500 npm dependecies with an oddball collection of incompatible React plugins, 3d visualisation frameworks, and a codebase that'll be incompatible with the latest and greatest versions of all of these six months from now. Yeah I know assembly language isn't a sensible choice for all but a tiny specialized niche of projects, hardware/bandwidth is far cheaper than developer time and so on but it's still refreshing to see people doing this kind of thing just out of pure passion.
- K0SM0S 7y ago
  A little OT but this is why I fell in love with Go (Golang) I think. There's something about the elegance of concise programs written in simple languages. The 1500 npm dependencies problem you speak of is exactly what I expect to never even see, let alone have to deal with, in the Go ecosystem. It's not exactly surprising coming from one inventor of UNIX and C (Ken Thompson) and Rob Pike, two greats from Bell Labs, but when I heard that the creator of NodeJs had ditched that to go work in Go, now that I registered loud and clear. After seeing for myself, I can understand. Go is a wonder, truly, and such a treat for systems (from sysadmin to CI/CD passing by performance, readability and safety). Something like Js can only eventually collapse on itself, when there's a better alternative. I mean, we could just as easily bundle a Python interpreter in browsers (to name just one candidate), Js is the frontend bible written in stone only because we keep it this way. Progressive apps are already showing a way between browsers and OS and I expect this line to get ever more blurry as virtualization (containers etc) continues its re-imaging of the entire computed infrastructure.
  - enneff 7y ago
    It's no coincidence that the three creators of Go have been around long enough to remember the simpler days.
    - K0SM0S 7y ago
      Oh indeed. And how enriching it is to the programming and systems ecosystem at large. I'm so thankful that computing evolved so fast that we can be here now, from there/then, and yet still have relatively young giants walking among us. The program-star hall of fame of very alive and active pioneers / creators is honestly humbling and inspiring.
  - Tempest1981 7y ago
    I enjoy Go, but I'm still searching for a way to do a GUI. Qt? Would like to avoid a web browser UI.
    - K0SM0S 7y ago
      Same here, GUI is a secondary concern in the Go ecosystem. But it only takes one big project, right... Tbh, I don't know how or why the language wouldn't be suited to very elegant front-end design, I feel the biggest obstacle is general framework fatigue: people are tired of seeing every language under the sun try to do everything, so they stick with what's existing on the frontend (convergence around a few Js frameworks over the last years for instance), while Go devs keep it to server/infra mostly (unrelatingly, just doing their thing). These being just two examples. Thus GUI options are the same as anything else afaik, provided you can interface with your Go backend. Note that I've heard bad experiences with code injection so I wouldn't try that first nor without extra care. The solution depends on your use-case, and what platforms you are targetting. I'm partial to KDE on Linux desktop thus Qt is a strong candidate for me; however I dislike non-native apps in most situations so I'm not sure I'd recommend Qt for a wider project in target OS scope. Again, use-case, design specs should preside over this debate. Embedded, sure.
- zamadatix 7y ago
  https://js1k.com/ https://js1k.com/ Language is hardly ever the cause of any significant bloat.
  - watersb 7y ago
    Thanks for reminding me about js1k. It's a fair point. But common practice emerges in communities, and the npm JavaScript package proliferation is real. I can find similar dependency hell problems in every platform I have used. Maybe it's me. I could charge a fee to stay away from your favorite platform...
- diydsp 7y ago
  Went to rent a bike ("zagster") yesterday. required 242MB app. no space on phone and that's a good chunk of my monthly data.
Supersaiyan_IV 7y ago
Take a look at this old classic 256b legend: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115022 3D, Raytracing, fish-eye effect, movement.. its fascinating!

peterkelly 7y ago

My cynicism about the widespread disregard for software bloat in the industry is tempered whenever I see stuff like this. Ask a javascript developer to do this and they'll end up with 1500 npm dependecies with an oddball collection of incompatible React plugins, 3d visualisation frameworks, and a codebase that'll be incompatible with the latest and greatest versions of all of these six months from now. Yeah I know assembly language isn't a sensible choice for all but a tiny specialized niche of projects, hardware/bandwidth is far cheaper than developer time and so on but it's still refreshing to see people doing this kind of thing just out of pure passion.

K0SM0S 7y ago
A little OT but this is why I fell in love with Go (Golang) I think. There's something about the elegance of concise programs written in simple languages. The 1500 npm dependencies problem you speak of is exactly what I expect to never even see, let alone have to deal with, in the Go ecosystem. It's not exactly surprising coming from one inventor of UNIX and C (Ken Thompson) and Rob Pike, two greats from Bell Labs, but when I heard that the creator of NodeJs had ditched that to go work in Go, now that I registered loud and clear. After seeing for myself, I can understand. Go is a wonder, truly, and such a treat for systems (from sysadmin to CI/CD passing by performance, readability and safety). Something like Js can only eventually collapse on itself, when there's a better alternative. I mean, we could just as easily bundle a Python interpreter in browsers (to name just one candidate), Js is the frontend bible written in stone only because we keep it this way. Progressive apps are already showing a way between browsers and OS and I expect this line to get ever more blurry as virtualization (containers etc) continues its re-imaging of the entire computed infrastructure.
- enneff 7y ago
  It's no coincidence that the three creators of Go have been around long enough to remember the simpler days.
  - K0SM0S 7y ago
    Oh indeed. And how enriching it is to the programming and systems ecosystem at large. I'm so thankful that computing evolved so fast that we can be here now, from there/then, and yet still have relatively young giants walking among us. The program-star hall of fame of very alive and active pioneers / creators is honestly humbling and inspiring.
- Tempest1981 7y ago
  I enjoy Go, but I'm still searching for a way to do a GUI. Qt? Would like to avoid a web browser UI.
  - K0SM0S 7y ago
    Same here, GUI is a secondary concern in the Go ecosystem. But it only takes one big project, right... Tbh, I don't know how or why the language wouldn't be suited to very elegant front-end design, I feel the biggest obstacle is general framework fatigue: people are tired of seeing every language under the sun try to do everything, so they stick with what's existing on the frontend (convergence around a few Js frameworks over the last years for instance), while Go devs keep it to server/infra mostly (unrelatingly, just doing their thing). These being just two examples. Thus GUI options are the same as anything else afaik, provided you can interface with your Go backend. Note that I've heard bad experiences with code injection so I wouldn't try that first nor without extra care. The solution depends on your use-case, and what platforms you are targetting. I'm partial to KDE on Linux desktop thus Qt is a strong candidate for me; however I dislike non-native apps in most situations so I'm not sure I'd recommend Qt for a wider project in target OS scope. Again, use-case, design specs should preside over this debate. Embedded, sure.
zamadatix 7y ago
https://js1k.com/ https://js1k.com/ Language is hardly ever the cause of any significant bloat.
- watersb 7y ago
  Thanks for reminding me about js1k. It's a fair point. But common practice emerges in communities, and the npm JavaScript package proliferation is real. I can find similar dependency hell problems in every platform I have used. Maybe it's me. I could charge a fee to stay away from your favorite platform...
diydsp 7y ago
Went to rent a bike ("zagster") yesterday. required 242MB app. no space on phone and that's a good chunk of my monthly data.

Supersaiyan_IV 7y ago

Take a look at this old classic 256b legend: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115022 3D, Raytracing, fish-eye effect, movement.. its fascinating!