3 ms·

That sounds cool! Can you disclose/admit what language it was written in? I'm very tempted to try this out instead of getting a fitbit (not at all impressed w

That sounds cool! Can you disclose/admit what language it was written in? I'm very tempted to try this out instead of getting a fitbit (not at all impressed with the Apple or Android watches so far).

omgtehlion 12y ago
[not an MS employee] I bet on C or C++
Corrado 12y ago
> single threaded lightweight runtime based around call backs Sounds like Javascript to me, or maybe something like Erlang. I wonder if we'll be able to install apps on the device or just build external apps for cell phones. What about hooking it up to your desktop/laptop for notifications and stuff? I'm thinking there could be some cool features there.
- yourad_io 12y ago
  I'd rule out Erlang, if they wanted a functional language they'd probably go with F#, seeing how this is MS. I don't think this is enough info, even for an educated guess. What they're describing (single threaded/callbacks) could even be C/libevent, no? Edit: Also, > Every microsecond of CPU time is accounted for and justified! ...for me, this rules out any kind of VM contained language
- com2kid 12y ago
  Our runtime is straight ANSI C. No comment on anything else mentioned:)
  - yourad_io 12y ago
    If you also use libevent, I win! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8532192 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8532192 Congratulations for this btw. I'm not an MS fan, but I hope this works for you guys!
    - com2kid 12y ago
      Thanks for the congrats! Our software was completely written from the ground up. We started with an empty main.c file. :) A number of us lead software engineers are on hacker news and we all love the latest programming languages. We got a bunch of really super cool stuff in here, but all in straight C and running in very little memory space. We're dying to start an engineering blog, we believe some of the lessons we learned about applying modern software engineering techniques to an embedded device are very valuable. (Fun fact! Embedded Engineers have been avoiding dynamic allocation well before it was cool!) We're hoping to get proper continuations in sometime soon. :) Our main problem is saving/restoring the stack without losing too much performance! (Cycles equal battery life, I cannot justify pushing for a move to continuations if the battery life hit is noticeable to the user!)
      - yourad_io 12y ago
        Must have been very cool to be bit-saving and over-optimizing in our "era of plenty". Almost nobody cares about a couple extra MB nowadays. And starting from a blank main.c? Gutsy. I hope you get your dev blog approved :)
        com2kid 12y ago
        > Almost nobody cares about a couple extra MB nowadays. Megabytes? That'd have been nice! :)
      - creamhackered 12y ago
        I'd love to know more. If you're up for it please reach out to me 100% anonymously - tom at theverge dot com Thanks :)
72deluxe 12y ago
Not Python! I would guess C or C++ too.

That sounds cool! Can you disclose/admit what language it was written in? I'm very tempted to try this out instead of getting a fitbit (not at all impressed with the Apple or Android watches so far).

omgtehlion 12y ago

[not an MS employee] I bet on C or C++

Corrado 12y ago

> single threaded lightweight runtime based around call backs Sounds like Javascript to me, or maybe something like Erlang. I wonder if we'll be able to install apps on the device or just build external apps for cell phones. What about hooking it up to your desktop/laptop for notifications and stuff? I'm thinking there could be some cool features there.

yourad_io 12y ago
I'd rule out Erlang, if they wanted a functional language they'd probably go with F#, seeing how this is MS. I don't think this is enough info, even for an educated guess. What they're describing (single threaded/callbacks) could even be C/libevent, no? Edit: Also, > Every microsecond of CPU time is accounted for and justified! ...for me, this rules out any kind of VM contained language
com2kid 12y ago
Our runtime is straight ANSI C. No comment on anything else mentioned:)
- yourad_io 12y ago
  If you also use libevent, I win! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8532192 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8532192 Congratulations for this btw. I'm not an MS fan, but I hope this works for you guys!
  - com2kid 12y ago
    Thanks for the congrats! Our software was completely written from the ground up. We started with an empty main.c file. :) A number of us lead software engineers are on hacker news and we all love the latest programming languages. We got a bunch of really super cool stuff in here, but all in straight C and running in very little memory space. We're dying to start an engineering blog, we believe some of the lessons we learned about applying modern software engineering techniques to an embedded device are very valuable. (Fun fact! Embedded Engineers have been avoiding dynamic allocation well before it was cool!) We're hoping to get proper continuations in sometime soon. :) Our main problem is saving/restoring the stack without losing too much performance! (Cycles equal battery life, I cannot justify pushing for a move to continuations if the battery life hit is noticeable to the user!)
    - yourad_io 12y ago
      Must have been very cool to be bit-saving and over-optimizing in our "era of plenty". Almost nobody cares about a couple extra MB nowadays. And starting from a blank main.c? Gutsy. I hope you get your dev blog approved :)
      - com2kid 12y ago
        > Almost nobody cares about a couple extra MB nowadays. Megabytes? That'd have been nice! :)
    - creamhackered 12y ago
      I'd love to know more. If you're up for it please reach out to me 100% anonymously - tom at theverge dot com Thanks :)

72deluxe 12y ago

Not Python! I would guess C or C++ too.