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Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

8bitworkshop.com

21–30 of 37 posts

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#21
post #11

Honestly, I'd rather have an editor and assembler running on my system (probably WLA-DX and Emacs). But I can't deny this is impressive, and it's a nice primer for a system that I would love to learn to program.

I've been experimenting with application-specific IDEs too, where the compute power needed is >> my laptop. When I'm using it I edit locally and rsync to the cloud machine where it runs and shows me the results in a browser. I've had on my TODO list to integrate codemirror so other people can do everything remotely, but I don't think I'd use it myself. In principle it can be a bit faster to update, but a function key…

Pretty soon we'll reinvent X Windows.

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#22
This is great! I've read up on "chasing the beam" and how programming for the 2600 is unlike any other console. Always wanted to try my hand at it but didn't want to go through all the steps. This essentially eliminates the barrier to entry. Definitely will check it out. Thanks!

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#23
post #6

Enjoying the attention this is getting! It's been fun making it and learning the VCS tricks of the trade. I'd like to credit a couple of projects that it depends on, Javatari by Paulo Augusto Peccin ( http://javatari.org/ ) and DASM by Peter King and others ( http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~pjbk/scholar/dasm.html ). Oh yeah and Codemirror ( https://codemirror.net/ ).

This is the kind of project that makes visiting HN worthy. Im going to spend some good time with it during the nexr few days.

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#24
post #19

This is very nice. I hope to see an update in a few months with support for other consoles - might I suggest Oric-1/Atmos at some point? :)

I'd never heard of the Oric before. The Wikipedia article seems incredibly biased. What software would you run on it?

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#25
post #20

From what I've read, a lot of the guys who worked on the Atari consoles and 8-bit home computers went on to do the Amiga once the ownership changed. Both systems were outstanding, and I have to wonder how far personal computing has been set-back by having IBM's attempt to poison the well as its basis instead of fine systems like the Atari 8-bit series.

As much as I adore all the Jay Miner-led designs, in the grand scheme of things most of the advantages they posed come from being brilliant - and highly customized - relative to their time frame. The Sharp and NEC computers marketed in Japan offer an "alternate history" look at things but even they eventually succumbed to Wintel in the 90's.

I'm glad you brought up the Sharp! The X68000 definitely belongs in the same pantheon.

I will quibble that difference between the PC and the Jay Miner designs is much more than the brilliance of Jay Miner. The early PC design was probably hobbled intentionally by IBM to keep it from cannibalizing their low-end mainframes and workstations. I believe that was part of why Bill G parted ways with them on OS/2: crippled PCs may have had some value to IBM, but none whatsoever to Microsoft!

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#27
post #24
post #19

This is very nice. I hope to see an update in a few months with support for other consoles - might I suggest Oric-1/Atmos at some point? :)

I'd never heard of the Oric before. The Wikipedia article seems incredibly biased. What software would you run on it?

http://hirudov.com/oric/ or http://www.oric.org/software/

or type all kind of old basic games: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/your-computer-80s-comp...

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#28
post #21
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been experimenting with application-specific IDEs too, where the compute power needed is >> my laptop. When I'm using it I edit locally and rsync to the cloud machine where it runs and shows me the results in a browser. I've had on my TODO list to integrate codemirror so other people can do everything remotely, but I don't think I'd use it myself. In principle it can be a bit faster to update, but a function key…

Pretty soon we'll reinvent X Windows.

We already have, it's called Wayland.

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#29
post #20

From what I've read, a lot of the guys who worked on the Atari consoles and 8-bit home computers went on to do the Amiga once the ownership changed. Both systems were outstanding, and I have to wonder how far personal computing has been set-back by having IBM's attempt to poison the well as its basis instead of fine systems like the Atari 8-bit series.

As much as I adore all the Jay Miner-led designs, in the grand scheme of things most of the advantages they posed come from being brilliant - and highly customized - relative to their time frame. The Sharp and NEC computers marketed in Japan offer an "alternate history" look at things but even they eventually succumbed to Wintel in the 90's.

"Wintel" is not really a thing. Apple fans misunderstood that every other platform was the same as their vertically integrated walled-garden platform. The PC clone market was different from the Mac market in an important way which made it fundamentally inaccurate to think about Apple's competition as if it were coming from one monolithic entity. I was really hoping to stop hearing this silly, inaccurate term "Wintel" when Apple started using Intel processors (ages ago now).

Re: Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600

#30

This is great! I've read up on "chasing the beam" and how programming for the 2600 is unlike any other console. Always wanted to try my hand at it but didn't want to go through all the steps. This essentially eliminates the barrier to entry. Definitely will check it out. Thanks!

I can personally recommend Montfort & Bogost's book: Racing the Beam for this exact topic :)
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