Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#1

Post by lynndotpy » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 3:55 PM UTC

This is a little toy project of mine that lets you simulate digital logic graphs. It was inspired by Minecraft's Redstone and the Piet esolang.

It's got some serious drawbacks-- you write circuits as PNGs and simulate them with a Python interface. It's slow to run and slow to experiment with. And it is certainly difficult to use for people with any kind of color blindness. But despite that, I hope this can still be a fun toy!

Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
github.com

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#2

Post by carterschonwald » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

This is wonderful! :)

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#3

Post by lynndotpy » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:22 PM UTC

carterschonwald wrote: post #2

This is wonderful! :)

Thank you!!

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#4

Post by spicybright » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

I looooove this stuff!

I'm sure you're aware, but here's some other related works I'm a fan of.

https://esolangs.org/wiki/Turing_Paint

https://esolangs.org/wiki/Piet

https://esolangs.org/wiki/Drawfuck

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#5

Post by tobyhinloopen » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

We’re also working on something like this, but we’re making a game around it

https://charperbonaroo.github.io/bls/#0

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#6

Post by sackerhews » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:31 PM UTC

Brilliant idea!

That logo however is the most repulsive piece of artwork I've seen in a long time.

(I am sorry for being blunt)

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#7

Post by ahefner » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:47 PM UTC

That's neat.

There's lots of interesting circuit simulators on the web now, but has anyone ever seen a toy/simple simulator for VLSI devices? Something where you could draw in metal/poly/whatever layers to create and simulate transistors?

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#8

Post by wccrawford » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #5

We’re also working on something like this, but we’re making a game around it https://charperbonaroo.github.io/bls/#0

Looking good so far!

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#9

Post by abecedarius » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

ahefner wrote: post #7

That's neat. There's lots of interesting circuit simulators on the web now, but has anyone ever seen a toy/simple simulator for VLSI devices? Something where you could draw in metal/poly/whatever layers to create and simulate transistors?

https://www.zachtronics.com/kohctpyktop-engineer-of-the-peop... (Flash game)

Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs

#10

Post by mentos » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 5:16 PM UTC

As a complete layman I wonder if there’s a future where you could use a picture/X-ray of an old CPU architecture and simulate it blindly with an approach similar to yours?