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Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

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Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#131

Post by user_7832 »

beagle3 wrote: post #88
grimgrin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wish firefox had more granularity with its tab unloading feature. one method is restarting browser. but by default it’ll unload tabs if you’re low on memory. you can force em in about:unloads (hint- about:about if you ever forget) i wrote a simple firefox extension that unloads em all with a button click, but it’s no different than restarting ff or spamming clicks in :unloads

There’s AutoTabDiscard which lets you set a timeout and other rules for when to discard.

Is AutoTabDiscard still helpful/necessary with whatever automatic stuff Chrome/Firefox does nowadays? I run a lot of tabs (100s-1000s) and this sounds potentially very helpful if it does something beyond what the browser automatically does.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#132

Post by deivid »

lioeters wrote: post #126
deivid wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Lua's design, each bytecode operation requires a bunch of memory accesses, these microcontrollers only have a limited amount (~500KB) of SRAM, so you need to place this memory on PSRAM (RAM over SPI) which has "significant" latency for these microcontrollers. It's definitely possible to use standard Lua and run _some_ of the Pico8 games, but not all. Lua itself does not require a lot of memory, but PICO-8 guaran…

There is a Lua implementation for microcontrollers called NodeMCU. > Lua based interactive firmware for ESP8266, ESP8285 and ESP32 https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware A big difference I see between this Lua and PICO-8's is that the former is compiled, whereas the latter is interpreted. How it manages to run Lua with such limitations, the documentation of Lua Flash Store (LFS) goes into detail. > The ESP8266 h…

The constraints fuel creativity, but it also pushed me to start writing a Lua compiler for PicoPico, which shows promise but is also a massive scope creep and mostly the reason I've not worked on PicoPico for a while

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#133

Post by GTP »

Folcon wrote: post #102
GTP wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have to restart the computer about once a month because of Catalina bugs I shut down my laptop at the end of the day and turn it back on the day after, regardless of bugs. Why do you try to reboot it as little as possible?

I mean nominally that sounds like his preferred experience? I'm similar, I prefer maintaining state with things until I'm done with them, which makes the current models so frustrating, for all Apple talked about skeuomorphism, for me it's always felt so fake, it's only ever skin deep, I open a webpage and until I'm done with it, it should stay that way. I've navigated down a third of the page? I've partially filled i…

I wasn't complaining about someone else's experience, I was just curious to see why he preferred it that way.

Sometimes I also use stand-by or, if it is to keep the state up until the next day, hibernation. But that's rare. In most cases, I just use Firefox's function to restore my previous browsing session. That would not restore half-filled forms, but I rarely deal with forms, especially long ones. As for reading or editing documents, most software will open the document at the point you where when you last closed it.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#134

Post by tomku »

ListeningPie wrote: post #119

Are there any apps made for pico (other than games) that have broken through to the mainstream?

Depends on your definition of "mainstream" I guess, but picoCAD[1] got some attention outside of the PICO-8 world. Edit: Including here on HN[2]!

[1]: https://johanpeitz.itch.io/picocad

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34101251

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#136

Post by lioeters »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #114

> Picotron apps can be made with built-in tools, and shared with other users in a special 256k png cartridge format. I’m noticing a trend of newer indie software distributing assets in png files, what’s with that?

Aside from the fun factor of an image containing a runnable game/program, the PNG format is lossless, uses the same compression algorithm as ZIP, with encode/decode libraries in various languages. That makes it a good candidate for an application data format.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#137

Post by aidenn0 »

deaddodo wrote: post #122
crq-yml wrote: post #42

I had a good time with PICO-8 - and I think it retains its core appeal - but I've moved on to "genuine" retro hardware with the new crop of machines like CX16, Mega65, or my personal choice, Agon Light. The specification ends up being tighter when there's a board design, chips and I/O ports, and these new machines, like Picotron, are relatively uncompromised in what they can achieve within the I/O spec. You can emula…

> but I've moved on to "genuine" retro hardware with the new crop of machines like CX16, Mega65, or my personal choice, Agon Light. I just wish these would move on from the same crop of retro CPUs (z80, 6502, maybe 8080) and clone VDPs on FPGA. I want a retro- style 2d/blit-based machine, but with more advanced hardware. Maybe a Cortex-M, z8000, 68000, low-end Risc-V, etc. Still give it BASIC in a boot ROM, but some…

I would love to see the alternate world in which the z8k or 68k were finished in time for use in the IBM PC. Intel is dominant today almost entirely due to the 8086 being available 6-12 months earlier than competing 16- and 32-bit processors.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#138

Post by ajcp »

WD-42 wrote: post #3
tazu wrote: post #2

This looks similar to what the cool couple at 100 Rabbits [1] are doing with Uxn. Overall, I love to support anyone producing hobby / cute software (especially with Lua!). [1]: https://100r.co/site/uxn.html

The fact that they seemingly write all this stuff from a sailboat makes it even cooler.

I want to thank you. Your comment sent me down an hours long rabbit hole (pun intended) last night into their collective and I've frittered away many more this morning pricing out sailboats I can't afford! Thank you so much <3

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#139

Post by blindluke »

dizhn wrote: post #86
blindluke wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that TIC-80 is not as great as PICO-8 is, and I would never recommend it over PICO-8 to someone who wants to start their adventure with game development. But it is not a clone of PICO-8. It offers a resolution that's very similar to that of the Game Boy Advance, so it serves as a nice transition stage towards GBA development. You can then enjoy your games on a console like Anbernic RG3…

Just for information. The Powkitty rgb30 is the current defacto pico8 handheld because of it's 1x1 ratio screen running at 720x720 pixels.

Yep. I bought a yellow one with the intention of making it a dedicated PICO-8 machine, and it is wonderful. It's not as perfect as 351p is for GBA, as 5x integer scaling leaves you with some unused screen space, but still, an absolute joy to play.
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