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Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

lexaloffle.com

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Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#141

Post by beagle3 »

user_7832 wrote: post #131
beagle3 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think Firefox will delay loading on session resume (that is, if you restart Firefox, tabs will not load until you actually switch to them),but will not unload anything automatically - so if you open 200 tabs between restarts and keep them open (which I sometimes do, for a week or two until I close them) it makes a difference.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#142

Post by dragontamer »

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 have to imagine that this is the purview of embedded 2D microprocessors / OSes like Linux4SAM.

https://www.microchip.com/en-us/development-tool/linux4sam.o...

With well made compute modules: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/microchip-technol...

And open reference designs that fit on 4-layer boards (!!!!) despite using DDR2. Though I think most people would be more comfortable with 6-layer boards (which is possible with OSHPark today).

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#143

Post by sandyarmstrong »

sitkack wrote: post #45
exitb wrote: post #40

It’s a bit of a shame that it’s apparently not fully compatible with PICO-8. I’d imagine it to be a perfect environment to create PICO-8 games.

In what ways? Maybe there is a chance to change it!

See https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php?page=faq

> Picotron supports PICO-8 style shorthand syntax, almost the whole API, and other compatibility features that make it relatively easy to port PICO-8 cartridges. However, it is not designed to run PICO-8 carts out of the box, because the underlying machinery is quite different. For example, Picotron uses floating point numbers, and so can only approximate PICO-8's fixed point math behaviour.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#145

Post by beagle3 »

GTP wrote: post #128
beagle3 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s my home computer. It’s there to be used intermittently when needed at random times. It sleeps drawing almost zero power. Why should I shut it down? Shutdown takes 20 seconds. Startup requires the FileVault password, then 20-30 seconds, then a login, then another 20-30 seconds until desktop is usable (and a few more until Firefox is). If this was my work computer, it wouldn’t be so inconvenient to restart / shutd…

I guess that the main difference then is that I have to wait less to boot my machine. Did you consider hibernation? It would be a bit slower than sand-by, but then it would draw exactly zero power.

The startup/shutdown time is possibly explained by being an 2013 machine, but I have little reason to replace it right now - it’s only 8GB, old slow CPU (by modern standards), old slow SSD - but it does Firefox, thunderbird, the occasional Python script and a few more things perfectly well.

I’ll replace it when it breaks.

With respect to power draw - there is no simple way to force hibernation on Catalina AFAIK, but the power draw in sleep is minuscule - it hardly registers on my wattmeter (and e.g. it loses only 2-3% percent per day of battery while sleeping).

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#146

Post by krumpet »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #118
kelvinquee wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 My kids and I had a lot of fun with Pico-8, building simple games and learning basic geometry. The community (inherited from Pico-8) is already implementing cat/wget/grep[1] and, of course, Minesweeper[2] in Picotron! Whatever Joseph White/zep is building brings back the early days of Internet and IRC where the everybody builds and shares unashamedly while having a ton of fun! Thank you zep for making computing fu…

I'm curious how old your kids were when they started hacking on PICO-8 code? My son (7yo) likes block-based programming (using Scratch, Scratch Jr and Octostudio) and Minecraft, but I'm wondering what a smooth on-ramp might be for PICO-8 or similar. I got my first computer when I was about 10yo, so I was content to read through the books that came with it to learn the basics of BASIC and a little 6502 assembly. But I…

My kids are 12 and 14 and I can't get them interested in coding beyond what they might do at school. They showed an interest in Scratch, but I believe I introduced it WAY too early. Moreover, it moved them too quickly past the creative aspects and into writing code. Also, years later, I showed them PICO-8 and they weren't terribly interested.

In hindsight, I would recommend working with them at a young age (Then, let the transition to the coding side happen more organically or through a school program or some such. Maybe when they finally ask, "So, parent, how do I actually code these games?"

Just my non-data backed opinion...

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#147

Post by rjsw »

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 start with the MIT CADR CPU in an FPGA and add modern hardware round it like Ethernet, USB host, 2d blitter, etc...

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#148

Post by acomjean »

lynndotpy wrote: post #116
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?

it's fun and easy to share :)

I would be fun to be able to take a picture of the png and have it load up the application. I know it’s more of desktop thing.

But even emailing scripts for work got flagged. This png format would probably avoid that.

Also good thing it’s lossless. Other wise those multiple save jpg artifacts could cause interesting bugs.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#149

Post by [deleted] »

esbeeb wrote: post #25

When I use Raspberry Pi OS in a Raspberry Pi 4, 8GB of RAM - I feel I already have an excellent, refreshingly stable , late-90s-era experience. It scratches that strange nostalgia itch for that more innocent experience - of early-times WIMP computing. I can surf the web, edit LibreOffice files, record audio in Audacity on my nice Rode microphone, watch video files in VLC, remotely VNC in, transfer files in and out ov…

[deleted]

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#150

Post by sitkack »

exitb wrote: post #95
sitkack wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what ways? Maybe there is a chance to change it!

Don't know the details, but apparently "[it's] not designed to run PICO-8 carts out of the box". PICO-8 has a really low resolution, lower than a Game Boy, which makes it a bit difficult to write code in.

That would be really cool and a fitting level of meta if the Picotron could be used to develop PICO-8 games. I guess you could bolt a PICO-8 onto the side of the Picotron like one of those 90s console devkits.
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