Ok after seeing the assemblers/VM's last week I wasn't expecting to see much new this week.. then I saw this: https://github.com/krasin/llvm-dcpu16/ C compiler support for dcpu16! In a way this almost saddens me as by the time the game comes out it looks like the community will have javascript ported to the CPU and no one will actually have to program in assembler as per the original idea... ;)
It could run JavaScript, but this is a 16-bit processor we're talking about here, with minimal RAM. It's more likely we'll be using C and BASIC ;)
Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
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Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah this seems like the exact scenario where hand-rolled assembly and perhaps some hand-optimized C will really shine. You don't see a lot of embedded processors running javascript, for example. If your ship can process data and respond 5% faster than an opponent's, all other things being equal, you will come out ahead. If the current level of interest persists, by the time the game launches, I imagine that the vast…
I think we're going to see some clever optimizing DSLs (a la FFTW) -- restricted languages for the kinds of embedded programs you write on such an architecture will be easier to optimize than general purpose languages. Particularly if they have a clear cost model. The Haskell embedding is very likely to head in that direction. (See e.g. in this style : http://www.fftw.org/faq/section4.html#whyfast or this style : htt…
Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
"it is now possible to do things in a few days that took people ... decades to achieve". Let's not get too excited here. Name one thing that can be done in days that used to take decades.
Calculate pi to 700 decimal places.
The discussion is about how much effort it is for people to implement things, not computers to run them.
Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#44So, who's going to be first with a hardware implementation of the DCPU16? :)
[1]: https://github.com/sybreon/dcpu16 [2]: https://github.com/filepang/dcpu16-verilog
Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't start worrying about the "purity" and "this was never intended". You don't specify a processor instruction set in the real world without expecting people to write higher level languages for it, so why expect people to write at such a low level in a GAME of all places? I am fairly certain everything is going exactly as planned. Notch has got this.
I second this. If anything, Notch must be feeling immensely satisfied if not somewhat overwhelmed by all the effort that the community has put into his project.
I love the game idea, and think Notch is a great game designer+developer, and sincerely hope that it will be what we think it will be. But at the same time, I'm not as optimistic as others might be.
Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#46I had a dream the other night wherein there was a start-up that took custom code requests for 0x10c players on commission. Requests ranged from optimizing the ship's defense to autopilot and hyperspace jump controls. Viable?
Absolutely. Maybe you can get acquired before the game is actually released! ;)
Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The value of just playing around is underestimated. A lot of discoveries have been made by people just playing around.
As someone with not a lot of experience in low level languages and I can't wait to play around with this. I think it will be fun way to learn and maybe even try building hardware implementation using a FPGA.
Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#48Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#49Re: Take Over The Galaxy with GitHub (DCPU16 support)
#50So, who's going to be first with a hardware implementation of the DCPU16? :)