iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Tom

taxicomics @taxicomics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I'm currently on a detour from Rosemary Peaks and I am working on two games for PICO32: The Lost Pages. I'm incredibly happy to be working with my favorite people from the #pico8 scene and I am starstruck 90% of the time. The collection is going to release November 31st for FREE #gamedev #pico32

store.steampowered.com

Pico32: The Lost Pages on Steam

A magical book appears in the woods, transported somehow from another dimension. Pico32: The Lost Pages is packed cover-to-cover with 32 creative games spanning every genre. Its chapters recall the hi...

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

If I ever get my OS done, one key feature is NO UPDATE NOTIFICATIONS EVER. You presumably could still manually visit the site for updates if you want. And even though I like wifi auto backup, maybe it's better just to have no wifi, so you know your system is what you touch to it.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Yeah, one problem with named args by default is that now all arg names are backward compatibility commitments. In some languages, people expect that for structs but not always for function parameters.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I guess putting string data in some global data space is like the idea of putting all locals into a global space, but I guess that's usually safe for strings in C based on the idea that it's read only space.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My other main option I've thought about is to use some (effectively global) buffer as a shadow stack that I push and pop for longer things like local arrays or whatever.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

There's only 4k stack space max per core on the rp2350 (barring tricks I haven't learned), so I have to be cautious with it. One option is to store recursionless locals in some effectively global space. I've considered other options, too, but current plan is to ignore my small stack fears.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Occurred to me that optimizing locals into global space for recursionless functions might be the same thing as optimizing memory layout for stackless coroutines. I don't think I want to do either at the moment though.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I'm curious to see how Rue works out.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I've thought about this kind of thing for years but haven't tried implementing it anywhere: > What makes this simpler than Rust is that loans are second-class: a borrow lives only for the call it is passed to. You cannot store one in a struct, return one from a function, or keep one in a variable.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Maybe compiler support memory can overlap the end of the global data buffer so I can allocate zero-init globals/arrays in that space to reuse it at runtime. Means there's a smaller global space for non-zero values. Or maybe "include file as byte array" can also be slotted in the reused space.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Because I'd apparently rather do hard hobby projects than get views, here's a video on making a compiler for the RP2350 microcontroller. youtu.be/Pme2J63HxxU

youtu.be

Starting my own compiler and operating system for RP2350

YouTube video by Context Free

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I wish new Commodore would release a C256 at 256 MHz, 256 MB ram, and full raster 256 color graphics. In the size of a normal sized keyboard instead of huge sized. Could use the same cpu instruction set. And overall similar user experience would be fine, too. Could include C64 compatibility.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

For my rp2350 project, I've been very slowly trying to work through compiling code to thumb2. I've wondered instead if I should make a riscv assembler. But I have no idea how painful it is to code in riscv.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Starting to feel like modern computers (and phones) are just appliances I have to use and that tiny spec or retro computers the actual things I choose to engage with.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Even just typing something manually from a different source has some amount of value, I suspect.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Considering trying out a text mode for 640x360 text editing, which would give 106x40 chars on my current font design vs 53x20 chars on my already working 320x180 raster. (Main issue for raster size is RAM usage.)

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I guess like old BASIC computers were real hardware under the facade. You weren't buying the BASIC as much as you were buying the computer itself.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Spending some time with the Fruit Jam makes me think of computers as physical devices rather than just varied specs for accessing common software/internet/system experiences. Well, at least a computer like the Fruit Jam *can* feel like its own thing.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Quick rp2350 speed summary from *simple* loops: Lua's about 3-4x slower than unoptimized C. MicroPython's more like 30x slower. MicroPython viper can get ints to like 50% slower than unoptimized C but can't handle floats. Unoptimized C on rp2350 is about the same speed as Python interpreter on rpi4.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Posted a new video on talking to Odin Language Server in Odin. Display is in Raylib, and most of my dev for it has been on Raspberry Pi 4. youtu.be/YE3RkXPWnrY

youtu.be

Coding a text editor in Odin and Raylib on Raspberry Pi 4 that talks to Odin Language Server

YouTube video by Context Free

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Reposted by Tom

Chimney Sweepers Local 420 @bobbby.online · 21/07/2026

This is a pretty cool experiment from a friend of mine. Some features of the language: - WASM/JS backends - lots of types, everywhere - time travel debugger - tree walking interpreter - Perceus RC over GC - it is fast - ocaml built - algebraic types It feels like Elixir/Erlang and OCaml

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I don't cheer for the death of anyone, even people who cause trouble.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

320x240 can't scale integer fully to either dimension of the most common 1080p monitor resolution, which is sad. 320x180 scales perfectly on both axes, though. Also to 720p (which 240 also does).

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Inline skated over 6 1/2 miles on Saturday. And today I managed to get up and down the bridge over the train tracks (turning around at the top) without killing myself or anyone else. I'm still feeling very sloppy, but maybe making some progress.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

PICO-8 might be *too* restrictive sometimes for my taste, but I'm glad it teaches code size part of the budget. Especially for hobby things, using whatever tech, I'm try to think that if something will end up as too much code (or takes me too much time to work through), maybe I need a simpler plan.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm getting tired of UIs that cram interactivity into every nook and cranny. Sometimes I feel like there's no safe place to rest my cursor.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Years ago, I enjoyed reading VSCode release notes. Now it's just AI stuff I don't care about at all. And I mostly wish they'd stop making other changes, too, unless they're making things faster or fixing bugs.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

By the time they stop making Raspberry Pi 400 (as early as 2028?), I hope RAM prices have come down or else they start selling an RPi 500 with half the RAM. Maybe an RPi 50 or something???

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

New video: Benchmarking LuaJIT vs Odin speed on Raspberry Pi and Intel, plus Python and Rust! youtu.be/4MdLs3kAp84

youtu.be

Benchmarking LuaJIT vs Odin speed on Raspberry Pi and Intel, plus Python and Rust!

YouTube video by Context Free

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Dev platform I'm trying out: - 4gb RPi4 (effectively RPi 400) - No web browsers but still network access - No games - Lua/Love2D - LMMS and Audacity - LibreSprite and others - VSCodium and Lua Language Server - Terminal, Git, etc. Really not half bad. Losing web browsers is a super power for focus.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

New video! How to capture the spirit of old computing without faking old systems. youtu.be/ilNtp0s9uTY

youtu.be

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Reposted by Tom

Kenney @kenney.nl · 25/05/2026

I made Godot sad, sorry all

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I think any home robots *shouldn't* have wireless networking. Data transfer should require a physical connection on the robot's body where it can't actually reach on its own.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

I hadn't heard of it. Thanks for the tip!

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Keyboards are such awesome tech that we easily take for granted. Nice that we could inherit the idea from earlier mechanical typewriter tech.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I don't know what's the future, and AI causes problems for sure. I don't know if AI will ever be able to think like people. I'm not even sure what that is. But we also shouldn't get too full of our own greatness or imaginary thinking powers.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Current AI clearly lacks some human qualities, but infallibility isn't one of them. AI is very fallible, yes, but so are people. AI claims confidence in wrong claims, but so do people.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

People often complain that current AI is just statistical predictions rather than real thinking. Thing is that more logical forms of AI have also been tried and haven't done as well, because the world is a messy place.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

New video! Closure capture in JS, Kotlin, Java, Python, Go, Temper, Rust, C++, & Odin youtu.be/FfkDXmcslAM

youtu.be

Closure capture in JS, Kotlin, Java, Python, Go, Temper, Rust, C++, & Odin

YouTube video by Context Free

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

It was very helpful! Thanks!

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

That demo of the learning site was great, by the way.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

I guess AI bots technically already had access anyway. Maybe it didn't feel like as much of a sellout because of that? Anyway, I guess we'll see how it goes.

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Reposted by Tom

Freya Holmér @freya.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

okay - approximately how unhinged is this workaround for not being able to call default interface member implementations without a cast in C#?

$C# code that reads: public interface IThing { internal int _Number => 1; // hidden default impl. public int Number { get; } // *public* accessor } public interface IThingA : IThing { int IThing._Number => 4; // override } public class BThing : IThingA { // public accessor emitted from source generator: public int Number => ( (IThing)this )._Number; } public class CThing : IThingA { public int Number => 8; // override }$

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

See the linked blog post at the start of the thread for more on "Why a new language?"

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

But in Java: jshell> Map.ofEntries( ...> Map.entry(0, "0"), ...> Map.entry(0.0, "0.0"), ...> Map.entry(-0.0, "-0.0"), ...> Map.entry(false, "false") ...> ) $2 ==> {-0.0=-0.0, 0.0=0.0, 0=0, false=false} Temper has to think about things like this. temperlang.dev

temperlang.dev

Introduction

The Temper programming language for solving problems once via ubiquitous libraries.

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Tom @contextfree.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

For example, in Python: >>> { ... 0: "0", ... 0.0: "0.0", ... -0.0: "-0.0", ... False: "False", ... } ... {0: 'False'}

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