uxn: a portable 8-bit virtual computer

Re:uxn: a portable 8-bit virtual computer by AnIdiotOnTheNet on Monday May 17, 2021 @04:07PM (#27187803)

> As one might imagine, a naïve implementation of this spec would be extremely slow (for example, decrementing n requires incrementing another variable m in a loop until m+1==n, which is O(n)).

Yeah, see that seems to go way too far, but then again this stood out as similar to ideas I've had:

> The algorithm for decrementing an atom is to count up to it, an O(n) operation. But if the interpreter knows it's running a decrement formula, it can use the CPU to decrement directly.

I had basically the same idea, only since my ideas still look a lot more like an instruction set it was in the form of explicit annotations to identify functions that could be replaced with a specialized instruction if available.

I'll have to look into this thing. Thanks.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:uxn: a portable 8-bit virtual computer by thewakalix on Monday May 17, 2021 @10:57PM (#27190809)

Nock does in fact use explicit annotations (called "hints"). I believe it also verifies that the annotated code "looks right" for the hint, but I don't think it scans all code fragments to see if they implement decrement (for example).

[ Parent | on HN ]