Embracing constraints

[mrdoornbos]

I've been thinking about the X16 a lot lately as a basis for thought experiments. No real end goal, just a central theme to chew on.



If you're going to build a machine with intentional constraints, why not use them as part of its advantage rather than try to make it into something it's not? The primary reason for a machine like the Commander X16 is that a single person can understand all of its parts. If I have an idea in software I want to bring to the world and I chose a platform based solely on it being the platform best suited to do so, the X16 would fit a tiny subset of problems I can come up with. There are a lot of other options which would make a whole lot more sense.



I've been doing this for a long time, and I suspect most of us on this forum have too. I can't say that I understand to the level that I do on a Commodore 64, all of the moving parts that make a Raspberry Pi or my MacBook work. I don't REALLY know, on a low machine level, what's going on. Not to the level where I can step through single CPU steps in a machine code monitor. I can definitely do that on a 6502 though.



I always thought that this was the reason for this platform. It's constrained on purpose, with a few modern conveniences, even the purest of enthusiasts can concede were needed (SD Cards instead of floppies, for example).

 

 

[rje]

11 hours ago, mrdoornbos said:

It's constrained on purpose, with a few modern conveniences, even the purest of enthusiasts can concede were needed (SD Cards instead of floppies, for example).

Well now, I won't admit that.  I'm pretty sure this machine actually needs a paper tape reader.  XD