https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/ 2026-05-01T19:34:25+00:00 https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/ https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico text/html 2020-12-23T19:39:08+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:abstractions?rev=1608748748&do=diff ABSTRACTIONS OR ... DISTRACTIONS? Abstractions usually deal with the fact that a program written for a computer would be recompilable, simultaneously, for others. Abstraction simply takes for granted the existence of an imaginary computer, an abstract computer. The abstraction describes its operations. Then this abstract computer is text/html 2020-12-23T20:01:19+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:advantages?rev=1608750079&do=diff THE ADVANTAGES OF ISOMORPHISM For example, many dev-kits provide very advanced functionality by “hiding” details, such as how tiles work. In reality, however, all computers (which MIDRES supports) have tiles: they are implemented in a (sometimes profoundly) different way, from case to case. text/html 2020-12-27T17:53:44+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:conclusions?rev=1609088024&do=diff CONCLUSIONS AND FORECASTS How will the MIDRES library evolve? Sooner or later, it will take care of the sound section: if the game has a soundtrack played by a harpsichord, you should hear the same track if you recompile that code on another platform (possibly with a harpsichord but if there is only a piano, it is fine!). text/html 2020-12-23T19:33:31+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:definition?rev=1608748411&do=diff DEFINE ISOMORPHISM Well, but in detail... what is an isomorphism? The easiest way is to indicate what it is not, that is, defining it through a series of negations: * it is not synonymous with “same interface”; * it does not mean (only) to use the same code; text/html 2020-12-23T09:06:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:goal?rev=1608710803&do=diff QUICKLY DEVELOP EFFICIENT SOFTWARE The MIDRES library allows you to create “by design” WORA (Write Once Run Anywhere) programs. That is, it is designed to be able to develop software efficiently once and see it works, always efficiently, on various 8-bit platforms in an optimized way, without the need for text/html 2020-12-27T17:37:53+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:mydevkit?rev=1609087073&do=diff "MY DEV-KIT IS DIFFERENT" The isomorphic approach is different from that of abstractions. It is based on mapping the underlying hardware without making use of third-party libraries and by matching complex and heterogeneous structures, albeit homologous, to each other. The code written with this approach, when it works well that is when it is satisfactory in terms of execution speed or use of resources, text/html 2020-12-27T17:50:29+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:other?rev=1609087829&do=diff OTHER FEATURES OF THE MIDRES LIBRARY To illustrate the other features of the library, let's think about this statement: a code that adapts itself to different things does not imply an abstraction. ALL my games rearrange themselves as a play area depending on the monitor surface. This adaptation occurs at compile time, not at run time. text/html 2020-12-27T17:26:24+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:otherlibs?rev=1609086384&do=diff THE NON-ISOMORPHISM OF EXISTING LIBRARIES If you take any library that has parts written in assembly, then it is definitely not isomorphic because it cannot run beyond the processor (or, more often, the platform) it was designed on. Even if it were all written in pure C, however, it might not be isomorphic. Imagine a library that takes the text/html 2020-12-27T17:41:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library:isomorphism:rules?rev=1609087303&do=diff THE ABSTRACTION THAT IS NOT THERE What I REALLY want to do is avoid introducing an abstraction layer (even mine!) on 8-bit machines, because they don't have the computing power and resources to handle it; at the same time, I would like to avoid writing a program for each platform, also because I would be forced to test all versions.