A Twitter Client For the Commodore 64 177
An anonymous reader writes "Johan Van den Brande has developed a Twitter client for the Commodore 64, allowing 140-character messages to be posted directly from this TV-connected 1982 home computer. This YouTube video shows how the Twitter client is — slowly! — loaded from a 5.25" floppy disk, how the latest Twitter messages are downloaded and shown on the TV screen, and how this tweet is posted. All that is needed is a C64, a TV, and a C64 Ethernet card. The Twitter client is implemented with the Contiki operating system, which otherwise is used for connecting tiny embedded systems to the Internet."
Re:FW (Score:2, Insightful)
Im sending this to my dad in the hopes he will revive the ole 64 back home.
Software really has yet to catch up to hardware (Score:5, Insightful)
Friend at Intel corp said once - that software we are running will be really impressive once they catch up to the hardware. I think the Commodore 64 really goes to show what can be done on a really minimal environment.
Twitter isn't exactly an intensive application (Score:5, Insightful)
The hardest parts of doing this will be the TCP/IP stack and drivers to connect to the internet.
The messages are not long/require lots of screen realestate or memory.
It certainly scores *cool* points for making exceptionally OLD hardware do very new things, but it doesn't score points for difficulty or complexity.
But if someone finds it useful, then it wasn't a waste of time.
Re:I call "cheating" (Score:4, Insightful)
To do that you'd have to have a serial adapter as well - so where do you draw the line?
By definition even - the 1541 (to load the program for those who don't know) isn't original C64 equipment (I couldn't even get one when I bought my C64 new - had to use tapes :)).
Yeah - a completely stock C64 is pretty hard to use...
Re:Software really has yet to catch up to hardware (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Before anyone asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Before anyone asks why someone bothered to do this, I'll answer it - because they can. Simple as that.
It has no practical use, that's for sure, but not everyone needs to be done to have a practical use. Some stuff is just cool. That's why we have these things called hobbies. I certainly wouldn't have invested my time into getting something like this to work, but I can't disparage anyone who does. It's a hobby. I would even argue that it does not reflect one way or another on a person's ability to get laid. :)
Re:FW (Score:5, Insightful)
How can anything to do with Twitter be cool?
Re:Software really has yet to catch up to hardware (Score:5, Insightful)
I decide to give it to Linus and he asks for a lot less.
Care to count how many layers of abstraction there are between a typical GUI application and the bare metal on a modern *nix?
Re:FW (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Before anyone asks... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Software really has yet to catch up to hardware (Score:3, Insightful)
And because on a C64, you do not expect all the little features, grapics, etc. Like a spell checker, an animated mouse cursor semi-transparent high-color smooth-moving windows. many of them. An MP3 stream playing it he background, with an OSD poppig up. An instant messenger for 5 different networks running in the background. Sub-pixel-anti-aliased beautiful vector fonts, with different styles, intelligent breaking on the field end, full HTML+CSS+JavaScript+DOM+flash rendering/interpreting, automatic error checks for wrong data in I/O, a firewall and other tools protecting us, etc. And the convenience of a high-level language.
That stuff adds up.
Sure, I would love to see us all programming and even scripting in Haskell, with some extensions, and a compiler producing smaller files. And efficient use of data (like not using an array of 64-bit fields for single bit variables. [flag-fields where are you?]).
But, well...
Contiki (Score:4, Insightful)
Thats cheating, really its not a C64, its an embedded machine that happens to have composite video output.
Running an embedded OS on an 8 bit processor is common place. REAL common place.
The Commodore as I/O Device- A dumb terminal (Score:3, Insightful)
In schemes like this, the Commodore itself is just a thin layer of the user interface. There is definitely a more powerful processor than the 6502 on the Ethernet Card. Most of the processor intensive networking layers are 'contained' on the Ethernet Card, just as is/was the case with primitive processors like the 8088 communicating via Ethernet.
Almost any 'expansion' of the Commodore involves adding a 'peripheral' containing a co-processor at least, and sometimes significantly more powerful than the 6502 in the Commodore. The 1541 disk drive has a 6502 processor in it. A Commodore 'Hard Drive' has a processor more powerful than the C64 it attaches to. So, really, this is no different than attaching a dumb terminal to a proprietary PC and claiming it's 'A Twitter Client for a Dumb Terminal.'
Heck, I could attach a largish 44780-based LCD display and a P2/2 keyboard to one of the smaller PIC controllers and hang it off a linux box as a terminal and do about the same thing. Or, better yet, just attach a TDD terminal to the linux box. Wow! A Twitter Client for the TDD! Maybe I can get funding for 'facilitating' something to aid the handicapped!
Re:Before anyone asks... (Score:1, Insightful)
Programming the C64 is very much like programming a small microcontroller. The PIC and Atmel 8-bit microcontrollers are faster, but they often have even less memory. If you can write a twitter client for a C64, you can write one for a $1 IC which is connected to the same Ethernet controller (or Bluetooth, WLAN, etc). That means you could build a complete "hardware" twitter client the size of a match box for less than $10 (much less in quantity). If that thought causes you nightmares, relax: It's a demonstration. In actual use the protocol would be something less braindead, for example you could use the same hardware to connect appliances to a home network.
Small microcontrollers are everywhere and they need to be programmed. An 8bit microcontroller will always be cheaper and use much less energy than a 32bit CPU with a lot of memory. We're talking about a few milliwatts under load and microwatts in standby here.
Re:Not necessarily so funny (Score:3, Insightful)
If I had to edit my films and create my graphics in a text terminal, I'd have to kill somebody. Probably you. No offense.
As much as I enjoyed using Gopher and Lynx on my Atari, I've moved on to using a 100% necessary GUI for many of my computing needs.
Re:Not necessarily so funny (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you're wrong.
I think you're wrong. If we were stuck with 1999 era hardware, we'd put a lot more work into optimization, and we'd get a lot more done with the same hardware. And, if you can find a carpenter who can build a timber frame [popularmechanics.com] house without nails, you're likely to get a much better quality house, but of course, more expensive.
If someone told me I was stuck at a text console from now on, I'd be OK (if grousy) about it. Until that day comes, I'd just as soon let this computer look pretty and provide nice (and, shock!, fun) features
See, here you're agreeing with the guy. A GUI is a convenience, and nothing more. You can get along without it, but would rather not. That's pretty much the definition of a convenience. A CLI on the other hand is a necessity if you want to use your computer as anything more than an appliance.
I'm not too keen on bragging about how much of my computer's work that I do for it.
I don't think anyone is. It's just not the case that not using a GUI == doing the computers work. Many times using a GUI creates more work. After all, you can't grep a GUI.
Re:Software really has yet to catch up to hardware (Score:2, Insightful)