Looks interesting. I'm interested in the T-Deck Tulip CC and would love to use it for coding whilst im traveling. Any experience with using such a device for light programming?
I have used the T-Deck with tulipcc for coding and writing, although these days I mostly use it as a calculator. I wrote a GUI text editor for it, which you can find here:
What I love about this is the reduction in complexity compared to how something like this would typically be built today.
If I were to build a synth a year ago I probably would have used Rust compiled to WASM and running in the browser. This thing has a lot of the same functionality, but you have about -30 million lines of code for the OS, -30MLOC for the browser, and another -30MLOC for Rust/LLVM.
And that doesn't even get in to the cost of materials or power savings.
Obviously it's not apples to apples but it really makes me wonder how much of that stack we need for most programs.
I've been using it for a few months. Great project. I especially love adding i2c peripherals from M5. E.g. a bank of 8 rotary encoders.
Also love how absolutely minimal it is in size and if you didnt notice, the screen is a touchscreen. And they have a basic set of ui widgets.
Also interesting, the gfx lets you overlap sprites, bitmap, and text mode. You can tell the designers have lot of XP on 8-bit systems. And the bitmap is a little larger than the screen so you can do some superbitmap stuff. It's bot terribly larger, just a bit.
I havent been using it as much for its synth capabilites, ironically, but for making sequencers for external instruments. I believe it also has audio in...
> You can use Tulip to make music, code, art, games, or just write.
Am I wrong to think statements like these are just aspirational warm-and-fuzzies about the product without any real substance?
You could do all those things on anything, but they are typically incongruent with one another. If you are a beginner or a pro, you’re going to be better off doing it on a “more-standard” device.
You're wrong, it explains what you can do with this pocket computer. Of course you could do the same and more with any standard device but the point here is to have a small cheap device to play and hack, not be a replacement for a MacBook.
This kind of limited device is something I've been thinking about with respect to what interactions I want my children to have with computers. I remember when I was 9 years old and we got these computers at the lab at school and we wrote some LOGO and BASIC and it was a mind-blowing experience. We were drawing SQUARES! And we were making TRIANGLES of ASTERISKS! Hahaha, what a glorious thing that felt like.
I got so much joy from computers and I'd like my kids to have that kind of experience too without accidentally detouring into social media (which has my mind in a vice grip).
Still a couple of years away, but I think I'd like to evaluate this kind of device then and see if it's the right model to use.
> This kind of limited device is something I've been thinking about with respect to what interactions I want my children to have with computers. I remember when I was 9 years old and we got these computers at the lab at school and we wrote some LOGO and BASIC and it was a mind-blowing experience. We were drawing SQUARES! And we were making TRIANGLES of ASTERISKS! Hahaha, what a glorious thing that felt like.
Well, Minecraft 'redstone' works a bit like that?
Of course, it's embedded in a much bigger program, but I'm not sure that makes a difference to the kids?
I'm not a parent, but I think encouraging anything creative is probably just as good.
Half the fun was not knowing how to do something. There was no other way to satisfy curiosity than to tinker endlessly and constantly seek out information. Stumbling upon unusually good programs made it seem like anything was possible regardless of the machine it ran on. Video games and the demoscene were like that for me, and now any modern machine really can run almost anything.
Programming can still be fun like that, but often in the context of existing ideas. My parents had similar feelings about new music and cars. The sense of wonder decreases when the bar is raised. That's not to say there isn't a ton left to explore, but that's the impression when curiosity is too easily satisfied. You have to keep up and find new ways to stay curious. We consume way more than we create these days.
The New Yorker had a memorable single panel comic by David Sipress with an old man saying "everything was better back when everything was worse". I just had to mention it.
That it's built off Micropython is a huge deal. I've started using it by default for my hardware projects and it makes everything easier - writing drivers, playing with user interfaces, etc. Loads of regular Python libraries work and I can even grab them over the Internet. Like how I imagine it was running Forth or smth on embedded kits back in the day (ah maybe not the networking bit)
Seems a little too technical for me but I am really curious. Seems pretty interesting. My brother is into music and is looking forward to get started with music production as well. And he himself is a developer. He might like this. Let's see.
I preordered the hardware version sometime before it was released. At a $50 price point, I thought it was worth a gamble. I wasn't disappointed! It's more of a hacker's device at the moment - for better or worse - but it's fairly powerful under the hood. AMY is a very impressive synth. And the device is clearly a labor of love from the creator.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 42.1 ms ] thread[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Computers
https://github.com/coolcoder613eb/notepad
I haven't done too much coding with it, but I have on occasion fixed bugs in the text editor on the T-Deck itself.
If I were to build a synth a year ago I probably would have used Rust compiled to WASM and running in the browser. This thing has a lot of the same functionality, but you have about -30 million lines of code for the OS, -30MLOC for the browser, and another -30MLOC for Rust/LLVM.
And that doesn't even get in to the cost of materials or power savings.
Obviously it's not apples to apples but it really makes me wonder how much of that stack we need for most programs.
Also love how absolutely minimal it is in size and if you didnt notice, the screen is a touchscreen. And they have a basic set of ui widgets.
Also interesting, the gfx lets you overlap sprites, bitmap, and text mode. You can tell the designers have lot of XP on 8-bit systems. And the bitmap is a little larger than the screen so you can do some superbitmap stuff. It's bot terribly larger, just a bit.
I havent been using it as much for its synth capabilites, ironically, but for making sequencers for external instruments. I believe it also has audio in...
Also the discord is helpful. 10/10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Computers
Am I wrong to think statements like these are just aspirational warm-and-fuzzies about the product without any real substance?
You could do all those things on anything, but they are typically incongruent with one another. If you are a beginner or a pro, you’re going to be better off doing it on a “more-standard” device.
I got so much joy from computers and I'd like my kids to have that kind of experience too without accidentally detouring into social media (which has my mind in a vice grip).
Still a couple of years away, but I think I'd like to evaluate this kind of device then and see if it's the right model to use.
when he is old enough to get some joy from it.
Well, Minecraft 'redstone' works a bit like that?
Of course, it's embedded in a much bigger program, but I'm not sure that makes a difference to the kids?
Half the fun was not knowing how to do something. There was no other way to satisfy curiosity than to tinker endlessly and constantly seek out information. Stumbling upon unusually good programs made it seem like anything was possible regardless of the machine it ran on. Video games and the demoscene were like that for me, and now any modern machine really can run almost anything.
Programming can still be fun like that, but often in the context of existing ideas. My parents had similar feelings about new music and cars. The sense of wonder decreases when the bar is raised. That's not to say there isn't a ton left to explore, but that's the impression when curiosity is too easily satisfied. You have to keep up and find new ways to stay curious. We consume way more than we create these days.
The New Yorker had a memorable single panel comic by David Sipress with an old man saying "everything was better back when everything was worse". I just had to mention it.
That it's built off Micropython is a huge deal. I've started using it by default for my hardware projects and it makes everything easier - writing drivers, playing with user interfaces, etc. Loads of regular Python libraries work and I can even grab them over the Internet. Like how I imagine it was running Forth or smth on embedded kits back in the day (ah maybe not the networking bit)
It is not an instrument for me and I don’t use it. I prefer to interact with music in other idioms.
But I appreciate the passion of its designer.