I would think C would work as long as you restrict it to a minimal base set: c89 -Wall -Werror -Wpedantic – or be brave and use -nostdlib – but keep in mind, C was a mainframe language, it only later got adopted for microcomputers and then microcontrollers

but aside from those, you are looking for a language that:

doesn’t require a lot of resources (power, memory, or storage)
can be bootstrapped relatively easily: sectorForth, milliForth, sectorLisp, uLisp, Uxn
has enough existing code (and community) to learn from (and isn’t some grad project that was abandoned after post-graduation)
but also doesn’t have so much code that it’s now synonymous with lake-burning scrapers fouling the waters
can run in constrained environments: commodity microcontrollers, 8-bit processors
can be compiled in those same constrained environments (being able to bootstrap it rather than needing a server farm to cross compile it)

2w ago

The Addams Family by Charles Addams

Jump

cerement @slrpnk.net 2w ago

Matrix by Emigre – definitely not the original font, Matrix wasn’t created until 1986

2w ago

Linus Torvalds to critics of AI coding in Linux: "Fork it. Or just walk away."

Jump

cerement @slrpnk.net 2w ago

“Year of the BSD desktop.” ?

4w ago

US leads international concern after China test-fires missile into Pacific

Jump

cerement @slrpnk.net 4w ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6qAIaqK3_Q

1mo ago

Does anyone else wish we had less news posts?

Jump

cerement @slrpnk.net 1mo ago

“Socialist papers have often a tendency to become mere annals of complaints about existing conditions. The oppression of the laborers in the mine, the factory, and the field is related; the misery and sufferings of the workers during strikes are told in vivid pictures; their helplessness in the struggle against employers is insisted upon: and this succession of hopeless efforts, related in the paper, exercises a most depressing influence upon the reader. To counterbalance that effect, the editor has to rely chiefly upon burning words by means of which he tries to inspire his readers with energy and faith. I thought, on the contrary, that a revolutionary paper must be, above all, a record of those symptoms which everywhere announce the coming of a new era, the germination of new forms of social life, the growing revolt against antiquated institutions. These symptoms should be watched, brought together in their intimate connection, and so grouped as to show to the hesitating minds of the greater number the invisible and often unconscious support which advanced ideas find everywhere, when a revival of thought takes place in society. To make one feel sympathy with the throbbing of the human heart all over the world, with its revolt against age-long injustice, with its attempts at working out new forms of life,—this should be the chief duty of a revolutionary paper. It is hope, not despair, which makes successful revolutions.”
—Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899)

(emphasis added)

2mo ago

Waterproof backpacks?

Jump

cerement @slrpnk.net 2mo ago

as a kludge to hold you over until you make a decision – you can isolate what you need to keep dry in a dry-bag or trash-compactor-bag (budget option) stuffed inside your existing backpack

2mo ago

X11 vs Wayland

Jump

cerement @slrpnk.net 2mo ago

for most people, use whatever your distro ships with and installs for you
choosing desktop environments still starts heated discussions – high end, it’s a choice between Gnome and KDE – mid-tier has Xfce, LXQt, Mate, Cinnamon, and more – limited hardware go for IceWM, JWM, FLWM, or similar – want to get your hands dirty? go for a tiling window manager
X11 is (effectively) abandonware at this point – it’s still getting security patches, but the devs left and started Wayland 17-ish years ago
XLibre is more political than technical – and I’ll leave it at that

2mo ago

How to calculate stardate? How is measured?

Jump

cerement @slrpnk.net 2mo ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardate

“This makes it impossible to convert all stardates into equivalent calendar dates, especially since stardates were originally intended to avoid specifying exactly when Star Trek takes place.”