Case Studies
Sometimes it can be helpful to examine a tinyprog in detail, seeing what choices were made and why:
- MELT.COM: We take a cute program from the 1980s and see how far we can crunch it down
- m8trix 8b: An "Enter The Matrix" screen display in only 8 bytes
- 4is256: Řrřola's Tetris is a full tetris clone with scoring
- paint16b: Hellmood's paint program in 16 bytes (really)
- Indian Spirit: An American Indian tapestry with music in 32 bytes
- Essence: Fakery of path tracing and lighting, with audio, in 64 bytes
- Memories: Detailed writeup on "Memories" (256 bytes)
- Game of Life 32b; Writeup for game of life in 32 bytes
External Case Studies
Brainfuck is a very tiny language, having only 8 commands and an instruction pointer. Several compilers and interpreters have been made; Gynvael archived many different versions along with their source code, the smallest of which was 125 bytes. qkumba took that as inspiration and created his own brainfuck compiler in 100 bytes (104 for one that is fully compliant). (Note: The term "compiler" is used mistakenly a lot in these descriptions; the majority of brainfuck programs are actually interpreters that load brainfuck programs and execute native code token by token. This one is an exception in that it really does compile the code entirely into native instructions first.)
Small Beginnings: The development of Homogenic Development Write up on Homogenic, by: Marquee Design (256 bytes)
Moving on: The development of Nanorail Development Write up on Nanorail, by: Marquee Design (256 bytes)
Full Circle: The development of Enigma Development Write up on Enigma, by: Marquee Design (256 bytes)
Crunching content: The development of Microdose Development Write up on Microdose, by: Marquee Design (256 bytes)
Disassembly of Farbrausch's "fr-016: bytes"
