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CppCon 2016: Jason Turner “Rich Code for Tiny Computers: A Simple Commodore 64 Game in C++17”

CppCon · talk · Watch on YouTube

C, C++, Rust, Go & systems languagesDemoscene & retrocomputingCompilers, interpreters & program analysis

What it is

Jason Turner's CppCon 2016 talk builds a simple Commodore 64 game using C++17, showing how constexpr and const let a modern compiler produce tight 6502 code. He walks through assembly output to show abstractions being optimized away.

Why Hacker News recommends it

A perennial favorite, recommended as proof that expressive modern C++ can compile to efficient code even on tiny retro hardware.

  • 13 people recommended it
  • 10 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2016, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “there is a wonderful talk by Jason Turner about writing a simple Pong clone for the Commodore 64 in modern C++”

    Writing a Pong clone for the Commodore 64 in modern C++.

    dmit, 2016-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Twenty years later I wrote a Tetris again”

  2. “There was a fantastic talk at CppCon last year, using C++17 to program a game for the Commodore 64.”

    Standard C++ idioms compile to efficient Commodore 64 machine code.

    MereInterest, 2017-02 · Strong recommendation · in “C++ on Embedded Systems”

  3. “C++17 for the Commodore 64.”

    C++17 for the Commodore 64 listed among favorite tech talks.

    voltagex_, 2016-10 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”

  4. “Cool presentation too, and uses Godbolt's tool”

    Shows compiler optimizing away code when const is used, via Godbolt.

    beached_whale, 2016-10 · Recommendation · in “Epiphany-V: A 1024-core 64-bit RISC processor”

  5. “He shows his assembly at many steps of the way and shows how many functions are completely elided when const (and later constexpr) are used correctly.”

    Shows assembly at each step and functions elided by const and constexpr.

    sqeaky, 2017-01 · Recommendation · in “Add a const here, delete a const there”

  6. “Also highly recommended: Anything by Jason Turner and Ben Deane.”

    Listed among highly recommended talks by Turner and Deane.

    Nimelrian, 2018-10 · Recommendation · in “C++: Associative map containers with compile-time lookup”

  7. “Many of his videos / tutorials are worth a look if you are interested in C++.”

    Turner is a regular CppCon presenter with worthwhile talks.

    adev_, 2019-07 · Recommendation · in “ChaiScript – Easy to Use Scripting for C++”

  8. “What blew my mind was using a modern C++ compiler to build optimized software for that old hardware.”

    Modern C++ compiler building optimized software for Commodore 64.

    inetknght, 2020-03 · Recommendation · in “Getting started with bare-metal assembly”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: c++17, commodore 64, constexpr, 6502, compiler optimization, retro games

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