#garfield Logs

Oct 25 2023

04:11 PM polprog: https://pleroma.m68k.church/media/c6a92879fcf55e2c6b72e3c037963b75afea6a1cb283d00d4c68cef739641871.jpg
04:23 PM polprog: esp32
04:23 PM polprog: the firmware is MASSIVE
04:23 PM polprog: this runs freeRTOS if i recall, the api is crazy
04:23 PM polprog: i may try to do some bare metal programming, for now i initialized the ssd1306 display using the HAL
07:28 PM rue_mohr: huh
07:30 PM aandrew: nice
07:30 PM aandrew: yes I have done a LOT of ESP32 work, it's got a weird build system but is rather nice overall.
07:31 PM rue_mohr: why do we need hal, cant we just program for the controllers were using?
07:31 PM rue_mohr: please
07:31 PM rue_mohr: otherwise we should just make a virtual processor and always emulate/code for that
07:32 PM aandrew: rue_mohr: for the same reason we have standard APIs and libraries -- so we don't have to write bare metal code that has to change every time the underlying system changes
07:35 PM rue_mohr: emulators on emulators on virtual emulators
07:35 PM rue_mohr: its a slippery slope
07:35 PM rue_mohr: I wonder how portable the mind is
07:38 PM rue_mohr: its also to do with the lack of architecture loyalty. RISC VI commes along tommorow and everyone will instantly forget about everything else
07:38 PM rue_mohr: I have a video called arm6
07:38 PM rue_mohr: and the REASON it has to many views, it because everyone thought I mean an arm6 processor
07:40 PM rue_mohr: and if risc 6 were HORRID, everyone would STILL jump on it, because its whats new
07:40 PM rue_mohr: they dont even care if its better, its just new
07:40 PM rue_mohr: they throw everything else in the trash
07:48 PM aandrew: you think so?
07:48 PM aandrew: I mean xtensa's been around for a while but only ESP32's been using it, and even they've got a risc-v ESP32
07:49 PM aandrew: and honestly a HAL can be *very* light; there is very, very little reason to write bare-metal code these days. the only time I ever seem to is if I'm dealing with exception handling, low-level bootup or optimzation
07:50 PM aandrew: and even that last one you can usually get pretty damn close to hand-written with careful compiler hinting
07:58 PM rue_mohr: the hal code I'v seen has made me cringe
08:20 PM Tom_L: hardware abstract layer?
08:38 PM rue_mohr: yea
09:11 PM Tom_L: lcnc uses that