Bedrock
Dev tools
virtual machine runtime
SHOW HN2025
How HN took it
8 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 5 critical, out of 34 comments about the project. Thread score +0.20.
Idea: 4 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 3 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fun demos and nostalgic fantasy-console appeal
From 3 comments
The demos are surprisingly fun!
lastdong on HNLove this! Takes me back to the literal 8-bit computers of the 80s when it was much easier to learn to program with, for example, BASIC built into the operating system.
WantonQuantum on HNMy immediate reaction was, "oh, like Uxn!" but then of course I read it was originally a fork of Uxn. I love these 'toy' OSes, the more the better.
szczepu on HN
Useful as a portable compiler target
From 1 comment
This is the latest in a very honourable tradition. My first encounter with it was with Martin Richards's BCPL system in 1972. The compiler generated a hypothetical ISA called…
vincent-manis on HN
Objections
64KiB address space is too small for many uses
From 2 comments
This is the latest in a very honourable tradition. My first encounter with it was with Martin Richards's BCPL system in 1972. The compiler generated a hypothetical ISA called…
vincent-manis on HN> I designed Bedrock to make it easier to maintain programs as a solo developer. Can you say more? I really love this idea but can’t think of any practical use case with 65k of…
behrlich on HN
Undefined behaviour makes portability harder
From 1 comment
I like things like this. One of the big differences from Uxn is the introduction of undefined behavior; by design, you can break it, unlike Stanislav's legos. So presumably…
kragen on HN
Requests
A 32-bit variant
From 1 comment
This is the latest in a very honourable tradition. My first encounter with it was with Martin Richards's BCPL system in 1972. The compiler generated a hypothetical ISA called…
vincent-manis on HN
Source code for example programs
From 1 comment
There are few examples here: https://benbridle.com/projects/bedrock.html But where are the source codes?
anta40 on HN
Questions
Why 8-bit rather than 16-bit
From 2 comments
Why 8 bit?
tines on HNThat puzzled me too, since it's a fork of Uxn, a 16-bit architecture.
kragen on HN
How the two-colour pixel screen works
From 1 comment
> each pixel having both a foreground and a background colour how does that work?
tromp on HN
Alternatives named
Uxn
From 2 comments
For people curious about the differences between this and Uxn (as I was): https://benbridle.com/articles/bedrock-differences-from-uxn.html
kosmavision on HNThat puzzled me too, since it's a fork of Uxn, a 16-bit architecture.
kragen on HN
PICO-8
From 1 comment
There's PICO-8 in this category if you haven't already heard of it, it uses Lua as the language for writing programs. It was another huge inspiration of mine while working on…
benbridle on HN
WebAssembly
From 1 comment
Wouldn't the 32-bit variant just be WebAssembly?
mikestaas on HN