itch.io

Thank you both for the comprehensive answers. I have started to write a parser for Adelie-like commands, but have noticed that I have much to learn about Lil and its operators. They are crazily powerful, but take some time getting used to. 
I should really start with what is there already, so thank you for pointing this out.
 @woodring's approach seems a nice next step without having to write a full parser for a command language, so thank you for this.

Have there been attempts to standardize on a format for simple slideshow presentation decks in Decker?

I am thinking of something like the Adelie tool by 100 rabbits. Adelie reads and displays files, containing commands to display stuff on slides. Something like 
  GOTO 20,22
  TEXT An exciting topic

Coming from a different angle than Millie Squilly in her project, I have also pursued ideas for a dedicated Decker machine. In my case, the motivation was to have a "substrate" for young people to tinker with creative computer uses ("malleable software"), but also connect them with the physical world ("physical computing"). 

My problem up to now was that fewer and fewer young people have access to their own computer with a real keyboard. The default for some years has become that young people get their own mobile phone (instead of their own laptop). At school, computers are more and more replaced with tablets (mostly iPads in our case), without a keyboard as default. I know that, of course, with just a little dedication and very little money, a real computer can be had. It's just that this is no longer the default and younger people begin to see physical keyboards as a thing only old people want. 

Since the sommer of 2025, with the PicoCalc by Clockwork Pi, there is a new, relatively cheap device that fits  my idea of an entry-level device that can serve as a "dynabook" for creative uses of computers. My first attempt was to port Lil (and later, Decker) to the Pi Pico microcontroller in the device. However, for some months now, there has been an exciting new option, which I have only become aware of a few days ago: The machine can rather easily be fitted with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. This little computer is powerful enough to run Decker easily. It also provides all the niceties of a full computer, including WiFi (to ssh into it) and Bluetooth (to connect a mouse).

Just yesterday I managed to compile Decker (it was trivial) on the Pi Zero (as an initial experiment, without the 2. I would not recommend it - too slow. Go for the Zero 2W):

This is the my forum post about this little milestone. 

Hi, apologies for creating this pull request and I certainly understand your position, both with respect to LLMs in general and not wanting to freeze the VM. So, thank you again for this lovely piece of software and the chance to play with and learn from it.

I am fascinated to be able to run Decker as a kind of operating system on some microcontroller-driven display-board in the future.

To better understand how the VM in c/lil.h works. I‘ve added an option to output „assembly code“ by passing „-s“ as a command line option to lilt: https://github.com/JohnEarnest/Decker/pull/11

Based on this, I have asked a friendly LLM to write me some documentation on the VM: https://github.com/codekulturbonn/Decker/blob/main/docs/vm.md

I just want to chime to signal interest in "more than ASCII". In my case this would be the German umlauts (äöüßÄÖÜ).

I would love to introduce Decker as a vehicle for tiny tools at my workplace. The situation there is probably typical for enterprise offices: Windows, Microsoft Office, the only option for automation being Microsoft Power*. Another option would be Python, but this lacks a nice GUI and all-in-one appearance.

I am currently building a visual app for note taking and browsing.

This works  on a hierarchy of note files, supported by an SQlite database for searching and arbitrary relationships. I use it on a small (5'', 320x240) display, connected to a Raspberry Pi 400,  cyberdeck-style. The UI, implemented  with PicoTUI, runs in a terminal window and can be operated by keyboard alone.

Decker-alike in this setup could mean that note files would be individual slides or whole decks of slides. A render engine would display a slide full screen in a terminal window,  using  only ANSI  terminal characters  for  both widgets and even low-res images. Decker & Lil would provide widgets and scripting, similar what TurboVision & TurboPascal did back in the 90th.

Sorry, I know this question is far out of scope with anything Decker-related. However, I am currently building a little Terminal UI app, using Python, and was wondering if anything in the spirit of Decker exists for Terminal UIs?

I am very interested in a version for a RaspberryPi 4, too.

Best,

-- Olav

Hi PCBgames,

I would love to collaborate on the German translation. Did you set a spreadsheet up already where I can contribute?

Best,

-- Olav

What a beautifully crafted game!