tclementdev

libdispatch efficiency tips

The libdispatch is one of the most misused API due to the way it was presented to us when it was introduced and for many years after that, and due to the confusing documentation and API. This page is a compilation of important things to know if you're going to use this library. Many references are available at the end of this document pointing to comments from Apple's very own libdispatch maintainer (Pierre Habouzit).

My take-aways are:

• You should create very few, long-lived, well-defined queues. These queues should be seen as execution contexts in your program (gui, background work, ...) that benefit from executing in parallel. An important thing to note is that if these queues are all active at once, you will get as many threads running. In most apps, you probably do not need to create more than 3 or 4 queues.

• Go serial first, and as you find performance bottle necks, measure why, and if concurrency helps, apply with care, always validating under system pressure. Reuse

kometbomb

PICO-8 size optimization stuff for tweetcarts

Here are some simple ways to make your PICO-8 code fit in 140 280 characters (as in the #tweetjam #tweetcart craze). I did not invent these, I merely observed and collected them from the tweetjam thread.

LUA syntax stuff

• Use single character variable names
• Use x=.1 and x=.023, not x=0.1 or x=0.023
• x=1/3 is shorter than x=.3333
• You don't need to separate everything with spaces or write them on their own lines, e.g. circ(x,y,1)pset(z,q,7) works just as well