Shoozza

Code is clean if it can be understood easily – by everyone on the team. Clean code can be read and enhanced by a developer other than its original author. With understandability comes readability, changeability, extensibility and maintainability.

General rules

Follow standard conventions.
Keep it simple stupid. Simpler is always better. Reduce complexity as much as possible.
Boy scout rule. Leave the campground cleaner than you found it.
Always find root cause. Always look for the root cause of a problem.

Design rules

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

This information applies to the PICO-8 0.1.6 release.

This document is here to help folks with a proficiency in Lua understand the limitations and discrepencies between Lua and PICO-8's Lua.

You can always view the manual or yellowafterlife's extended 0.1.1 manual.

General

anything written in uppercase the PICO-8 editor or .p8 is made lowercase by the editor. → editing the .p8 file directly can work
print(function() end) outputs the string function instead of the string function: 0x0000000.

	--[[
	oop basics
	]]

	function class(inherits)
	local c = {}
	c.__mt = {__index = c}
	--handle single inheritence
	if type(inherits) == "table" and inherits.__mt then
	setmetatable(c, inherits.__mt)

	const PASS = ['32']; // green
	const FAIL = ['31', '1']; // red, bold

	function logStyle(ansiEscapeCodes, text) {
	console.log(`\x1b[${ansiEscapeCodes.join(';')}m${text}\x1b[0m`);
	}

	class Tester {
	constructor() {}

	--[[
	"semi-manual" garbage collection

	specify a time budget and a memory ceiling per call.

	called once per frame, this will spread any big collections
	over a couple of frames, and "catch up" when there is. This
	keeps GC burden much more predictable.

	The memory ceiling provides some level of "relief valve" - if

	/*
	how to install:
	- visit about:support
	- open profile folder
	- create/edit chrome\userContent.css file
	*/

	@-moz-document url-prefix("about:reader") {
	/* fix toolbar */
	.toolbar {

	# Copyright 2017 Josef N Patoprsty
	#
	# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
	# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
	# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
	# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
	# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
	# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
	#
	# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all

	"**************************************************************************
	* Allowable characters: *
	* - a-z *
	* - A-Z *
	* - 0-9 *
	* - .+/\~<>@%\|&?
	* - blank, tab, cr, ff, lf *
	* *
	* Variables: *
	* - variables must be declared before use *

	###
	###
	### UPDATE: For Win 11, I recommend using this tool in place of this script:
	### https://christitus.com/windows-tool/
	### https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil
	### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UQZ5oQg8XA
	### iwr -useb https://christitus.com/win \| iex
	###
	### OR take a look at
	### https://github.com/HotCakeX/Harden-Windows-Security