I'm guessing this is a vibe coded shell + some apps over the CE kernel? Never seen any version of CE that looked like that.
it might be dumb but it really breaks my heart seeing cool hack projects like these being vibe coded. Like they've thrown away some opportunity or something i can't really articulate why
I had Claude do a "short, succinct summary" of two bugs I found in someone else's Python code: one was missing parentheses around subtraction (x = a - b - c instead of x = a - (b - c)) and one was `SomeException("asdf")` instead of `raise SomeException("asdf")`.
Both explanations were a paragraph of text, each about six lines long, which I replaced with a single sentence each.
When it spits out 4 pages of explanations, when I'm asking it what's better postgres locks or redis locks (two dbs I already have in my project), I sometimes tell it to keep it shorter than a few sentences. We don't need an essay for every decision.
I am guessing because the version of Windows CE (the Dreamcast SDK version) didn't have the source to it; and for whatever reason they didn't want to find that source. Copyright reasons perhaps?
I find it's a shame the article is absolutely littered with AI-isms, again, like another cool hack project the other day here on HN. It is incredibly jarring to read a line like "No Platform Builder, no SDK install, no CD key.".
Sounds like a cool project but I find it a bit offensive that the article author doesn't value the article reader's time enough to edit the AI-isms out.
On the other hand, trying to point this out usually results in downvotes, so maybe it's useless to complain about this trend?
I actually love this because the entire time I owned a Dreamcast I used to look at the windows CE logo on the front and think, does it have windows CE in ROM? How can I boot it?
Windows CE isn't in ROM, the binaries are loaded from GD-ROM disc for games that chose to use it. And booting it wouldn't do you much good anyway since there's no graphical or text shell. It's intended to launch straight into the game.
I'm guessing this is a vibe coded shell + some apps over the CE kernel? Never seen any version of CE that looked like that.
it might be dumb but it really breaks my heart seeing cool hack projects like these being vibe coded. Like they've thrown away some opportunity or something i can't really articulate why
i think even the icons are drawn by claude which explains why they look so strange https://github.com/maximqaxd/wince-dc/blob/c929784ba13226cc3...
Yeah, I skimmed the code, it's all vibes all the way down. I wanted a slice of history, I got slop.
"One cmake invocation goes from source to a bootable disc.gdi. No Platform Builder, no SDK install, no CD key." It's like the new emdash.
AI loves to sell the words they are saying like a QVC salesperson with a knife set.
It doesn't just cut cans, it cuts tomatos too. You would think you have to sharpen it, but you don't.
Not just this, but that.
Sounds nothing like a normal succenct engineer.
I had Claude do a "short, succinct summary" of two bugs I found in someone else's Python code: one was missing parentheses around subtraction (x = a - b - c instead of x = a - (b - c)) and one was `SomeException("asdf")` instead of `raise SomeException("asdf")`.
Both explanations were a paragraph of text, each about six lines long, which I replaced with a single sentence each.
When it spits out 4 pages of explanations, when I'm asking it what's better postgres locks or redis locks (two dbs I already have in my project), I sometimes tell it to keep it shorter than a few sentences. We don't need an essay for every decision.
If you're going to throw AI at the problem, couldn't you get it to port the real Windows CE shell ?
You’ve nailed the core of the smoking gun.
I've got the shape of it.
I now have the full picture.
I am guessing because the version of Windows CE (the Dreamcast SDK version) didn't have the source to it; and for whatever reason they didn't want to find that source. Copyright reasons perhaps?
I find it's a shame the article is absolutely littered with AI-isms, again, like another cool hack project the other day here on HN. It is incredibly jarring to read a line like "No Platform Builder, no SDK install, no CD key.".
Sounds like a cool project but I find it a bit offensive that the article author doesn't value the article reader's time enough to edit the AI-isms out.
On the other hand, trying to point this out usually results in downvotes, so maybe it's useless to complain about this trend?
I actually love this because the entire time I owned a Dreamcast I used to look at the windows CE logo on the front and think, does it have windows CE in ROM? How can I boot it?
Windows CE isn't in ROM, the binaries are loaded from GD-ROM disc for games that chose to use it. And booting it wouldn't do you much good anyway since there's no graphical or text shell. It's intended to launch straight into the game.
Adding on to everyone else. Games that did run wince included the wince logo on the dreamcast splash screen.
There were some Microsoft Systems Journal issues with articles on how to program for Dreamcast, the non NDA part of it.
Here is one of such articles, take it while still exists,
https://jacobfilipp.com/MSJ/directx.html
The sibling comment already has the other info, everything was bundled together.
Same, especially because at the time of Dreamcasts’s release - Windows CE was everywhere in the handhelds and PDA market.