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[Tellemurius]

This just popped into my head while searching for a solution on my DF Portable idea. My question to The GREAT TOAD is would it be possible to build DF on top of the ARM architecture? Im asking to see if the game is possible to run on a ARM processor, i wouldn't care if it runs well at all i just need to know if it can run.

[PTTG??]

This has been asked a lot. Short answer, no, DF is too complex to put on your cell phone. Just because the graphics look simple, doesn't mean it can work on anything. To be 100% accurate, yes, you could compile it for an ARM, but there's no point, and it would take a lot of re-engineering.

If you want to play DF with your phone, then you can do so already. Get a computer, make it a DFterm server. Get a telnet/other remote terminal client app on your phone. Log on to your server from your phone. There. All your dwarfy goodness, and less filling!

[Tellemurius]

This has been asked a lot. Short answer, no, DF is too complex to put on your cell phone. Just because the graphics look simple, doesn't mean it can work on anything. To be 100% accurate, yes, you could compile it for an ARM, but there's no point, and it would take a lot of re-engineering.

If you want to play DF with your phone, then you can do so already. Get a computer, make it a DFterm server. Get a telnet/other remote terminal client app on your phone. Log on to your server from your phone. There. All your dwarfy goodness, and less filling!

no no no im not dropping this on a cellphone, im considering getting a ARM dev board for linux work (working on a open source portable device). most of the dependencies themselves that DF uses can be built on ARM but i need to know from the main program's APIs can it be done. Im considering this as the availability of ARM chips vs. x86 in the market, while Intel is shrinking its chips down every year the prices are still too high compared to ARM. ARM itself isn't powerful compared to the x86 arch but since they are now getting into the server/enterprise industry, ARM is exponentially getting more powerful.

[Pidgeot]

most of the dependencies themselves that DF uses can be built on ARM but i need to know from the main program's APIs can it be done.

Even though Toady might not *know* of any code that is platform or architecture-dependent, that doesn't mean there isn't any - it would require him to have been aware of this possibility the whole time, which probably hasn't been the case.

Hence, the only way to know if it will work and to try, and the only way to try is by going through the not-entirely-trivial task of setting up a build environment, modifying build files, and seeing if everything compiles.

Of course, compiling doesn't mean it actually works, since there may be certain parts of the code that implicitly depends on something specific to the x86 architecture - the only way to know if it works would be to actually have one of these devices running the OS that is being targeted by the resulting build and try it out. I'm pretty sure Toady doesn't have such a device, which makes that quite difficult.

In other words, actually ensuring that it will work properly on an ARM system will require a lot of effort. Until there is a sufficiently common (and powerful) system for Toady to actually target, it doesn't make a lot of sense for him to put a lot of time and effort into something like this - and that's assuming he even wants to, which is not certain, given that it is a lot harder to write code for multiple architectures than to write code for multiple platforms.

[Tellemurius]

most of the dependencies themselves that DF uses can be built on ARM but i need to know from the main program's APIs can it be done.

Even though Toady might not *know* of any code that is platform or architecture-dependent, that doesn't mean there isn't any - it would require him to have been aware of this possibility the whole time, which probably hasn't been the case.

Hence, the only way to know if it will work and to try, and the only way to try is by going through the not-entirely-trivial task of setting up a build environment, modifying build files, and seeing if everything compiles.

Of course, compiling doesn't mean it actually works, since there may be certain parts of the code that implicitly depends on something specific to the x86 architecture - the only way to know if it works would be to actually have one of these devices running the OS that is being targeted by the resulting build and try it out. I'm pretty sure Toady doesn't have such a device, which makes that quite difficult.

In other words, actually ensuring that it will work properly on an ARM system will require a lot of effort. Until there is a sufficiently common (and powerful) system for Toady to actually target, it doesn't make a lot of sense for him to put a lot of time and effort into something like this - and that's assuming he even wants to, which is not certain, given that it is a lot harder to write code for multiple architectures than to write code for multiple platforms.

I noted this as experimental for a reason, i doubt handful of us would have the equipment to try what i am doing. Im not asking Toady to drop everything and start slaving away, on the contrary I want to slave away for him. I wouldn't know if he ever thought of running on different architectures but if i can even get a conceptual evidence this is possible, then i would go out of my way to get this idea to light. If i have to send him a Krait dev board loaded with ubuntu to see if this works then i will do it.

[Mesa]

If you want to play DF with your phone, then you can do so already. Get a computer, make it a DFterm server. Get a telnet/other remote terminal client app on your phone. Log on to your server from your phone. There. All your dwarfy goodness, and less filling!

Wait, YOU CAN PLAY DWARF FORTRESS ON THE PHONE?!
Holy [CANDY], better tell my friendz!

[Tellemurius]

DFterm has ceased development though, while it does work i do want to go way beyond that.