Which part is the
computer, and which
part is the language?

Write the same small job for the Loom's Weft-8, for x86-64 and for AArch64, and the answer becomes obvious: the loop, the compare, the branch and the load are the machine. Everything you thought was programming is mostly naming.

See the three columns The machine it runs on

specimen 03 · the greater of two

CMP R1, R2          cmpl  %ebx, %eax     cmp   w0, w1
JG  big             jg    .big          b.gt  .big
MOV R3, R2          movl  %ebx, %ecx    mov   w2, w1
HLT                 jmp   .done         b     .done

weft-8x86-64aarch64

Five jobs, three machines

Add two numbers. Sum 1 to 5 with a loop. Pick the greater of two. Store a value and read it back. Multiply by four. Nothing here needs a library, a framework or a runtime — and that is the point.

Weft-8

The Loom's machine: 16 registers, 27 two-byte opcodes, 256 bytes. This column is executable — the page runs it and the tests assert the result.

x86-64

The machine under most laptops. Hand-written illustrations of the same job, labelled as illustrations rather than passed off as compiler output.

AArch64

The machine in most phones. Same job again — and the closest of the three to the Weft-8 in shape, because both keep their flags in one place.

What you notice after four examples

The ideas are all the same. Load, add, compare, branch, store. Every machine on this page is those five things wearing different names.
The differences are arithmetic and addressing. x86 subtracts and tests in two instructions; ARM does it in one; the Weft-8 needs three, because SUB sets flags but cannot branch.
Size is the visible cost of generality. The Weft-8 reaches memory with a literal byte address; x86 and ARM compute one from a frame or stack pointer, and their instructions grow to say so.
Built on the Loom. The Weft-8 column is weft8.js from app-jacquard, byte for byte the same engine.

the weft-8 family — one machine, seven faces

the Loomthe machine and its editor — where it all starts Weft Puzzlesfive puzzles solved in assembly, a robot on a grid Clip Loomclipboard programs you can read: strip, squeeze, wrap Weft-8 on hardwarethe same machine in C, three-way parity with the JS one weft8-kitrules small enough to sign off Weft-8 Classroomeight exercises that teach how a computer works

Weft-8 beside x86 and ARMyou are here