Dave Plummer, a former Microsoft programmer, has developed a minimalist clone of the Windows Notepad application that measures a mere 2,686 bytes. This project aims to recreate the original simplicity of the text editor, stripping away features added over the years that have increased its size to the current 352 KB.
Plummer showcased his creation on his YouTube channel, Dave's Garage, detailing the process of achieving such a compact file size. The strategy involved leveraging Windows' built-in graphical user interface and menu systems, requiring only a small amount of assembly code to call these functions. This approach avoids replicating existing functionalities, contributing significantly to the reduced size. For comparison, original Atari 2600 games from 1977 were often around 2 KB in size, placing Plummer's Notepad clone in a similar size bracket.
To further optimize the executable, Plummer utilized a tool known as Crinkler. This compressing linker is a well-regarded utility within the demoscene community, responsible for consolidating code components and then aggressively compressing the resulting program. Plummer emphasized that his method does not involve any unconventional 'cheats' but rather utilizes standard Windows application development practices, albeit with an extreme focus on size reduction.
This endeavor serves as a practical exercise for developers and carries relevance in the current landscape of hardware limitations. With ongoing concerns about memory consumption, techniques for creating highly efficient software may become increasingly important for game developers. However, the current industry climate, marked by studio closures and budget constraints, may pose challenges to prioritizing such optimizations.