Yes it's true, Activation is the main data type. Embrio is kind of based on a simple brain model and activations are like neurons (at least how neurons are modeled when programming). Most logic in Embrio is done by multiplying two activations together, when they are both on the activation goes through and turns on something else, when one of them is off it "squeezes shut" the flow and the other thing doesn't turn on.

For simplicity currently all activations are a float value, even when the data they represent is really digital. You're right it is a bit wasteful. I think a "boolean" data type that can be plugged into an activation i/o would be a good idea, there have just always been higher priority things to implement. I will put that on top of my list though I think it's time to address that issue.

Hi,

Thanks for the reminder, I kind of forgot about this idea. I still don't like the idea of a whole new Input/Output type, but I do like the idea of adding a button to Activation inputs and outputs to limit the value to on or off. I put that on my high up todo list. In the UI it's an easy change, and shouldn't be too complicated in the compiling part, I'll look into it soon.

Is this a theoretical issue for you or are you running out of memory in some programs?

Currently there isn't really a restriction, just when you need to write

if (Input_Activation == true)

or something, you would write

if (Input_Activation > 0.5)

Logically there are no restrictions, the only down side is that you might have an activation using a float as it's memory storage when all it really only needs to be a bool.

I have some other ideas for how to save input/output memory which I need to weigh before going forward. For example, it's occurred to me that most of the time Activations don't need 4 bytes worth of resolution, often 2 or even 1 byte would be enough. Also, Arduino uses a full byte for a boolean value, and Embrio uses a lot of boolean values in the compiled code (one for each input that has connections). If I could figure out how to do bit logic to store 8 true/false values in 1 byte that would save a lot of memory. Both of those concepts together might make the ideas we are discussing moot.

I'll put this high on my list, I need to get to it eventually. I haven't focused too much on it yet because I haven't gotten any complaints of people running out of memory so I've been focusing elsewhere.