Maximum Tension

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From machine code to glass.

We're Maximum Tension. We build software, algorithms and circuits from the lowest level up, do our own 3D, art and animation, and design websites with Apple-level care at small-studio prices.

See the projects Ask for a website

Maximum Tension builds products with maximum efficiency and maximum performance, on minimum needs.

What we do

Software: Desktop applications, tools and libraries. Small, fast, and a single file wherever we can manage it.
Research and algorithms: Compilers, JIT code generation, neural networks and rendering. We publish the papers.
Hardware and circuits: Circuit design, and the low-level code that runs on it.
3D, design and animation: 3D modelling, illustration, motion, and the visual design of everything we make.
Websites: Design and code with Apple-level care, at prices a small business can pay.

C:\CMT

AddressC:\CMT

CMT

C Maximum Tension

A header-only C library that aims to be a complete ecosystem for C. Copy one folder into a project, include what you need, and it works on anything with a C compiler: from K&R and DOS-era compilers up to C23, C++20 and modern 64-bit systems.

Select an item to view its description.

16 object(s)My Computer

CMT Setup

Built from the bottom up

Instead of relying on what each compiler or operating system happens to provide, CMT builds its own foundations from the lowest level, so everything above them is written once and runs everywhere.

Environment detectionPlatform, CPU, architecture, ABI, and K&R or ANSI, all detected at compile time.
Language helpersTRY, CATCH and CANCEL for C, portable types, booleans, variadic arguments, and a large set of compiler attributes and calling conventions.
Assembly in C macrosx86 instructions written as macros like MOV_RAX_RBX, with exact byte sizes. Inline assembly on GCC and MSVC; machine code written into memory on everything else.
Operating system servicesMemory, including executable memory, threads and mutexes on Windows, Linux, OS/2, Haiku, real-time systems and more, plus instruction cache control.
Windows without importsKERNEL32 and USER32 functions are found at runtime by walking the process's own internal structures. No windows.h, no linking.
ObjectsObjects with bound methods in C: console.print("Hi") with no self argument, through small machine code trampolines generated at runtime.
CONSOLEA full terminal UI module: colours, cursor, shapes, mouse and keyboard input on Windows, Linux and macOS. Usable from plain C, CMT objects or C++ classes.
Core modulesDisk and file I/O, environment variables, signals and exit handling, NEAR and HUGE pointers, and CMT's own STDLIB, STDIO and MATH.
GRAPHICSFull window control on WebView, OpenGL, Vulkan, DirectX, Core Graphics, Metal and VGA, with true cross-platform behaviour.

Works today

Environment detection

Platform, CPU, architecture, ABI, and K&R or ANSI, all detected at compile time.

Installing: Environment detection

Scroll to stack the layers.

b.c - C:\CMT\EXAMPLES

#include "CMT/CMT.H" // Header only, even though it has linkable objects: CMT's auto-linker handles that
#include "CMT/CONSOLE.HPP" // *.HPP gives C++ classes in C++, and CMT's own object model in C

SECTION (int, TEST, (int test)) // Assembly DSL. Also works on compilers that don't support inline assembly at all
	MOV_EAX_ARG1
	ADD_EAX_(22)
	RET
END

int main(void)
{
	var error_message = 0;

	try
	{
		if (error_message == 0)
			throw ((var)"It falls here");

		console.log("You won't see me no matter what");
		cancel ;
		return (1);
	}
	catch (error_message)
	{
		console.print("[%s]\n", (char *)error_message);
	}

	console.log("A text with newline")
		->log(" continued till here.")
		->log(" Then another line started")
		->log(" thanks to the log function")
		->log(" and ended there again.\n");
	console.warning_here("Test\n"); // "b.c (33): WARNING: Test"
	console.print("%d\n", 42) // 42
		->put.colored.frame('#', 0X0A, 18, 5, 34, 11)
		->put.colored.frame_radius('*', 0X0E, 38, 5, 54, 11, 3)
		->put.colored.rectangle('.', 0X09, 58, 5, 68, 11)
		->put.colored.rectangle_radius('o', 0X0D, 72, 5, 88, 11, 2)
		->put.colored.circle('O', 0X0B, 2, 14, 24, 26)
		->put.colored.ellipse('e', 0X4F, 28, 14, 50, 26)
		->put.colored.curve('~', 0X06, 54, 14, 96, 14, 6.0F, -6.0F)
		->input.wait.key()->clear();

	console.print("TESTING ASM - %d\n", TEST(50)); // TESTING ASM - 72

#ifdef __PLATFORM_WINDOWS__ // Windows API without windows.h or import libraries
	KERNEL32.Sleep(1000);
	USER32.MessageBoxA(0, "Hello, World!", "CMT", 0);
#endif /* __PLATFORM_WINDOWS__ */

	return (0);
}

Ln 1, Col 1C (CMT)

Command Prompt

A real CMT program, coloured the way CMT's own editor files colour it. Press Build and run.

Compatibility

One folder, from K&R to C23

C++98
C++11
C++14
C++17
C++20

Systems it already talks to

Windows
Linux
macOS
OS/2
Haiku
Real-time systems

Documentation in Markdown and man pages, an article on the bound method technique, and syntax highlighting for about 15 editors, including VS Code, Vim, Emacs, Helix, Kate and Sublime.

Where it stands: the design is solid and the GCC and Clang 64-bit path is the most mature. Several older and rarer platforms are still being completed and tested, and automated cross-compiler testing is planned.

CMT on GitHub

Visual Universe

A design editor in the spirit of Figma, written in plain JavaScript with no frameworks and no build step. The goal is one editor for web design, vector art, images, animation, video and documents.

The canvas is real HTML and CSS. Every object on it is a real web element, so what you design already is a web page, not a picture of one.

Untitled CMT docs maximum-tension.com

A real element

Select me, then drag a corner.

Button

Drag, resize and rotate. Everything in this window is a real HTML element, just like in Visual Universe.

Works today

An infinite canvas with smooth pan and zoom, a dot grid, and a pixel grid up close.
Boxes, text, images, SVG, video, audio, PDFs and whole web pages that hold other objects. Drop many files at once and they land neatly laid out.
Move, resize and rotate around a movable pivot, corner radius, flip past the opposite edge, undo and redo.
Snapping to edges and equal gaps, even between rotated objects, with tilted guides.
Padding, margin and gap handles you drag right on the object. Hold Ctrl to change every side.
Auto layout with Shift + A: flex or grid. Drop items in at the exact slot, drag them out, or reorder them in place.
Tidy arrangements: even grids and rows of mixed sizes, at any angle, with swaps that glide.
Text with Sublime-style multiple cursors: Ctrl + D, column select, one line per cursor when pasting.
Animated cursors with a spring swing. Smooth with thousands of objects on screen.

Building now

Saving and opening projects, with autosave and crash recovery.
Version history on GitHub: saves become commits you can browse and go back to.
Components with properties, slots and variants. Change the main one and every copy follows.
Export that compiles: components become plain HTML, styles become clean CSS classes and variables. No framework ends up in your site.
Import: bring HTML and CSS back into the editor.
Your own fonts, exported with only the letters you use.

The whole editor is one executable of about 4 MB. Its window is a WebView made in C, with CMT.

Free, and open source under Apache-2.0, like CMT.

Before release: an editor for every kind of file

Double-click an object and it opens in the editor made for it, then goes back to the canvas when you are done. Every editor saves into the same project file and shares one undo history.

Workspace
Layers, an inspector for every CSS property, a toolbar and a command palette with shortcuts you can change. Full pen support: pressure, tilt, rotation, hover, the eraser end and palm rejection.
Apple Pencil · Wacom · Windows Ink
Live web pages
Open any site inside the editor and take its elements, styles and images. Try your design at other screen sizes and pixel densities, in dark mode or with reduced motion.
Viewport · DPR · User agent · 3D CSS
Vector
Pen, pencil and shapes with bezier handles, boolean operations, gradients, masks and text on a path. Draw a set of glyphs and export it as a font, icon fonts included.
SVG · PNG · PDF · TTF · OTF · WOFF2
Bones and animation
Bones, weights, IK, mesh deformation and skin swapping on a keyframe timeline. Opens DragonBones and Spine rigs, and exports as CSS, SMIL, JSON, GIF or video.
DragonBones · Spine · CSS · SMIL
Images and brushes
Layers, blend modes, masks, selections and filters. The brush engine runs in C on the graphics card with pressure and tilt, and the brush designer opens and saves Procreate and Photoshop brushes.
.brush · .brushset · .abr
Frames and icons
One frame editor for animated images and icons: onion skin, timing, palettes, many sizes in one file, and cursor hotspots.
GIF · APNG · WebP · ICO · CUR · ANI
Video
A smooth timeline with trims, keyframes, titles and audio. Frames decode on the graphics card, and big files get light copies in the background so scrubbing is instant. Our own MP4 and WebM code, no FFmpeg.
MP4 · WebM · WebCodecs · WebGPU
Code
Started
A Sublime-like editor with highlighting, multiple cursors and find and replace. Change the code or the canvas and the other follows. Text on the canvas already has the multiple cursors.
HTML · CSS · JS · JSON · SVG

After release

PDF editing
Word, PowerPoint and Excel files
Compiling native programs with TCC
Figma import
Plugins
Live collaboration

D.R.O.N.E.

Dynamic Responsive Optimized Neural Engine

A neural network engine written from scratch in C, with no AI libraries or frameworks. Each AI built on it is called a drone.

Its own JIT compiler: While it runs, it writes x86-64 machine code for the neuron math using the CPU's vector instructions. Every compiled routine is checked against a plain C version.
A network that grows: When learning stalls, it adds neurons, attention heads, layers and room for new words. New parts start silent, so nothing it already learned breaks.
New kinds of neurons: Neuron recipes can be defined and placed where they fit best, and the JIT compiles them too.
Small on purpose: The engine and a trained network together are tens of megabytes. It runs offline on an ordinary PC, on every CPU thread.
Self-contained: Its own trainer, its own tests, and saving and loading of the whole network state. Built on CMT.

This network grows while you watch. New neurons start silent.

0 neurons0 layers

Instead of one huge fixed model trained on massive data: a compact engine that grows and reshapes itself as it learns, using the most efficient technique in each place.

Read the technical papers