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• In GLSL is it possible to offset vertices based on height map colour?

  - by Rob

  I am attempting to generate some terrain based upon a heightmap. I have generated a 32 x 32 grid and a corresponding height map - In my vertex shader I am trying to offset the position of the Y axis based upon the colour of the heightmap, white vertices being higher than black ones. //Vertex Shader Code #version 330 uniform mat4 modelMatrix; uniform mat4 viewMatrix; uniform mat4 projectionMatrix; uniform sampler2D heightmap; layout (location=0) in vec4 vertexPos; layout (location=1) in vec4 vertexColour; layout (location=3) in vec2 vertexTextureCoord; layout (location=4) in float offset; out vec4 fragCol; out vec4 fragPos; out vec2 fragTex; void main() { // Retreive the current pixel's colour vec4 hmColour = texture(heightmap,vertexTextureCoord); // Offset the y position by the value of current texel's colour value ? vec4 offset = vec4(vertexPos.x , vertexPos.y + hmColour.r, vertexPos.z , 1.0); // Final Position gl_Position = projectionMatrix * viewMatrix * modelMatrix * offset; // Data sent to Fragment Shader. fragCol = vertexColour; fragPos = vertexPos; fragTex = vertexTextureCoord; } However the code I have produced only creates a grid with none of the y vertices higher than any others. This is the C++ code that generates the grid and texture co-orientates which I believe to be correct as the texture is mapped to the grid, hence the white blob in the middle. The grid-lines are generated in the fragment shader, sorry for any confusion. I have tried multiplying the r value of hmColour by 1000 unfortunately that had no effect. The only other problem it could be is that the texture coordinate data is incorrect ? for (int z = 0; z < MAP_Z ; z++) { for(int x = 0; x < MAP_X ; x++) { //Generate Vertex Buffer vertexData[iVertex++] = float (x) * MAP_X; vertexData[iVertex++] = 0; vertexData[iVertex++] = -(float) (z) * MAP_Z; //Colour Buffer NOT NEEDED colourData[iColour++] = 255.0f; // R colourData[iColour++] = 1.0f; // G colourData[iColour++] = 0.0f; // B //Texture Buffer textureData[iTexture++] = (float ) x * (1.0f / MAP_X); textureData[iTexture++] = (float ) z * (1.0f / MAP_Z); } } The heightmap texture I am trying to use appears like so (without grid-lines). This is the corresponding fragment shader // Fragment Shader Code #version 330 uniform sampler2D hmTexture; layout (location=0) out vec4 fragColour; in vec2 fragTex; in vec4 pos; void main(void) { vec2 line = fragTex * 32; // Without Gridlines fragColour = texture(hmTexture,fragTex); // With grid lines // + mix(vec4(0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0), vec4(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0), // smoothstep(0.05,fract(line.y), 0.99) * smoothstep(0.05,fract(line.x),0.99)); }

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• How to evaluate the quality of Rails code?

  - by Fortuity

  In a code review, what do you look for to assess a developer's expertise? Given an opportunity to look at a developer's work on a real-world project, what tell-tale signs are a tip-off to carelessness or lack of experience? Conversely, where do you look in the code to find evidence of a developer's skill or knowledge of best practices? For example, if I'm looking at a typical Rails app, I would be happy to see the developer is using RSpec (showing a commitment to using test-driven development and knowledge that RSpec is currently more popular than the default TestUnit). But in examining the specs for a Rails model, I see that the developer is testing associations, which might indicate a lack of real understanding of Rails testing requirements (since such tests are redundant given that they only test what's already implemented and tested in ActiveRecord). More generally, I might look to see if developers are writing their own implementations versus using widely available gems or if they are cleaning up code versus leaving lots of commented-out "leftovers." What helps you determine the skill of a Rails developer? What's your code quality checklist?

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• Selecting the (right?) technology and environment

  - by Tor

  We are two developers on the edge of starting new web product development. We are both fans of lean start-up approach and would like to practice continuous deployment. Here comes the dilemma - we are both coming from a C# / Windows background and we need to decide between: Stick to .NET and Windows, we will not waste time on learning new technologies and put all our effort in the development. Switch to Ruby on Rails and Linux which has a good reputation of fast ramp up and vast open source support. The negative side is that we will need to put a lot of effort in learning Ruby, Rails and Linux... What would you do? What other considerations should we take?

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• WikiPlex v1.3 Released

  - by mhawley

  [In addition to blogging, I am also using Twitter. Follow me: @matthawley] It's been a many months since the last release of WikiPlex, but its only because there hasn't been a lot of churn recently.  I've very happy where WikiPlex is at, and it continues to be a very… (read more)

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• COLUMNS_UPDATED() for audit triggers

  - by Piotr Rodak

  In SQL Server 2005, triggers are pretty much the only option if you want to audit changes to a table. There are many ways you can decide to store the change information. You may decide to store every changed row as a whole, either in a history table or as xml in audit table. The former case requires having a history table with exactly same schema as the audited table, the latter makes data retrieval and management of the table a bit tricky. Both approaches also suffer from the tendency to consume...(read more)

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• Code Reuse and Abstraction in FP vs OOP

  - by Electric Coffee

  I've been told that code reuse and abstraction in OOP is far more difficult to do than it is in FP, and that all the claims that have been made about Object Orientedness (for lack of a better term) being great at reusing code have been flat out lies So I was wondering if anyone here could tell me why that is, and perhaps show me some code to back up these claims, I'm not saying I don't believe you Functional programmers, it's just that I've been "indoctrinated" to think Object Orientedly, and thus can't (yet) think Functionally enough to see it myself To quote Jimmy Hoffa (from an answer to one of my previous questions): The cake is a lie, code reuse in OO is far more difficult than in FP. For all that OO has claimed code reuse over the years, I have seen it follow through a minimum of times. (feel free to just say I must be doing it wrong, I'm comfortable with how well I write OO code having had to design and maintain OO systems for years, I know the quality of my own results) That quote is the basis of my question, I want to see if there's anything to the claim or not

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• how this scaling down for css code is worked?

  - by harris

  this is a code for scaling down for css. i was wondering, how this worked. please someone explain to me part by part. thank you very much. /* ======================================================================== / / Copyright (C) 2000 - 2009 ND-Tech. Co., Ltd. / / All Rights Reserved. / / ======================================================================== / / Project : ScaleDown Created : 31-AUG-2009 / / File : main.c Contact : [email protected] / / ======================================================================== / / You are free to use or modify this code to the following restrictions: / / Acknowledge ND Tech. Co. Ltd. / / Or, put "Parts of code by ND Tech. Co., Ltd." / / Or, leave this header as it is. / / in somewhere in your code. / / ======================================================================== */ include "vm3224k.h" define CE0CTL *(volatile int *)(0x01800008) define CE2CTL *(volatile int *)(0x01800010) define SDCTL *(volatile int *)(0x01800018) define LED *(volatile short *)(0x90080000) // Definitions for async access(change as you wish) define WSU (2<<28) // Write Setup : 0-15 define WST (8<<22) // Write Strobe: 0-63 define WHD (2<<20) // Write Hold : 0-3 define RSU (2<<16) // Read Setup : 0-15 define TA (3<<14) // Turn Around : 0-3 define RST (8<<8) // Read Strobe : 0-63 define RHD (2<<0) // Read Hold : 0-3 define MTYPE (2<<4) /* EDMA Registers */ define PaRAM_OPT 0 // Options define PaRAM_SRC 1 // Source Address define PaRAM_CNT 2 // Frame count, Element count define PaRAM_DST 3 // Destination Address define PaRAM_IDX 4 // Frame index, Element index define PaRAM_RDL 5 // Element count reload, Link address define EDMA_CIPR *(volatile int *)0x01A0FFE4 // EDMA Channel interrupt pending low register define EDMA_CIER *(volatile int *)0x01A0FFE8 // EDMA Channel interrupt enable low register define EDMA_CCER *(volatile int *)0x01A0FFEC // EDMA Channel chain enable register define EDMA_ER *(volatile int *)0x01A0FFF0 // EDMA Event low register define EDMA_EER *(volatile int *)0x01A0FFF4 // EDMA Event enable low register define EDMA_ECR *(volatile int *)0x01A0FFF8 // EDMA Event clear low register define EDMA_ESR *(volatile int *)0x01A0FFFC // EDMA Event set low register define PRI (2<<29) // 1:High priority, 2:Low priority define ESIZE (1<<27) // 0:32bit, 1:16bit, 2:8bit, 3:reserved define DS2 (0<<26) // 1:2-Dimensional define SUM (0<<24) // 0:no update, 1:increment, 2:decrement, 3:by index define DD2 (0<<23) // 1:2-Dimensional define DUM (0<<21) // 0:no update, 1:increment, 2:decrement, 3:by index define TCINT (1<<20) // 0:disable, 1:enable define TCC (8<<16) // 4 bit code define LINK (0<<1) // 0:disable, 1:enable define FS (1<<0) // 0:element, 1:frame define OptionField_0 (PRI|ESIZE|DS2|SUM|DD2|DUM|TCINT|TCC|LINK|FS) define DD2_1 (1<<23) // 1:2-Dimensional define DUM_1 (1<<21) // 0:no update, 1:increment, 2:decrement, 3:by index define TCC_1 (9<<16) // 4 bit code define OptionField_1 (PRI|ESIZE|DS2|SUM|DD2_1|DUM_1|TCINT|TCC_1|LINK|FS) define TCC_2 (10<<16)// 4 bit code define OptionField_2 (PRI|ESIZE|DS2|SUM|DD2|DUM|TCINT|TCC_2|LINK|FS) define DS2_3 (1<<26) // 1:2-Dimensional define SUM_3 (1<<24) // 0:no update, 1:increment, 2:decrement, 3:by index define TCC_3 (11<<16)// 4 bit code define OptionField_3 (PRI|ESIZE|DS2_3|SUM_3|DD2|DUM|TCINT|TCC_3|LINK|FS) pragma DATA_SECTION ( lcd,".sdram" ) pragma DATA_SECTION ( cam,".sdram" ) pragma DATA_SECTION ( rgb,".sdram" ) pragma DATA_SECTION ( u,".sdram" ) extern cregister volatile unsigned int IER; extern cregister volatile unsigned int CSR; short camcode = 0x08000; short lcdcode = 0x00000; short lcd[2][240][320]; short cam[2][240][320]; short rgb[64][32][32]; short bufsel; int *Cevent,*Levent,*CLink,flag=1; unsigned char v[240][160],out_y[120][160]; unsigned char y[240][320],out_u[120][80]; unsigned char u[240][160],out_v[120][80]; void PLL6713() { int i; // CPU Clock Input : 50MHz *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) = *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) & 0xfffffffe; for(i=0;i<4;i++); *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) = *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) | 0x08; *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c114) = 0x08001; // 50MHz/2 = 25MHz *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c110) = 0x0c; // 25MHz * 12 = 300MHz *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c118) = 0x08000; // SYSCLK1 = 300MHz/1 = 300MHz *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c11c) = 0x08001; // SYSCLK2 = 300MHz/2 = 150MHz // Peripheral Clock *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c120) = 0x08003; // SYSCLK3 = 300MHz/4 = 75MHz // SDRAM Clock for(i=0;i<4;i++); *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) = *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) & 0xfffffff7; for(i=0;i<4;i++); *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) = *(volatile int *)(0x01b7c100) | 0x01; } unsigned short ybr_565(short y,short u,short v) { int r,g,b; b = y + 1772*(u-128)/1000; if (b<0) b=0; if (b>255) b=255; g = y - (344*(u-128) + 714*(v-128))/1000; if (g<0) g=0; if (g>255) g=255; r = y + 1402*(v-128)/1000; if (r<0) r=0; if (r>255) r=255; return ((r&0x0f8)<<8)|((g&0x0fc)<<3)|((b&0x0f8)>>3); } void yuyv2yuv(char *yuyv,char *y,char *u,char *v) { int i,j,dy,dy1,dy2,s; for (j=s=dy=dy1=dy2=0;j<240;j++) { for (i=0;i<320;i+=2) { u[dy1++] = yuyv[s++]; y[dy++] = yuyv[s++]; v[dy2++] = yuyv[s++]; y[dy++] = yuyv[s++]; } } } interrupt void c_int06(void) { if(EDMA_CIPR&0x800){ EDMA_CIPR = 0xffff; bufsel=(++bufsel&0x01); Cevent[PaRAM_DST] = (int)cam[(bufsel+1)&0x01]; Levent[PaRAM_SRC] = (int)lcd[(bufsel+1)&0x01]; EDMA_ESR = 0x80; flag=1; } } void main() { int i,j,k,y0,y1,v0,u0; bufsel = 0; CSR &= (~0x1); PLL6713(); // Initialize C6713 PLL CE0CTL = 0xffffbf33;// SDRAM Space CE2CTL = (WSU|WST|WHD|RSU|RST|RHD|MTYPE); SDCTL = 0x57115000; vm3224init(); // Initialize vm3224k2 vm3224rate(1); // Set frame rate vm3224bl(15); // Set backlight VM3224CNTL = VM3224CNTL&0xffff | 0x2; // vm3224 interrupt enable for (k=0;k<64;k++) // Create RGB565 lookup table for (i=0;i<32;i++) for (j=0;j<32;j++) rgb[k][i][j] = ybr_565(k<<2,i<<3,j<<3); Cevent = (int *)(0x01a00000 + 24 * 7); Cevent[PaRAM_OPT] = OptionField_0; Cevent[PaRAM_SRC] = (int)&camcode; Cevent[PaRAM_CNT] = 1; Cevent[PaRAM_DST] = (int)&VM3224ADDH; Cevent = (int *)(0x01a00000 + 24 * 8); Cevent[PaRAM_OPT] = OptionField_1; Cevent[PaRAM_SRC] = (int)&VM3224DATA; Cevent[PaRAM_CNT] = (239<<16)|320; Cevent[PaRAM_DST] = (int)cam[bufsel]; Cevent[PaRAM_IDX] = 0; Levent = (int *)(0x01a00000 + 24 * 9); Levent[PaRAM_OPT] = OptionField_2; Levent[PaRAM_SRC] = (int)&lcdcode; Levent[PaRAM_CNT] = 1; Levent[PaRAM_DST] = (int)&VM3224ADDH; Levent = (int *)(0x01a00000 + 24 * 10); Levent[PaRAM_OPT] = OptionField_3; Levent[PaRAM_SRC] = (int)lcd[bufsel]; Levent[PaRAM_CNT] = (239<<16)|320; Levent[PaRAM_DST] = (int)&VM3224DATA; Levent[PaRAM_IDX] = 0; IER = IER | (1<<6)|3; CSR = CSR | 0x1; EDMA_CCER = (1<<8)|(1<<9)|(1<<10); EDMA_CIER = (1<<11); EDMA_CIPR = 0xffff; EDMA_ESR = 0x80; while (1) { if(flag) { // LED = 0; yuyv2yuv((char *)cam[bufsel],(char *)y,(char *)u,(char *)v); for(j=0;j<240;j++) for(i=0;i<320;i++) lcd[bufsel][j][i]=0; for(j=0;j<240;j+=2) for(i=0;i<320;i+=2) out_y[j>>1][i>>1]=(y[j][i]+y[j][i+1]+y[j+1][i]+y[j+1][i+1])>>2; for(j=0;j<240;j+=2) for(i=0;i<160;i+=2) { out_u[j>>1][i>>1]=(u[j][i]+u[j][i+1]+u[j+1][i]+u[j+1][i+1])>>2; out_v[j>>1][i>>1]=(v[j][i]+v[j][i+1]+v[j+1][i]+v[j+1][i+1])>>2; } for (j=0;j<120;j++) for (i=0;i<160;i+=2) { y0 = out_y[j][i]>>2; u0 = out_u[j][i>>1]>>3; v0 = out_v[j][i>>1]>>3; y1 = out_y[j][i+1]>>2; lcd[bufsel][j+60][i+80]=rgb[y0][u0][v0]; lcd[bufsel][j+60][i+81]=rgb[y1][u0][v0]; } flag=0; // LED = 1; } } }

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• Purely technical reasons for PHP as a first choice?

  - by JoelFan

  I know this may come off as a flame-y / troll-y, but I hope you will take my word for it that it's not my intention. I am just trying to understand the PHP phenomenon. After looking at the many technical issues with the language design of PHP, I am hard pressed to find any redeeming technical advantages where PHP surpasses all other languages. Before coming to the conclusion that there would simply be no reason to choose PHP as a development language on purely technical grounds, I would like to ask, if all non-technical factors were equal (such as what language the developers already know, what languages the hosting provider offers, language of existing code, cost, license, corporate fiat, etc.), would there be any type of new software system that would indicate making PHP a first choice for development? If so, what technical advantage does PHP have over all other languages that would cause you to choose it? EDIT: I am not interested in comparing PHP "out of the box" with other languages "out of the box". If PHP has a certain feature "out of the box" that another language has only after installing some readily available add-on, that is not considered an advantage for PHP for the purposes of this question.

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• Transposition - the success story of VB6 migration

  - by Visual WebGui

  Since all of you VB developers in the present or past would probably find it hard to believe that the old VB code can be migrated and modernized into the latest .NET based HTML5 without having to rewrite the application I am feeling I need to write another post on our migration solution. Hopefully, after reading this and the previous post you will be able to understand the different approach of our solution which already helps organizations around the world move away from the constraints of VB6 and...(read more)

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• Beat detection, weird detection

  - by Quincy

  I made this soundanalyzer class to detect beats in songs : // put it on pastebin for the big size, will put it here if people rather want that. pastebin.com/8PdgZPP3 but for some reason its only detecting beats from 637 sec to around 641(sec) and I have no idea why. I know the beats are being inserted from multiple bands since I am finding duplicates and it seems as its assigning a beat to each instant energy value in between those values. Its modeled after this : http://www.flipcode.com/misc/BeatDetectionAlgorithms.pdf So why won't the beats properly register ?

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• How to wire finite state machine into component-based architecture?

  - by Pup

  State machines seem to cause harmful dependencies in component-based architectures. How, specifically, is communication handled between a state machine and the components that carry out state-related behavior? Where I'm at: I'm new to component-based architectures. I'm making a fighting game, although I don't think that should matter. I envision my state machine being used to toggle states like "crouching", "dashing", "blocking", etc. I've found this state-management technique to be the most natural system for a component-based architecture, but it conflicts with techniques I've read about: Dynamic Game Object Component System for Mutable Behavior Characters It suggests that all components activate/deactivate themselves by continually checking a condition for activation. I think that actions like "running" or "walking" make sense as states, which is in disagreement with the accepted response here: finite state machine used in mario like platform game I've found this useful, but ambiguous: How to implement behavior in a component-based game architecture? It suggests having a separate component that contains nothing but a state machine. But, this necessitates some kind of coupling between the state machine component and nearly all the other components. I don't understand how this coupling should be handled. These are some guesses: A. Components depend on state machine: Components receive reference to state machine component's getState(), which returns an enumeration constant. Components update themselves regularly and check this as needed. B. State machine depends on components: The state machine component receives references to all the components it's monitoring. It queries their getState() methods to see where they're at. C. Some abstraction between them Use an event hub? Command pattern? D. Separate state objects that reference components State Pattern is used. Separate state objects are created, which activate/deactivate a set of components. State machine switches between state objects. I'm looking at components as implementations of aspects. They do everything that's needed internally to make that aspect happen. It seems like components should function on their own, without relying on other components. I know some dependencies are necessary, but state machines seem to want to control all of my components.

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• How could RDBMSes be considered a fad?

  - by StuperUser

  Completing my Computing A-level in 2003 and getting a degree in Computing in 2007, and learning my trade in a company with a lot of SQL usage, I was brought up on the idea of Relational Databases being used for storage. So, despite being relatively new to development, I was taken-aback to read a comment (on Is LinqPad site quote "Tired of querying in antiquated SQL?" accurate? ) that said: [Some devs] despise [SQL] and think that it and RDBMS are a fad Obviously, a competent dev will use the right tool for the right job and won't create a relational database when e.g. flat file or another solution for storage is appropriate, but RDBMs are useful in a massive number of circumstances, so how could they be considered a fad?

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• Reflections on GiveCamp

  - by Reed

  I participated in the Seattle GiveCamp over the weekend, and am entirely impressed.  GiveCamp is a great event – I especially like how rewarding it is for everybody involved.  I strongly encourage any and all developers to watch for future GiveCamp events, and consider participating, for many reasons… GiveCamp provides real value to organizations that truly need help.  The Seattle event alone succeeded in helping sixteen non-profit organizations in many different ways.  The projects involved varied dramatically, including website redesigns, SEO, reworking data management workflows, and even game development.  Many non-profits have a strong need for good, quality technical help.  However, nearly every non-profit organization has an incredibly limited budget.  GiveCamp is a way to really give back, and provide incredibly valuable help to organizations that truly benefit. My experience has shown many developers to be incredibly generous – this is a chance to dedicate your energy to helping others in a way that really takes advantage of your expertise.  Your time as a developer is incredibly valuable, and this puts something of incredible value directly into the hands of places its needed. First, and foremost, GiveCamp is about providing technical help to non-profit organizations in need. GiveCamp can make you a better developer.  This is a fantastic opportunity for us, as developers, to work with new people, in a new setting.  The incredibly short time frame (one weekend for a deliverable project) and intense motivation to succeed provides a huge opportunity for learning from peers.  I’d personally like to thank off the developers with whom I worked – I learned something from each and every one of you.  I hope to see and work with all of you again someday. GiveCamp provides an opportunity for you to work outside of your comfort zone. While it’s always nice to be an expert, it’s also valuable to work on a project where you have little or no direct experience.  My team focused on a complete reworking of our organizations message and a complete new website redesign and deployment using WordPress.  While I’d used WordPress for my blog, and had some experience, this is completely unrelated to my professional work.  In fact, nobody on our team normally worked directly with the technologies involved – yet together we managed to succeed in delivering our goals.  As developers, it’s easy to want to stay abreast of new technology surrounding our expertise, but its rare that we get a chance to sit down and work on something practical that is completely outside of our normal realm of work.  I’m a desktop developer by trade, and spent much of the weekend working with CSS and Photoshop.  Many of the projects organizations need don’t match perfectly with the skill set in the room – yet all of the software professionals rose to the occasion and delivered practical, usable applications. GiveCamp is a short term, known commitment. While this seems obvious, I think it’s an important aspect to remember.  This is a huge part of what makes it successful – you can work, completely focused, on a project, then walk away completely when you’re done.  There is no expectation of continued involvement.  While many of the professionals I’ve talked to are willing to contribute some amount of their time beyond the camp, this is not expected. The freedom this provides is immense.  In addition, the motivation this brings is incredibly valuable.  Every developer in the room was very focused on delivering in time – you have one shot to get it as good as possible, and leave it with the organization in a way that can be maintained by them.  This is a rare experience – and excellent practice at time management for everyone involved. GiveCamp provides a great way to meet and network with your peers. Not only do you get to network with other software professionals in your area – you get to network with amazing people.  Every single person in the room is there to try to help people.  The balance of altruism, intelligence, and expertise in the room is something I’ve never before experienced. During the presentations of what was accomplished, I felt blessed to participate.  I know many people in the room were incredibly touched by the level of dedication and accomplishment over the weekend. GiveCamp is fun. At the end of the experience, I would have signed up again, even if it was a painful, tedious weekend – merely due to the amazing accomplishments achieved throughout the event.  However, the event is fun.  Everybody I talked to, the entire weekend, was having a good time.  While there were many faces focused into a near grimace at times (including mine, I’ll admit), this was always in response to a particularly challenging problem or task.  The challenges just added to the overall enjoyment of the weekend – part of why I became a developer in the first place is my love for challenge and puzzles, and a short deadline using unfamiliar technology provided plenty of opportunity for puzzles.  As soon as people would stand up, it was another smile.   If you’re a developer, I’d recommend looking at GiveCamp more closely.  Watch for an event in your area.  If there isn’t one, consider building a team and organizing an event.  The experience is worth the commitment. 

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• optimizing graphics for iOS flash game

  - by 1GR3

  Friend of mine and me are working on a flash developed iOS (and later Android) puzzle board game. He's a programmer and I'm a designer/developer so (no surprise) we have a different points of view. anyway, he's method: make small tiles (100x100px) in photoshop join them into the board and then in flash apply effects to the board to avoid repetition (80's not in the good way) my method: precompose the whole board (960x640px+bleed) in photoshop and than mask active and inactive areas in flash what do you think? thank you in advance!

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• Is Oberon really "a better Pascal"?

  - by Maksee

  Reading Niklaus Wirth, one can notice that despite some popularity of Pascal, he is not glad that Oberon (as a "polished" successor of Pascal and Modula) didn't get much popularity. I never did anything in Oberon, but reading the page Oberon For Pascal Developers I really did not like many of the changes as a Delphi/pascal developer, for example forcing the reserved words to be always uppercase making the language case-sensitive getting rid of enumeration types What do you think about Oberon, is it really "a better Pascal" from your point of view?

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• Selling your services when you use uncommon technologies

  - by speeder

  I took a look in Stackoverflow most popular profiles, and then I did the same in several other sites, and then I took a look in job postings in several boards, mostly out of curiosity, because I noticed this: If you work with Java, .NET or other managed languages, or you work with stuff that is popular for web development (Ruby, JavaScript, etc...) you can get lots of points on Stackoverflow, find lots of jobs and clients, find forums, friends, colleagues, etc... But how a programmer of uncommon languages (Lua, pure C, Lisp, D, ADA, Haskell, etc...) find information, sell his services, and so on? EDIT: This also applies to fields: You work with web, corporate software, database, etc... it is great... You dislike those previous 3, noone ever will hire your services...

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• What determines when an application requires mvvm?

  - by loyalpenguin

  I'm developing mobile applications for Windows Phone 7. This application calls some web services and occasionally sends responses out via web services. I recently started looking into MVVM and noticed that, although it is suggested when developing applications in WP7, alot of developers say only to use it if its necessary. Along with that they said that if the application is "small" enough or "simple" enough then it probably isn't worth the time. Hence my question. When should we use MVVM? Is it possible to build larger scale applications without it?

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• What are the major challenges in creating a platform such as StackOverflow?

  - by gablin

  Let us assume you were to create a platform such as StackOverflow. It needs to be functional, fast and scalable, just like SO, in order to be successful. What are the major challenges you would face in such a task? I'm looking for technical challenges rather than problems such as how to advertise it and stuff like that. (I'm not looking for ways of creating a new site to challenge SO; I'm just interested in how difficult it would be to create it if it didn't already exist.)

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• Separating physics and game logic from UI code

  - by futlib

  I'm working on a simple block-based puzzle game. The game play consists pretty much of moving blocks around in the game area, so it's a trivial physics simulation. My implementation, however, is in my opinion far from ideal and I'm wondering if you can give me any pointers on how to do it better. I've split the code up into two areas: Game logic and UI, as I did with a lot of puzzle games: The game logic is responsible for the general rules of the game (e.g. the formal rule system in chess) The UI displays the game area and pieces (e.g. chess board and pieces) and is responsible for animations (e.g. animated movement of chess pieces) The game logic represents the game state as a logical grid, where each unit is one cell's width/height on the grid. So for a grid of width 6, you can move a block of width 2 four times until it collides with the boundary. The UI takes this grid, and draws it by converting logical sizes into pixel sizes (that is, multiplies it by a constant). However, since the game has hardly any game logic, my game logic layer [1] doesn't have much to do except collision detection. Here's how it works: Player starts to drag a piece UI asks game logic for the legal movement area of that piece and lets the player drag it within that area Player lets go of a piece UI snaps the piece to the grid (so that it is at a valid logical position) UI tells game logic the new logical position (via mutator methods, which I'd rather avoid) I'm not quite happy with that: I'm writing unit tests for my game logic layer, but not the UI, and it turned out all the tricky code is in the UI: Stopping the piece from colliding with others or the boundary and snapping it to the grid. I don't like the fact that the UI tells the game logic about the new state, I would rather have it call a movePieceLeft() method or something like that, as in my other games, but I didn't get far with that approach, because the game logic knows nothing about the dragging and snapping that's possible in the UI. I think the best thing to do would be to get rid of my game logic layer and implement a physics layer instead. I've got a few questions regarding that: Is such a physics layer common, or is it more typical to have the game logic layer do this? Would the snapping to grid and piece dragging code belong to the UI or the physics layer? Would such a physics layer typically work with pixel sizes or with some kind of logical unit, like my game logic layer? I've seen event-based collision detection in a game's code base once, that is, the player would just drag the piece, the UI would render that obediently and notify the physics system, and the physics system would call a onCollision() method on the piece once a collision is detected. What is more common? This approach or asking for the legal movement area first? [1] layer is probably not the right word for what I mean, but subsystem sounds overblown and class is misguiding, because each layer can consist of several classes.

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• Suggestions for implementing a dynamic 2D level

  - by Wouter

  I am working on a game that needs a level that is completely generated. Currently my approach is to draw textures for the levels pixel by pixel during the game (in XNA with SpriteBatch). This is too intensive unfortunately. The game has frame drops even when I only draw 1 level texture each draw cycle. Here is an example of the current prototype. It is a simple sidescroller with the avatar swimming through a cave. The shape of this cave will alter throughout the level (textures and physics collision shapes). You can clearly see the boundaries of the level tiles in the screenshot below. These are generated just before they move into camera view. For inspiration I looked at PixelJunk Shooter 2. These levels are obviously not generated, but some of the levels have movement. How do you guys think they implemented it? My guess is that the level and other objects in the game are actually flat 3d models, but I am not sure..

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• Logging library for (c++) games

  - by Klaim

  I know a lot of logging libraries but didn't test a lot of them. (GoogleLog, Pantheios, the coming boost::log library...) In games, especially in remote multiplayer and multithreaded games, logging is vital to debugging, even if you remove all logs in the end. Let's say I'm making a PC game (not console) that needs logs (multiplayer and multithreaded and/or multiprocess) and I have good reasons for looking for a library for logging (like, I don't have time or I'm not confident in my ability to write one correctly for my case). Assuming that I need : performance ease of use (allow streaming or formating or something like that) reliable (don't leak or crash!) cross-platform (at least Windows, MacOSX, Linux/Ubuntu) Wich logging library would you recommand? Currently, I think that boost::log is the most flexible one (you can even log to remotely!), but have not good performance update: is for high performance, but isn't released yet. Pantheios is often cited but I don't have comparison points on performance and usage. I've used my own lib for a long time but I know it don't manage multithreading so it's a big problem, even if it's fast enough. Google Log seems interesting, I just need to test it but if you already have compared those libs and more, your advice might be of good use. Games are often performance demanding while complex to debug so it would be good to know logging libraries that, in our specific case, have clear advantages.

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• Correct For Loop Design

  - by Yttrill

  What is the correct design for a for loop? Felix currently uses if len a > 0 do for var i in 0 upto len a - 1 do println a.[i]; done done which is inclusive of the upper bound. This is necessary to support the full range of values of a typical integer type. However the for loop shown does not support zero length arrays, hence the special test, nor will the subtraction of 1 work convincingly if the length of the array is equal to the number of integers. (I say convincingly because it may be that 0 - 1 = maxval: this is true in C for unsigned int, but are you sure it is true for unsigned char without thinking carefully about integral promotions?) The actual implementation of the for loop by my compiler does correctly handle 0 but this requires two tests to implement the loop: continue: if not (i <= bound) goto break body if i == bound goto break ++i goto continue break: Throw in the hand coded zero check in the array example and three tests are needed. If the loop were exclusive it would handle zero properly, avoiding the special test, but there'd be no way to express the upper bound of an array with maximum size. Note the C way of doing this: for(i=0; predicate(i); increment(i)) has the same problem. The predicate is tested after the increment, but the terminating increment is not universally valid! There is a general argument that a simple exclusive loop is enough: promote the index to a large type to prevent overflow, and assume no one will ever loop to the maximum value of this type.. but I'm not entirely convinced: if you promoted to C's size_t and looped from the second largest value to the largest you'd get an infinite loop!

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• Networking gampeplay - Sending controller inputs vs. sending game actions

  - by liortal

  I'm reading about techniques for implementing game networking. Some of the resources i've read state that it is a common practice (at least for some games) to send the actual controller input across the network, to be fed into the remote game's loop for processing. This seems a bit odd to me and i'd like to know what are the benefits of using such a method? To me, it seems that controller input is merely a way to gather data to be fed into the game, which in turn determines how to translate these into specific game actions. Why would i want to send the control data and not the game actions themselves?

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• Is there a language where collections can be used as objects without altering the behavior?

  - by Dokkat

  Is there a language where collections can be used as objects without altering the behavior? As an example, first, imagine those functions work: function capitalize(str) //suppose this *modifies* a string object capitalizing it function greet(person): print("Hello, " + person) capitalize("pedro") >> "Pedro" greet("Pedro") >> "Hello, Pedro" Now, suppose we define a standard collection with some strings: people = ["ed","steve","john"] Then, this will call toUpper() on each object on that list people.toUpper() >> ["Ed","Steve","John"] And this will call greet once for EACH people on the list, instead of sending the list as argument greet(people) >> "Hello, Ed" >> "Hello, Steve" >> "Hello, John"

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• What is the advantage of currying?

  - by Mad Scientist

  I just learned about currying, and while I think I understand the concept, I'm not seeing any big advantage in using it. As a trivial example I use a function that adds two values (written in ML). The version without currying would be fun add(x, y) = x + y and would be called as add(3, 5) while the curried version is fun add x y = x + y (* short for val add = fn x => fn y=> x + y *) and would be called as add 3 5 It seems to me to be just syntactic sugar that removes one set of parentheses from defining and calling the function. I've seen currying listed as one of the important features of a functional languages, and I'm a bit underwhelmed by it at the moment. The concept of creating a chain of functions that consume each a single parameter, instead of a function that takes a tuple seems rather complicated to use for a simple change of syntax. Is the slightly simpler syntax the only motivation for currying, or am I missing some other advantages that are not obvious in my very simple example? Is currying just syntactic sugar?

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