So I’m typically a native C/C++ programmer, and I seem to surprise people when I say I like JavaScript yet dislike C# and Java. What I like about JavaScript is that it does things C and C++ don’t, as opposed to C# and Java that take C++ and as a base and enforce new constraints to “simplify” code. Both C# and Java do improve on C++, but I find the new strictness they impose to be a detriment or intermediary fix....
The following is some rambling. I have a point I’m trying to make, but I’m certain I don’t make it. My fingers kept moving, and this is what resulted. You can kinda get an idea what sort of madness is bouncing around in the ‘ol noodle right now though. Good luck. *Big Sigh* I’m typically a “from scratch”, “native code is best”, “c++ FTW” type of developer. The thing is, developers with my skillset and experience really are at a big disadvantage in today’s game market....
Here are my notes on Squirrel and JavaScript. JS: Number, String, Array, Object (Table), Function, Null (object named null), Undefined SQ: Integer, Float, String, Array, Table (Object), Function, Null (null), Class, ClassInstance, Generator, Thread, Weak Reference, UserData, UserPointer JS: false, undefined, null, 0, NaN, “” SQ: false, null, 0, 0.0 (“” untested) JS: var MyVariable = Value; /*Global*/ SQ: MyVariable <- Value; /*Root Table*/...
Ordered from Morning Print. White plastic, thin, nice and vibrant, and practically indestructible! <p> — Mr The Mike Kasprzak (@mikekasprzak) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikekasprzak/status/307608399229620224">March 1, 2013</a> </p> ...
This past weekend I began a process of rebranding my company. Shortly after leaving my AAA job in 2005, I created this logo. Thing is, that’s not even one of the better logos I used, it’s just the most business’y one. More here. As you can see, I used to be really in to playing with typography. Sykhronics is a name I’ve been using for the past 15 years. In the early days, it was my portfolio website....
This is a modification for the social deception game The Werewolves of Millers Hollow (also sometimes known as Werewolf, Mafia, and Witch Hunt). Pick an unused card from the deck. I like the Witch (the orange card). Herein, this card is now known as the Predator (or Chupacabra, because it’s funnier). The Predator is an additional “non human”, and its goal is to hunt and kill off the Werewolves. The humans are indifferent and want to kill anything that isn’t a human (after all, it has no qualms about killing humans to find wolves)....
I’ve been evaluating some new libraries lately and as usual, I decided to take some notes. POCO POCO seems to be a nice complete C++ library filled with things that other languages like Python and Java have. It’s very feature filled, but it’s unfortunately obvious that the development team doesn’t spend much time working or testing on Windows (and when they do, it’s with MSVC). There is a MinGW build, but as of POCO 1.4.5 it’s designed for Cygwin MinGW, which is a variation of MinGW that you invoke with “-mno-cygwin” to remove dependence on the Cygwin libraries. No good for a pure MinGW+MSys user like myself. So, I had to make the following changes to build/config/MinGW: ...
DrMinGW is a fancy crash detection program for MinGW programs. Details can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/jrfonseca/wiki/DrMingw One of the really cool features of DrMinGW is you can alternatively invoke a DLL from your program to catch your crashes, instead of requiring you or your testers to install DrMinGW. The problem is the library and DLL aren’t available for download, and building it from sources requires SCONS, which I can’t seem to get to work with it. So, my solution is to build it manually. Unfortunately, building it requires knowledge of some of the secret defines set by SCONS. ...
Here is a coding style idea I recently fell in love with. It works in C/C++ thanks to macros. ...
I am a strange developer. My preferred development environment is GCC running in a simulated BASH shell on Windows. This madness all started well over a decade ago when I first discovered DJGPP, a GCC for DOS. This means GCC was my first C and C++ compiler. Now sure, like most kids (?!) I used Visual C++ in College. That was mainly for my school projects though. Whenever it was me time, I was rocking the DJGPP. To be honest, I can’t really remember when I switched away from DJGPP, but I’m fairly certain I was still using it in 1999. End of 1999 I was hired by long forgotten game developer Sandbox Studios as a GameBoy programmer. I had been dabbling with the GameBoy homebrew during the summer of 1999, made some little games, and won some stuff in a contest (Flashcarts). This lead to me using a GameBoy assembler called RGBDS (Rednex GameBoy Development Suite), which was a great little macro assembler suite. All command line. My point: I’ve been comfortably working in command lines and shells for a long time. And I do it on Windows, where everybody else uses Visual Studio. I treat my Windows as a Linux box. For the past decade, Cygwin and MinGW/MSYS have been the go-to ways of working Linux’y on Windows. I used to use a lot of Cygwin, especially since all the major video game console toolchains of the time were GCC based, and Cygwin did a much better job at simulating/hosting/building a GCC cross compiler. GameBoy Advance, PlayStation, though there were some alternatives (SN, CodeWarrior), in my books GCC was the way to go. Today I rarely use Cygwin, but I always keep it around. Instead I use MinGW, which is a GCC port with a mostly compatible set of Win32 libraries, and MSYS (a minimal Bash/Cygwin like environment). It’s had its rough moments over the years, but for my needs I find it to be the better of the two. Cygwin’s goals are to simulate Unix on Windows. MinGW/MSYS’s goals are to target Windows with GCC. Why half-ass it? ...