[Alephmodular-devel] Re: [M-dev]Maintaining AlephOne

[Br'fin <br...@ma...>]

On Tuesday, December 24, 2002, at 07:39  PM, Michael Adams wrote:

> 2. I'm a little afraid to ask this.  It
> probasoundsunds a little radical.  Maybe I'm mistaken
> (please correct me if so), but the AlephOne code seems
> to bstretchedtreached to its limits.  With all these
> new features that are being bolted onto a product that
> was never intended to have them in the first place,
> would it be more work in the short and/or long run to
> keep patching old code with new features or would it
> be better to try starting from scratch, and build a
> new engine that is cross platform (see #1), can read
> all the old map formats (take "all" to be as general
> or specific as you like (M1, M2, M3, Pathways,
> Doom...)), but also is designed with current and
> future new features in mind?
>
> I know from first had experience that after adding so
> many features to a product, things start getting hard
> to work with.  I also realize that starting over is
> also hard to do.  AlephModular seems to be doing
> something like this (I'm not to clear on its goals),
> but since it is *starting* with the bungie code, I
> worry that I may suffer from the same problems of lack
> of *true* cross platform (see #1 again) and of putting
> new wine in old wineskins.
>
> Michael D. Adams
> mdm...@ya...

Here's the list of my goals for AlephModular. And in many cases I  
started AlephModular because I agreed with some of the issues you  
raised.

The basic AlephModular application should handle the Marathon data  
files (1-3) and essentially be able to play those three games.

It should be stable. It should be clean. It should be cross platform.  
(There is currently an ongoing discussion on  
ale...@li... talking about how  
Cross-platform GUI issues should be handled)

It should allow someone to take the pieces they need for their own  
project, be it a map editor in need of a viewer, or a new game project  
that could use the renderer, but which plans to replace or augment the  
monster behaviour.

As I stated to the AlephModular development list: "Yes we have a dated  
2.5D engine, gosh darn it, but we're going to try and make it the best  
it can be"


As for starting with Bungie's code. I felt a back to basics approach  
was needed. Cross platform code was not neatly added to AlephOne.  
AlephOne's files don't have the CVS history that they should. AlephOne  
both has a SourceForge page and doesn't make use of it. AlephOne has a  
mix of neat things, but there's a good number that don't include  
"Playing Marathon" as a reason to be. Just enough things that I felt a  
certain compulsion to try and start a new project because AlephOne was  
not being the project I would like it to be.

-Jeremy Parsons

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Br'fin               |      TIMSter, MU*er, Web Programmer, ... Insane?
The Denim Warrior    |                  You be the judge...
br...@ma...       |
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