[dink-develop] Status

[Andrew <ae...@co...>]

Windemere Project Status Report, 14 July 2004.


============
= OVERVIEW =
============

A more expansive list of things awaiting completion follows:

* Artificial Intelligence (10/18 brains are complete).
* Gamestate (Player Tracking -- This takes care of game loading and game saving).
* DinkC++ Integration (The language has been written, but the functions to call have not).
* Dink format -> Windemere format converters.



======
= AI =
======

The brains awaiting completion have not changed since the previous status release.
 
* Brain 2: The Bounce Brain
* Brain 4: The Pig Brain
* Brain 6: The Repeat Brain
* Brain 8: The Text Brain
* Brain 9: The Pill Brain
* Brain 12: The Scale Brain
* Brain 14: The Shadow Brain
* Brain 16: The People Brain



=============
= GAMESTATE =
=============

Only about half of this has been coded: the half that tracks sprites.  The part that stores information on the main player needs to be finished (gold, life, etc).



===========
= DinkC++ =
===========

Still working, but my concern is that a 1KB .c file is compiled into a 4KB .dpp file.  Any thoughts on this?


This is an example of a .c file:

	void main()
	{
		&foo = myfunc();
		print("&foo = " +&foo);
		print("myotherfunc(1337) returns " + myotherfunc(1337));
	}

	void myfunc()
	{
		return 1337;
	}

	void myotherfunc(&value)
	{
		return &value;
	}


This is the same .c file in DinkASM (.s)


		; begin function main
	main:
		; allocating variable &foo
		alc	&foo
		ror	&foo

		; calling function myfunc
		call	myfunc
		pop	&foo

		; calling function print
		pushs	"&foo = "
		pushv	&foo
		add
		call	print

		; calling function print
		pushs	"myotherfunc(1337) returns "

		; calling function myotherfunc
		pushn	1337
		call	myotherfunc
		add
		call	print

		; end function main
		return

		; begin function myfunc
	myfunc:
		pushn	1337
		return

		; end function myfunc
		return

		; begin function myotherfunc
	myotherfunc:
		; allocating variable &value
		alc	&value
		ror	&value
		pop	&value
		pushv	&value
		return
		; end function myotherfunc

		return


A part of the compiled .dpp file, though illegible, looks like this:

@...main...@.>.@b....].@.... ....?.@...@.c.@.].@....._.@.U.@.Y.@+... ...0q.@+.....w.........xY.@....._.@..........................................w.`...(X.@...@...@t..@.].@........@..@..... .@`..@.........v.@$].@.].@....E..@$].@. .@.U.@._.@(X.@p...t..@.Y.@........&foo..



I'm trying to compile DinkC++ into a library for easy integration.  That's coming along slowly...



=======
= WGP =
=======

FastFile support has been rewritten to work worth a damn, but why have a new pack format?  Two simple reasons: WGP supports filenames up to 100 characters (unlike FastFile which supported up to 12), and it is checksummed so you don't have to worry about bad FastFiles anymore (or including the FastFile in itself).  If you'd like to test the .wgp pack creator I wrote, please e-mail me.



==============
= ASSISTANCE =
==============

If you would like to lend assistance (not to mention have your name mentioned in the uber-cool credits), please contact me.  Otherwise, feel free to watch the progress slug along.



--Andrew