[DM-dev] More on data interface and object model

[Henningsen <pe...@al...>]

>> >b) add objects (rooms, walls, doors, etc.) to the dungeon. I would want
>> > this done in a way such that I can add Rooms within Rooms. The current
>> > model doesn't allow this. The big advantage to this approach is that it
>> > allows "embedding" of any data in a room: a chair, a bed, etc. and you do
>> > not have to move the extra data if you move the room (because they are
>> > contained in the room).
>>
>> I think this should be done in a design program, not in the Dungeonmaker.
>
>The only problem with that is that then every client app (almost all of which 
>would provide some sort of design info, I think) needs to implement it's own 
>data structures and all, to do something which I anticipate all/most client 
>apps would need.

I don't think so. The client apps would all use the data model used by the
Dungeonmaker, which could be "everything is a Wall object". Of course the
*developer* of the client app would have to use the design program to
produce his dungeon files, which would use a much more complex data
interface, but whose output to the Dungeonmaker would - again - be "just Walls".

>> Obviously our main point of disagreement is in whether to make the
>> Dungeonmaker a design program or not. I want the design program to be a
>> separate layer, so that people who want to make a game using dungeons by
>> Dungeonmaker do not have to compile/link all that functionality into their
>> program. You think differently about this? Care to give some reasons?
>
>I agree on the point of disagreement, and I also think that part of it has 
>been a conflict of definitions: what I am calling design parameters are not 
>what you are calling them, I think. As I understand now, you mean design 
>params to mean the low-level data? I have taken it to mean everything which 
>goes into the "dungeon stew." In that sense, I agree that they (dungeon 
>inputs, including rooms/walls/etc) should be different layers, but also part 
>of the library. Provide the low-level object, as you have done, then provide 
>a higher-level interface to it.

Design parameters are for me all the data in the 2 files the Dungeonmaker
reads to make a dungeon, plus the random seed. I'm mostly concerned about
the "Rooms-"file, which IMO should have just Walls, not Rooms in it. Plus of
course Crawler start locations... What are the "design parameters" for you?

Hmm.. that last bit with the higher level interface sounds about right to
me. But I still think we should have more concrete discussions centered
around the actual interface functions you plan to introduce... on the other
hand, as i said, as long as I can use your interface to do my stuff, things
should be OK...

Glad you crawled out from under 2 weeks of TV. Sorry to hear your
year-end-rush at work is already on. Can get only worse for 3 months, I
guess. I'm in carpenter mode, and hope to switch to programming by maybe
December, if I get my project done until then. Today I'm actually in
electrician mode... scary stuff...

C'ya,
Peter