Re: [Rails-devel] Generic Framework

[Brett L. <bre...@ea...>]

>While it is more work to begin with, I think that we'd get a better 
>framework with an object model designed to handle a richer feature set and=
 
>then constrain it with rules for 1830. If we get the framework right and 
>exploit polymorphic methods we can save a lot of work later on.

I agree with the approach and am definitely coding in that direction. 

If you take a look at the (very) rudimentary code I've checked into CVS, 
you'll find that I've been thinking in that direction. One small example is=
 that in the BigCompany class 
I've defined a boolean for whether or not the major company can buy stock=
 or not despite knowing 
full well that 1830 has no need for such a mechanism.

However, I also think it's important to have a specific goal in mind that=
 can be 
developed relatively quickly because it will give us a test case scenario=
 we can use 
for making sure our code is working properly AND provide the 18xx players 
with tangible results as soon as possible, which will hopefully encourage=
 others to
help us achieve the longer-term goals.


>
>Another issue to be considered is "persistence". How are we going to save 
>the game to disk? What persistence mechanism are we going to use? Java 
>serialization? Record based flat files? Database? This also has an impact
>on the design of the generic framework.

I think that a flat file is probably the way to go, though we could=
 certainly support 
other methods as well.

I'm torn between two ideas currently:

1) record the current state of the game into a flat file (probably another=
 good 
use for XML). This game state can be the basis for the PBEM implementation.

2) record every player's action, and store the whole game. this would allow=
 us 
to implement some sort of mechanism to go back and replay the game=
 step-by-step 
for those people that are interested in analyzing previous games. Also, in=
 the event 
of online tournaments, it would be kind of neat to post tournament games=
 for others 
to review.


>
>Its impossible for me to describe my software development experience
>without sounding terribly boastful! But, I have considerable experience in
>designing large OO systems with Java as my preferred language of choice. I=
 also have
>a large collection of 18xx titles! :-)
>

No worries. I'm not going to demand resumes from contributers. ;-)

I personally own copies of 1830, 1856, and 1870. I've played a few others=
 though.
I'm currently eyeballing a copy of 1835 that a local game store has. It's=
 tempting me.


>I've started sketching out a few thoughts in Visio. Can you read UML? If
>you are interested, I can design a domain object model for a generic=
 framework?

Yes and Yes.

Being that we're very much in the planning stages, I'll be happy to accept=
 any 
documentation and design plans in addition to just patches.

Welcome aboard!



---Brett.