Re: [TuxKart-devel] Some notes

[Ricardo C. <ri...@ae...>]

Em Segunda, 2 de Agosto de 2004 12:54, o Ingo Ruhnke escreveu:
> Ricardo Cruz <ri...@ae...> writes:
> > Em Segunda, 2 de Agosto de 2004 03:00, o James Gregory escreveu:
> >> As for the issues with not using SDL:
> >>
> >> 1. No fullscreen mode
> >
> >  --fullscreen is working fine here. Does it have problems in some
> > systems?
> >
> >  About the no possibility of using a size different than screen size,
> > Steve said there shouldn't be any performance decrease. And I haven't
> > noticed any either.
>
> The latest CVS already uses SDL, so fullscreen is working fine there.
> Without use of SDL all plib-pw could do was open a borderless window
> at the size of your desktop, which naturally would result in a
> resolution a lot larger then needed, not something you want for lower
> end hardware.
>
 It really is weird that Plib doesn't support other resolutions than the=20
desktop.
 Steve, can't this be fixed?

> >> 2. GUI-wise being limited to using what plib provides
> >
> >  I believe it is as rich as ClanLib GUI module and other GUI libraries.
>
> ClanLibs GUI is much like plibs GUI something that I would call a
> 'business-gui', ie. provides all the widgets that you get from a
> normal gui toolkit, but little to no stuff that you would need for
> games (animated jumping letters, joystick controll, etc.). Its ok if
> you do a Transport Tycoon/SimCity type of game and just need a bit
> theming, but do any good for arcade games.
>
 I know what you mean and I have always agreed to making a home-made menu=20
oriented interface, rather than a scroll bar, push buttons and so on.
 My point was the one above, that I believe Plib can support simple things =
as=20
image and true-type font handling.

> >  But even if we decide to do a custom GUI code, can't we use its
> > image and text capabilities?
>
> Neverball-GUI already provides all we need and doesn't depend on
> anything but SDL_image and SDL_ttf, which should be pretty much
> widespread since a whole lot of games use them.
>
 I guess it would be harmless to use SDL and bros. and, in the future, port=
 it=20
to use Plib stuff.

> >  About physfs, isn't that a physics library? If yes, wasn't it
> > decided that it would be better to make a home made physics.
>
> ODE was the physic library, physfs is a file loading library that does
> things like transparently 'mounting' zip files as directories and
> such.
>
 You do have to agree that Physfs sound like Physics. ;)

> >  Well, those people already knew TuxKart used Plib and there was no
> > opposition regarding that. Besides, Plib is pretty small and I guess
> > they already had time to learn, at least, the basics.
>
> This whole thing isn't about plib vs. SDL, we for sure will still use
> plib for all the scene-graph stuff and model loading stuff, its just
> that having support for TTF loading, pngs, jpegs and a real fullscreen
> mode would be extremly helpfull.
>
 My point was that programmers should make an effort to use Plib, but if it=
=20
just takes too much time and doesn't do something right.
 But in the future, I guess it would be nice to fix Plib and make use of it.

> >> 5. Everyone who ever compiles games already has SDL, SDL_image etc in
> >> any case
> >
> >  Why not linking to Allegro, ClanLib - you name it - as well.
> >  "Everyone who ever compiles games already" have those. ;D
>
> Compared to SDL, Allegro and ClanLib are far less widespread and at
> least ClanLib also has the tendency to break the API every once in a
> while, so you not only have to have it installed, but also the right
> version. Beside that SDL_* does things we need, ClanLib and Allegro
> don't.
>
> Last not least I don't consider dependencies a bad thing, if some
> library does what you need, then use it. The solution to the
> dependency problem are binaries (static or with .so's included), no
> recoding the wheel over and over again just to keep the dependencies
> low.

 James enumerated 5 reasons for the use of SDL. My point was just that it i=
s=20
stupid to say that it should be used because everyone has it.

 Anyway, you say dependencies is not a =ABbad thing=BB. You do have to agre=
e, that=20
even if it is in a very small degree, it is not really that good.=20
Dependencies mean bigger binaries, might have portability problems and the=
=20
ask for more maintenance.

Cheers,
 Ricardo

=2D-=20
One evening Mr. Rudolph Block, of New York, found himself seated at dinner
alongside Mr. Percival Pollard, the distinguished critic.
   "Mr. Pollard," said he, "my book, _The Biography of a Dead Cow_, is
 published anonymously, but you can hardly be ignorant of its authorship.
 Yet in reviewing it you speak of it as the work of the Idiot of the Centur=
y.
 Do you think that fair criticism?"
   "I am very sorry, sir," replied the critic, amiably, "but it did not
occur to me that you really might not wish the public to know who wrote it."
=2D- Ambrose Bierce