Messages

SSH, Monkey,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.  Your explanations were very helpful.   I thought that this may be the case but wasn't sure.   Now that I have a better understanding I should be able to proceed without problems.   

Hehe, I guess I should have taken SSH's earlier advice and RTFM!   

Edit:
I made the changes and everything works great.  Also the code is much cleaner now as well.

I am upgrading some code to use the new string stuff but am having a small problem.  It's probaly something obvious or a misconception I have.  Perhaps someone can straighten me out.   

Basicaly I am implementing a dictionary consisting of "name" and "value" pairs. 
The function get_buf() looks up the name and returns the associated value.  The logic and code worked fine before trying to upgrade.  Now however, the same code is unable to return the value.   

With old style strings it was possible to return string values by writing to a puunctions parameters.  So do the new style strings not work this way or am I missing something else.   Thanks in advance for any enlightment anyone can provide.


This example is illustrative of the above description.

String  DataName[10];
String  DataValue[10];

function get_buf(String name, String value) {
 
   // The dictionary is filled out by reading a file.
   // in another function.  For the test we will just set it .
   DataValue[0]="555";  

   // A while loop is used to look up the name and get 
   // the corresponding value.   
   value = DataValue[0];

   // At this point "value" contains the cotrrect data
   return true;
}

iGet(String name) {
   String buf="";
   int status;

   // Call the above lookup function.  
   status = get_buf(name,buf);

   // The parameter buf does not contain any 
   // data after the call.
}

OK, Here's one of my starnge experiences ...

I don't like to wear any kind of jewlery.  I doesn't have anything to do with any kind of religious or other belief; it just bothers me having stuff hanging on me and weighing me down.   So I especially don't like to wear a watch because watches are fairly heavy and annoying to me.   

When we first met my wife asked me why I didn't wear a watch.  I told her that I didn't need one to tell the time.   She of course didn't believe me but I was determined to not take up the habit.   So I told her that she could test me whenever she wanted and that I would know the time within 15 minutes of the actual time.   

What I did was make a mental note of the time whenever I saw a clock or when the time was mentioned on the radio or TV.   It's amazing how many ways we are reminded of the time.  There is a time display on the radio in my car, nearly every bank building has a big electric sign that shows the temperature and time, radio and and TV programs start on the hour and half hour and regurly scheduled news and comercial breaks. 

So then all I had to do was guess how long it had been since my last sync to the real   time.  She was convinced for quite a while that I had an amazing ability to keep track of time.    After we were married for awhile she realized that I have no sense of time whatsoever and  so I eventually confessed. 

Hehe... I shouldn't even admit this as it's embarassing but I totally mis-read the manual about Format.   I did use the qualifer "apparent" in anticipation of my noobieness...

Thanks though.  Now I can stop worrying myself and go to sleep.   

Btw SSH, good luck in court if you decide to go through with suing the gardner.  Cheers.

[String]

String
I noticed a couple of apparent problems regarding the new String data type. 

1.  String is not highlighted as a keyword (i.e. String) is this by design or an omission?

2.  String.Format - Format does not appear in the auto-complete list.  It seems like there are some other ones missing also but I am not sure.   

3. String.Format - When executed from within a module the StringFormat statement seems to have no effect.   

Code: ags

returns null.
int value=0;
String buf;
buf = "Hello World";
buf.Format("%d",value);  // This statement doesen't seem to do anything
Display(buf);  // Displays "Hello World" on screen

4.  == Operator - Is there an explanation of how the == operator works with strings (equiv to CaseComp or Comp)?  I did not find it in the help document. 


Module Edit Short-cut
At one point pressing ctrl-1 to edit the first module brought up the editor'swindow frame and menu but did not display the text.  Instead the previous graphics were visible in the background of the window.  The menu was functional and could be used to exit the editor.   

When this occured I had previously ran "game test" several times and the game aborted because of run time script errors, primarily displaying or accessing a null String.

Mike Marlowe fully admits that he sometimes gave George Gillespie a hard time in that AOL chatroom.

But never in his wildest imagination did he expect to be sued in court for what he characterized as "razzing." ...

IMHO, this lawsuit will not survive for very long.   My prediction is that eventually the new  law will be interpreted to apply to one on one communications initiated by one person and sent specifically to another person.   A chat room is more like the public square than a one on one communication (as in phone call). 

It's been said that the freedom of speech does not include the right to be heard.   In the case of the public square one need not listen and just walk away from the crazy guy standing on a crate with a tin foil hat.   Repeatedly calling someone on the phone or sending e-mails is akin to the crazy guy following you around where ever you go and continously ranting about whatever.   

I think the court system will be able to sort this thing out fairly easily.

If you are talking about adding the basic functionality similar to what the TCP/IP plugin already offers ...

I would be in favor of something basic like the TCP/IP plugin but cross platform.  This would allow AGS to go beyond mulitplayer stuff.  I think the remaining multi-player functinaliy could be managed by AGS Modules and the server could perhaps be some kind of PHP/MYSQL thing.

player.ChangeRoom in game_start is now allowed, and will change the room that the game starts in.

Thanks I needed that for the minigame module.

And Allegro has already begun being ported to it

That's probably the main obstacle and the answer to my question.  The Nokia 770 runs on an ARM processor as well.  Here is a link to it's website. 

The SCUMM VM is ported to it so I may try getting that to work. 

I am going to try to write some applications for it as well.  The development system runs under Ubuntu Linux (a derivative of Debian).  I ordered the free disks the other day and will setup a development workstation as soon as they come in.   The SDK and development community can be found at Maemo.Org and a developer's blog and tutorials at Zak Experiment.   I'll let you know how everything turns out.

.... Girls are good, dude. Real good ^_- ...

Careful there Kinoko, you're ratting out the sisterhood.   Just don't go too far and tell everyone (all of us guys) what really happens in the ladies room.   I always imagined it has something to do with marble palaces, eunuch male slaves, and other sorts of exotic wonders.

Ahem! Your wife's success!

Hehe, I guess I couldn't have been able to do  it without her.

Expenses are limited to £75 too, so I hope that it doesn't cost too much to get him served and reclaim the cash if he doesn't pay up (which I wouldn't be surprised at).

The other thing that is neat over here is that once you have a judgement, then the other party is obligated to pay any additional collection costs.  So what one does is wait 30 days  until the possibility of the case being appealed has expired, send one letter asking for immediate payment, and then turn it over to a collections laywer or company.   The laywer will then start attaching their assets until the judement and his fees are paid.   

I thought I saw a recent post about playing games on the Nokia 770 internet tablet but haven't been able to find the thread.   Anyway I have one now and  wonder if anyone else here has one or has an interest in trying to port AGS games to it.  It runs Debian Linux on an ARM processor so it should be possible with a little help from CJ and/or EvilTypeGuy.

I guess it depends upon what "a" means.  Perhaps we should consult Bill Clinton?

I'm tired of how the "Make my gaem!" button doesn't actually make my game! Grrrr!

That bothers me too!  I hereby pledge to implement this feature if we can talk CJ into making the "make my game" data available to the script.  It would also be cool if the questions were read from some of config file so that they could be extended without the need for a new AGS version.   I think it would be a cooler joke if we took it one step further.

In the UK, though, it is your responsibility to make sure that the other guy gets the summons. The police dont do it for you.

Yeah, I had the Sheriff serve the papers.  So a uniformed policeman went to their place of business and asked for the owner by name.  The officer was most likely (Squinky may be able to comment on this) shown to the individuals office where the summons was hand delivered, leaving the rest of the employees wondering what the $%#@ is going on.    Now the really good part is that since I won the case the cost of the service, including the postage, was added to the amount I asked for.  I believe the judge was a bit miffed about the letter the other party apparently wrote explaining how here time was too important to waste appearing in his court, so he neglected that the amount I asked for already included those costs and the filing fee and added them in again.     I guess it's best to not piss off the judge.

Anyway thanks for the congrats and I hope my sucesses will be an inspiration or at least consolation for any of you who may find yourself in such a situation at some point in your life.   

I invite you to share my victory in court (but unfortunately not the money).

I am about $2000 richer today than I was yesterday.   My wife did some work for a translation company and they refused to pay her the last $1000 bucks.  After spending much time and effort talking on the phone, writing letters, etc I filed suit in small claims court.  I asked for the money the owed to my wife and to be compensated for the expense incurred trying to collect.   The other party never showed up ( I think she wrote a letter to the Judge explaining how important her time is ... hehe)  and the Judge gave us everything we asked for plus about $100 more (probably just to show how important time in court is).   

The neat thing about small claims court in the US is that the person named in the suit has to show up in court.   They can't send an attorney in their place or bring one with them.   Normally you have to file suit where the person who is being sued lives,  however, in the case of a company, the suit can be filed anywhere the company does business.   I our case the owner of the company we sued lives a few hundred miles away from us.  Because the company does business in our city and because the work in question was performed in our city that is where we filed.   

Now if some monster company does something to really screw you, you can take them to samll claims court and they will have to come there.   For the small price of about $50 bucks you can have the satisfaction of having a uniformed law enforcement person had deliver your invitation to court to the MAN and have a chance to ask the MAN face to face why he did what he did.   Just make sure the facts and the law are on your side.   

Good luck to all.  Btw, I am 3-0 in small claims court, not a bad track record eh?

And the cool thing is, if they think they are dating Squinky (you) I can pop out and scare them away with my manly non-hot femaleness....

Unless of course, the poor, lonely, desperate bastard got turned on by your manly non-hot femaleness and realized he was a homo-sexual.   Now if some guy got turned on by me, he would be so horrified that he would likely commit suicide; and if he didn't I'd give him Squinky's phone number and run like hell.

I use my real name in credits but I am a big, old, and ugly male, live in the US, and don't have anything controversial to say in an adventure game so I don't worry much about being harassed.   I can, however, see how others may be in situations where this would be a serious concern.   

If you think your game will motivate the Iranians to put a contract out on your life then use a fake name and internet cafes.  If you're a young lady who doen't want to be asked out on dates by nerdy guys, who have nothing better to do than write and/or play computer games,  then you could just use your initials and last name like the author of the Harry Potter stuff. 

I appologize for not getting into this discussion sooner but I have been away from home and internet challenged since Christmas. 

1.  Anyway I like the idea of being able to reimport sprites from their original locations.  However, using a single directory as the repository is a bit problematic and inconvenient, IMHO.  If the repository were a collection of sub-directories  instead of a single directory then I think it would work much better for a greater number of people.

2.  I also think it would also be useful to display the first N characters of the original filename next to the sprite number and/or the full name as a tooltip or property.     

3.  Perhaps the sprite number could be assigned to an enumerated value constructed from the filename and repository folder.

4.  I also like the idea of doing the same thing for room graphics.   In addition to the backgrounds I find that many sprites are drawn for specific rooms.  In this case, wouldn't it maKe sense to keep these spites in the same folder as the background for which they are drawn?

Hope something comes of this, it's something I have thinking about for a long time.

I create a seperate souce code for the demo.  I have done both starting from scratch #1 and copied an early version of the game to create the demo.    It depended upon which was more convienient.

The reason I keep a seperate demo game is so that I can change it in the future.    IMHO, the focus of the demo is (or can be) somewhat different when a project is complete than when it is under development.    If the project is not complete there may be a desire (or demand) to provide as much game play as is available at the time the demo is published.   When the project is complete there is no longer such a need in the demo, since all available game play is contained in the full game.

So then of what use is the demo?  Well if the full game is quite large some people would perhaps be reluctant to download it unless they had some reason to believe they would like it enough to justify the hassle.   So a small demo that could be easily downloaded and that allowed the user to interactively sample various portions of the game, after the fashion of movie trailers / teasers, would be the solution.

I find that being able to work from the original demo source code is very helpful.