Messages

[Legacy Code]

There seems to be two main developer pain points, neither of which would be alleviated with funding.

Legacy Code - Working on legacy code really sucks and there is no amount of money that can make it un-suck.  I've been there before.  Working on someone else's code is the most joyless experience anyone could ever have, especially code that has a long development history.  Having a root canal is a more pleasant activity.

Leadership - As mentioned earlier in the thread CW has inadvertently assumed CJ's role as our fearless leader.  CW believes he lacks knowledge and authority to make certain kinds of decisions and so is uncomfortable in that role. This is exasperated by the difficulties associated with the legacy code base. The irony here is that the community has great confidence in CW's leadership abilities and whole heatedly support his decisions (even the wrong ones )

The solution has already been mentioned previously in this thread.  The current AGS version becomes Classic AGS with no future development except for bug fixes. We then begin an AGS 4.0 project from the ground up.  I can't think of anything that would do more to re-energize the community than engagement in the process of creating a brand new AGS.  The current AGS version could be used as a guide but we wouldn't have to lock ourselves into anything.

So to answer CW's original question ... NO it doesn't make sense to continue developing the legacy code base.  There are too many limitations and it's too difficult to make progress.  If there is a desire to start with a clean slate then we should go for it.  I think it's something everybody would willing to support and contribute to.

Thanks Adeel for the recommendation.  I know there is a lot of material out there and the problem is finding yhe right ones. 

Thanks.

Thanks for everything guys.  The API is for HEBI Robotics which can be seen in action in the video below. 

https://youtu.be/kC5sjQXJCxg

I plan on hosting the robot api on a Beijer touch panel.  I have since found out that HEBI has a C# version of it's API in beta test.  The Beijer touch panels use WIN7 and are programmed with their own HMI software (sort of like AGS) which is scriptable via C#.

So now all I need to do is learn C#.  I'm open to suggestions on where to start ... books, links, videos, etc.

Thank you very much Snarky.  That's what I wanted to know.  I have since found out that there is also a C# API currently in beta testing so that is likely the way I will go with it.

Thanks for the help.

For a non-AGS application what are the ins and outs of using a third party C++ API with C#.  How easy or difficult would you expect the task to be?  What kind of pitfalls might there be?  The C++ API would be doing math and communication through an ethernet port.  The C# application would likely be a periodically scheduled task.  Any insights or commentary would be greatly appreciated.

Truly one of the old time greats with his own unique style of humor.  Here's to remembering him ....


... at his best roasting Sinatra and other old time greats

... as a movie actor

... and all the friends he left behind ... Don Rickles lost forevermore

I don't know if Janet agrees but I would think that if there were a symbol table from which a script command could return a reference to a named variable then people could write their own debug functions.  It could be useful for other things as well.

At one time AGS had the capability to setup room-change regions at the screen edge so that when the player entered the region a room change was executed.  I wonder if what you are seeing is related.

I'm currently reading "Murder Never Dies" a true story about crime and corruption in Wheeling WV, nicknamed Little Chicago, in the early and mid 20th century.  It's very interesting and many parts are told from the author's first and second hand experiences. A very easy and enjoyable read.

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Never-Dies-Corruption-Friendly/dp/1882658639

I would think having a symbol table containing name, type and address would be the way to go (at least for variables with statically assigned memory addresses).  Why not have an option to generate the symbol table and include it in the game file(s)? It would be a small step further to have script commands that access the table so that debug utilities could be implemented in script.

[INDENT YOUR CODE PROPERLY]

• INDENT YOUR CODE PROPERLY
• Define Remote outside the bounds of your function.  Variables defined within a function are created when the function is invoked and destroyed when the function returns.  In this case values are not returned from one execution to the next.
• Remote is being set to a value of zero each time the function is called. Not sure but I think AGS variables are automatically initialized to zero at game start.  If not then initialize Remote in the game_start() event handler.
• if-else structure is wrong.  You would see it if you indented your code properly

Code: ags

if Remote==0 {
}
elsif (Remote==1) && (cLarry.ActiveInventory==iRemote) {
}
elsif (Remote==2) && (cLarry.ActiveInventory==iRemote) {
}

It depends on what the meaning of "is" is.

I did not really want to post here, because I do not think that's really my business, and I know almost nothing about Trump, Hillary Clinton, or internal situation of USA

It's difficult if not impossible to understand the internal politics of another country beyond a superficial level. It's naive and foolish to believe and behave otherwise. 

You see, one of the big reasons why liberal opposition is not very popular in Russia is them being openly disdainful to the people who do not share their views.

I couldn't agree more.  I've lived and worked in a number of different countries and met people from all walks of life.  I've found that there is something interesting to be learned from everyone you meet if only you take the time to listen and to think.  I have great respect and admiration for these people and I am deeply offended by liberal/progressive people with self-righteous condescending attitudes and their own unique form of bigotry and who are unable or unwilling to think for themselves. 

Well here's a link that should explain some things.  He's got an English accent so what he says must be true .  Have fun and hysteria watching.
https://youtu.be/1d9lm-T87AQ
[edit] and  here a comment from the above video

BigGScotland1 day ago
I was genuinely scared a few months back about a Donald Trump presidency and what it would mean for the world. That was until I thought to myself "Why the fuck am I scared, I have no idea what the guy stands for and haven't heard him speak other than what the media has shown me". So that night I started doing research and was blown away that he stood for many things I agreed with and that the media's golden girl was utterly corrupt. The media and Hollywood have obviously took over these people's minds with Trump hate and they are too stubborn to accept that he might actually be good for America. I know I'm Scottish so I shouldn't really comment but that's just my view of the situation.

Thanks Snarky

Here's a list of unsorted stupidity:

A couple made me laugh but really?  Going back 30 years, the Howard Stern show, etc.  In his own words “Sometimes they write positively, and sometimes they write negatively. But from a pure business point of view, the benefits of being written about have far outweighed the drawbacks.”

Here's a list with only racist stuff:

1. "I don't know who David Duke is. I don't want to disavow someone who I know nothing about."
David Duke, white supremacist, who made an unsuccessful run for office 15+ years ago but has not
been seen or heard of since. Trump had disavowed support of white supremacists on the previous day
and disavowed David Duke the day  after he made the above statement.  Of course the article makes no
mention of Hillary Clinton's association with a Ku Klux Klan Exalted Cyclops

"In 2010, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fondly eulogized Sen. Robert Byrd, a former member
and recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan. Clinton called Byrd “my friend and mentor” in a video message
to commemorate his passing."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan_members_in_United_States_politics#Robert_Byrd

2. "I am the least racist person that you have ever met.”

3. "I don't have a racist bone in my body."

4. "If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,”
when
5. “We're building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he [Judge Cruiel] is giving us very unfair rulings â€" rulings that people can't even believe.”
In an interview, Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers' association. Mr. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border. “I'm building a wall. It's an inherent conflict of interest,” Mr. Trump said.
Here is a link to the National Latino Lawyer Association an advocacy group to be sure: websitehttp://www.nltla.org/victim-resources/  judges are not supposed to even have the appearance of any conflict of interest.  Trump has a valid point that the judge's rulings appear to be unfair whether one agrees with him or not.

I stopped reading when when they started talking about his father's company in 1973.  My wife and I volunteer as fair housing tester's so I know about that kind of thing.  A group of politically connected people form a non-profit and get a government grant to conduct testing.  They send volunteers to inquire about rentals who write a narrative of their experience.  If the narratives don't match they file suit and get settlements.  Presumably a third of the settlements go to the lawyers and the rest to the non-profit (not certain).  They have to show results to continue getting the grants and authority to file suits.   It's easy for a rental agent to get tripped up by varying their sales pitch or forgetting something.  Sometimes they just sense the prospect is just not interested in renting a unit, testers not interested in actually renting.

When he admitted that he likes to grope women - grab their vaginas more precisely, it was when he didn't think there was a camera nearby, so that was propbably himself talking. Refreshing to hear?

Actually he admitted that he was attracted to beautiful women and that sometimes he kisses them without waiting.  He then said that if you are a star they let you do it and that they would let you do anything, even grab them in the putty.  When I was much younger I would have found kind of talk disgusting, in third grade I would have said "Ooooo kiss a girl ... yuck!" but that was a long time ago.   So yes, in fact I did find it refreshing that the guy talks like a normal human being.

[Cleanup Corruption]

One of the biggest mass shootings this year was entirely to murder queer latinx people, an intersection of two groups of
people Trump has been rallying people against all year.

Interesting example.  Let's see if I understand correctly.  A second generation Muslim man, whose religion teaches that gays
should be imprisoned or killed goes into a gay night club and starts shooting "queer latinx people" all the while claiming
he is doing it because his religion says so.  Trump is a bigot because he says Muslims from Muslim countries where they kill
and imprison gay people as well as others who aren't Muslim or as Muslim as they are shouldn't be allowed into our country.

Trump has an extensive track record of gaffes, failures, shortcomings, hateful rhetoric, childish vendettas, ill informed
statements, etc, and is basically the epitome of a racist, homophobic, islamophobic bully

Can you give a specific example of something you actually heard him say rather than what other people said that he said?  There is no question that he speaks his mind in a blunt and straight forward manner but that does not a racist make.  Some may consider this rude and boorish but it's refreshing to hear a politician say what he thinks rather than saying what he thinks everyone wants to hear.

Maybe we should talk about what pres elect Trump he says he will do rather than regurgitate the losing side's campaign?
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contract/

Cleanup Corruption
1. Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress
2. Hiring freeze on federal employees to reduce the workforce through attrition
3. Requirement to eliminate two federal regulations for every new one
4. Five-year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists
5. Lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying for foreign governments
6. Complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections

Jobs and Trade
1. Renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or withdraw from it
2. Withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
3. Order the secretary of the treasury to label China a 'currency manipulator'
4. Use U.S. and international laws to end foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers
5. Lift restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars' worth of U.S. energy reserves including shale, oil, natural gas and coal
6. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and other 'vital energy infrastructure projects'
7. Cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to improve U.S. water and environmental infrastructure

Restore Security and Constitutional Law
1. Cancel Obama's 'unconstitutional' executive actions, memoranda and orders
2. Pick a conservative replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
3. Cancel all federal funding to 'sanctuary cities' that harbor illegal immigrants
4. Begin removing the 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the U.S., and cancel visas to countries that won't repatriate them
5. Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where incoming people can't be properly vetted.

As Richard Feynman says, when you accomplish something you already have your prize, honors are meaningless.

I'm sure you're not suggesting they will give their mined currency away rather than just mining for their own profit. So what about the other 7 billion people on the planet?...

Maybe you should watch the linked video in my previous post.

What happens when one person leaves their laptop on for one year?

People already leave their computers on 24/7 and use their idle cpu cycles to search for ETs, solve research problems and for crash commercial purposes.  Here are  just a few suggestion from our friend Mr. Google.
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-ways-to-donate-your-cpu-time-to-science/
http://www.techgyd.com/turn-pc-on-make-money/6458/
https://cloud.mql5.com/

[edit]
Btw, CaptianD can you recommend a path into the crypto community you mention, at least a google clue.  Thanks

There is an interesting TED Talk about Blockchains that explains the technology and it's implications quite nicely.  The presenter mentions one such currency that has contract fulfillment built into it. 

I don't buy the mining energy argument. There are already multitudes of data centers everywhere and a mining application can soak up spare cpu cycles when the are available. Even for dedicated mining centers I would guess they have a much smaller energy requirement than traditional banking operations with everyone carting around bags of paper and metal in cars, truck, and vans on top of their very own data center.