Code center > Darwinbots3
Release date
bacillus:
A concise history of DB.
jknilinux:
But Ericl, if you aren't going to port DB to another language, why does it say that DB3 will be in C#? And why will you be doing DB 2.5 in C++?
EricL:
--- Quote from: jknilinux ---But Ericl, if you aren't going to port DB to another language, why does it say that DB3 will be in C#? And why will you be doing DB 2.5 in C++?
--- End quote ---
DB 2.5 is dead as far as I know. It was an experiment Nums did for a class I think and never really saw the light of day.
He is now working on what he calls DB3. If and when it ever becomes real, and by that I means gets to a point of critical mass, stability and features that people can use it and I actually come to beleive it can replace the current code base, I will stop advancing the current code base but until that time, I will continue to fix bugs, impliment requested features, improve performance and otherwise take the current code base forward as I have have been doing now for well over two years.
Numsgil:
2.5 is indeed dead. It inherited too many problems from the VB source without solving enough of them to make it worth while. The current code just suffers too much from code smell to make it worth while to port it directly to another language, IMO. Eric maintains the old code base, which is just fine with me, since it let's me focus on DB3 without letting the program grow static and die.
There were lots of possible languages to code a new version of DB in. I chose C# because it combined the WYSIWYG GUI creation tools of VB6 with a strong set of coding libraries (ie: the .Net framework), with the ability to somewhat easily link to libraries written in C.
As far as a release date, it depends entirely on the physics engine. The 2.5/C++ attempt taught me that, minus the physics, the program takes less than a year to code from the ground up. So in order to determine an actual release date, I need to know how long it will take to finish the physics engine, which I just don't know. At this very moment, I'm working on the physics engine. Darwinbots has some unique needs for physics, and after some failed attempts using two different 3rd party physics engines I've decided to bite the bullet and code my own. This physics engine is called "Lodestone", and is coded in C++ using the Test Driven Development methodology. It's about 10K lines of code at the moment. I still need to write various collision detectors, joints, and work on the core algorithms for collision detection and resolution. However my new job keeps me busy so I'm progressing at a snail's pace atm. Hopefully the pace will pick up when I get in to the swing of things, but it might not. You can see the SVN for the physics here.
When it's done I'll write a .NET wrapper for it (which I've done in the past, and should just take two to four weeks), and then code the rest of the game (which should take approximately ten months), and then it'll be more or less done. Or an early bug ridden version anyway So I'd estimate 12 months from when the physics engine is usable to when I'll have an early version released. And at my present pace, I'd estimate 6 to 12 months to complete the physics engine.
I'd be more than happy to have other people work on this with me., if anyone's interested. Especially people who know C#, C++, and/or physics very well.
Moonfisher:
I don't like Java... not a big fan... with C++ I can choose to build something exactly as I want it to work, or I can use one of the millions of libraries for it...
With Java I HAVE to use some sucky lib function that's poorly dokumented and generaly makes litle sence half the time, or eats up resources...
Not a big Java fan... I can understand people want to use languages like VB and C# for GUI and simple features... but I'd build everything else in C++...
Java has no features that C++ doesn't... it just forces you to use them so people are more aware of them.
I never understood what the fuss is about Java... it takes like 2 seconds to make a destructor... and you'll be able to make sure there are no leaks...
Anyways I'm looking forward to DB 2.5... didn't have time to read everything in here, but just saw poeple talk about Java and I had to comment... don't use Java for DB !!! I'll take VB, C# and C++ over Java any day... I repeat there's nothing you can do with a Java library that you can't do with C++ library... the only difference is that Java comes with half a million libraries and with C++ you only use what you need. (And who needs garbage collection, that's for noob's )
Either way Java has nothing... nada... only poorly dokumented junk libraries that you have to use because you have no freedom or controll...
Being a litle harsh, but I can't take it when poeple compliment Java and definately not when it's as an alternative to VB, C# and C++ !!!
I'd go for C# for all the GUI and simple functions, and build all the heavy stuff as C++ libraries..... I think those should be compatible... never checked... just assumed...
Edit:
Ok maybe I was a bit hard on Java. It's just always bugged me whenever I've used it. I haven't experienced libs in Java that weren't available for most other popular languages. I don't know Ruby or Python but I hear good things, just never got around to learning any of them. I also don't know much about compatibility, but I have a hard time imagining that C++ libs would be less compatibe with Linux and such...
Just seems so heavy and troublesome to work with Java, but maybe I just don't know the laguage well enough.
Personaly I'd still go for C# and C++ libs...
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version