OT = How Does Shrapnel Stay In Business

#1 August 2nd, 2001, 11:25 PM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
But if you want to be the guy who gets the praise, and the jack, you are going to have to write it, and then sell it. It's called "entrepreneurialism".

I could not sell a gallon of water to a person dying of thirst for one dollar, even if they had a million dollars in their pockets. I know this for a fact and accept it. I am just posting because I am bored and frustrated. I know better ways to do things and COULD do them, but I am NOT going to actually do the work then get as you say just a "wage slaves" compensation. People like those at Microsoft could be given a two year head start and $100 million to do it, and I could still come out with a better product ***working alone*** in the fourth year. No brag just fact. One good engineer = 10 outstanding programmers. As a matter of fact the same one good engineer still = 1000 programmers working as a team because they spend so much time fighting for turf and shuffling specs that they do squat about getting the product out the door....

[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 02 August 2001).]

#2 August 3rd, 2001, 12:08 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Or maybe the latest VGA Planets is already everything you had in mind for this project?

I never bought it but have seen their websites. So I do not feel qualified to comment except a little, LOL LOL LOL....

#3 August 3rd, 2001, 12:23 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
What will kill you is making the GUI interface to all the various aspects of the game so people can play the way they expect with the mouse/trackball/whatever. Displaying all the fancy dialog boxes and adding all the 'mouse events' will take several times the code of the game engine itself, I think.

That stuff would be done by macrocommands invoking system functions through the engine interface "calldown". Depending on the relative address range of a processor, a macrocommand file can be as big as you like and have as many functions in it as needed. Just one of the functions needs to link up to the chain - the one named after the file and the same as the command name that invoked the file.

Shared data storage space is obtained off calls (through calldown) to system functions for memory at runtime, then the address of the data obtained is stored in data structures defined by the macrocommand designer. The address of the structures is placed in ADB entries and pulled out by the ones who need to share data pointed to. Do I really need to explain trivial stuff like this?

#4 August 3rd, 2001, 12:41 AM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
if it weren't for Windows, or something else like it, computers would have never had the mainstream appeal that they do. Without the GUI interface your typical non-techie, the vast majority or the population, would not see the need for having a computer to begin with

How little does the latest generation know anyway ? In the beginning there was Xerox PARC, then came Apple and close on their heels Atari and Amiga. But then along came a blundering not yet behemoth Microsoft, who worked closely with IBM and Intel to CRUSH LIKE ANTS anybody who threatened the IBM PC. But little did they know that people like Dell, Compaq, and the other cloners would whip big blues butt in the home markets. This allowed the survival of alternative microprocessor manufacturers, who have steadily begun to regain the ground they lost. The monopolistic triad is finally starting to lose, and by **** it is not a DAY TOO SOON.

**** WITHOUT THOSE THREE WE WOULD BE TEN YEARS INTO THE NEXT GENERATION ALREADY ****

Miles · #5 August 3rd, 2001, 02:33 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
... Back before MS Windozer plowed all the competition under I was writing relatively simple things in Turbo Pascal like usenet news readers. And my simple MS-DOS newsreader ran to 20,000 lines if you include the supporting units as well as the main code...

By any chance, was that the 'Trumpet' newsreader?

Miles

geoschmo · #6 August 3rd, 2001, 03:10 AM

quote:
How little does the latest generation know anyway ?

ROFL!

Oh I wish I was part of the "latest generation". To know what I know now and to have the Last twenty years back...

I hope you didn't perceive my comments as some sort of flame. What you are describing sounds like a great game. And I have no doubt in your abilities to pull it off. I am simply saying if you are waiting for someone to hand you a check up front, you'll be waiting a while.

I am not in anyway a programming whiz. In fact except for a little playing with BASIC programs as a kid on a trash-80 and Vic-20 (I'm dating myself now

) I have never had the patience to do anything close to what you are talking about.

As far as my comments regarding Windows, I am by no means an appologist for "The Bill". You missed my point I think when I said "Windows, or something like it". Gates did nothing extordinary except take advantage when he saw an opportunity. If he hadn't, someone else would have. I think the term is "Zeitgeist".

My point was simply that without making computers more attractive and accesable to the unwashed masses, you would still be tinkering around on your 8Mhz, 512K ram, 20 MB hard drive computer(Heck my first three computers didn't even have hard drives. Anybody remember casette tapes?

) writing incrededibly efficient 20K code-line programs with which to amaze your other computer nerd friends. But would never even be considering writing a program to sell to casual gamers.

I am not a programmer, but I am a history buff, and I know a little about economics. It's all supply and demand.

Geo

Baron Munchausen · #7 August 3rd, 2001, 03:56 AM

quote:
Originally posted by LCC:
That stuff would be done by macrocommands invoking system functions through the engine interface "calldown". Depending on the relative address range of a processor, a macrocommand file can be as big as you like and have as many functions in it as needed. Just one of the functions needs to link up to the chain - the one named after the file and the same as the command name that invoked the file.

Shared data storage space is obtained off calls (through calldown) to system functions for memory at runtime, then the address of the data obtained is stored in data structures defined by the macrocommand designer. The address of the structures is placed in ADB entries and pulled out by the ones who need to share data pointed to. Do I really need to explain trivial stuff like this?

IF the tools to do the same sort of programming that you grew accustomed to on the PDP-11 were available for Wind'oohs you'd have a chance of being correct. Once you check into what must actually be used to program in Wind'oohs these days you will realize that there's nothing 'trivial' about programming anymore. "Hello, World" will probably come out to several hundred kbytes on most contemporary MS compilers. Now, if you can find the tools you want in a *IX environment -- not impossible since the *IX systems are much better at preserving 'legacy' software -- and can write a decent program for Gnu/Linux and/or FreeBSD in the style you describe you might have something. Every little bit helps to increase the popularity and power of the free OSes.