It sounds like people are interested. This might be kind of cool, because we could do whatever we wanted, instead of sitting around bitching at Mark.
I think doing the GPL thing is a good idea, so if someone makes changes, it stays open-source.
Here is the primary question:
1. Do we want to store data in Blitz banks, or memory buffers allocated via a DLL?
Blitz Banks) If we store them in Blitz banks, we should probably write the whole thing in Blitz, because DLL's won't be able to create and destroy banks, just edit them. When you have structures and sub-structure in banks, you need to be able to free and create banks, and DLL's can't do this, I think.
Memory Buffers) This would allow us to create and destroy memory buffer allocations with DLL's. Two additional questions then arise:
I. What do we want to use to allocate memory? I don't like the way PureBasic allocates memory. Is there a way to write memory commands that will return a pointer? We could poke the memory buffer size to the first integer of the pointer. What I want is to be able to call a DLL and create, resize, and free memory buffers, but not do it with a stupid index variable like PB does.
II. How much of this should be written in DLL's? What is the advantage of using DLL's if the engine is open-source? A significant disadvantage is it's more difficult for testing and development. I usually end up writing the code in Blitz first, to make sure it works, and then converting it to PureBasic. Then when I find bugs, I end up rewriting it in Blitz after all.
You might check out this link about using a new kind of Blitz "structure". I came up with these after writing all my structures by hand in the CShop engine.
I think doing the GPL thing is a good idea, so if someone makes changes, it stays open-source.
Here is the primary question:
1. Do we want to store data in Blitz banks, or memory buffers allocated via a DLL?
Blitz Banks) If we store them in Blitz banks, we should probably write the whole thing in Blitz, because DLL's won't be able to create and destroy banks, just edit them. When you have structures and sub-structure in banks, you need to be able to free and create banks, and DLL's can't do this, I think.
Memory Buffers) This would allow us to create and destroy memory buffer allocations with DLL's. Two additional questions then arise:
I. What do we want to use to allocate memory? I don't like the way PureBasic allocates memory. Is there a way to write memory commands that will return a pointer? We could poke the memory buffer size to the first integer of the pointer. What I want is to be able to call a DLL and create, resize, and free memory buffers, but not do it with a stupid index variable like PB does.
II. How much of this should be written in DLL's? What is the advantage of using DLL's if the engine is open-source? A significant disadvantage is it's more difficult for testing and development. I usually end up writing the code in Blitz first, to make sure it works, and then converting it to PureBasic. Then when I find bugs, I end up rewriting it in Blitz after all.
You might check out this link about using a new kind of Blitz "structure". I came up with these after writing all my structures by hand in the CShop engine.