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Developers, show yourselves!

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2002 8:19 pm
by CobraA1
Jeremiah Moss, AKA CobraA1


Major languages: C/C++, Java, HTML

I know Java the best right now, since that's what I'm taking classes in.

Played around with: QBASIC, Visual Basic, C for TI-89 calculator using TIGCC, older forms of BASIC on ancient computers

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2002 12:12 am
by Dervish
John Suit, aka: Dervish DuKot

I'm more of a BZFlag tinkerer and poker than a developer, but I do have some future plans to help. I recently made a choice to re-join the community, and continue work on my MapEd app to design maps.

BZEdit is currently a VERY nice editor for basic maps, but it lacks the ability to view objects on any kind of rigid grid. You have to estimate according to 3D looks. Mine should be 2D (both from above and from the sides), allow you to view objects on a grid down to 0.001 accruacy, and have a 3D preview mode. Lots of work for me, and I don't know if I'll ever finish it. But may be when I get close, I'll open it as a sourceforge project.

I work in C++, Visual Basic (VB), Java, and some javascript. My best skills and experience are in VB and C.

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 12:42 am
by KnightMare
I have my CompTIA A+ and N+ certs,do some programming in Visual C++,Visual Basic.... Downloaded the BZEdit program and only have one question... How do you use the darn thing :) Man i got tired of pointing and clicking and nothing happening and gave it the ol el' boot. Need some kind of "help" gizmo in the next version.. Hey Dervish, make yours user friendly :)

RTFM

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 2:30 am
by Dutchrai
RTFM...lol...hey, Jeff Myers has a help section on his BZEdit website, you might wanna give it a read :roll:

http://www.artemisgames.com/bzedit/

There is a button called 'tutorials' that is of particular interest. Need a hammer? :bonk:

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 3:31 am
by KnightMare
If all else fails, read the docs.. Is that what your trying to tell me? Hehehe, where's the fun in that..

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 6:31 am
by Dervish
KnightMare,

Since I'm primarily a Windows user (although I run FreeBSD servers), my main focus in user interface.

I absolutely burst into flames when I find a UNIX app project ported to Windows and it contains a muddy, worthless interface and documentation. Sometimes I just want to slap coders who work in UNIX for not understanding the Windows side of the world. Some of those coders expect every user to be a programmer of some type, owning a C++ compiler.

Don't they understand that Windows doesn't include a C++ compiler by default, because it was never intended to be a development platform?

Oh well. You can tell I'm really into making applications user-friendly, without limiting manual controls or overrides. :)

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 5:10 pm
by CobraA1
Dervish: You should feel right at home in Java. Swing makes creating and porting GUI apps to other platforms a snap.

Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2002 4:19 am
by JeffM
Just so you know Dervish DuKot, BZEdit for windows was writen from the ground up in windows, the linux version is actualy using a bunch of code and intterface items from it. I should know, I made it. Thing won't even run under wine, so it's not much of a linux port.

The interface is the way it is because of 2 reasosn, Time, and the way BZ does it's stuff. I know there are a bunch of little things to do on the interface to make it nicer, but realy there is no way to get around the "list of stuff" part of the map file, because that's all it realy is. The current version even has a simple version of draging to make placing objects easyer, tho I do need to get a grid snap in there. Take a look at my dev list and please feel free to comment on any ideas you may have.

Ohh yeah, I'm Me. I made BZEdit for windows, the origonal DirectX stuff, and a server launcher, for BZ WAYYYY back when, the Icon, and the new spiffy windows installer. And a bunch of the back end libs that are posibly being put into 1.9+

I know C and C++ ( they are realy the same thing ).

Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2002 10:00 am
by Dervish
Patlabor,

Ah, nice to meet you! Thanks for working on BZEdit, as it has really taken off as of recently. I remember trying out one of your earlier revision and its features were very limited. Now it is a great app. :)

There are probably many features I'd like to see in BZEdit, although as a basic editor, it works well. This is why I'm working on something quite different than an all-around editor. Mine will have quite a different flavor to it.

In case you were wondering (I'm sensing this), my first post wasn't necessarily or exclusively in relation to BZEdit. KnightMare did lead into that topic, though, talking about BZEdit, and that got me started. :)

Good job on the recent revisions. Your earlier revs were very much lacking in user interface, but they've improved quite a bit.

Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2002 5:27 pm
by JeffM
Well the firs BZEdit was made in a day. If anyone has any ideas or sugestions for interface stuff, I say start a forum here and lets get them all lists. I want to make it a more "draggy snappy type" inteface, but I still think that there is a need for numeric entry, some people just work that way.

I'd like to hear more about what you are working on.

bzedit == vim

Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2002 8:20 pm
by kernel panic
for me... anyway... the title is the case!

Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2002 11:50 pm
by Dervish
Patlabor, since sourceforge's forums are very primitive in features, may be fiberchunks can open a forum or stickied thread here for discussion of BZ MapEdit and other editors?

Amazing that the original was made in a day... you must be a wiz at programming swiftly, or the original version was very featureless. :)

As for the drag-and-drop interface, I don't bother using it. I like entering numbers and would prefer access to algorithms and calculations to make it easier. I prefer an exact map instead of a loosly thrown together map. Of course I could quote the ol' saying of, "if it's worth doing at all..." etc...

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2002 4:20 pm
by JeffM
Bada bing, one post in enhancments for editor stuff. :D

THe first version had the basics to edit a map, It would read a map, draw it, let you add and remove elements and change there properties. On a most basic level thats all a map editor needs. after that I started adding stuff like duplicate, and various view centering modes, and the draging.

You may like the latest feature Duplicate and... It lets you define multiple dupes with a constant transform between them.

created a forum just for BZedit Patlabor221.

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2002 5:08 pm
by Fiberchunks
Created a forum solely for bzedit, and moved your post under enhancements there -- seems like a logical thing to do.

Peace

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2002 9:30 pm
by JeffM
sweeet.

Now if you could just make me not be one of those Infantry guys :)

post, post post

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2002 10:08 pm
by Fiberchunks
sorry patlabor221, forgot to change your rank to developer -- done.

Peace

Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2003 10:13 pm
by scanline
Hmm, I guess I'm a developer. You may know me from such projects as:

http://picogui.org

http://blinkenlights.sf.net

http://kiwi.sf.net

http://jetstream.babylonia.flatirons.org

Only bzflag coding I've done was a little "Flight simulator mode" hack

Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 1:45 am
by michaelh20
I'm also a bit of a BZ Tinkerer with basically 2 feature patches I threw up on sourceforge for toggling them flags and improving the SILENCE stuff (saves list, choose target with arrow keys)..

I know Java the best, C++ I am working on -- understand pretty well, know C, Perl, HTML, Javascript.. all to some degree or another, but not to Guru status.

If you want to see something freaky, try my Java FTP Server :)
Not especially user friendly, not terribly well tested.. but still a FTP Server from your browser is cool... if it works...

http://www.visi.com/~michaelh/

Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 2:58 pm
by Chestal
Starting with version 1.7e2, I have been helping with bzflag development. My main priority is to fix bugs or do changes that I myself feel are needed to enhance the game. I am conservative when it comes to adding new features, especially ones that change the gameplay. Right now, top priority for me is to help in building a player registry / authentication system.

I am fairly familiar with most of the bzflag code by now, the biggest part which I didn't really take a look at is all the 3D rendering. C++ is my preferred language for most tasks, simply because it's the one I know best. I do not feel at ease when I code something in a language I barely know.

Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 3:11 pm
by scanline
Hmm, guess I could be a little less terse and follow the trend of language enumeration :)

The language I use the most is C. It's practical, compiles to pretty small binaries on pretty much any system. I've known it for around 10 years now, and have been occasionally known to produce obfuscated code:

Code: Select all

int p[1<<25],i=2,x;main(int n,int*a){for(n=atoi(a[dup2(creat(a[i],-1),1)]);i<n;i++)for(p[x=i]||printf("%d\n",i);x<n;p[x]=1)x+=i;}
I have not the guruism in C++ as I do for C, but I can get by in it. I usually avoid it since the binaries it produces are huge, but I've been using it for jetstream.

My latest favorite language is Python. It's consistent, flexible, dynamic, and terribly easy to use.

Did a little Java a while ago, but never used it much... I've done assembly for x86 and PIC microcontrollers. I know perl, but now that I know python I don't use it as much. Haven't programmed in BASIC, Javascript, or Hypertalk in ages.

My main interests are graphics programming and embedded systems, with an occasional interest in compilers. I've mainly done software projects, but I've done a few neat hardware projects. (the Kiwi, and my case mod)

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 1:30 am
by Betty
well guess I'll jump in and say hi =). I'm a uni student so I'm constantly learning new languages and stuff, I normally use c++ and java, others I normally just use as they're required by papers I take =P

Hello.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2003 7:55 pm
by learner
Having met a lot of you already since I started playing last Winter, it's nice to start actually getting involved with the code development. My coding skills and experience, at least, far surpass my playing skill. ;)

I've been playing bzflag pretty consistently, improving gameplay skills roughly since last winter (save a two month hiatus where my connection was down). I have also played the old Atari wireframe version, as well as the old sgi version -- though I never played enough to get really good at it.

CTF and no jumping is my preference. 50 ton tanks can't jump. If you've ever worked with one, the idea is simply rediculous.

My interest in bzflag sparked when I discovered the Mac OS X version. Been playing since. Had my first successful compile last weekend. The code appears to be organized well enough to get started.

My main interest and goals for development are to get bzbots working and working well. AI is in my bag of knowledge, and one of my main areas of research. There are also a slew of things I'd like to see on the server side. My languages and experience pretty much span the gamut. Getting bzbots working will be fun.

Cheers!