R.L. Dane    🍵 5d ago

Tired: Forking #GIMP because the name is bad.
Wired: Forking GIMP to keep it GTK2, or somehow (lol) switch it over to a sane UI toolkit, like Qt... or WxWindows... or Tk... or XForms... or QuickBasic... or a flipping Abacus.

Any takers? 🤣

Addendum:
Inspired: Saying 'Eff this' and just using KolourPaint... or a pen and a napkin 😂

Show threadGuy who's trying his best :(5d ago
@rl_dane I have genuinely been tempted to write a full software suite in TCL-TK, including media players, converters, and editors
Show threadMoses Izumi
@OpenComputeDesign @rl_dane
isn't there already a desktop environment where all the accessory applications are written in interpreted languages?
Only one I know of is Sugar, the OLPC thing.

speaking of interpreted languages, I have a burning question about them:
https://fe.disroot.org/notice/B51XicnDWO8ERigguu

(basically want to develop videogames in a way that allows me to adjust movement speed and damage output in the middle of a playtest)
Moses Izumi (@[email protected])

#askfedi What are the best programming languages to learn if I wish to modify an application while it's running? Would be incredibly useful in game development (i.e fine-tuning the speed/size/mass...

Apr 8 at 9:09amWeb
Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 4d ago

@moses_izumi @OpenComputeDesign

#uxn would be a trip ;)

But yeah, the recommendation of Lua with something like Löve2D would probably be a great starting place.

Show threadcerement4d ago

@rl_dane @moses_izumi @OpenComputeDesign

uxn desktop: potato

https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/potato.html

potato

By Devine Lu Linvega

XXIIVV
Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 3d ago

@cerement @moses_izumi @OpenComputeDesign

Potato's so darn cute 😄

Show threadGuy who's trying his best :(4d ago

@moses_izumi @rl_dane

I'd probably also recommend Love2D. Tcl-Tk is really not designed for video games (says the guy who refuses to use anything else for game development)

I generally prefer compiled languages in principle. But, most compilers, and all graphics toolkits for compiled languages, absolutely suck vastly beyond any possible reasonable degree.

And besides, as long as you're only like one or two abstractions deep, you're still better off than most modern stuff :P

Show threadMoses Izumi4d ago
@OpenComputeDesign @rl_dane
on that note: it always irked me how ZDoom reimplemented all of Doom's game logic in an interpreted language (Decorate/ZScript) to make it more extensible, but never exposed a way of editing things at runtime.

not to mention all the mods that leveraged the compiled language ACS (invented for Hexen) for various features that ZScript hadn't incorporated.
Show threadCy4d ago
Let me share with you a magical function known as dlopen!

That's how I'd hot swap stuff in a video game. Unload the old module, load the new one, update all references to it, and boom. New game!

That being said, movement speed and damage output should be variables, which you can just increment or decrement without changing the code... like if(key.tweak && key.M && key.plus) { ++target->movement.speed; } or something.

CC: @[email protected] @[email protected]
Show threadCy4d ago
Oh, I should add... language transition boundaries are Hell. Before you add a "scripting" language to your game, be very aware that something WILL go wrong in the transition. The parent language can't tell what the fuck the interpreter is doing, while the interpreter hasn't a clue what the parent is getting up to. You will be examining ridiculously complicated binary structures, syntax trees, and synchronization states. That's what ultimately put me off of python. I'd make a call in C, in python, and it would just randomly segfault once an hour or so. No way to debug it without unwinding the whole python interpreter and figuring out what in its internal state is getting corrupted.

CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]