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Domain: midwaygames.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to midwaygames.com.

Stories · 3

  1. Moving from Source Safe to CVS?

    Ask · Programming · · posted by Cliff · from the migrating-your-code-repositories dept. · 32 comments
    Snowfox asks: "At Midway Games, we're currently using Microsoft's SourceSafe. I'm evaluating other options, such as CVS. Currently, SourceSafe is used not only for source code, but art assets, project management documents and more. Has anyone made a move from SourceSafe to CVS? Can you comment on your experiences?"

    "Many projects have been suffering problems with SourceSafe. I believe this owes to its leaving management of the source database to the client program instead of the server. A client machine locking up or losing net access in the middle of a check-in can do serious damage. Further, the results of slightly different versions and third-party access utilities with imperfect implementations should be pretty obvious.

    For programmers, the two IDEs we use are Visual Studio and CodeWarrior. Both the Linux and Windows versions of CodeWarrior have CVS built in. I can find a few Visual Studio CVS plugins, but no rave reviews of any of them.

    For artists and managers, I'm not sure where to look. They definitely need a Windows GUI tool; again, I've found a few options, but none seem quite so easy as SourceSafe. I also worry about whether CVS the right tool for large binaries. As a game company, we deal with 3DS Max files, bitmaps, Word documents and a fair number of compiled executables. Will CVS effectively store these based on differences, or will the database bloat?"

  2. Hiring Open Source Developers for Closed Source Work?

    Ask · Programming · · posted by Cliff · from the conflict-of-interest-or-golden-opportunity dept. · 138 comments
    Brian McGroarty asks: "I work for Midway Games. My new project is budgeted for two more programmers. I'm wondering if I should try finding people in the open/free software community. Selectively creating jobs for this group seems an appropriate way of giving back to the community, but I'm wondering if an attempt to hire free software developers for closed source projects would be considered somehow inappropriate." I don't see why not. As long as the employer has non-draconian contracts and allows those coders to do whatever they want on their own time, such offers would be a godsend to a person wishing to devote their free time for OSS. Do you all agree or disagree?

    With two new positions being created, I'd normally call up a few recruiters and go through hundreds of resumes. After a hundred phone calls and a dozen interviews, I might find one guy in five hundred who's sharp, motivated and genuinely interested in games.

    Hiring from a pool of open/free developers guarantees that I've found someone motivated, which is the toughest thing to quantify up front. I'd like to believe I'm giving something back to the community by starting my search here as well. The problem is that, as a game company, the majority of our code is closed source. Would that put developers off? Do most free software developers aspire to create free software exclusively?"

    The reasoning here makes some amount of sense, and targetting a specific group for hiring purposes is nothing new. Would this idea work well, or are there other problems, both philosophical and ethical, that could cause problems?

  3. RGBS: Color Spaces For The New Millenium

    Tech · Graphics · · posted by timothy · from the progress-demands-destruction dept. · 151 comments
    Snowfox writes: "Crosley Bendix, Director Of Stylistic Premonitions, U.M.N., has this excellent article explaining Squant, the fourth primary color. He managed to get his hands on a new Apple Quicktake 1500sq, in advance of the US release, to snap some photos. You can view them with the plugins available on the site. -- Sorry, no Linux plugins. :( -- Seeing a new color jumping off your screen is a real head trip though. Just try and imagine a color you may well have never seen before." While it's true that no Linux plugins exist yet, a GIMP plug-in can't be far away. Considering Squant's olfactory characteristics, that might not be the greatest idea, though.