Most of Obsidian's employees came from Black Isle Studios after Interplay gave it the axe. Black Isle was responsible for gems such as Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Fallout 2. The name is different, but Obsidian has a proven track record. There's an interview here.
The release schedule is undoubtedly shortened because Obsidian will be using Bioware's already-complete toolset. Perhaps some small upgrades to the engine will be necessary, but I'm sure most of their time will be spent adding new artwork and scripting the story.
As I understand it, NX probably won't give you a huge improvement over compressed ssh on a local network. The big gains come in high latency networks (e.g. internet), as the NX server can eliminate a lot of expensive and unnecessary delays due to X11 round-trips.
Well, I guess it's all relative. You can label the anticipation heavy as much as you want for (1) a sufficiently small subset of the population or (2) sufficiently small values of "heavy".;-)
Congratulations on getting your piece of the top ten.
Heavily anticipated by whom? I understand that the Superbowl is heavily anticipated. The upcoming US election is heavily anticipated. To a lesser degree, today's SpaceShipOne launch is heavily anticipated. But honestly, are there any people gathering around the water cooler exchanging rumors of who has the edge in cluster network latency this year? (Supercomputer administrators don't count.)
I searched around a bit, and found that someone's already done it. It uses the PCRE library along with a camlp4 macro that provides an elegant "match ____ with" construct tailored specifically to regexps. I'm impressed.
I imagine a variant of O'Caml language based on camlp4 that puts regular expression matching in syntactic sugar will make it very suitable for scripting.
In fact, I itch over this idea badly that I might do it. If I have the time.;-)
Please do. I really like coding in Ocaml, but the constant double-escaping in regexps makes them a whole lot less useful than they could be. Having something similar to Python's raw strings might be helpful.
I haven't found one yet that allows real-time combat; it's always "click on the guy you want to fight and press the 'attack' button", then sit back and watch.
Yeah, that's always bothered me too. Why do you have to click to attack? Surely the computer can take care of the attacking all by itself. I'd rather just sit and watch, or maybe go grab a pizza and sit in front of the TV while my Half-Halfling Organist decapitates some Hair Elementals in the Killing Fields. Good times.
Absolutely true. I like the feel of the remote in general, and the button layout is excellent, but I don't know how many times I've picked it up backwards. I either end up rewinding instead of fast-forwarding, or hitting "slow" instead of "play".
I think a problem in BT is the lack of compiled clients for linux.
Some would call this a feature, not a problem. Python provides cross-platform capability with nearly zero effort, and buffer overflows should not be an issue.
The high CPU usage you mention is most likely due to some computational bottleneck in the code--maybe MD5SUM computation, for example. Such things can be written as C functions if necessary; I'm sure Python is plenty fast for handling the vast majority of the BT algorithms.
After looking more closely, I see that you are correct. Of course, with live.com support MPlayer should be able to play most any rtsp://... stream, so compiling against Live is still a good idea.
Recent versions of MPlayer can play realaudio streams if you compile with Live library support. MPlayer will even let you save a stream to disk with the -dumpstream flag, which is nice if you want to do timeshifting.
Perhaps the Arch model just assumes a single master committer - but unfortunately most development projects I have worked on do not work that way. I see this issue chasing potential Arch users away until it is definitively resolved or adequately explained in the Arch FAQ.
There's a project called "tla-pqm" that makes an attempt at solving this. The developers can email a merge request to a tla-pqm server somewhere, and the server will grab the requested changesets and apply them to its archive. It's like an automated master committer.
Does anyone know how this issue was ultimately resolved by the Xouvert project?
I'm pretty sure they have a special committer account, and all developers can access it via sftp using ssh shared keys.
Most often, all Arch developers will have their own archives and each developer commits to his own. One developer will act as project leader, and merge in patches from the others.
At the moment, multi-committer archives are a bit tricky with Arch. I believe Xouvert is using some shared-key magic with sftp to accomplish this goal.
There's another project out there called "tla-pqm" (patch queue manager) that is designed to do the job of the project leader. Developers can submit merge requests, and the server will try to merge into the "central" archive automagically.
the term is "champing at the bit", not "chomping at the bit"
But Google, the Fount of All Truth and Knowledge and Only Some Occasional Lies, says you're wrong! Do you dare to challenge the opinion of the WHOLE INTERNET?
God I hope so. Bunch of illiterate bastards, if you ask me...
Still, note that it's developed with Matlab. Now surely that is the Holy Grail of research, a bitchin' language
*chokes*
Stop, you're killing me here. Matlab code can be pretty slick if your problem vectorizes easily. The remaining 90% of the time, the horrid syntax just gets in the way...
Perhaps if CVS were easier to use, or of development teams more regularly used something other than CVS
Xouvert is making use of the Arch RCS, which seamlessly handles distributed repositories (each developer generally has his own local repository). There is no single point of failure; if the owner of the "master repository" isn't doing his job, any other repository can be used just as easily.
Of course, Arch also properly handles file moves and renames. That will enable Xouvert to make rather sweeping changes to the XF86 source organization, without losing the ability to sync with XF86 CVS.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of Obsidian's employees came from Black Isle Studios after Interplay gave it the axe. Black Isle was responsible for gems such as Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Fallout 2. The name is different, but Obsidian has a proven track record. There's an interview here.
The release schedule is undoubtedly shortened because Obsidian will be using Bioware's already-complete toolset. Perhaps some small upgrades to the engine will be necessary, but I'm sure most of their time will be spent adding new artwork and scripting the story.
It's all about the optimilaziations, baby.
As I understand it, NX probably won't give you a huge improvement over compressed ssh on a local network. The big gains come in high latency networks (e.g. internet), as the NX server can eliminate a lot of expensive and unnecessary delays due to X11 round-trips.
Well, I guess it's all relative. You can label the anticipation heavy as much as you want for (1) a sufficiently small subset of the population or (2) sufficiently small values of "heavy". ;-)
Congratulations on getting your piece of the top ten.
Heavily anticipated by whom? I understand that the Superbowl is heavily anticipated. The upcoming US election is heavily anticipated. To a lesser degree, today's SpaceShipOne launch is heavily anticipated. But honestly, are there any people gathering around the water cooler exchanging rumors of who has the edge in cluster network latency this year? (Supercomputer administrators don't count.)
Somebody needs a little perspective...
I searched around a bit, and found that someone's already done it. It uses the PCRE library along with a camlp4 macro that provides an elegant "match ____ with" construct tailored specifically to regexps. I'm impressed.
Ocaml does support recursive variant types:
$ ocaml
Objective Caml version 3.07+2
# type t = A of int | B of t list;;
type t = A of int | B of t list
# let test = B [A 1; A 2; A 3];;
val test : t = B [A 1; A 2; A 3]
#
I imagine a variant of O'Caml language based on camlp4 that puts regular expression matching in syntactic sugar will make it very suitable for scripting.
;-)
In fact, I itch over this idea badly that I might do it. If I have the time.
Please do. I really like coding in Ocaml, but the constant double-escaping in regexps makes them a whole lot less useful than they could be. Having something similar to Python's raw strings might be helpful.
Graphics are for the weak. Allow me to respond with my own shameless plug for Orpie; it runs in the console, the way God intended.
you can smear poop on a blank cdr, put it in your drive, and mplayer will play it.
Well, yeah, but it's gonna sound like shit.
When was the last time their servers were compromised?
When's the last time MS hosted their source code on a publically-viewable CVS tree, or offered anonymous FTP access? This is not a fair comparison.
Xouvert differs from the others in that it appears to be a dead project.
De facto implies that it is, in fact, the standard, as opposed to, say, de jure
In the case of open source software, sometimes I think it is more accurate to speak of "the standard du jour."
I haven't found one yet that allows real-time combat; it's always "click on the guy you want to fight and press the 'attack' button", then sit back and watch.
Yeah, that's always bothered me too. Why do you have to click to attack? Surely the computer can take care of the attacking all by itself. I'd rather just sit and watch, or maybe go grab a pizza and sit in front of the TV while my Half-Halfling Organist decapitates some Hair Elementals in the Killing Fields. Good times.
it's too symmetrical front-to-back
Absolutely true. I like the feel of the remote in general, and the button layout is excellent, but I don't know how many times I've picked it up backwards. I either end up rewinding instead of fast-forwarding, or hitting "slow" instead of "play".
It's still the best remote I've ever used.
I think a problem in BT is the lack of compiled clients for linux.
Some would call this a feature, not a problem. Python provides cross-platform capability with nearly zero effort, and buffer overflows should not be an issue.
The high CPU usage you mention is most likely due to some computational bottleneck in the code--maybe MD5SUM computation, for example. Such things can be written as C functions if necessary; I'm sure Python is plenty fast for handling the vast majority of the BT algorithms.
Don't forget wxPython, the mature and actively maintained Python binding. It makes GUI programming such a piece of cake.
After looking more closely, I see that you are correct. Of course, with live.com support MPlayer should be able to play most any rtsp://... stream, so compiling against Live is still a good idea.
Is there a Linux alternative?
Recent versions of MPlayer can play realaudio streams if you compile with Live library support. MPlayer will even let you save a stream to disk with the -dumpstream flag, which is nice if you want to do timeshifting.
Perhaps the Arch model just assumes a single master committer - but unfortunately most development projects I have worked on do not work that way. I see this issue chasing potential Arch users away until it is definitively resolved or adequately explained in the Arch FAQ.
There's a project called "tla-pqm" that makes an attempt at solving this. The developers can email a merge request to a tla-pqm server somewhere, and the server will grab the requested changesets and apply them to its archive. It's like an automated master committer.
Does anyone know how this issue was ultimately resolved by the Xouvert project?
I'm pretty sure they have a special committer account, and all developers can access it via sftp using ssh shared keys.
Most often, all Arch developers will have their own archives and each developer commits to his own. One developer will act as project leader, and merge in patches from the others.
At the moment, multi-committer archives are a bit tricky with Arch. I believe Xouvert is using some shared-key magic with sftp to accomplish this goal.
There's another project out there called "tla-pqm" (patch queue manager) that is designed to do the job of the project leader. Developers can submit merge requests, and the server will try to merge into the "central" archive automagically.
Slashdot: Pissing and moaning for nerds. Stuff that nobody cares about.
This is why I filter out "Ask Slashdot" posts. Too bad this was categorized under Apple. (I'm looking at YOU, Cliff.)
the term is "champing at the bit", not "chomping at the bit"
But Google, the Fount of All Truth and Knowledge and Only Some Occasional Lies, says you're wrong! Do you dare to challenge the opinion of the WHOLE INTERNET?
God I hope so. Bunch of illiterate bastards, if you ask me...
Still, note that it's developed with Matlab. Now surely that is the Holy Grail of research, a bitchin' language
*chokes*
Stop, you're killing me here. Matlab code can be pretty slick if your problem vectorizes easily. The remaining 90% of the time, the horrid syntax just gets in the way...
Perhaps if CVS were easier to use, or of development teams more regularly used something other than CVS
Xouvert is making use of the Arch RCS, which seamlessly handles distributed repositories (each developer generally has his own local repository). There is no single point of failure; if the owner of the "master repository" isn't doing his job, any other repository can be used just as easily.
Of course, Arch also properly handles file moves and renames. That will enable Xouvert to make rather sweeping changes to the XF86 source organization, without losing the ability to sync with XF86 CVS.