It's kind of surreal seeing this article make slashdot...
The library is limited to 320x240 resolution, and simulates a joystick using keypress events! This is obviously a toy project of the article submitter. Do the editors bother checking the background of articles anymore?
The poster then has the audacity to compare the library favorably to pygame, (and poke fun at it) which supports anything SDL can do. That means any resolution your video card can do, not just 320x240.
The speed comparison is also irrelevant. It is simply a comparison of Allegro and SDL, not Freya and pygame. Anyone serious about speed avoids SDL and opts for an OpenGL accelerated backend anyway...
By caving in to his SCO-like demand to call the system "GNU/Linux", for starters.
What do you mean by "SCO-like demand"? I don't see any similarity between SCO and RMS and his methods. You cannot compare the two, you are making a false analogy, purely designed to stir up the same hatred that thoughts of SCO currently engenders.
You, OTOH, are demonstrating the regrettable Slashdot tendency to label everything that doesn't follow the Stallmanite line a troll.
Actually, I've found the "Slashdot tendency" is to mindlessly bash Stallman and his ways. I disagree with many of Stallman's ideologies, however I believe that acknowledging the GNU in GNU/Linux is just plain polite and technically correct. Few people can claim to have changed the software world in the same scale as RMS. While I don't worship him, or even admire him, I will aknowledge his work, and I'm glad Debian does the same.
Like it or not, it's a lot easier to read under 30 comments by people who, for the most part, have something useful to say, and the experience to back it up.
Have you actually read the comments? IMHO, 90% is garbage. The median number of posts per article is 17. Of those 17, 4 have a score of 3 or more. Personally I felt that two of those posts were irrelevant. When one considers the size of the Slashdot audience, and target demographic, it is quite strange to see so little activity on games.slashdot.org. I believe that the problem is caused by the low quality of stories; esp. when compared to the front page.
As it currently stands, I don't think I regularly check up the games section. I'll stick to the front page and developer section.
I may be modded offtopic, but someone has to say something!
Currently, of the 10 articles on the front page, only 5 were posted by readers. It looks like this 'simoniker' chap is running games.slashdot.org as his/her own personal slashdot.
Also, the general quality of games.slashdot.org is below par IMHO. Maybe it will get better over time as Simoniker grows a little more cynical.
True. Voxel engines solve lots of problems and can introduce interesting features that are highly difficult to implemement in polygon engines.
Ken Silverman (creator of the Duke Nukem 3D engine named Build) has been working on such an engine, which he calls Voxlap. Interestingly, he is a bare metal programmer, using Pentium III assembly to create tight inner loops in the rendering functions.
It doesn't look very pretty (it must run at a low resolution as it does not use polygons, and therefore hardware acceleration) but it is a very interesting idea, worth keeping an eye on. Incidently, Ken Silverman is highly respected by Mr Carmack!
Two of Perl's main strengths are 1) CPAN and 2) regular expressions integrated naturally into the language.
<snip> Python has *a lot* of strengths, but they're totally different from Perl's. So why do Python advocates get so worked up about something their preferred language fundamentally isn't designed to do?
You are quite right. Perl is a language designed for processing text (why else have regular expressions as a fundamental part of the language), while Python is designed as a general purpose language, suitable for any kind of application.
I've been following your posting career, and I am beginning to think you are a complete Troll. Despite this, I have to set the record straight.
It is important at any conference to be professional and polite, but also to be well put together.
Everyone I spoke to was extremely polite, and the conference highly organised.
I noticed many of the Linux 'tech' guys were extremely ill dressed, including unwashed flannel sweaters and dirty hiking boots (worn indoors!). You are incorrect. I attended every day of the conference, and noticed no 'unwashed flannel sweaters' or 'dirty hiking boots'.
...this is supposed to be a professional conference!
This is linux.conf.au, not some trade-show like LinuxWorld. It was a technical conference for like-minded technical geeks to get together and learn new things, not for companies looking for investment.
Take a word of advice from a professional journalist: dress to impress. Sure, if you have the "oooh its shiny" mentality and wish to attract similarly minded people!
From your comment, I suspect you are trolling, (or, yet again, waving your 'professional journalist' flag) and did not attend the conference at all.
And I forgot to mention, all proceeds went to the EFA. (including the additional $AU 700, 1 condom and associated lubricant garnished by Rusty as he ran around with a big cardboard box!)
I'll definitely be heading to the Adelaide conference next year!
Rusty's talks were highly amusing, while still containing a technical edge. The dinner on Friday night was brilliant (300 geeks slowly getting smashed!). A T-shirt signed by all the luminaries at the kernel summit was auctioned for $AU 2100. It was quite a contest between Sun and IBM, with Sun representative Duncan Bennet making the winning bid. IIRC Bdale Garbee promised to name the next Debian release after the winning bidder, if the amount went over $AU 2000. So I guess we can all look forward to Debian Solaris!!:-)
Slashdot Mirror
The library is limited to 320x240 resolution, and simulates a joystick using keypress events! This is obviously a toy project of the article submitter. Do the editors bother checking the background of articles anymore?
The poster then has the audacity to compare the library favorably to pygame, (and poke fun at it) which supports anything SDL can do. That means any resolution your video card can do, not just 320x240.
The speed comparison is also irrelevant. It is simply a comparison of Allegro and SDL, not Freya and pygame. Anyone serious about speed avoids SDL and opts for an OpenGL accelerated backend anyway...
Sw.
Doh, now all my co-workers know I'm not working... :-)
That is some m4d sk1Llz you have there!!!
Seriously, where do you get your statistics from? Your arse? Thought so.
What do you mean by "SCO-like demand"? I don't see any similarity between SCO and RMS and his methods. You cannot compare the two, you are making a false analogy, purely designed to stir up the same hatred that thoughts of SCO currently engenders.
You, OTOH, are demonstrating the regrettable Slashdot tendency to label everything that doesn't follow the Stallmanite line a troll.
Actually, I've found the "Slashdot tendency" is to mindlessly bash Stallman and his ways. I disagree with many of Stallman's ideologies, however I believe that acknowledging the GNU in GNU/Linux is just plain polite and technically correct. Few people can claim to have changed the software world in the same scale as RMS. While I don't worship him, or even admire him, I will aknowledge his work, and I'm glad Debian does the same.
Debian is halfway there already. I use debootstrap, then tasksel. Sounds pretty modular to me!
"Kowtowing to Stallman" how exactly? By including an optional non-free repository?
You are ignorant, or a troll.
...are you a troll?
I think thats a very interesting statement about the readability of perl!
Well Done! ;-)
Idiot. quite obviously you have never coded in python.
Like it or not, it's a lot easier to read under 30 comments by people who, for the most part, have something useful to say, and the experience to back it up.
Have you actually read the comments? IMHO, 90% is garbage. The median number of posts per article is 17. Of those 17, 4 have a score of 3 or more. Personally I felt that two of those posts were irrelevant. When one considers the size of the Slashdot audience, and target demographic, it is quite strange to see so little activity on games.slashdot.org. I believe that the problem is caused by the low quality of stories; esp. when compared to the front page.
As it currently stands, I don't think I regularly check up the games section. I'll stick to the front page and developer section.
Currently, of the 10 articles on the front page, only 5 were posted by readers. It looks like this 'simoniker' chap is running games.slashdot.org as his/her own personal slashdot.
Also, the general quality of games.slashdot.org is below par IMHO. Maybe it will get better over time as Simoniker grows a little more cynical.
some peoples started playing it, not knowing what it was...
and they'll continue playing it forever just because...
Ken Silverman (creator of the Duke Nukem 3D engine named Build) has been working on such an engine, which he calls Voxlap. Interestingly, he is a bare metal programmer, using Pentium III assembly to create tight inner loops in the rendering functions.
It doesn't look very pretty (it must run at a low resolution as it does not use polygons, and therefore hardware acceleration) but it is a very interesting idea, worth keeping an eye on. Incidently, Ken Silverman is highly respected by Mr Carmack!
Oh and here is the close up shot...
http://www.benetton.com/press/sito/photo/product_a dver/sisley/2003_wet/sisley08.html
You think its a pretty damn hot photo? Check this one out. Same site, maybe same chick. More than hot!
<snip>
Python has *a lot* of strengths, but they're totally different from Perl's. So why do Python advocates get so worked up about something their preferred language fundamentally isn't designed to do?
You are quite right. Perl is a language designed for processing text (why else have regular expressions as a fundamental part of the language), while Python is designed as a general purpose language, suitable for any kind of application.
What scandal? I think Joel is an arrogant twit, please tell me more!
I've been following your posting career, and I am beginning to think you are a complete Troll. Despite this, I have to set the record straight.
It is important at any conference to be professional and polite, but also to be well put together.
Everyone I spoke to was extremely polite, and the conference highly organised.
I noticed many of the Linux 'tech' guys were extremely ill dressed, including unwashed flannel sweaters and dirty hiking boots (worn indoors!).
You are incorrect. I attended every day of the conference, and noticed no 'unwashed flannel sweaters' or 'dirty hiking boots'.
This is linux.conf.au, not some trade-show like LinuxWorld. It was a technical conference for like-minded technical geeks to get together and learn new things, not for companies looking for investment.
Take a word of advice from a professional journalist: dress to impress.
Sure, if you have the "oooh its shiny" mentality and wish to attract similarly minded people!
From your comment, I suspect you are trolling, (or, yet again, waving your 'professional journalist' flag) and did not attend the conference at all.
And I forgot to mention, all proceeds went to the EFA. (including the additional $AU 700, 1 condom and associated lubricant garnished by Rusty as he ran around with a big cardboard box!)
Rusty's talks were highly amusing, while still containing a technical edge. The dinner on Friday night was brilliant (300 geeks slowly getting smashed!). A T-shirt signed by all the luminaries at the kernel summit was auctioned for $AU 2100. It was quite a contest between Sun and IBM, with Sun representative Duncan Bennet making the winning bid. IIRC Bdale Garbee promised to name the next Debian release after the winning bidder, if the amount went over $AU 2000. So I guess we can all look forward to Debian Solaris!! :-)
Hmmm... is it possible to have Redhat and Debian installed simulataneously on one hard drive? How would I go about doing this?