Community generated patches

Robomaniac · Post by **Robomaniac** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 10:53 pm

Nice point about the deer!

I like evil deer

keless · Post by **keless** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 12:03 am

woot, CVS!

I'll certainly offer my help, though I cant be the lead.

147-2 · Post by **147-2** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 2:18 am

I like the development the way it is... Mainly because people like me can suggest, implement and test a mod, then throw it at Niko. This hearkens back to the genious of Linus Trovalds, who has kept Linux kernel development in the palm of his hand, even though there are thousands of contributors out there, he maintains the sanity and form which has ensured the continuing viability of the project. As an experienced developer, I feel that Niko is doing the right thing.

I may be new here, but I have a fully written engine under my belt, its just hibernating until a generation or two of vid cards go by. My engine is a portal engine with FULLY dynamic shadows, and with that, it really hits the FPS. I decided I'd let the thing cool for a while, and just look around for the best engine for today's cards and processors. I chose Irrlicht about 6 months ago, and then lay dormant while working on other projects...

As for the CgFX mod I suggested, I wouldn't mind doing it and then throwing the code at you, Niko.

buhatkj · Post by **buhatkj** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 4:41 am

fantastic sai, you'll have to try and explain the dark in and outs of it to me i was trying to set up cvs for fmorg, and i stupified myself...i thought i had doen it according to their instructions, and it just bloody didnt work...i had no idea what went wrong. lemme know when you get you approval, and meanwhile i will try and see what i can spruce up for submission

-ted

keless · Post by **keless** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 7:26 am

147-2 wrote:I like the development the way it is... Mainly because people like me can suggest, implement and test a mod, then throw it at Niko. This hearkens back to the genious of Linus Trovalds, who has kept Linux kernel development in the palm of his hand, even though there are thousands of contributors out there, he maintains the sanity and form which has ensured the continuing viability of the project. As an experienced developer, I feel that Niko is doing the right thing.

I may be new here, but I have a fully written engine under my belt, its just hibernating until a generation or two of vid cards go by. My engine is a portal engine with FULLY dynamic shadows, and with that, it really hits the FPS. I decided I'd let the thing cool for a while, and just look around for the best engine for today's cards and processors. I chose Irrlicht about 6 months ago, and then lay dormant while working on other projects...

As for the CgFX mod I suggested, I wouldn't mind doing it and then throwing the code at you, Niko.

I'd love to see CgFX included in IrrLicht.

As for "the way it is now"-- the problem with the way it is now, is that it takes several months even for critical bug fixes to be released, not to mention features which are vital for some people.

As pointed out earlier, while Linus is the head of linux-- he does not manage every aspect of its code. IrrLicht is not as large as linux, but Niko is busy adding his own modifications to the engine and doesnt want to be bothered with the extra hastle of more frequent releases (hassle in the form of people with cross-version problems, actually putting up the versions, etc. etc.) So for those of us just DYING for some of the features, but who dont want to spend hours of extra time trying to find them all in the forum and work them into our own personal projects, I think this 'unofficial library' would be very helpful.

saigumi · Post by **saigumi** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 7:37 pm

Hopefully, the SF.net approval will be sent in today or tomorrow (2 Business day).

I figure I can break down snippets into two versions.

1. Individual modules
2. Source with most modules applied

I say "most" because there may be two equally useful and desired modules that will not co-operate with each other.

I will maintain the CVS project as well as merge as many modules as I can. I don't "do" Dev-C++ and barely "do" Linux, so I won't be able to QA fixes for that. But I'm sure there are others who can and will.

The main suggestion I have is that when submitting a new feature, include a test application that showcases that feature and nothing else, like the tutorials. This way, we have a means of unit testing a feature easilly on each platform.

This would even be helpful on fixes. I've created test apps to send to other developers on a flaw that I found that made it easy for them to find and fix defects.

Robomaniac · Post by **Robomaniac** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 7:59 pm

I can do Dev C++ compiling if you need some.

buhatkj · Post by **buhatkj** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 7:59 pm

i would assume you will also post the test apps and their source, to help demonstrate usage of said modules...they don't need to be in CVS, but it would be cool to just make em regular file release type thing in a package called "demos" or something i'd think.
sounds great sai

so as i have it now the procedure is this:
-write your module
-clean it up, document it, and test it.
-write a simple demo of it
-submit it to you for approval

i may have missed something. dunno. it would be good to make these sort of steps clear on the site when you put it up.
i'm glad this is happening

-Ted
EDIT:: also, one other question, what about things which are designed to work WITH irrlicht, but not necessarily part OF irrlicht? for instance, i have some basic netcode, which i'm sure somebody could use, but it isnt part of irrlicht persay, it has simply been designed to work WITH irrlicht. same goes for my timer class and sound manager, both of which i think are useful, but not really meant to be a part of irrlicht proper.
maybe we could have a sort of "code dump" section too? just snippets of code, (documented of course and preferably with a demo app) but not necessarily irrlicht "patches" persay...

BradB · Post by **BradB** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:00 pm

saigumi - excellent idea on the unit tests. A demo of the mod not only tells you how to use it, but proves that it works. I think that should almost be a manditory part of the submission.

Brad

keless · Post by **keless** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:10 pm

i agree.

as for DevCpp, I can also help with that.

Things to keep in mind for good cross-platform code:
1) DONT USE "#pragma once" (use #ifndef instead)
2) #include "blah.h" is case-sensitive in linux, make sure its the same case as the actual path and file name of the file being included

Robomaniac · Post by **Robomaniac** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:51 pm

As for the CVS thing, i think there should be both a cvs and zip dl's i think. I'm currently working w/ both ogre and irrlicht, and the cvs for ogre is nice, but you can't download anything w/o using the cvs besides snapshots every once in a while. One thing i liked about Irrlicht, is that you could just download everything from the sourceforge page.

just my $0.02

saigumi · Post by **saigumi** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 6:26 pm

Well, for some reason, SourceForge didn't accept the project. No clue why as there is no message or email about it.

Deleted/Rejected Projects
Irrlicht Patches (UNIX name: irrlichtpatches, registered 2004-02-14 23:25)

I'd really like it to be on SF instead of on a private server.

But, I almost have Novell Forge (a branch of a branch from the software that is run on SourceForge called Alexandria) running on Eve-corp.com, so I'll run it on there until I can get SF to host it.

buhatkj · Post by **buhatkj** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 6:42 pm

they prolly figured it was a redundant project because there already is one project listing for irrlicht. suckage

but yeh if we can run it on eve-corp that's cool too

-Ted

BradB · Post by **BradB** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:18 pm

Well, there is an unused CVS tree here at Irrlicht

Niko would you mind turning over the keys to CVS to someone here?
Though it may cause a few issues when Irrlicht comes online in CVS, I can't see why we can't have a patches branch & a code base branch.

BTW - patches will be in CVS as well as downloadable from the a main page?
Each patch will need it's own directory in CVS also, right?

Could someone come up with a protocol/howto for creating, submitting and applying these patches?

Brad

saigumi · Post by **saigumi** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 9:38 pm

Some projects do have patch modules in their site, which would be my first choice on storing modules.

My main concern I have is the amount of email that Niko would get due to our patches. It's a known internet problem that people will email the guy maintaining the site, but not the module, even if there are LARGE RED LETTERS telling them to post in a forum or to the actual author.

I mean, you see the posts in the forum specifically asking for help from Niko, even though anyone could answer it. I'd be willing to bet that he is getting way more of those in email.[/b]

Irrlicht Engine

Community generated patches

Should there be a community repositry of patches?

awesome, happy day!

test apps

prolly felt it was redundant or something...