Re: Ada suitablity as a game dev language

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:44:49 GMT, Dale Stanbrough wrote:

> Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> 
>>>> 2. Ada is highly portable. Games are usually developed for many platforms.
>>> 
>>> The major platforms would be (in no particular order)...
>>> 
>>>    Windows
>>>    XBox (windows again)
>>>    Playstation
>>>  
>>> There is no Ada compiler for the Playstation, so your argument has
>>> less force than you think.
>> 
>> Probably you mean commercial games, for you do not mention Linux and Apple.
> 
> i think the number of Ada games on Linux or Mac OS X would be less than 
> 10. I did say "the major platforms" after all.

You never know what will be a major platform in next 5 years. How old is
X-Box?

>> But in that case, I believe it would be no problem for a big software
>> player to persuade ACT, Aonix or RR software to target Playstation. Or
>> other platforms of even greater interest like mobile phones, for instance.
> 
> If you pay them enough. And implement the tools for doing all the other 
> stuff. This isn't going to happen if you are talking about non commercial
> games. 

Right, but it is unlikely that for a non-commercial game one would consider
Playstation as an interesting platform.

> The return on investment would be negligible if you are doing it for
> profit. The PS2 has a whacky architecture that would be trick to port
> to. I suspect you'ld need serious tools (other than the language) to
> write cross platform software for these platforms.

Yes, but why to aggravate the problem by using C++? It would just mount
problems. Clearly, at first glance a 3D-engine will outweigh any language,
when it comes to choice. But in a long term perspective it might turn
otherwise. The tools you are talking about are extremely short living. Who
would need a 10 years old engine or AI? So even a minor improvement of code
reusability could have a great return in cost reduction.

[ Once upon a time we made such choice and used Win32/C++ for one of our
products. Now, almost 10 years after, we deeply regret that choice, which
was so obvious that time. No, that wasn't a computer game! (:-)) ]

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de