Graphics with ADA ?

Graphics with ADA ?

[Jim]

i want to have a go programming a game for ADA, except i dont know how
to use graphics, i know ADA isnt the best language for games, but its
the only language i know unfortunately.

does anyone know where to get tutortials for graphics ?

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[tmoran]

> i want to have a go programming a game for ADA, except i dont know how
> to use graphics,
  Graphics is done differently on different OSes.  Which are you planning
to use?  What do you mean by "graphics"?  A minesweeper game (see
www.adapower.com) with a very slowly changing set of icons, or a
Castle Wolfenstein type with panning and zooming of textured surfaces,
or something like Pong with separately moving small objects, or what?
Check out at "engine_3d" on www.adapower.com, for instance.

> i know ADA isnt the best language for games,
You know wrong.  It can do drawing as well as anything, plus it has
built in multi-tasking and timing and even multi-computer distributed
programming.

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[Pascal Obry]

genx54321@hotmail.com (Jim) writes:

> i want to have a go programming a game for ADA, except i dont know how
> to use graphics, i know ADA isnt the best language for games, but its
> the only language i know unfortunately.

What OS ? What kind 2D or 3D game ?

If the later and you want to run on Windows and UNIX the way to go
is OpenGL. Close to Direct3D and there is very good drivers for the
3D video cards.

You could have a look at http://www.libsdl.org/index.php. SDL claims to
be a cross-platform, quick, used by some nice software and there is
an Ada binding. I have never tried it though...

Pascal.

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Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[David Marceau]

Jim wrote:
> 
> i want to have a go programming a game for ADA, except i dont know how
> to use graphics, i know ADA isnt the best language for games, but its
> the only language i know unfortunately.
> 
> does anyone know where to get tutortials for graphics ?

1)platform independent gtk
gtkada binding
http://libre.act-europe.fr/GtkAda/
This one I tried and it has a lot of components to offer.  Check out the
demos very carefully there are a lot of hidden perls here :)
Tree controls, tables, interconnecting node graphs usable for creating
UML tools :)
It is most likely you would want to use this since it runs on linux/Unix
and windows.

2)platform independent sdl
adasdl binding
http://sourceforge.net/projects/adasdl
I haven't tried this one.

3)Linux 2d/3d graphics with ada
http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/gdm/e3d/engine3d.tgz
You'll need svgalib:  http://www.arava.co.il/matan/svgalib/
This is straight console graphics.  There are no XWindow or windows in
this one.  Potentially embeddable :)  What do I mean potentially?  I
mean you could if you wanted to :)  I'm sure someone has :)

4)proprietary windows95/nt/2000...If you want to do game programming in
ada95 with just MS-Windows in mind, then consider using gnatcom  in
order to reuse direct2d, direct3d, directshow filters.

5)Consider using jgnat/cafe 1815 to connect to JAZZ(an open-source java
zui zoomeable user interface built on top of swing/awt).
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/jazz/download/index.shtml
It's less likely that you use this however the design and JAZZ's
patterns are inspiring source code to rewrite in
ada/svgalib/sdlada/gtkada.  
Again there are many hidden perls in the jazz source code, architecture
and design patterns.  It's worth the look.

Cheers,
David Marceau

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[David Botton]

If you are using Windows, you may want to take a look at GWindows and go
through the tutorials. http://www.adapower.com/gwindows

BTW, Ada is an _VERY_ good language for game programming! I wouldn't be
surprised if a few Air craft simulators were written in it ;-)

David Botton

"Jim" <genx54321@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ab6237e2.0208041150.4b993074@posting.google.com...
> i want to have a go programming a game for ADA, except i dont know how
> to use graphics, i know ADA isnt the best language for games, but its
> the only language i know unfortunately.
>
> does anyone know where to get tutortials for graphics ?

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[Caffeine Junky]

On Sun, 04 Aug 2002 15:50:03 -0400, Jim wrote:

> i want to have a go programming a game for ADA, except i dont know how
> to use graphics, i know ADA isnt the best language for games, but its
> the only language i know unfortunately.
> 
> does anyone know where to get tutortials for graphics ?
 

I use to think this also. However my understanding and skills with the
Ada language have mushroomed recently(hence my lack of posting questions
to comp.lang.ada) and as a result I have discovered that Ada is in fact
an excellent tool for programming games. I'm finding in particular that
Ada is very well suited for doing simulations and games where "game
physics" is a significant concern.

Generally I leave the details of actually drawing the graphics to the
screen up to external libraries, mostly because my skills in that
particular area are rather weak at the moment. I do everything else in
Ada95 though.(Such as maintaining a player database, doing the various
calculations and tests, memory managment, etc...).

However, due to Ada95's "streamlined" use of Boolean, Machine, and
Storage_Pool types, I dont see graphics as being a particularly difficult
hurdle. After all, it's often used to create flight simulators.

This is just an opinion. I have never used Ada in a professional context, so I
cant really claim to have an authoritative opinion. However from a
hobbyist standpoint, it's very effective.

My .02 for what it's worth.(bad pun?)


St4pL3

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[Maarten Woxberg]

On Sat, 10 Aug 2002 02:19:47 +0200, Ant�nio Vargas wrote:

> Hi all.
> 
> I'm the creator of the AdaSDL ada binding
> 
> I'm not updating sourceforge because I didn't get any feedback and
> cooperation from the Ada community.
> 
> I will continue to improve AdaSDL if I get some feedback.
> 
> I wish to learn and get some constructive criticism from others.
> 
> My actual e-mail is: antoniovargas@oninet.pt.
> 


Hi, I would really like to get the latest version of your AdaSDL
I'm in the begining of development of a game in Ada and would
greatly appreciate a binding that is mostly compatible with SDL 1.2
Sound is not required... I'll check the Sourceforge site,  but
I expect you have a newer version...

> PS.
> (English is not my natural language, sorry.)

Not mine either

> Best Regards
 

/M�rten

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[Eric Merritt]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii, Size: 1283 bytes --]

Antonio,

 Just as a heads up. I am using AdaSDL for a game
client I am working on. So far its working pretty darn
well. I do have some suggestions if you are interested
in them. Just let me know how you would like to
recieve them. 

  I most definatly appreciate the work you put into on
this. Its making my life a whole lot easier. The fact
that AdaSDL exists is what gave me the option of
choosing Ada for the client, otherwise it would have
ended up being Objective-C or something similar.

Thanks,
Eric

--- Ant�nio_Vargas <antoniovargas@oninet.pt> wrote:
> Hi all.
> 
> I'm the creator of the AdaSDL ada binding
> 
> I'm not updating sourceforge because I didn't get
> any feedback
> and cooperation from the Ada community.
> 
> I will continue to improve AdaSDL if I get some
> feedback.
> 
> I wish to learn and get some constructive criticism
> from others.
> 
> My actual e-mail is: antoniovargas@oninet.pt.
> 
> PS.
> (English is not my natural language, sorry.)
> 
> Best Regards
> _______________________________________________
> comp.lang.ada mailing list
> comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
> http://ada.eu.org/mailman/listinfo/comp.lang.ada


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Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[Jim]

totally forgot i posted this message.


i want to create something basic, as i am only a beginner.

so 2D graphics, ill start off with board games maybe, so no
animations, just pictures/icons that are placed at different parts of
the screen.

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[António Vargas]

Eric

   It's good to know that it works well for others to.

   Since my last post I have received several E-mails from 
people interested in the project. So, I will make a new
release with some small corrections and additions (such us 
the use of truetype fonts over SDL/OpenGL) and a better
intallation process/documentation for Linux/Windows.

  Meanwhile you can send-me your sugestions by E-mail or 
use the foruns of the project at sourceforge. They might
be added to the new release.

  It is a thin bindind. A Thick binding would be a good add on
in order to do Ada code in Ada style (not Ada code influenced
by the binded underlying C code). I've started something but is
far from complete.


The main advantage of the present thin bining is related to the fact
that it is very easy to port C/SDL software. You might have notice
that in the several examples of the package.


   What about a CVS based development? Would you contribute ?

  

   
Antonio M. F. Vargas
Barcelos - Portugal



====================================

Eric Merritt <cyberlync@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<mailman.1029158822.21205.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>...
> Antonio,
> 
>  Just as a heads up. I am using AdaSDL for a game
> client I am working on. So far its working pretty darn
> well. I do have some suggestions if you are interested
> in them. Just let me know how you would like to
> recieve them. 
> 
>   I most definatly appreciate the work you put into on
> this. Its making my life a whole lot easier. The fact
> that AdaSDL exists is what gave me the option of
> choosing Ada for the client, otherwise it would have
> ended up being Objective-C or something similar.
> 
> Thanks,
> Eric
> 
> --- Ant�nio_Vargas <antoniovargas@oninet.pt> wrote:
> > Hi all.
> > 
> > I'm the creator of the AdaSDL ada binding
> > 
> > I'm not updating sourceforge because I didn't get
> > any feedback
> > and cooperation from the Ada community.
> > 
> > I will continue to improve AdaSDL if I get some
> > feedback.
> > 
> > I wish to learn and get some constructive criticism
> > from others.
> > 
> > My actual e-mail is: antoniovargas@oninet.pt.
> > 
> > PS.
> > (English is not my natural language, sorry.)
> > 
> > Best Regards
> > _______________________________________________
> > comp.lang.ada mailing list
> > comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
> > http://ada.eu.org/mailman/listinfo/comp.lang.ada
> 
> 
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> HotJobs - Search Thousands of New Jobs
> http://www.hotjobs.com

Re: Graphics with ADA ?

[Eric Merritt]

Antonio,


> (such us 
> the use of truetype fonts over SDL/OpenGL) 
 This is cool, I was going to have to write something
similar to this to support my stuff. You have to love
it when the work is already done. Thanks


>   Meanwhile you can send-me your sugestions by
> E-mail or 
> use the foruns of the project at sourceforge. They
> might
> be added to the new release.

 Will do. 

>   It is a thin bindind. A Thick binding would be a
> good add on
> in order to do Ada code in Ada style (not Ada code
> influenced
> by the binded underlying C code). I've started
> something but is
> far from complete.
 
 This was actually going to be one of my suggestions.
lol. Should have figured it was obvious.

> 
> The main advantage of the present thin bining is
> related to the fact
> that it is very easy to port C/SDL software. You
> might have notice
> that in the several examples of the package.

  This is true. I hadn't thought of that. It might be
a good idea then to have the thick binding simply sit
on top of the thin binding. That way you could get the
best of both worlds.


>    What about a CVS based development? Would you
> contribute ?

 Sure, the project I am working on at the moment
depends completly on AdaSDL. It would be rather rude
of me not to be willing to contribute to a project
that I use so much. Just let me know what needs to be
done and I will see what I can do about it. 

Perhaps we should move this discussion to the
Sourceforge forumn/list?



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