From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 11131e,395b8f27178b0e25,start X-Google-Attributes: gid11131e,public X-Google-Thread: 10ed7b,395b8f27178b0e25,start X-Google-Attributes: gid10ed7b,public X-Google-Thread: 11232c,395b8f27178b0e25,start X-Google-Attributes: gid11232c,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,41100a78496a4c71 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-02 15:43:43 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsmi-us.news.garr.it!NewsITBone-GARR!area.cu.mi.it!news.mailgate.org!mygate.mailgate.org!198.207.153.205!not-for-mail From: "Kent Paul Dolan" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,misc.misc,talk.bizarre,comp.ai.genetic Subject: Nethack (again)!: AdaGames Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 23:43:41 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG Message-ID: References: <98104da8.0203280310.143a1c18@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.207.153.205 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: news.mailgate.org 1017784834 19010 198.207.153.205 (Wed Apr 3 01:43:41 2002) X-Complaints-To: abuse@mailgate.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 23:43:41 +0000 (UTC) Injector-Info: news.mailgate.org; posting-host=198.207.153.205; posting-account=48257; posting-date=1017784834 User-Agent: Mailgate Web Server X-URL: http://mygate.mailgate.org/mynews/comp/comp.lang.ada/afd738e54917bf0b19a576b3165dba4e.48257%40mygate.mailgate.org Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:22021 misc.misc:6036 talk.bizarre:21002 comp.ai.genetic:3685 Date: 2002-04-02T23:43:41+00:00 List-Id: "Bobby D. Bryant" wrote: > and games are probably the > best domain for "advocacy" projects if you are trying to get people > interested in Ada, OSS, or whatever. Agreed, emphatically. > Think of a game > you've played and liked but always found yourself saying "this would be > lots better if you could do XYZ", and implement a version with XYZ. Beware of getting sucked into this like a sailor into the Maelstrom, though. My little attempt to "put 'xyz'" into Scott Robert Ladd's Traveller applet (somewhere under http://www.coyotegulch.com), passed 800,000 bytes of (Java) source code recently, with no obvious stopping point in sight. [I'm trying to force myself to stop adding source momentarily and clean up the docs again so I can post release epsilon to http://www.well.com/user/xanthian/java/TravellerDoc.html where the prior version is sitting now; so far I have added the needed text for all the interface and code changes, and rearranged text to match interface rearrangements, but not yet proofread it or checked it for completeness. Even the docs page is a substantial fraction of a MibiByte these days.] His single window applet has become one with 5 main windows and dozens of pop up ones, his five (later six) possible checkbox choices are my 50, et cetera ad obsessivium. (I made that word up, trust me.) As the thread followup to my Nethack! mod of this thread shows, there is interest, there are bodies interested who have begun such a project in the past, there is a _huge_ underestimate of how hard such a project would be (Nethack, long, long ago, had over 100 contributors of code, all of whose styles one would have to learn to read and understand, I'm sure it is much worse now, and one is, after all, porting C, a write-only programming language), there is an agreement that it would make a good "advocacy" project for sucking students into the Ada orbit, and there is a mention of the obvious, that without example code, programmers given a choice of languages turn to one where example code exists (much as for my Traveller rewrite, which I began with a total prior Java experience of one _line_ of Java code written). Now, can we get a few Teachers Of Ada to commit to forming a multi-university "distributed programming in the large" project to reimplement NetHack in Ada? A useful target enhancement would be to make it a multi-player game across network servers (at which point higher education planet-wide would probably come to a grinding halt, but that's why usage metering for students exists). After a semester or two, the project would probably maintain itself. After a substantial body of Nethack-in-Ada source code is created, subsequent co-authors can program by example. That makes this a wonderful place to teach the art of writing maintainable code. Putting some fun into coursework would be a fine way to get students really obsessed with Ada. xanthian. -- Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG