Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

[Chad R. Meiners]

At
http://www.cse.msu.edu/~meinersc/bricks/abricks.zip

is breakout game I wrote in Ada using the AdaSDL thick binding.
I fortunately had some spare time to clean up the code for the game, and I
am making the new and improved code (and a w32 binary) available under the
GPL.  I would like the following feedback if any of you have the time.

1. Performance  : How does the game perform on your computer?
2. Portability : I only have access to win2K machines.  If someone is
willing to try and build the program on Linux or Mac, I would welcome
feedback on the results.
3. Thick Binding Clarity : The purpose of writing to game was to test how
easy the AdaSDL thick binding is to use.   Does the binding look convenient
and easy to use?

The game is in a basic stage.  You do not have to worry about losing the
game and you knock bricks down until you feel like quitting.  In time, I
plan on adding bells and whistles to the game.

Thank you,
CRM

Re: Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

[Bobby D. Bryant]

On Wed, 08 Jan 2003 22:46:16 -0500, Chad R. Meiners wrote:


> 3. Thick Binding Clarity : The purpose of writing to game was to test
> how easy the AdaSDL thick binding is to use.   Does the binding look
> convenient and easy to use?

I'll have to look at it closer when time allows, but I'm glad to see that
you're creating a thick binding because I've been itching to do some SDL
stuff and have been hesitating because I don't want to get bogged down in
programming around Vargas' thin bindings.

After a brief initial peek I'd like to give you the same suggestion I just
gave David Holm re his OpenGL bindings (see the other thread).  Namely,
call your _product_ "AdaSDL", but drop "Ada" from the name of the actual
Ada packages, so that a program will use simply -

	with SDL.Video;
	...

It's abundantly clear that any Ada package is an Ada package!

-- 
Bobby Bryant
Austin, Texas

Re: Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

[Chad R. Meiners]

"Bobby D. Bryant" <bdbryant@mail.utexas.edu> wrote in message
news:pan.2003.01.09.10.03.19.964916@mail.utexas.edu...

> After a brief initial peek I'd like to give you the same suggestion I just
> gave David Holm re his OpenGL bindings (see the other thread).  Namely,
> call your _product_ "AdaSDL", but drop "Ada" from the name of the actual
> Ada packages, so that a program will use simply -
>
> with SDL.Video;
> ...
>
> It's abundantly clear that any Ada package is an Ada package!

Good advice, but the thick binding sits on top of the thin binding which is
named SDL ;-)  Thank you for your interest! :)

-CRM

Re: Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

[Chad R. Meiners]

I have updated the source for the program to remove dependence on
Gnat.Traceback and fixed some naming issues.

The program with its source is still at

http://www.cse.msu.edu/~meinersc/bricks/abricks.zip

-CRM

Re: Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

[Preben Randhol]

Chad R. Meiners wrote:
> I have updated the source for the program to remove dependence on
> Gnat.Traceback and fixed some naming issues.
> 
> The program with its source is still at
> 
> http://www.cse.msu.edu/~meinersc/bricks/abricks.zip

I'm trying to compile the game on Linux, but since you have used mixed
cases of the file names it makes it hard. However I found that unzip -LL
will force the names to lower case. At any rate, please convert all
filenames to lowercase so that there is no problems with this (some
versions of unzip might not have the -LL switch).

I'm a bit confused as to why I must have the AdaSDL thin binding and the
AdaSDL thick binding? Would it be possible to merge them so that one
only need the thick binding?

Anyway keep up the good work! I'll give more feedback when I have
managed to compile the program.

Preben
-- 
This is Ada95 land. On quiet nights you can hear C programmers debug.

Re: Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

[Chad R. Meiners]

"Preben Randhol" <randhol+news@pvv.org> wrote in message
news:slrnb2d68n.e5.randhol+news@kiuk0152.chembio.ntnu.no...

> I'm trying to compile the game on Linux, but since you have used mixed
> cases of the file names it makes it hard. However I found that unzip -LL
> will force the names to lower case. At any rate, please convert all
> filenames to lowercase so that there is no problems with this (some
> versions of unzip might not have the -LL switch).

Yes, I am sorry about that.  I just found the naming configuration pragmas
for GNAT so I will try to add a gnat.adc file in a future release.  If that
does not work I will look into renaming all the files in the sourceforge cvs
tree.

> I'm a bit confused as to why I must have the AdaSDL thin binding and the
> AdaSDL thick binding? Would it be possible to merge them so that one
> only need the thick binding?

It would be possible to merge the two, but I didn't want to repeat all the
work accomplished in the thin binding.  Anyway the thick binding abstracts
most of SDL's functionality and hides a lot of details.  If someone wants to
use functionality that isn't supported by the thick they can write a new
child package in the thick binding and leverage the work done in the thin
binding.

> Anyway keep up the good work! I'll give more feedback when I have
> managed to compile the program.

Thank you!  I appreciate your effort.

-CRM

Re: Feedback wanted: Breakout game using SDL

[Preben Randhol]

Chad R. Meiners wrote:
> It would be possible to merge the two, but I didn't want to repeat all the
> work accomplished in the thin binding.  Anyway the thick binding abstracts
> most of SDL's functionality and hides a lot of details.  If someone wants to
> use functionality that isn't supported by the thick they can write a new
> child package in the thick binding and leverage the work done in the thin
> binding.

Ah OK. Makes sense.

-- 
Preben Randhol ------------------------ http://www.pvv.org/~randhol/ --
                          �1984 is soon coming to a computer near you.�