Re: What to do with Xconq

[Erik Jessen <erik dot jessen at home dot com>]

As an "old fart", I can't speak for the younger crowd.
But, I would agree with using any of the newer programming languages
(I know C++) that would get people interested.
I would like to learn Java, but have no reason to (yet... :)
One question: would Java be fast enough?  Or would we need
Java plus Perl/C++/whatever?  (I like Perl, personally).

Also, as a purchaser of software, I've noticed that the most dynamic
companies are those that rewrite everything from scratch every few
years - they recognize that they've learned so much since the last
rewrite, that simply patching the old stuff won't work.

Regards,
Erik

"A. Rick Anderson" wrote:

> :Warning <personal opinion>
> I see several major issues that Stan has brought up.
> 1) Barriers to developing the code,
> 2) Barriers to playing the game/games
> a) XConq used to be on the standard linux distribution.  It's no longer
> there.  Years ago, I bought the Yddrasyl (sp?) Linux distribution just to
> get xconq (it wasn't there.  potential copyright issues with Apple caused
> them to drop it from the distribution.)
> b) There should be a game-players-only turnkey install with the best of the
> game-moduels available immediately upon startup.
>
> I played XConq back in the 5x days and on a networked AIX box, it was great
> fun.  Conceptually, I love the open-source nature of xconq.  There have
> been any number of times that I downloaded everything.  I get all set up to
> work on the code, but I just can't bring myself to get excited about
> leaping backward in time and going back to hacking around with 'C'
> /TCL/pseudo-Lisp code.  I've seen that movie and it just holds absolutely
> no appeal for me.  It beats Cobal and BASIC, but not by much.
>
> I was very excited a few months back when you seemed to be considering
> doing a re-write in Java.  I can't speak for everyone, but I know that I
> would be more then willing to spend a lot of time on developing my own
> enhancements/refinements if it was written in a language that I am
> currently interested in.
>
> A lot of open-source folks are late-night college hackers.  A Java
> implementation is the Y2K equivalent of 'C' back in the eighties.  To get
> the best job, you need experience.  Compare the resume-enhancing effect and
> marketable skills that a student gets from contributing to a major Java
> module of a large-scale, distributed, networked project, versus being able
> to say that they added a "game module" written in a proprietary lisp or
> that they cleaned up the TCL-based interface.
>
> Players care about the user-interface (read pretty UI, graphics, sound etc)
> Programmers care about cool technology, what they can do with it and what
> they can learn.
>
> I'd suggest a survey.  Ask folks:
> o - How many would rather continue work on C/TCL/Lisp  ... or how many
> would be willing to help if a different technology, such as Java was used
> instead.
> o - How much time they might be willing to spend on it.
> o - Who would be willing to develop game levels
> o - Who would be willing to develop graphical "level-editors"
> etc.
>
> XConq is very, very cool!!!  Stan, don't let it die just because us
> old-farts are going through a mid-life crisis :-)
>
> -- A. Rick Anderson