[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Development Strategies [Was Documentation, Usability and Development]

[Andrew Sutton <ansutton@xxxxxxx>]

> So, is it worthy to switch to a new development model with the current
> code, or is this for Freeciv 2.0.

let the old version stay as it is... there's no sense changing things 
drastically now.

> Since everyone else has commented about what language to use, I will too.
> <snip>

i'm REALLY not a fan of java for performance critical applications. it's fine 
for clients and web apps, but i just don't think a virtual machine can 
guarantee the performance of a native application. rewriting the server in 
java would mean that all would be developers would have to learn java and its 
subtelties in addition to the actual game.

i think c++ is probably the best choice above c. yes, c hackers will have to 
learn c++, but since the syntax is similar, it shouldn't be too much of an 
issue, and advanced developers can always answer questions about code. it 
also builds to native binaries and can take full advantage of a) other c++ 
toolkits b) the stl c) dynamically loaded libraries.

if there were a *very* good reason to rewrite the server in java, some other 
vm language (c#), or an uncommon programming language (smalltack, ocamel, 
ada, fortran, basic, etc), than it would we would have valid considerations. 
besides... you can write c++ to be very, very portable - without too much 
effort.

andy