[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Python?

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Arnstein Lindgard wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 02:42:02 -0800 Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
>
> > Not to dissuade you... but are you being honest when you
> > say you like C,
> > as opposed to modern languages?  I always have a hard time
> > wrapping my
> > brain around the idea that in 2003, there are application
> > developers who
> > really feel this way.  Kernel gurus, device driver jocks,
> > ok.  But app developers??
>
> Looks like a tasty piece of bait you have there, Mr. Troll :-D

I have a .sig about that.  Discussion has been intelligent so far, and
there's no "war" for me here.  Having just done a dog-and-pony show with
the Xconq crowd, I didn't come in here thinking I was likely to convince
anyone.  Rather, I wanted to see if I would be pleasantly surprised.
Mainly, I wanted to better understand why C developers stick to their
guns.  That agenda has certainly been productive for me.

> If you were a racer driver, would you use automatic gear, or listen
> to every hum of the engine and do it yourself? And they say if you
> want to learn several human laguages, you should start with studying
> Latin.

If you were Hitler, would you micromanage your conquest of the world or
would you delegate authority to capable generals?  Python is potentially
your "capable general."

> If Python was an accepted standard among AI-programmers, I'd be all
> for it in order to attract more Freeciv coders, but the comp.ai FAQ
> says it's a newcomer.

There's no such thing as an AI standard.  AI, in general, is a backwater
of technological advance compared to the rest of the computer industry.
It is incapable of operating at Moore's Law because the problems are too
complicated and aren't readily commodified / sold to consumers.  Ergo,
you get people writing AIs in any language they feel like.  And more to
the point, the "AI" used in most games is not usually the high flying
stuff of the academy.  Python has plenty of capability in this arena, it
is an exceedingly flexible dynamically typed language and that's
desireable for AI problems.

Where is Python proven in the game industry?

- multimedia adventure game development
"GDC 2002: Game Scripting in Python"
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20020821/dawson_01.htm
by Bruce Dawson, formerly of Humongous Entertainment

- MMORPG server scripting
"Python for Massively Multiplayer Virtual Worlds"
by Jason Asbahr, Origin Systems, Inc.
http://www.asbahr.com/paper2html/paper2.htm

Meanwhile in the freeware open source universe, there's strong support
for 3D graphics.

- 3D modeling and animation
http://www.blender3d.com/
http://www.blender.org/
http://www.gameblender.org

- 3D engines
The Nebula Device
http://nebuladevice.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Nebula/WebHome
BSD license!  You'll have to use Nebula 1 for Python support right now
though.
See also the demo of the commercial title Project Nomads, done with
Nebula 1.  Very good looking (someone said they wanted eye candy?)
http://www.project-nomads.de/


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

"Troll" - (n.) Anything you don't like.
Usage: "He's just a troll."