HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: <None>
Date: 29 Jul 92 17:20:19 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <36572@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu>, gmt@reef.cis.ufl.edu (GMM) writes:
> What is Stony Brook?

Stony Brook is a software company that does a lot of compilers.  Pascal+
a TP6 globally optimizing compiler is available from them.

Stony Brook Software
187 East Wilbur Road, Suite 9
Thousand Oaks, California 91360
From: cwt26780@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Conrad W Taylor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: DPaint II...?
Date: 29 Jul 92 17:40:37 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


         I was wondering, has anyone used a graphics package called DPaint II?
If so, could you please critique this graphics package in regards to designing
a game.  For example, was it easy to link this graphics package to C++ and 
assembler code?, was the 3D graphics capabilities of this package good enough 
to use in the design of a game?, and etc.  Please e-mail me at one of the fol-
lowing:

      ctaylor@ncsa.uiuc.edu
      cwt26780@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
      tjy29619@sumter.cso.uiuc.edu
      drm26912@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

Thanks in advance,

Conrad

ps: BTW, this is being used for the PC.
From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Game libraries...
Date: 27 Jul 92 15:03:42 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


In article <1992Jul27.141122.11139@wam.umd.edu> dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett) writes:
>
>>	The graphics books out there don't really cover anything to useful
>>to games programming (except maybe the never-can-find abrash book).
>
>(BTW, does *anyone* have a copy of Abrash?  Where can you get it?  I've
>tried every big bookstore I know and no one's ever heard of it.)

Depending on which Abrash book you're talking about, it may be out of
print. Abrash's "Zen of Assembly Language," which I very much wanted a
copy of but no local bookstore ever carried, went out of print just a
couple months before I got fed up waiting to find it in a store and
tried to mail order it. :-(
From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Game libraries...
Date: 29 Jul 92 00:12:13 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

> If you really think you've achieved in two weeks what Mike Roberts
> has spent 5 years on, make your system available.  We'd love to see it.
> I'm sure we'll have plenty of constructive criticism for you.

I didn't think the interest in text adventure compilers was still there,
so I didn't release it in the first place.

FYI, the language is based on the ADVSYS game compiler (I think I 
mentioned this earlier).  I did this because there were a great many
adventures written in this language at the time, and I couldn't find
source code to the ADVSYS compiler (does it even exist in the PD?).
It includes a great many more features.  Trust me, compilers aren't
that hard to right...especially interpreted ones.  Maybe I'll make the
system available, maybe I won't.  I'd have to dig it out of my archives.

>>Who needs an algorithm?  I did it with a modified Bresenham line drawing
>>routine.  As fast as it could possibly go...unless there is a method
>>to zap it there instantly.
> 
> Trivializing things that are well-known to be difficult isn't going to
> impress people as much as make them simply not believe you,
> particularly in a forum like this where people who write games and
> related software for a living hang out.  Real-time texture mapping is
> NOT easy and certainly does require some underlying theory to
> understand; but I suppose now you're going to trivialize Ultima
> Underworld and claim you could bang that out in a week or two?  Come on.

Think about it!  When you texture map something, you are just laying it
down on a surface in a different manner.  If you were to draw the borders
of an object...just as a putimage would put it down, you would get this:

                       -----
                       |   |
                       |   |
                       -----

To perspective map it, you would have something that looked like this:

  |\
  | \
  | /
  |/

Right?  Good.  Now that you understand that point, we'll get on with it.
I'm not going to take into account the extra planes in UW and assume that
the wall is always standing straight up.

Go into your favorite drawing program and straight vertical line (fairly
long...about 64 pixels).  Now, draw a line starting from the top point
(like in the drawing above) on a 45 degree angle...not very long...maybe
about 20 pixels from the origin.  Good.  Now do the same thing for the
bottom.

A good perspective mapper must scale as it goes.  Bresenham can be used
to create a scaling routine too that is super fast.  The entire perspective
mapper is based on the Bresenham line drawing routine...the perspective
is drawn by a pseudo-line drawer, and the scaling is done by the routine.

More in the next message...
From: baylor@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Baylor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: University profs (Re: Formal programming ed)
Date: 25 Jul 92 00:39:10 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

>Not at the typical University he's not. That prof contributes to the
>world by doing research; many undergrads get the impression that the
>teaching of sub-Graduate-level courses is almost an afterthought. It's
>"publish or perish," not "teach undergrads or perish." Those students
>who really want to learn WILL learn, simply from being in the
>environment, exposed to other motivated students, graduate student TAs,
>and profs. Those who want to be spoon fed might be happier at DeVry or
>with a Sally Struthers correspondence course.
>

	I couldn't agree more. If the student really wants to learn he
will, and he has no right to be inspired by or taught by a prize
winning prof who mumbles but publishes. Undergrads who can't handle
study or perish can go to hell.
	What this country needs are fewer educated people, fewer
knowledgeable people, fewer people with degrees. This place would
be much better if everyone was flunked and no one ever was taught 
anything (but they can always read the profs dissertations).
	Further more, i think that it is ridiculous hand-holding
to even have universitys; lincoln learned on coal and shovels,
and any student who so much as demands paper or PBS does not]
deserve to learn. On top of that, the best student should not even
be allowed to KNOW smart people - it's an unfair advantage (they could
say something educational).
	Remember, there is no such thing as a good teacher, only
good students (funny how some teachers  consistently get better
students though)

>To the earlier poster who told us all we should be using email and then
>ignored his own advice and proceeded to POST yet another contribution to
>this thread: what's good for the goose... ;-)

	Yeah, right, when has that ever stopped a thread in rec.games
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Baylor Wetzel    baylor@cc.utexas.edu        Hang Tyson 
Free Leonard Peltier
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: cg@ami-cg.UUCP (Chris Gray)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re:  TP or C ?
Distribution: world
Date: 25 Jul 92 01:25:38 MST
Organization: Not an Organization

In article <36520@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu> gmt@reef.cis.ufl.edu (GMM) writes:
>In article <76207@ut-emx.uucp> andrean@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Andre Arianto Nurwo
>
>>Well ? Would upgrading of the greatly readable, standard Pascal
>>be worth the effort, or is everyone already comfortable with the
>>cryptic {}!|\n C has to offer ?
>>
>>Any comments ?
>>Just a crazily passing thought, he he he :) :)
>
>Come on!  This is ridiculous!	Once you are told once what {} mean, is it
>cryptic at all?  Maybe we should all program in COBOL.  (Sarcasm intended.)
>These symbols are a basic part of the language which can be easily
>understood by the reader of a program after, oh, maybe one time of being
>told what they mean.  How does verbosity make a good language?  Truly, I
>have no problem with Turbo Pascal and in fact I used to use it a lot, but I
>think you need to come up with better reasons to slam another language than
>your lack of understanding of its symbols.

Am I having fun yet?

Actually, there is, at least for me, a good reason to use a slightly
longer form for most constructs (NOT as long as Cobol - yech!). That is
that I can pronounce them in my mind in a reasonable way. [It occurs to
me that this likely doesn't work as well for non-English speakers, when
the language uses English keywords!] Compare

C:				pronounced:
    if (a && b) {		    if a and b
	...				dot dot dot :-)
    }				    <silence>

Draco:				pronounced:
    if a and b then		    if a and b then
	...				dot dot dot
    fi				    fie

The structure is pronounced in Draco, but not in C. Also, using different
matching keywords for things like 'if', 'while', etc. means that the
compiler again has better chances of detecting your typos earlier. Pascal
also has this same problem because it uses BEGIN/END pretty much the same
as C uses {/} for compound statements.

--
Chris Gray   alberta!ami-cg!cg	 or   cg%ami-cg@CS.UAlberta.CA
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: bonney@esds.mdc.com (Greg Bonney)
Subject: Re: TP or C ?
Organization: Visual Simulation Systems
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 15:30:04 GMT

>As for the comments on the cryptic C syntax - yes, it is harder to
>read.  Reading speed is not measured in characters, but words;
>cognitively, word shapes have a lot to do with recognizing a word, and
>moderately long keywords separated by whitespaces are easier to read
>than bunched-together special characters (don't remember where I read
>that, though).

This sounds like a good argument.  However, you could take this to extremes.
For instance, why don't mathematicians write out "a squared plus b squared
equals c squared"?  (I've heard that COBOL just about goes this far.)
Another example: why don't musicians write out music in English, Italian,
or German instead of using musical notation?  In these cases, special symbols
do increase readability.  Human speech cannot clearly and quickly convey
mathematical or musical concepts, nor can it easily convey computer algorithms.
From: pcellik@axion.bt.co.uk (Peter SPHINX Cellik)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Found problem (memory model question)
Date: 22 Jul 92 10:06:39 GMT
Reply-To: pcellik@axion.bt.co.uk (Peter SPHINX Cellik)
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs


In article <1992Jul22.041040.28516@CS.ORST.EDU>, saidra@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (Raoul Said) writes:
|> 
|> 	Ok, i have located the source of my problems after converting my code
|> from small to compact in Turbo C++.  Maybe I am missing something simple here
|> but how come the following code produces two identical pointers?  Am I doing
|> something I shouldn't be here?  All I want is two pointers to the near heap
|> while in the compact memory model.  When I run this code, my machine produces
|> two pointers that point to the same place in memory.  Any ideas??
|> 
|> void main()
|> {
|> char near 	*foo[2];
|> 
|> 	foo[0] = (char near *)malloc(6);
|> 	foo[1] = (char near *)malloc(6);
|> }
|> 
|> 			Thanks

The problem is that malloc in the compact memory model returns a far memory
pointer, not a near memory pointer.  So you near pointer is only getting the
offset of the allocated buffer not the segment.  Both offsets are probably
the same, thus you are getting the results you are.

solution:
You should use nalloc (or nearalloc, depending on the compiler, even _nalloc).

This will return a near pointer to a block of allocated memory in the near
data segment.  You should then be able to use it with the near char pointers.

OK?

       SPHINX


====================================================
=== Kill others only if you wish to be killed.   ===
===                                       SPHINX ===   
====================================================
From: cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: game langauge
Date: 23 Jul 92 03:15:05 GMT
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r


     -=> David M. Baggett spoke of "Re: game langauge" <=-
To All at 07-21-92  01:10

 DMB> It's well known that commercial software houses like Lucasfilms and
 DMB> Sierra already have game languages and libraries that they use to
 DMB> increase their productivity and reduce debugging time.  Even shareware
 DMB> companies like Apogee clearly employ similar methods; you can tell
 DMB> by looking at their games.

    Unfortunately thier may never be a PD game language [truely
    general one that is].

 DMB> Keep in mind also that most of the people who read a newsgroup don't
 DMB> post.  Opinions of the vocal few may not be representative of the
 DMB> group as a whole.

    Hadn't thought of that.  A lot of poeple base opinion poles
    on that.

        Stephen Cyberman@Toz.Buffalo.NY.US
        Scripted at Wed  07-22-1992  19:17:22

... Peace, Love and Frisbees
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Game libraries...
Date: 28 Jul 92 18:12:40 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

>>I dunno.  My text adventure compiler handled everything (it was similar
>>to the ADVSYS library), and it took me a couple of weeks.  I could do
>>everything Infocom could do and more.  The resulting executable was 18k.
> 
> If you wrote it in a couple weeks, believe me, it doesn't handle
> anywhere near "everything."  You're falling into the same trap I
> mentioned before:  using a totally outdated notion of what a "game
> design system" is.  A decent game design system is far more than just a
> suite of routines you write for your personal use.  You can do
> "everything Infocom could do and more" directly in C, but that's not
> what we're talking about here -- a game design system should take care
> of all (or at least many) the tedious grungy details for you.  E.g., if
> I want to extend the parser in a TADS game, I need only define a new
> "deepverb" object.  If I want to add an actor I just have to say,
> "foobar: actor" and supply some simple methods.  This is a far cry from
> having to write everything directly in C.

So does mine.  That class is included in an include file.  I just go:

(noun Monster
  (adjective Grungy, Dirty, Ugly)
  (synonym Thing)
)

and so on.


> A good example from game programming is the nifty texture mapping that
> Origin and Apogee use for their 3D games.  That technology has been
> around for several years (check SIGGRAPH proceedings) and is
> well-documented in many places.  Sure, the optimizations that make the
> process possible on a 386 are not freely available, but one would hope
> that with a firm understanding of the algorithm you could adapt it to
> 80x86 assembly language yourself.  Specifics like this would be good
> topics for the Internet PC Graphics Guide.  1/2 :)

Who needs an algorithm?  I did it with a modified Bresenham line drawing
routine.  As fast as it could possibly go...unless there is a method
to zap it there instantly.
\
My game language was written generally enough that it could handle any 
text oriented operation.  With the proper class designations, I can 
simulate anything.

Josh
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: TP or C ? (was: Languages to program in and ports and blah and etc...)
From: stuartw@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Stuart Woolford)
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 00:59:52 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

iuzzolin@carina.unm.edu (Harold Iuzzolino) writes:

>[Lots deleted]
>>
>>>I still like Pascal.  Everybody says, "it was originally intended only to teach
>>>people how to program".  And I say, "so what?"  C apparently wasn't "good
>>>enough" in it's original incarnation either.  Otherwise, why did they have to
>>>come up with ANSII C and C++?  And C does sacrifice readability in favor of
>>>flexibility.  The C "for" statement is especially weird; it's completely
>>>different from "for" statements I've seen in any other language.
>>
>>pity about the pascal code generation ( pascal is EASIER to optimize than
>>C, but no one (at least main-line compilers) seems to do it!!).compare
>>output of your favorite pascal compiler with the same ( functionally ) code
>>from MSC 6.0 (7.0??) or even watcom 9.0 ( with '486 code optimization ) and
>>you will see what I mean..
>>
>[Mac pascal nuked]
>>
>>also.. I just love the ability to use the_variable<<=3; instead of ( I think )
>>the_variable:=shl(the_variable,3);, which would not even be portable!!

>the_variable:=(the_variable shl 3)

>this is portable (at least to the amiga).  I have done it, I have proof,
>I have programs that don't crash.  I have also seen Stony Brook's Pascal
>(I own in it fact).  It is pretty good (optimization blows me away), but
>I still like Turbo Pascal 6.0 better.  As I already optimize my code,
>I don't need any compiler to do so.  (So I don't get flamed): This does
>not mean that everyone can optimize their code.  Yes it is nice to
>have a copmiler to do so.  Yes C does nicely.  However, if you guys
>are going to go with optimization and libraries...how about Fortran (Puketran
>to us)?  That is optimized, portable, and has millions of libraries.
>(Ok, maybe not millions...but a lot).  Turbo Pascal is still the best 
>language (I consider it to be a different language to normal Pascal) I
>have ever used.  The only problem with it is the compiler limitations.
>(i.e. that arrays have to be constant).  As far as I can tell, this
>is the only thing that separates C from Pascal.  On a final note,
>Pascal does have easier string handling and an ability to handle boolean
>functions.

>This is one nice thing about TP:

>function BoolTest(x,y:byte): boolean;
>begin
> ...
>end;

>begin
> if BoolTest(10,40) then InsertAnotherSpiffyProcedureNameHereIfYouWant;
>end.
> 
well..I guess you beat C there.. in C you  would have to go:

int BoolTest(x, y)
	int x, y;
	{
	if(x==y) /* or whatever... */
		return 1; /* or use TRUE, with stdio included.. */
	else
		return 0; /* or use FALSE,        ''            */
	}

main()
	{
	if( Booltest(10,40) ) DoTheRealProgammerThing;
	}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stuartw@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz

			>>In VI Where Available<<
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cg@ami-cg.UUCP (Chris Gray)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re:  TP or C ?
Distribution: world
Date: 25 Jul 92 01:17:47 MST
Organization: Not an Organization

In article <!1hmlwg@lynx.unm.edu> iuzzolin@carina.unm.edu (Harold Iuzzolino)
writes:

>>Also, in C, I wanted to check a couple of bits at memory location 0400:0017.
>>All I did was:
>>
>>if(*((char *)0x04000017)&3) ...
>>
>>How would you do that in pascal?
>
>this is one way (there are others, as I can think of two more)
>
>var blah:longint absolute $0400:$0017;
>
>begin
> if blah=3 then InsertSpiffyProcedureNameHere; {Or whatever...}
>end.

And, if anyone in the universe cares, in Draco it would be:

    if pretend(0x04000017, *char) & 3 ~= 0 then ...

or, since I prefer to use symbolic names:

    byte DeviceRegister @ 0x04000017;
    ...
    if DeviceRegister & 0x03 ~= 0 then ...

--
Chris Gray   alberta!ami-cg!cg	 or   cg%ami-cg@CS.UAlberta.CA
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: galt%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Greg Alt)
Subject: Re: Pascal and C
Date: 22 Jul 92 15:03:03 MDT
Followup-To: rec.games.programmer
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

>In article <1992Jul20.203317.10143@esds.mdc.com>, you write...
>Just like Pascal++ will be if it's ever written.

Shouldn't it be:
 
Pascal:=Pascal+1;

:-)
-
sig?
-
From: meg@netlink.cts.com (Robert Suh)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Mode Y SetUp
Date: 28 Jul 92 07:08:38 GMT
Organization: NetLink Online Communications, San Diego CA

In the DDJ source, damn... i forgot.. Ill Post the source tomorrow.
 
sorry.

Meg

--                    
INTERNET:  meg@netlink.cts.com (Robert Suh)
UUCP:   ...!ryptyde!netlink!meg
NetLink Online Communications * Public Access in San Diego, CA (619) 453-1115
From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Game libraries...
Date: 29 Jul 92 00:55:16 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

My perspective mapping and scaling code is under 600 bytes long.  The scaling
code is 332 bytes long.  The perspective mapper is around 120 bytes.
I will post these tomorrow.

I had written another longer message, but I accidently aborted it (I hate
myself now).  That message described the whole process, but I'll let
the code speak for itself.

Josh

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Subject: Re: TP or C ?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 13:35:17 GMT


In article <1992Jul27.005111.3185@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> stuartw@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Stuart Woolford) writes:
>tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan) writes:
>
>
>>// begin code fragment
>
>>int a;
>
>>void blort(void)
>>//
>>// B L O R T
>>//
>>// Description: A stupid example code snippet for posting to a Usenet
>>//     newsgroup.
>>//
>>// Parameters:
>>//     None.
>>//
>>// Global Variables Used:
>>//     a
>>//
>>{
>>int b;
>
>>    b = 1;	// set LOCAL variable to 1
>>    a = 1;	// set GLOBAL variable to 1
>>}
>
>>// end code fragment
>
>
>>;-)
>
>....GASP....But you are using C++....Not fair on poor little Pascal !! ;-)
>(really, only c++ allows // comments  B-)

BAANT!!!

Borland's *C* compiler understands them, no problem.

But if it makes you feel any better, do a global search and replace of
// with /* and add the */ manually, then recompile the source. ;-)
From: greg@Quotron.COM (Greg "Maddog" Knauss)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Brandon?  Hellloo?
Date: 28 Jul 92 21:13:39 GMT
Organization: Quotron System, Inc.

I'm looking for Brandon, the guy who mailed me and that thinks I've been
ignoring him.  I lost your address.  Heh.
--
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Greg "Maddog" Knauss                      My boss doesn't know I'm doing this,
 greg@duke.quotron.com                           so I doubt he'd agree with me.
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: axc@fct.unl.pt (Acacio Cruz [pm])
Subject: Re: Collision detection PLEASE, all geniuses respond!
Organization: Universidade Nova de Lisboa -- Lisbon, Portugal
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 15:59:57 GMT


   From article <1992Jul26.181425.207@micor.ocunix.on.ca>, by goss@micor.ocunix.on.ca (Timothy D. Goss):
   > How about this?  Create a grid which represents the graphics screen but one
   > which does not represent every pixel.  Group pixels into 2x2, 4x4 etc groups.
   > This grid can be used to represent the approximate location of each sprite or
   > background image.  To check if a sprite has collided with something simply
   > check its destination position in the grid to see if any deadly objects are
   > there.  The contents of the grid could be id bytes or something.  Each time
   > a sprite is moved, its position in the grid is also updated.

       Here's where some data structures could come in. Its most probable that 
   the actual array will be mostly empty. So I advise you to use a sparse array
   instead. This will reduce the amount of memory consumed.

 Well that saves memory but it's a SLOW data structure.\
 What he needs is a quad tree wich is fast and eats up very few mem
 AND it doesn't force the grid to a fixed dimension and allows
 several objects with the form you like even disconnected.

 For more info see some books on spatial data structures and use
 the quad-tree variant most suited for your app.

	Hope this helps,
			Acacio Cruz
--
Acacio Justino Calcada da Cruz| BITNET/Internet: axc@fct.unl.pt
Universidade Nova de Lisboa   |            UUCP: axc@unl.uucp
FCT - Dpto. de Informatica    | Fax:   (+351) (1) 295-5641
2825 Monte Caparica, PORTUGAL | Phone: (+351) (1) 295-4464
--------------------------------------------------------------
"MOM!"
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer