It would be nice to have sdl net and sdl image (perhaps mixer) included
in sdl 2.0.
Can I ask why you want this?
In the past I’ve wished that SDL, SDL_Net and SDL_Mixer were in the
same library for my convenience as a developer. However there are
some strong negatives which have stopped me:
-
Users don’t tend to see these separate libraries. For example, on
Windows with a finished app they don’t often see the application
folder - they have an icon in the start menu and (hopefully optional)
another on the desktop that are both shortcuts - created by an
installer. On Mac they are inside the application bundle as a
framework and therefore hidden.
-
I don’t want libraries included that I don’t want. You want SDL
Image, I don’t. I don’t want to ship extra bytes with my application
(or demo) because increased size = decreased downloads. (Premise not
proven true, but still, better to be safe).
-
Having the SDL developers ship both separate libraries and a combo
library would put more burden on them. I think this is a bad thing
because there are technical things that could be better and having
them do extra builds takes time away from this.
-
I want to choose the version of each library individually sometimes.
-
You could always produce your own combo libraries. I think the
main ones are LGPL so as long as you tell people how to make them you
are OK. I myself don’t want to do this because it takes away from the
work I’m doing on my app; I assume this might be true for other
developers as well.
Regards,
Rob
That’s brilliant. I fully support this idea. There is a project on
sourceforge which is nothing more than a Windows installer that
installs all of the following:
apache
php
mysql
You still had all the freedom in the world to use whatever system you
want, but if you wanted these specifically, this project was for you.
I fully recommend putting together a Combo SDL library. Even if I
personally won’t use it.On Mar 20, 2005, at 4:58 AM, Rob Probin wrote:
- I don’t want libraries included that I don’t want. You want SDL
Image, I don’t. I don’t want to ship extra bytes with my application (or
demo) because increased size = decreased downloads. (Premise not proven
true, but still, better to be safe).
Ask anyone selling downloadable games. Most will tell you stories of 50%
or more of the demo downloads being cancelled somewhere in the middle,
even on tiny ( < 10mb ) games…which suggests people with dial-up got
bored of waiting or had a more immediate need for their bandwidth. This
is still a real problem, even in 2005.
–ryan.
maybe I’m missing something here, but what is wrong all having the SDL
library separated?
They interact nicely with each other and I never experienced any trouble
so far with colliding versions or anything like that.
It is nice how each one has its specific well determined area (image
formats, networking, fonts…)
For me, I prefer them to be separated. It would be ugly and cumbersome,
for example,
to need all the jpg and lib and z libraries in a project where I don’t
need to load images.
And what is the cost of this separation? In my personal experience, nothing.
I develop with Dev-C++ and the package manager gets me all the SDL
libraries I
need, with no effort at all, and keeping me up to date with each library
separatedly.
Ahh. Modularity is a elegant, beautiful thing,
Marco Tarini
…and here I was starting to believe things like IXS, and my
Audiality and (new “secret”) ZeeSpace projects were destined to
become nothing more than technically interesting toys for making
retro style games. Maybe not just yet…
When I think about it, it seems like this is similar to the CPU/GPU
problem: There will just never be enough power.
Same frame rates - more, and more effectively used polygons.
Same download times - more, and more expressive data.
More extreme forms of data compression and synthesis just means you
can squeeze more media into games - or, if you’re into that, make a
game look and sound better while keeping the download size sane.
Soon enough, everyone will expect hours of CD quality music and
countless screenfulls of photo realistic graphics in the same (sort
of) modem friendly downloads. 
//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
.- Audiality -----------------------------------------------.
| Free/Open Source audio engine for games and multimedia. |
| MIDI, modular synthesis, real time effects, scripting,… |
`-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -’
— http://olofson.net — http://www.reologica.se —On Sunday 20 March 2005 20.18, Ryan C. Gordon wrote:
- I don’t want libraries included that I don’t want. You want SDL
Image, I don’t. I don’t want to ship extra bytes with my
application (or demo) because increased size = decreased
downloads. (Premise not proven true, but still, better to be
safe).
Ask anyone selling downloadable games. Most will tell you stories of
50% or more of the demo downloads being cancelled somewhere in the
middle, even on tiny ( < 10mb ) games…which suggests people with
dial-up got bored of waiting or had a more immediate need for their
bandwidth. This is still a real problem, even in 2005.
Ask anyone selling downloadable games. Most will tell you
stories of 50% or more of the demo downloads being cancelled
somewhere in the middle, even on tiny ( < 10mb ) games…which
suggests people with dial-up got bored of waiting or had a more
immediate need for their bandwidth. This is still a real
problem, even in 2005.
Indeed. We do all kind of funny things to keep our downloads way below
10 MB, under 5 MB if possible. Having a 200 KB DLL we don’t use is a
terrible waste. Even SDL_Mixer with the tracker stuff is “bloated” to us
because we don’t use the the tracker stuff.
--Gabriel
Not that this helps in any way; just an opinion on my part. I’m so glad
the emulation projects I work on are not for-pay. I never realized the
general game-buying public to be so fickle.
They seem to want games that perform like a champ on a P-100, only take
one second to download, and never have a bug. Oh, and they seem to
want all that for free as well 
SteveOn March 20, 2005 06:14 pm, Gabriel wrote:
Ask anyone selling downloadable games. Most will tell you
stories of 50% or more of the demo downloads being cancelled
somewhere in the middle, even on tiny ( < 10mb )
games…which suggests people with dial-up got bored of waiting or
had a more immediate need for their bandwidth. This is still a real
problem, even in 2005.
Indeed. We do all kind of funny things to keep our downloads way
below 10 MB, under 5 MB if possible. Having a 200 KB DLL we don’t use
is a terrible waste. Even SDL_Mixer with the tracker stuff is
"bloated" to us because we don’t use the the tracker stuff.
[…]
They seem to want games that perform like a champ on a P-100, only
take one second to download, and never have a bug. Oh, and they
seem to want all that for free as well
Oh, that’s not just gamers. All software users fit that description
pretty well.
//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
.- Audiality -----------------------------------------------.
| Free/Open Source audio engine for games and multimedia. |
| MIDI, modular synthesis, real time effects, scripting,… |
`-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -’
— http://olofson.net — http://www.reologica.se —On Sunday 20 March 2005 22.39, Stephen Anthony wrote: