What is this recent obsession on the SDL list with cramming more crap
into your application? WHAT FOR?
It makes things easier for the customer. That’s all. And, that is more
than enough! Game programming isn’t a primarily technical pursuit.
Therefore, not every decision is made for technical reasons. Many, if
not most, major decisions are made for human and business reasons. The
decision to lump everything together into one file is a business
decision arising from a human need.
Two arguments.
First, I will argue against whether or not this fact is even relevant.
Case and point: have you EVER seen a big name computer game that comes
as a single binary?
Ahhh, a strawman argument. We are not talking about big name games, we
are talking about smaller games written by a single person or a small
group of people that are distributed over the Internet. Big name games
have big name budgets to support end users who have trouble installing
them. Small name games have to “just work”.
Second, I will argue against this philosophy. Considering ease of use
(a purely human aspect) OVER system performance (a purely technical
aspect) is what has led us to things Windows and automatic
transmissions!
Bull… The only thing that matters is the “purely human aspect”. If
people have to work too hard to use something they will find something
that is easier to use. That is reality. Putting system performance over
human convenience is so… '1960ish. Back then, and I remember back
then, a 1 MOP/1 MB computer cost millions of dollars so it was worth a
huge amount human discomfort to get the most out of the computer.
Now days computers with a hundred to a thousand times that performance
can be picked up in flea markets for less than $100. I spent a large
part of yesterday in a flea market and saw just that.
Putting the computer ahead of the person using the computer is just
plain wrong. It is what is wrong with the majority of developers I meet.
They somehow think the customer is less important than the computer.
Consider that if it takes you two years to develop a game, a reasonable
time for a complex game, by the time you are done computers will have
twice the performance and dropped in price by roughly 25%.
When I was in highschool I made a lot of software. Instead of making it
easy to use - I made it educational. It TEACHES the user about the
underlying technology. Not more than is necessary, but not less either.
In my opinion this is one of multiple approaches to the ease-of-use
problem that is much better than sacrificing performance or
functionality.
I have no idea what kind of programs you wrote in high school, nor do I
care. I am talking about writing games in a market where there are many
many game developers all trying to make a buck, or even get noticed.
Anything the developer can do to make the game more attractive to the
customer is a good thing to do.
There is also the slight benefit that it keeps the less technically
inclined from lifting your art and music resources. Some people do
worry
about that.
Technically inclined or not, if you know the name of the media you’re
looking for, you’ll find it on a file sharing network ten times faster
than you’ll rip it out of any sort of proprietary or otherwise
difficult to access archive.
Case and point - I am technically inclined, but if I wanted to get
megaman sprites (and at one point I did want just that) I didn’t
download the ROM and start the laborious process of extracting them - I
searched the internet and downloaded hundreds of them in minutes.
Personally, I think if someone is making money off of your media it
will be relatively easy to find them (or at least the ease of finding
out will be proportional to their ill-gotten success.) And if they’re
using them for personal purposes who gives a damn?
Very, very personally, I know a LOT of people disagree with this - but
even if they used them in an open source project I wouldn’t mind one
bit. Though I’d definitely come down on them for using it without my
permission if that was the case.
And another thing: if they aren’t technically inclined, WHAT are they
going to with your precious media that you wouldn’t want them to do?
Change them and post them to the Internet. Like I said, this is a minor
point. I notice you spent more time on it than on the rest of the
discussion combined.
And then there is the other point… The author wants to do it. It is
his decision to make. He believes there is value in doing it. And you
have 0 (zero) reason or right to object. The fact that you would not do
it that way is not relevant to the discussion.
Oh come on Bob, this is just silly. The nature of an argumentative
objection is not to steal another’s will power from them and force them
to do what you say! It’s totally my right to make this sort of
objection, I’m not forcing anybody to do anything!
As a matter of fact, that is exactly what an argumentative objection is
for. Its only purpose is to try to bully someone into your point of
view. Constructive criticism is always OK. Bullying is not.
You have posted some good stuff on the list, you have also posted a lot
of bullying and belittling stuff. If you want to be respected you need
to drop the bulling and belittling else you wind up in peoples kill
files.
Bob PendletonOn Sun, 2004-09-26 at 20:40, Donny Viszneki wrote:
On Sep 26, 2004, at 8:36 PM, Bob Pendleton wrote:
On Sun, 2004-09-26 at 16:11, Donny Viszneki wrote:
SDL mailing list
SDL at libsdl.org
http://www.libsdl.org/mailman/listinfo/sdl
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