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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:	AMIGA NOTES
Notice:	Join us in the NEW conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:	HYDRA::MOORE

Created:	Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5378
Total number of notes:	38326

4974.0. "collective modem programming?" by AKOCOA::DOUGAN () Tue Aug 20 1991 19:14

    Hi!
    	
       I've been trying to crawl my way towards completing a hopefully
    commercial quality adventure/action game but have made little and hard
    earned progress. I've done a fairly complex assembly language graphic  
    editor/animator/button thingo finished (unusable by anybody but me and 
    even then with extreme difficulty)
    
    	I really want to be doing something with immediate creative
    feedback but there seems to be so much scutwork and the goals so distant
    that I'm getting bogged. Perhaps it's dumb to write in assembly and 
    totally reinvent the wheel so to speak as the OS is practically unused
    but I feel this is necissary to stay compeditive with future games.
    
    	Anyway the idea occured to me that a possible solution would be to
    program collectively by modem. No doubt this is a common place idea but
    I don't know enough about bulletin boards or whatever to know. 
    
    	Has this been done? Could you tell me if any projects like this are
    going on somewhere?
    
    	To elaborate, the idea is that a topic is decided i.e 3D space game
    then broken down into smaller segments i.e getting the 3D files of
    spaceships, a cockpit picture, ship behaviour etc then uploaded and
    integrated with the developing project. This would probably
    be fairly difficult to organize but not impossible. For example each
    routine could be defined as in what you tell it and what it should do
    with that information and what it can/cant alter in the machine.
    
        Hope this isn't too banal but I thought it might be the next wave of
    programming (???).
    
    	Yours sincerly,
    			Fred

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
4974.1	Modem-development	SNOC01::JACOBMARK	Usque Ad Mortem Addendum	`Wed Aug 21 1991 02:13`	14
	It does work. Modems, bulletin boards and such like can stop you re-inventing square wheels, providing you with PD examples, swapping code fragments etc. But to work distributed via modems on a "real" project? Ouch! Maybe I am biased though, when I think of modems, I think of 2400 Baud and crackly old BT lines ;-)
4974.2	W^$ts Wr(Ng with 24)0 Ba%d theN!	WOTVAX::HATTOS	I think, Therefore I'm paid less	`Wed Aug 21 1991 08:15`	14
	> Maybe I am biased though, when I think of modems, I think of 2400 Baud and > crackly old BT lines ;-) Some of us poor creatures still have to use 2400 baud on crackly BT lines \|=( Seriously tho'. This seems a good idea, surely if a group of coders can do the stuff when they are together, doesn't it only take a little project management, to be able to code together remotely ! Regards, Stuart
4974.3	It is done (even at crackly 2400)	MR4DEC::GAY	Underground living can be Hobbit forming	`Wed Aug 21 1991 17:37`	13
	I know of two projects that worked this way, one distributed across three states in the U.S., one between the U.S. and Australia! The common requirement seems to be multiple phone lines so's you can be connected by modem and voice at the same time (you only need this when things don't work and you need to talk and debug at the same time - and I think we all are aware of how much time is spent debugging?) Are you proposing a project? Yours Erg
4974.4	Try a whole O/S !	SMURF::COOLIDGE	Bayard, ULTRIX CSSE 381-0503 ZKO3	`Thu Aug 22 1991 10:59`	19
	For that matter, I know of an entire Operating System. When we got our ULTRIX V4.0 souvenirs, they were beach towels (not coffee mugs or T-shirts). I was amazed at all of the sites that participated. (I'd like to name them all right here, but I'd probably forget a couple and that would rightfully offend some folks.) Couple that with the fact that the ACE Initiative stuff will have submits to the working pool from some of the members, and it gets real complicated. No, I'm not offering to port SCCS (Source Code Control System) to AmigaDOS ! But, maybe that's what needs to be done. In any case, have fun with it - it sounds neat and we'll be looking forward to the results. Bayard Coolidge ULTRIX CSSE
4974.5	Porting SCCS?	TENAYA::MWM		`Thu Aug 22 1991 14:33`	5
	You don't need to port SCCS. RCS has already been ported, and provides much the same functionality. It's already been used for one large project with a number of people working on it - AmigaDOS 2.0. <mike
4974.6	some fiber would help	AKOCOA::DOUGAN		`Thu Aug 22 1991 19:43`	6
	RCS?... AmigaDOS 2.0? Wow!.. I was thinking more along the lines of a tiny little dungeon editor ;-) Should have one ready & uploaded by the time a worldwide optical system is up and running....... Fred
4974.7		TENAYA::MWM		`Thu Aug 22 1991 19:53`	7
	Dungeon editor? What happened to the 3d space game? And are you realling subverting the OS for what's basically an paint program? There's a special place in hell for people who throw away a workstations OS without good reason. <mike