From: Rob Sacks (editor_at_realization.org)
Date: 2001-05-20 21:34:17
Hi Moritz,
> Your ideas are great. I´d like to add Linux
> and Windows support as one of my
> major wants.
Very good idea, I agree. I'm not sure what will be
the best way to accomplish this.
> What would be the best development system to use ?
> Obviously it would be great if the development
> system is also freely available.
I think C++ is the best language for the main part
of the program because many people know it, there
are many excellent tools, and it's
sufficiently flexible and powerful to do anything.
People will be able to add modules in easier
languages. It would be nice if we can make a way
for users to add features using extremely simple
techniques like a script language.
For Windows, Microsoft Visual C++ is pretty much
the standard compiler. I have no experience with Linux but
the standard compiler is gcc (stands for GNU C compiler.)
which Linux itself is written in. It's open-source.
There is a list of additional Linux tools here:
http://www.linuxhq.com/ldp/howto/C++Programming-HOWTO-13.html
> Does anybody know if java would be fast enough for this ?
I don't know but except for curiosity I see no reason
to try. A program like this one, which makes heavy
use of animation and sound, will be better if it's written
in native code and makes use of all OS resources.
Java seems to offer the advantage of portability but it's
so hard to make a good portable program that it's possible
that no work would be saved. The disadvantages of Java
are a perfomance penalty and the fact that to make portable
programs, the feature set must be constrained.
> Yesterday I heard an exciting lecture about information theory, entropy of
> information and fractal dimensions and I´m really looking forward implementing
> some of that stuff :)
I'd like to design the program so that anybody can
add this sort of thing at any time without altering
the main source code. This will be challenging.
Rob
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : 2002-07-27 12:28:30 BST