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Canardia

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  1. Canardia

    UltraEnglish

    By Canardia,


    Tools
    I'm working on a editor which translates english into C++ for Ultra Engine in realtime.
    The idea is to make using Ultra Engine really easy, and it should suit beginners as well as advanced users.
    Over time I plan to make it an universal human language to computer language translator which can be configured to use any game engine or other engine.

    I'm also wondering if a commanding sentence is more easy than an spectating sentence, but perhaps both can be used to make it suit all cases.
    Commanding sentence would look like: "move camera back 5 meters"
    Spectating sentence would look like: "camera moves back 5 meters"

    I will also add a button so you can compile and run your code directly; that will hopefully make game development a bliss and ultra fun, as VS2022 compiles damn fast.

    While UltraEnglish is defining this demonstration, I think I will call it in future Cute (Coders universal translation editor), and as you can see from this example, it looks quite cute when you have to give things names to keep the poem natural.

  2. Canardia

    Impressions of Ultra

    By Canardia,


    Game Development
    I started using Ultra Engine on 2023-01-18. Learning to use the engine has been really easy.
    The documentation is very clear and I can search for keywords I want to learn about. Each command has a fully working example, so I can quickly copy-paste and try the code.
    The installer is also amazingly fast and automatic, and updating to the latest engine is just a click away. Updating my projects to use the latest version is also fully automatic by clicking on the yellow sign.
    The support from the Ultra team is very professional and fast, usually I got a solution and/or bug fix or new feature within minutes.
    Creating a new game project is just one click away, and when I organize my projects by moving them to other subfolders, importing them back is also a click away.
    Now I'm writing an actual game, and while doing so, I'm building classes to implement the game logic. I already made a model in Blender, and it worked directly in my game, using the glTF save option in Blender. Also the physics for the model worked directly.
    This weekend I'm unboxing my Ryzen 9 + Radeon RX6800 laptop, and setting everything up for art, music and game production.
    My tools are:
    - GIMP, for textures
    - Blender, for models
    - WavePad, for editing .flac audio files
    - Reaper, for composing music and saving as .flac
    - Ultra Engine, for making the game using the above assets
    The game will use physics for triggering game logic, for example: if a certain collision occurs, a new set of physics objects will be spawned.
    Some models will have animated color gradients, to simulate dream-like experiences, but who can tell if dreams are real when scientists say it is very probable that the universe is a simulation, made by Ultra Engine ;D
    Today I thought about binaural 3D sounds, they will occur when different physics materials collide. I will also implement sound occlusion, so that when a sound is played behind a wall, it will sound dampened. I even thought of sound reflection, so it would bounce off walls, possibly using an invisible gravityless physics ball or raytracing, but I can probably use reverb/echo effects instead.
    Finally, the scene will be streamed from a database, perhaps using SQLite3, and I found a nice trick how to remove far-away models using a C++ list.
    One thing I really like about the engine too, is that it takes only 4 seconds to compile changes in the game using Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition, and I can even speed that up using game logic libraries and loading parameters from a file.

     
     
     
  3. Canardia

    Even Faster

    By Canardia,

    People are wondering what language they choose with Leadwerks3D. Sometimes they have some exotic languages in mind, but quite often it comes down to the decision between Lua and C++.
     
    Recently I read an article that LuaJIT (yes, you can use it in Leadwerks3D too) is actually damn fast. It's fast, because the simpliness of the language allows for extreme optimizations. It might even come close to C++ speed, or in some cases even exceed it. That's how fast LuaJIT 2.0 is. But it's still in beta, so it can only get faster.
     
    Same goes for Fortran 2008 btw, it usually beats the speed of C++, because the compiler knows which CPU registers are in use and can assign them intelligently, which C++ can't, since it doesn't know which registers are in use. But it doesn't have such nicely optimized STL libraries for linked lists and stuff, so it ends up slower in those cases, because nobody can single handed make such great optimizations as STL provides.
     
    Lua has some advantages and also disadvantages over C++.
     
    The advantages are:
    1) You can use the same code on all platforms, which makes finishing your game much faster
    2) You can develop in real time, because you only need to compile for the final release of the game, if even then, but usually you will need it if your game does some more complex calculations, and to make sure your game runs also well on slower machines
    3) You can learn it much faster than C++, it's really just basic, and often even easier than that because there are no types and other annoying stuff
    4) You can share code with other people much easier, because like beforementioned, nothing is type specific, which allows for extreme abstraction and generic code
     
    The disadvantages are:
    1) You don't have such great arsenal of 3rd party libraries ready for Lua, although with some effort you can find some libraries which someone has made, or you can take any C/C++ library and wrap it yourself for Lua
    2) If you really need maximum speed for some time critical routines, you still need C. Yes, not even C++ is fast enough for those. And then you need to wrap them again for Lua
     
    For reference, here is an article that LuaJIT can actually even come on par with C in some benchmarks:
    http://lua-users.org...6/msg00071.html
     
    On the other hand, I think with the growing interest for Lua in Leadwerks3D, the Werkspace asset store will provide more and more ready made libraries for Lua over time.
     
    My conclusion is, that LuaJIT 2.0 is a very easy and fast alternative to C++ with Leadwerks3D, and it allows also sharing of code and code snippets much easier than C++ does. Which is what the Leadwerks Community is about.
  4. Canardia
    I'm dreaming of Leadwerks3D, and while waiting for its release in June, I have already many ideas what I want to do with it. Then I realized, it's actually much more than just a 3D game engine, because it allows to have a OpenGL context on all devices, including Android, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Linux, and more in future. In addition, it allows you to code in C++ on all those devices, which means that also high level languages, like my SuperBasic will work on all platforms, because it uses a C++ compiler in the backend, and of course the SuperBasic precompiler which is written in C++ too.
     
    This would make it possible to have a programming IDE and game editor even on mobile phones.
     
    Now that again means, that we should actually do all development of GUIs, applications, including business applications and tools with Leadwerks3D itself, and not use some external libraries like Qt, GTK+, GLUT, SDL, etc..., because then it would not work all platforms again, at least not directly.
     
    We only need that Leadwerks3D has all the minimum required libraries built-in, which are needed for game development, since game development is much more demanding that other applications. So there should be SQLite3 and libCURL by default in Leadwerks3D too, so that we can have a fast database system and easy HTTP/FTP access with the native engine commands. With a simple HTTP command set I could make WebService calls and other HTTP stuff on every device, which is the most important feature of modern applications. Everyone is connected that way, and can integrate with any system.
  5. Canardia
    We can use Apache as frontend HTTP server running on port 80, and Domino on port 81, so that users can access both Apache and Domino pages via port 80 only.This is done via the Apache Rewrite Engine, but until now it caused one nasty problem: When doing a submit on a Domino page, then Domino would add the port 81 to the URL, and the user could not access that page, if only port 80 was opened to the internet.I found a solution how to overcome this Domino's problem, by adding Apache Reverse Proxy Engine to the httpd.conf.It's very simple to setup, just add these lines at the end of your Apache's httpd.conf file, and replace the IP: 1.2.3.4 number with your internet server's IP number or domain name.In this Rewrite setup, I made it so that all .php ending URLs are handled by Apache, and all other URLs by Domino. This gives us the possibility to add php5 and sqlite3 code to any Domino site.
    ProxyRequests OffOrder deny,allowAllow from allProxyPass / http://1.2.3.4ProxyPassReverse / http://1.2.3.4ServerName 1.2.3.4ServerAlias 1.2.3.4DocumentRoot "D:/Apache/htdocs"DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.sh default.jspRewriteEngine OnRewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} "!.php"RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://1.2.3.4:81/$1 [P]The above ProxyPassReverse setup will now return all submitted pages to http://1.2.3.4/:81/ (yes, that's intentionally a malformed URL), and this allows us now to redirect the malformed URL via a Domino Web Configuration document to the wanted port 80 back.For this we create a Web Configuration document like this:BasicsWhat do you want to setup:URL-->URLMappingIncoming URL path:/:81/*Replacement URL string:/*That's it, now you have a fully working Domino running under Apache!PS.If you haven't setup Apache before, all you need to do is to install it, and uncomment the following lines from httpd.conf, to enable the Rewrite and Proxy engine:Uncomment line 110, 115, 118:LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.soLoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.soLoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
     
    Source
  6. Canardia

    Learning Qt

    By Canardia,

    I decided to try out Qt, and was shocked how easy it was to "install" and use.
    I only unpacked the mingw-Qt zip to my h:/lib/qt folder and it was "installed".
    Then I only added the QtCore4.a and QtGui4.a to my codeblocks project's linker settings, and added the h:/lib/qt/include and h:/lib/qt/include/qtgui folder to my project's source files tab, and then I put the QtCore4.dll and QtGui4.dll in the same folder where my game.exe was.
     
    A simple demo program like this already makes a fully functional text editor:

    #include <QtGui> int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { QApplication app(argc, argv); QTextEdit edit; edit.show(); edit.append("Hello World!\n"); return app.exec(); }

    It compiles in less than a second with codeblocks too B)
    Now I will learn a bit more how to use Qt, and then make a demo with LE2 using Qt.
    I think this will be the ultimate killer GUI, because it's so easy to use and extremely lightweight and fast (it only links what you use).
    And it looks like it uses by default the OS style too, what Josh likes.
  7. Canardia

    New Stuff

    By Canardia,

    LEO 2.5 has been sent to Josh, there was a few commands missing, and a few bugs were fixed.
     
    GameLib 0.1.2.0 should be ready soon, I'm still testing the new additions to the Application class. It can get quite deep to make a simple spinning cube template, if you want to make it perfect.
     
    For example the window size needs to be read from a config file rather than from LEBuilder, so that it is not hardcoded into the game code. I ended up with the decision to make all config, gamesave, etc... files as sqlite3 databases. It makes things more standardized, as I found out that Apache PHP5 has also built-in sqlite3 support. Since GameLib's Window class supports also a seperate viewport area which can have a different resolution than the windows/fullscreen mode, that should be put into the config.db also.
     
    The idea behind the viewport area is that people want to play games in fullscreen mode, but sometimes their GPU is too slow to run 1920x1080 or even 1680x1050 fullscreen modes, so they can still run in fullscreen mode with a lower resolution viewport. It then also allows some GUI elements to be in full resolution.
     
    Next comes a GameLib Spinning Cube template for LEBuilder, and after that a simple FPS template also. And even after that a simple RTS template.
     
    I'm trying to keep GameLib as simple as possible to use, but it can be difficult at times, because it needs to stay universal, and not hardcoded for a specific game/application style. LEBuilder will help me a lot to keep things easy to understand for new users, as they only need to know how to achieve things, and not how it internally works. In the same way as I find STL easy to use, the way how it internally works is way too deep for anyone to understand. I just need concrete, compilable examples, and documentation, and it's easy to use.
     
    And right now we got a new version of LEBuilder tested and done with ZioRed. It supports auto-quit after building a project (you have to set the flag to True in the config xml), and it remembers the last project root directory. ZioRed sent the exe and source to Josh too, so this will be included in the official SDK also.
  8. Canardia
    Modding games is a popular sport, and very productive, since you don't have to code usually much, maybe some little additions only.
    However, modding has its limits, as you are usually bound to a quite hardcoded game genre environment, unless you use Garry's Mod or something, but that has then it's own limits too with the engine features.
     
    Since I am currenly building a GameLib FPS template for LEBuilder, these thoughts came up. What the template will do, is to create a simple FPS game with one mouseclick. After that, you can compile it, and it just works. You can open the level1.sbx or level2.sbx in Editor, and it just works. However, since the time critical game logic is done in C++, you can't play the game in Editor, but you can edit it in 3D WYSIWYG very well. I think that is good enough. LE3 Editor will be done that way anyway also.
     
    From a modder's perspective, you basically create a vanilla game, and then you "mod" it with Editor. You don't necessarily have to code anything in C++, but you can, if you want. Nothing is hardcoded in GameLib, you can choose which commands to use and when, and you can even choose to write your own commands which you use as standard GameLib command replacements. The C++ part of coding gives an unlimited possibility to "mod" the game to your imagination, and time critical routines will never be a handicap, because it's C++. With Lua or other slower languages you might encounter problems with time critical routines.
     
    If you don't want to learn C++, you can also ask me for new GameLib features in the Werkspace Forums, which I will then implement as Editor Thingoids or Models. So basically most feature requests from artists and modders are about adding new GameLib Thingoids to Editor, and I have then to check myself, if the vanilla FPS template C++ code needs also some additions. But you don't have to care about that, it's my job, and I love to do it.
  9. Canardia
    Things change
    and other things using those things must be updated from time to time to keep them working properly.
     
    Leadwerks Engine C/C++ was originally designed to work only with VS 2008, but keeping GNU C++ in mind, then a few updates were made to make it work with MinGW 3.4.5. Now MinGW 4.5.2.1 has been updated to support the newest C++ standard, and so a few updates need to be done in the Leadwerks Engine C/C++ headers too. But don't worry, those updates are fully backwards compatibe, so it will still work in MinGW 3.4.5.
     
    I've fixed today a few warnings with MinGW 4.5.2.1, and a few more are still remaining, which I will fix today also. VS 2008/2010 and Dev C++ work of course too, as these are only official C++ standard related fixes.
     
    When the official headers are updated, I will proceed with adding klepto2's new commands into a seperate community edition of the C/C++ headers, while he is maintaining the C# community edition headers.
     
    And even after that, GameLib needs to be updated too, to give no warnings with MinGW 4.5.2.1. But these will be natural updates as I fix them while I'm writing a few small example games with gamelib.
     
    I've setup release dates for these things also:


     
    2011-07-22 Official C/C++ headers update
    2011-07-23 Guess A Number game: Adding gameplay features
    2011-07-25 Community Edition C/C++ headers
    2011-07-30 Fortran headers

    Now I'm taking ideas what kind of other mini games you want to see made with gamelib. I've already planned a Tower Defense 3D game, but that is not so mini
     
    EDIT:
    Status update on 2011-07-25:


     
    engine.cpp and engine.h are ready and sent to Josh
    LEO was missing Body::SetForce and Body::SetTorque completely, so I added them
    all gamelib warnings with MinGW 4.5.2.1 have been fixed
    Guess A Number game is almost ready for beta testing
    Seems like the votes go for a mini RTS game next
     

  10. Canardia

    Yeah, Google+

    By Canardia,

    It just came like a lightning from the clear sky, and illuminated us all.
    I can't remember to have ever seen such a great success in concept, it's so unbelievably thought troughout.
    All the details you experience, all the things which just work like they should have always worked in other systems.
    Everything is real, the people, the talks, the lifes, the avatars, the celebrities, just everything. The Google+ system leads it to be that way.
    It's simply amazing, and very valuable.
     
    Source
  11. Canardia
    I have developed my own forum software for Domino for some time, because I was always shocked with the basic lacks of functionality of conventional forum softwares like phpBB, vnboards, Invision Power Boards, SMF, etc.... For them it seems normal that all messages are lost when the forum software is updated, and they just eat it with a bitter taste in their mouth. They also take happily backups every day, but most of the backups fail because of some misconfigured ftp accounts.
    For someone who has worked with Domino that is absolutely not acceptable, since in Domino the database design and data is completely isolated from eachother, so no data is lost ever. And a backup is a backup in Domino, it's a file, and not some SQL mess which only simulates the actual data.
    So far I have used my Domino forum template in 3 different forums:
    http://www.toiveet.fi
    http://www.fortran2008.com/forum
    http://www.wishforum.com
    And with this latest one, I have started to make it like a SharePoint template, so you can easily just make a new site and it works, everything is parametrized in a simple Parameters view.
    IBM is also developing something similar, but I doubt they can make it as fast as I can
    When it's completely ready, I will also upload a public free version to OpenNTF, since that's the nexus for standard Domino templates, and supported by IBM too.
    All people who have seen the forums have thought it's not a real forum. I think it's because they are used to lots of spam and unneeded features, and they can't imagine that you can make things also elegant, kinda like google.com or an Apple device.
    So far the forum template has the following features:
    1) Posting as Anonymous user (can be disabled if wanted)
    2) Posting as Anonymous user, but impersonating someone else (can be also disabled)
    3) Logging in without registering (the forum registers you automatically and instantly (a secret Domino feature )
    4) Uploading files to any post or into your forum profile document (also short links work).
    5) Streaming OGG files directly (needs a little Domino httpd.conf hack)
    6) Dynamically scaling to any screen resolution
    7) List of latest modified topics (not a spam list of each post)
    8) List of deleted posts
    9) Undelete button
    10) CSS 3.0 oriented visual layout
    11) Single file database design (allows easy backups and offline working)
    12) Fully parametrizable via a simple Parameters view
    13) Support for root URL and sub URL forum home locations (for example: / or /forum)
    14) Library area for structured sticky posts, including sublibraries
    15) News area
    16) Embedding of any HTML and JavaScript code (can be disabled)
    17) CKEditor integration (can be disabled)
    18) Fully modifiable design and code and using CSS and LotusScript
    19) Free and paid support (including custom modification wishes)
     
    Source
  12. Canardia
    Just fresh out from the press: IBM will drop the Lotus part from the name, because it misleads many people who remember Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Smartsuite, and yes even Lotus Notes which is often thought as ancient and dead.
    This is very cool, because it removes the long name nonsense and makes it clear that it's a real IBM product, and everyone knows that IBM is the leader in computer technology, mostly on the hardware side, but since the aquisition of Lotus also on the software side, and of course since the invention of Fortran.
    Also a SharePoint killer app will be included out-of-the-box with IBM Notes/Domino at some point. I don't have any details on this, but I would assume it would integrate IBM Quickr plugins in it, without needing a seperate IBM Quickr server.
    As I mentioned earlier on Vowe's blog, I converted from C/C++ to IBM Fortran. I never liked Microsoft C#.NET, because it's slow and bloated (and I just can't understand why someone would use Garbage Collection, since for me it means only that the programmer has no skills and discipline and should not program in first place), and IBM Fortran beats even C/C++ in speed and of course it beats both C#.NET and C/C++ in easyness to write code, thus increasing productivity a lot.
    IBM Fortran for IBM Notes/Domino is indeed a double RAD solution: radical performance combined with radically easy development. Usually they work reciprocally, but not with this approach.
    I have a plan to make Fortran 2008 a sexy and modern language, and it involves several steps:
    1) Establish web site for Fortran 2008: http://www.fortran2008.com [DONE]
    2) Establish IBM Domino based custom forum for Fortran 2008: http://www.fortran2008.com/forum [DONE]
    3) Make a OpenGL and FreeGLUT demo for Fortran 2008, because it seems that nobody has done it before: http://www.fortran2008.com/posts/3D46BEECFB7212EDC22578C200420D3E [DONE]
    4) Implement the most advanced realtime 3D engine for Fortran 2008 [Coming in 2011-07-30]
    5) Implement IBM Fortran API for IBM Notes/Domino [Coming in 2011-09-30]
    6) Continue implementing and supporting several other essential high quality libraries for Fortran, like sqlite3, sdl_net, etc... and make easy to follow tutorials so that even beginners can understand them.
     
    Source
  13. Canardia
    I was looking at some old programming languages like COBOL (a business oriented language, and the second oldest language: founded in 1959), Ada, Fortran, Prolog, and few others. My interest was only to see how programming worked in the old days, and if they had any good ideas which I could reuse for the upcoming symbolic visual language.
    When I stumbled upon Fortran, I remembered that some people had said that it's faster than C++, and I remember the funny fact that Intel has the fastest C++ compiler, but still they sell it side by side with their Fortran compiler. That kinda made me curious to see, if the reason why Intel still supports Fortran, is indeed because it's faster than C++, and I was positively surprised when I made some speed tests and in each test MinGW G95 (now also MinGW Fortran, aka gfortran) beat MinGW C++ in performance.
    So far I've been using MinGW C++ because it makes faster code than Visual Studio 2008 and 2010 C++ (and compiles also much faster, like the same program takes 2 seconds to compile with MinGW C++ and 30 seconds with VS 2010), and I haven't got a business case to invest for Intel C++ which might be even faster than MinGW C++.
    And the loop to IBM closes as I found that Fortran was actually invented by John Backus of IBM in San Jose, California in 1950: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran
    My study on Fortran involved learning the language in a few days, and I came up with this chart:
     
    Source
  14. Canardia
    Today I was explaining what the problem with all programming languages today is, that they have all failed, because they are not intented to make results (except Prolog maybe), but rather to aid the programmer to tell the computer what to do. This is a fundamental mistake, since computers should serve humans, including programmers. So the base for a better programming language is to focus on what the programmer wants as result, and let the computer optimize and decide what method is best to implement it.
    This brought me to the next step, that a programming language must indeed only be a medium to listen what the programmer wants, and the programmer doesn't need to know how to do it, as long the computer works within the limits given by the programmer. My initial idea was to have a "English Programming Language", but then I discussed this idea with a friend who was a fan of graphical programming using flowcharts.
    It was obvious that a spoken text based and graphical based approach are both good at some things, but neither is better than the other in all situations. I realized that both are actually parts of some bigger picture, and I realized also that spoken english (like all spoken languages) is only a failure of communication skills, since using a symbol language all people would understand eachother, including the computers. Then I started to draw the bigger picture and came up with this:

     
    Source
  15. Canardia

    Leadwerks Editor SQL

    By Canardia,

    Today I wanted to start a GameLib tutorial series, and wanted to eliminate all temporary code and build the tutorial from beginning so that it will only expand and build on the previous tutorial steps.
     
    Loading models and creating meshes programmatically is out of question, as you don't do that in real games. You would at least somehow have them loaded from a config file.
     
    Then I thought I should put all assets into a Leadwerks Editor scene, but that won't work with real games either, as you can't save gamestates with sbx files. Well, you could have a small seperate gamesave file, but then you would need to load the sbx file each time and remove things which are not there anymore in a later gamestate.
     
    Then I thought that having the assets in a sqlite database would work, as then I can just save changes into the database, and it would load much faster than a sbx file anyway, since it would load only assets in camera range. Of course the game should leave the original sqlite database unchanged, and rather use a copy of it. A combination of static scene dbs and dynamic scene dbs, and also partial scene dbs would work.
     
    There's only a little problem using sqlite databases with LE: There is no visual 3D Editor for Leadwerks which can use sqlite databases! With sqlite3 there comes a handy table editor, but that's not enough for making game scenes.
     
    As I'm working on a dynamic MMO also, and I wanted first to make the GameLib tutorial series to see that everything works, it seems I need to make a Leadwerks Editor SQL first. If my game uses sqlite scenes, the Editor would be needed also by team members who are working on the game content.
     
    The first version of Editor SQL can be quite simple. You can place models in front of the camera, and then you can move/scale/rotate them with the cursor keys, including grid alignment. Scaling should be possible, if I study the phy file format a bit, and change the phy file according to the mesh's scale.
  16. Canardia

    Code::Blocks

    By Canardia,

    I'm testing Code::Blocks with LE2, instead of Visual Studio 2008/2010.
    So far it seems quite nice, and very intuitive to learn and configure.
    I already found some benefits of Code::Blocks over Visual Studio:
     
    1) LE2 syntax highlighting can be configured to be different from the built-in C++ keywords. In VS they always have the same color.
    2) Compiling time is much faster, because it can use MinGW.
    3) Generated code is much faster, because it can use -O3 and -O6 optimizations.
    4) Loading the IDE is much faster.
    5) Compiling can be configured to stop at the first error, while in Visual Studio it always tries to compile the whole source code first which takes ages and is useless if there was a first error.
    6) Code::Blocks works also on Mac and Linux, so you can have the same IDE under any OS.
    7) Using MinGW in Code::Blocks gets rid of the VS RunTime needs, which needs the user to install MSVCRT90.dll, or you to include them in an Microsoft.VC90.CRT folder with your game.
    8) Intellisense is super fast and smart. It shows only keywords which match what you typed so far, and it works with LE2 commands too.
    9) Code::Blocks work also with Wine in Linux, while Visual Studio does not, so you can use Linux to write and play your LE2 games. Wine runs also LE2 games 20 FPS faster than Windows XP (and of course much faster than Vista/7, since XP is much faster than those).
    10) Showing/hiding the console window of LE2 can be easily turned on/off in Code::Blocks with the -mwindows linker option, while in Visual Studio you need either some preprocessor pragmas or some complicated System target settings.
    11) Code::Blocks cleans up whitespaces after lines automatically, while in Visual Studio you have to do this manually.
     
    I will make a tutorial how to setup a LE2 project with Code::Blocks next.
  17. Canardia

    My First XPage

    By Canardia,

    Today I tried to make a simple web page using the Domino Designer 8.5.2FP1 XPage design element on a Domino 8.5.2FP1 Linux server. Getting to know how it works is pretty easy, and I didn't need to read any documentation.
    I made a Form with a Subject and Body field, and a View which shows the Subject, then I made an XPage which uses the Form as its Data Source.
    Then I found some good and bad sides about XPages:
    The Good
    The Bad
    1) It's quite easy to learn how to use XPages, as the UI makes sense. It's pretty close to Visual Studio also.
    2) The design element toolbar is nice, and you can drag and drop any design element to your XPage.
    3) You can easily connect fields from Notes Views and Notes Forms with visual design elements.
    4) A RichText type field activates CKEditor automatically, and it saves it as Notes RichText so it can be visually seen in the Notes Client also. Getting rid of the IBM Oracle Java RichText applet was a very good decision of IBM. Now they just have to get rid of the rest of IBM Oracle Java in Notes/Designer/Domino and things would be faster and better than ever. CKEditor rocks hard!
    5) XPages have many useful premade actions which you can use in Buttons, for example Create Document, Edit Document, Toggle Read/Edit mode, Create Response Document, Delete Document.
    6) The design elements have a nicely structured Data/Style/All properties tree view, from which you can visually change many CSS tags, JavaScript events, Notes functions, etc....
    This makes visual working effective and fun, even when it's only visual coding, as the visual output is a different issue.
    7) You can integrate standard JavaScript libraries visually into XPages, like Dojo, JSon, REST, etc....
    1) The visual layout in Designer does not match the visual layout in SeaMonkey or Notes very much. I get a much closer match with SeaMonkey's Ctrl-E visual editor, from which I can copy/paste individual design elements into a Notes Form for further processing. I thought that maybe the main reason is the difference in the default settings of SeaMonkey/Notes/Designer, and by adding a CSS stylesheet, the visual output would match closer in all clients. A stylesheet didn't help either, and Designer still shows the HTML page completely different than the browser. I found a workaround though: adding computed fields with HTML code on the XPage around all XPage design elements solves the problem, and I get a decent browser output.
    2) The HTML/CSS source code is calling some XSP JavaScript class, and it's impossible to edit or analyze the page with SeaMonkey afterwards, since there are no div tags or any other HTML tags. This is not very compatible with anything, and makes development harder. It seems there are divs after all, but they don't support the position:absolute style.
    3) The fact that CKEditor saves RichText as Notes RichText has its bad sides too. You can't correct errors in the HTML code when the transformation goes wrong. Also the Source button in CKEditor is missing, as well as the Layer (=div) button. Maybe there is a hack to make it save as HTML? Fixed: It actually saves as MIME/HTML so the HTML source code of the rich text field is intact, this is great!
    4) When I made a very simple XPage with only a Subject and Body field, Domino Designer managed to mess up its own XSP code and caused 2 errors which broke the XSP compiler, and the XPage could no longer be compiled/updated. I removed manually some duplicate action/save tag in the XSP code and it worked again.
    5) When Domino is configured to run on port 81, and even when I have the firewall opened for port 80 and 81 from my Workstation and Server, the XSP RichText CKEditor breaks when port 81 is used, and only a small textarea is shown. This is however not a real issue, as I need to add some redirection code anyway to redirect Domino back to port 80. I just hope XPages allows such redirection, like the $$Return field in Forms does, or the Print statement in WQS LotusScript agents. I wonder why Domino even tries to force the user to port 81, when the web page was opened from port 80 or no port was specified (which defaults to 80). Domino should not care what is written in its server document, but only look at the incoming URL.
    6) The XPage opens fine in SeaMonkey, when I choose Design/Preview in Web Browser, and it worked first in Notes too, but after I added the Body field, it stopped working in Notes completely, and I only get an error: Item not found. Workaround found: Opening the XPage manually from the server works fine in Notes.
    I would be glad to hear what I did wrong, and how I can get those bad things fixed.
     
    Source
  18. Canardia
    Since the end of life of Notes/Domino 7 is coming in 2011-04-30 according to Ed Brill: End of Life for ND7, it's a good time to review the benefits of the two best Web Database platforms available on the market today: LAMP (=Linux Apache MySQL PHP) and Domino.
    1) LAMP database design can be edited with any text editor remotely, even with vi via secure shell (SSH). Domino Designer 7 and Notes 7 work fine, but not Domino Designer 8.5 or Notes 8. Domino Designer 8.5 is written in Java and is thus ridiculously bloated, slow, buggy and exposes lots of security holes.
    Notes 8 crashes when opening documents which contain HTML code, while the same document opens fine in Notes 7 and Notes 8.5, although some of them crash also Notes 7, but Notes 8.5 doesn't crash on any of them. Android got rid of Java in their OS, and users are praising the smaller memory footprint of 30MB and the incredible raise in speed due to native C++ code. OpenOffice uses Java also, and is a bit slow, but by miles not as slow as IBM's Java engine, which you can experience with Domino Designer 8.5, Notes 8.5 and Symphony.
    Although many things can be done with a graphical design in Domino Designer, the graphical features need to be replaced with LotusScript code when the application needs more features and customization. If you've ever worked with a simple application ready web server like Quickr, Sharepoint or Ruby On Rails (which are all horribly slow and inflexible compared to LAMP or Domino), as a developer you will love systems which are exactly the opposite and have thus full programmability and speed, and easy customization support, even if they don't have any ready apps.
    Hmm, actually this is a good question why does Domino not have any ready apps, or does it, if you count openntf.org? It's just not marketed as such by IBM. I think IBM should understand what collaboration really means, it means that the community does eventually official things, and not only IBM. A half point goes to LAMP.
    2) LAMP combines HTML and server side code in the same php document. This makes coding very easy and convenient, while in Domino Designer you need to juggle with a WebQueryOpen and WebQuerySave agent, which usually needs then more code and visual design elements to handle all different situations - you have to place additional fields in the Form and address them in the LotusScript code.
    This point is a draw though, since in LAMP you need to code everything, while in Domino Designer you can avoid some coding, and despite that it usually needs some more effort later on, it also saves time.
    3) The Domino 8.5 server has had known and fatal bugs for years, and although IBM knows about them, they haven't been fixed. One of those fatal bugs is for example that LotusScript WebQueryOpen agents keep running forever, until the memory is full, when the user closes the browser. The only workaround is to make a HTTP restart every night. In Domino 7 this problem does not exist.
    Another fatal bug is that chronos.exe crashes the server, however this can be fixed by deleting chronos.exe (speak: move it to a backup subdirectory, as you might need it for the next incremental installer), as it is some remain from Domino 1.0 where it also crashed all the time. And a third fatal bug is that compact increases the database size. This works fine in Domino 7. And a fourth fatal bug is that DAOS enabled databases with attachments cannot be copied to a Local file system when they are restored to a backup server first. This works also fine in Domino 7, since it has no DAOS.
    Domino 7 vs LAMP would have been a draw, but since businesses are forced to upgrade to Domino 8.5, this point goes to LAMP, as it has no such fatal bugs. In a similar situation, where Microsoft's Windows Vista was a plain failure for businesses (there was no business need or even benefit to upgrade) and Windows 7 (better than Vista, but it made itself required by ending the OEM Windows XP support), there is still support for Windows XP until year 2020, because that is the end of life of Windows 7 and the Windows XP downgrade is part of Windows 7, so it extends the end of support of Windows XP equal to the end of life of Windows 7. I find it a bit ironic that Microsoft has now better backwards compatibility, while this was the ace card of IBM over Microsoft for decades.
    4) LAMP is open source and free, while Domino 8.5 is closed source and commercial only. Android won iPhone, Sony/Ericsson and Nokia because it is open source and free. Likewise, the importance of a free version of Domino is to get a bigger market impact and get it more supported. This point goes to LAMP.
    5) LAMP works on 12 hardware platforms, while Domino works only on 5. An important version is the 64-bit Linux version on Intel and PowerPC, and Domino doesn't have them either: FAQ: 64-bit version of Domino This point goes to LAMP.
    6) Readers and Authors type fields and Groups and Roles are a major benefit of Domino. This point goes to Domino.
    7) Love for Lotus and the visual development environment keeps the developers motivated. This point goes to Domino.
    As it stands now, LAMP wins Domino 8.5 with 4.5:3.
    LAMP vs Domino 7 would have been only a 4.5:4 win.
     
    Source
  19. Canardia
    I just had a 3 day course about Advanced C++ programming.
    It was pretty cool, and I enjoyed every second of it.
     
    I already knew most of the C++ language itself, but I've never taken any course about the different ways of programming, and which way suits best each solution. This was exactly what I wanted to learn, and I feel much more professional now
     
    The course talked about the following things, and we had to write also real C++ code for most of the ways we just learned and compile and run it. It was organized pretty smart, as many topics built upon a previous topic, and the code we wrote earlier. That was fun also:
     
    Design Patterns:

    different models and their usage
    GoF-models (GoF=Gang of Four: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns )

    Creational Patterns:

    Abstract Factory
    Builder
    Factory Method
    Prototype
    Singleton

    Structural Patterns:

    Adapter
    Bridge
    Composite
    Decorator
    Facade
    Flyweight
    Proxy

    Behavioral Patterns:

    Chain of Responsibility
    Command
    Interpreter
    Iterator
    Mediator
    Memento
    Observer
    State
    Strategy
    Template Method
    Visitor

    Antipatterns:

    usual problems in class design
    solutions to problems

    Each of those topics exposed a different way of programming in C++, and it was pretty amazing what kind of features are hidden in C++, of which most people probably never thought of before.
     
    I had no idea how powerful and easy C++ really is, when you use it the real C++ way. Basically it was like, you should use classes for everything, and never do big if() constructs and other hardcoded and procedural logic.
     
    Doing things right in C++ gives also a huge speed boost in execution and programming time, and makes code really reusable, as they explained why each const, virtual, static, volatile, mutable, stack, heap, algorithm, etc... is useful.
  21. Canardia

    Anushar

    By Canardia,

    Humankind never had a chance.
    They came from the skies,
    like they did before,
    but this time they were not our gods
    - they were our fate,
    or so it seemed.
    We called them the Anushar, since that was the only thing we knew about them: the name of their leader.
    A few of us survived, perhaps because we were weak,
    and didn't appear to be a threat to them.
    This is where my story begins...


    Just testing the storyline for the new model I'm getting soon
    I'm so excited about it and hope that it will be what I always dreamed of!
     
    Now when I think about it, isn't it like a toy, which you get with a collector's edition of a game, but having it as a in-game 3D model is much more fun since you can put it in all your games and demos.
     
    Of course there will be a game also where it plays the main role, but first I need to finish another game, and another one still after that.
     
    Oh, this song tells a story about the great war against the Anushar too. What she calls "You" is what we know as God today, he is one of them:


    But there's more to it, why he did what he did, so see you in the game!
  22. Canardia

    Missing Pieces

    By Canardia,

    I have many projects going on, some have been going on for years, some were finished in very short time. When I got all pieces together, then projects are finished in very short time, and when some essential piece is missing, it will keep the project open until... well, until the piece is found.
     
    I was inspired to write this blog, because today I saw many pieces come together. Not just one for one project, but multiple for multiple projects. Actually this wave started already yesterday, and today even more things came together.
     
    Some of the big projects are:
     


     
    Lucid: a 3D system, not exactly an OS, although it replaces many OS features. It has for example a insane fast file system, which is done on another core, so it doesn't affect the main program at all. And that file system is a database, what Microsoft planned for Windows since years, but never managed to do it. Lucid was on hold for many years, since OpenGL didn't work on all computers. Now it does, even on Intel GMA. The missing piece was to find the right 3D rendering engine, now it's clear that it's Ogre3D/BlendELF, and it might be just one after testing which one wins the low-end limbo.
     
    Mimic AI: a research into reverse AI (the name Mimic AI comes from the fact that it actually behaves more like real humans (it blatantly mimics them), rather than using some intertwined logic), which I found very funny, since it was quite accurate and indistinquishable. Now I found a real application for it: the Human language, which will essentially transform spoken english into C++, Lua, BlitzMax and whatever it "knows". The knowledge database is a simple text file, but it could be a SQLite3 database also, but that's not needed yet until the size of the database grows too big to be in-memory only. The missing piece was to find a real use for Mimic AI, and also a language which can be used for any game, tutorial, documentation, etc... So that there is no need to have multiple languages.
     
    Blitz3D 2.0: I wanted to have a low-end capable 3D engine, preferrably cross-platform. Ogre3D with Bullet and/or BlendELF seems to fulfill this job best. Yesterday I realized it will also fit the job as core rendering engine for Lucid. The decision for Bullet was not a simple one, and I did a lot of research into ODE, PhysX, Havok also, and Bullet came out as the winner. The missing piece here was to find a low-end engine which can also do shadows and physics.
     
    A real game in LE: I found a nice team, and LE 2.32R5 is finally a
    completely bug free engine (not sure about the programmatic terrain editing yet, but I will find it out tomorrow). I also found today finally - after having searched for 3 years - an artist to make the LCP alien model. I told him a price range of 50-200€ and he snapped immediately a deal. The missing piece was to find a team which was dedicated to finish a real game, and the secondary objective to find an artist to make the alien model.

    So now I have the missing pieces for 4 of my big projects. Now it's time to code
  23. Canardia

    Leadwerks Navigator

    By Canardia,

    I had some funny idea again, and started to make Leadwerks Navigator.
     
    It's a simple web page which allows the user to choose different paths and areas of information about Leadwerks Engine.
    The deeper he navigates and into the more advanced topics he goes, the higher level he gets.
     
    I have no idea how useful this is, or if the Leadwerks web site will be easier to navigate,
    but at least it's fun to do! :
     
    http://www.siipi.com/leadwerks
  24. Canardia
    Finally I got the newest Quickr version to work together with the newest Domino version.Before the last version update, I was running Quickr 8.2.0.0 and Domino 8.5.1 and it crashed almost daily.Domino left a 0 byte NSD file behind each time it crashed.Now it hasn't crashed once yet.All SNAPPS apps are also installed and working fine.
     
    Source
  25. Canardia

    Something To Do

    By Canardia,

    Add CREATENOW parameter to LEO's Framework::Framework() and Engine::Engine().
    Expand hybrid fpscontroller2.lua example
    Also try to split it into universally reusable thingoids
    [*]Make some cool dungeon with 3DWS
    [*]Write a short tutorial how to create a distributable game (including built-in C++ RunTime)

    Include a game launcher and updater in the tutorial
    [*]Write also a mini game while doing the tutorial
    [*]Try to get a ragdoll physics character controller working
    [*]It could be used also for n-pedal monsters

    Realistic movement is not important in first phase
    [*]Make physics based 3D emitters

    They could be used for physics based 3D decals also



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