Monthly Archives: November 2009

Visual C++ For C# Programmers

At my dayjob, I’m a C# developer. 2.5 years ago I was a C++ developer during the day. When I wrote C++, it was all for multiplatform applications that never touched any of the .NET libraries. When I switched to C#, it was all .NET. Never once did I try or even look into using any of the .NET libraries with C++. I knew there was something like __gcnew available, but I took one peek at managed C++ back in 2003 or so and got scared, running away because it looked so ugly.

I had heard that it was improved, but never bothered to look into it until now. I picked up a copy of Pro Visual C++ 2005 for C# Developers and in the first 50 pages I learned everything I need to know to be able to mix managed and unmanaged code in a C++ application, or to mix C# and C++ applications in a .NET project.  I’m not sure how much I’ll ever use that, since my main usage of C++ is for wxWidgets or Qt-based applications, but it’s nice to know, and the author, Dean Wills, did a damn fine job of explaining the differences between the two languages in a short amount of time.

The remainder of the book explains more of the intricacies and specifics, but any competent C# programmer can be writing C++ in only two hours with this book.

Minotaur Stronghold Added

The Minotaur Stronghold zone I mentioned doing some testing with a few days back is now uploaded and connected to the MUD. It’s a scenario where an Orcish army has a Minotaur outpost under siege. Enjoy!

wxWidgets Client Resurrected

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, not being able to support scrollback with the client was a problem in the wxWidgets-based version. This is because it used the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) for the text rendering, and that just has a 2-D panel that text can be rendered to. Adding scrollback to that kind of system would be a large amount of effort.

Since the original development on the client was started back in 2005, wxWidgets has added the wxRichTextCtrl control, which lets you create rich text box — as in, a text box that has color, images, and all sorts of happy goodness like that.

I spent some time ripping out all of the SDL portions of the client and replacing them with the rich text control. The end result is that it does everything it did before, but has scrollback, uses less CPU, and has less memory copying going on (which means fewer possible points of failure). It still needs some tuning, but it already uses five fewer code files than the previous attempt.

WPF Is A Dealbreaker

I spent some time working on the client, only to find that the Windows Presentation Foundation doesn’t support right-click events.  That’s a deal-breaker because I need right-click support.  How could a GUI toolkit not support something so basic?

So, the wxWidgets-based client is being resurrected.  That’s good, because it was further along.  The big problem was that I couldn’t easily support scrollback with the SDL integration.  Well, since then I’ve figured out how I’d make that work.

In case you’ve forgotten or are not aware, THIS was how far along the wxWidgets-based Basternae client was last time we looked at it.

Editor Update (Version 0.45)

I added a few more commands to the walkthrough mode in the zone editor.  The commands list, edit, createedit, exits, and version have been added.  It also now understands the short versions of the diagonal commands — nw, ne, se, and sw.  You can get it HERE or via the sidebar link.

As always, this is a relatively untested app, so save often.

Basternae Code Now Stored With Assembla

Code versioning is a good thing. You can rollback changes that make things worse, compare current code to past code, keep backups, and access your code from almost anywhere. It also helps make sure that every machine being used for development is kept current and that changes aren’t easily overwritten. Any serious development should have a source code repository, especially if that development is done on more than one system or by more than one person. I’m only one person, but I used three different dev systems.

I’ve tried to set up a Subversion code repository at home twice. Both times it was on an extra laptop and both times the laptop’s hard drive died within a month of setting up the repository. I didn’t lose the code (every development machine is technically a code backup), but it was pretty frustrating.

The other day I signed up with Assembla for my audio software development and it’s been so useful that I’ve added the Basternae code too.

I’m debating whether to start using the Trac issue tracking system with Basternae 3. It works well for the Zeta Centauri projects, but the workflow here is far more organic and to-do-list based than issue-and-ticket based. I suspect the verdict will be “no” on Trac and I’ll keep using my got-it-done.com website to track Basternae.

Scan Command Fixed

One of the nagging problems I had been meaning to get to was the non-functional scan command. It’s a recursive command, and the C# way is a bit different from the C++ way. It was easier to fix than I had expected and is working now, so scan away.

Editor Update (Version 0.44)

Made more progress on the editor. The walkthrough window now has basic functionality. There are only a few commands working, mainly the directional commands and the goto command. It’s all in black-and-white, but it is enough to let you walk through the rooms and get a feel for what mobs and objects are where.

Basternae Editor v0.44 Screenshot

Pretty basic, but it will evolve with time.

You can get the latest version HERE (or via the link on the sidebar).

Startup Script Created

For the past few days, the test version of the MUD has only been up when I was actively running it from my Linux shell account.

I’ve created a startup/restart script so it should be running all the time now, barring any catastrophic crash-explosions.

Telnet basternae.org port 4502 to connect.

Zone Permissions Needed

We had permission to use zones from these authors for Basternae 2. Even so, I want to be sure we have permission to use them with Basternae 3. If you know any of these folks, please pass the word that I’d like to get permission to use their zones in Basternae 3 (and/or all future incarnations of whatever Basternae 3 ends up evolving into).

Based on the severely-outdated zone list I have from Basternae 2, here’s a list of the folks I’d like to get zone permission from:

Akyura
Alachest
Baghtru
Beretorn
Clavados
Cy
Denel
Dregeath
Drevarr
Drokal
Dryn
Drzx
Dubar
Gharl
Gnosha
Ilshad
Iris
Kolut
Khiba
Kuldrim
Lortar
Losh
Malthrix
Parkan
Pesto
Phreak
Raliq
Sarlac
Scipio
Sjad
Ski
Sniktiorg
Talos
Threnody
Thugan
Timken
Trask
Trika
Xueqin
Zaeru
Zileas

We could probably just use the zones since we were given permission once, but I’d really prefer to run it by the authors first. My email address is xangis [at the mail provider] yahoo (dot) com. Any assistance in contacting these folks would be appreciated. Thank you.

Editor Update (Version 0.43)

I did a little more work on the editor today.  Now that I’m able to convert zones created with DurisEdit, I decided to use the Basternae Editor tinker around a bit with the Minotaur Stronghold zone that I created and converted.  What did I work on?  The map view.

I changed it so that it generates room arrangements more accurately and also shows room interconnections.  It has only been tested with and I only expect it to work with zones that have rooms that are all interconnected (reachable).  I’m sure it will need some work to behave right with non-contiguous zones.  Even so, I have it working with the Minotaur Stronghold, Kobold Village, and Thri-Kreen Hometown, and clicking on the box for a room will take you to the edit window for that room.  Kinda neat if you ask me.

Basternae Editor v0.43 Screenshot

You can get the latest version HERE (or via the link on the sidebar).

Now Able To Import DurisEdit Zones

I’ve been wanting to add support to the zone converter for using DurisEdit to create Basternae 3 zones for a while now.  While it is nearly identical to the DikuEdit 3.10 that we’ve used for ages, there are a few subtle differences — their format allows multiclassing and has a few different classes available and a few different settings that we don’t use, like size.

I built a small 40-room zone using DurisEdit to test against.  I had to make a few changes and had to improvise a bit with class translation, but I’m able to import Duris zones now.  The process is identical to the import of Basternae 1 zones.

Since they don’t have settings for each type of elementalist, I’ve defaulted mobs classed “Conjurer” to “Fire Elementalist”.  If the class should be something different, it will just have to be changed after conversion.  There will also probably need to be some extra affect flag translation and/or a few minor tweaks here and there, but the hard part — reading the files correctly — is covered.

This means we now support:

– Envy zones (You can create them using mzfe2-32 among other things).  This is the least full-featured format.
– Basternae 1 Zones (.obj, .mob, .wld, etc.)
– Basternae 2 Zones (.are)
– Duris Zones (.obj, .mob, .wld, etc.)
– Basternae 3 Zones (.are.xml)

Given the choice between DE 3.10 and DurisEdit, you should choose DE 3.10 because it most closely matches our zone format.

The ideal editor would be the current zone editor, version 0.42, but that may still need some work.

Two More Zones Connected

In addition to fixing a few bugs with immortal commands, I connected two more zones to the MUD, giving us a whopping total of 3 connected right now:  The Kobold Village, The Thri-Kreen hometown, and the Gypsy Encampment.

Test Connection Up Again (Temporarily)

I put up the MUD server so I could do some development.  Telnet basternae.org port 4502 and feel free to report anything you find.   I haven’t fixed everything since the last test run, but did fix a handful of things.

I don’t have a restart script running, so if it crashes, that means it’s going to stay down until I check it again.

For those of you who want to use the old version of DikuEdit, I added a link to it on the sidebar.  I would like to get a bit of feedback on the new editor, so feel free to try that and let me know what you think of it so far.