Entries for thumbtacks2

Your Own Window Manager [Your Own Window Manager]

thumbtacks2 — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:21:57 GMT

Curious...how much work would it take to develop your own lightweight window manager? For say...oh, I dunno...Linux. Seeing that several window managers could potentially be sucked into patent trouble, I'm wondering if it is worth it to revisit some old UI ideas.

For fun, ya know. ;)

in reply to Your Own Window Manager

!sizeof [!sizeof]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:21:13 GMT

In C#, it's my understanding that variables are created as objects. Does anybody know how large those objects are? In C, you have the sizeof operator, and it returns the size of an object in bytes. But in C#, from what I read here, it's sizeof operator "can only be used in the unsafe mode". Hmmm. Is there an alternate keyword that serves the same purpose?

Also, how does C# perform when you are manipulating large sets of data? Or is that not recommended. Just an academic interest on my end...nothing serious planned.

in reply to !sizeof

OWL Lives On [OWL Lives On]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:43:52 GMT

Wow. I never thought I would see this...OWLNext.

http://owlnext.sourceforge.net/about.html

in reply to OWL Lives On

Good C# Book [Good C# Book]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:47:45 GMT

Hi...what would you recommend as a good, all-purpose C# book? I have a fair amount of C/C++/Win32 experience already and I would like a book that doesn't strictly limit itself to console-type applications.

I need to build some extra tools that may involve GDI+ and WinForms (for personal use). :O

in reply to Good C# Book

Are Virtual Function Calls Still Expensive? [Are Virtual Function Calls Still Expensive?]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:29:28 GMT

Forking this article on polymorphism (which deals with the overhead/expense of using virtual functions), I'm wondering if I'm heading down the right path. I know the reference is from the mid-90's, and may no longer have much relevance.

I'm considering having a generalized "object" class for numerous things in my engine, including lamps, the camera, models, etc. because from an organizational standpoint, it would make things easier. But considering that rendering a scene may involve numerous rendering calls to these various objects, I'm wondering what if my frame rate would drop much or not if I used virtual functions.

in reply to Are Virtual Function Calls Still Expensive?

C++ and VS 2008 [C++ and VS 2008]

thumbtacks2 — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:00:26 GMT

I'm noticing lots of small "breaking changes that come with every new iteration of Visual Studio, and after porting a project from VC++ 6.0, I'm learning this the hard way. I'm curious, though...how is the support for C++ in 2008? Are more things getting depreciated? I'm compiling projects to native WIN32 executables, btw.

in reply to C++ and VS 2008

Who Reads Channel 9? [Who Reads Channel 9?]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:47:40 GMT

Okay, after seeing the James Gosling's blog the other day, and noticed a South Park version of himself...and it reminded of something Jamie might have done a while back. So it made me wonder...

in reply to Who Reads Channel 9?

Securely Reading a Custom File Format [Securely Reading a Custom File Format]

thumbtacks2 — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:56:04 GMT

Is there a decent guide/book/series of articles anywhere for building secure code when reading data from a customized file format? I'm developing a handful of specialized animation formats for my game engine and would like my routines to gracefully handle corrupted data (should it occur). I will be using C++.

Thanks.

in reply to Securely Reading a Custom File Format

Software NDAs [Software NDAs]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:25:47 GMT

In reading the recent thread about Jamie and the "NDA"s, I had a question...

I'm moving along in writing a bunch of software. However, at some point, I need to get feedback from testers, designers, investors(?), etc. At this point, what I'm working on will become part of something proprietary.

What is the best business practice regarding NDAs and software that you are developing? Is it best to make everybody that sees your work sign an agreement, regardless of what stage it is in (alpha/beta)? Also, if you work for a small software house, do you simply find a software/IP/tech lawyer and have them draft up a document for you?

in reply to Software NDAs

Self-Taught: What do employers think? [Self-Taught: What do employers think?]

thumbtacks2 — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:45:13 GMT

I'm curious...what do employers think of "self taught" programmers? Is it viewed as a positive trait or generally ignored? How would you convey that on a resume (or not)?

in reply to Self-Taught: What do employers think?

Networking, Online Job Boards or Newspapers [Networking, Online Job Boards or Newspapers]

thumbtacks2 — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:35:01 GMT

...which has been the most successful option for you when finding a new job? Or have you tried something more unorthodox?

in reply to Networking, Online Job Boards or Newspapers

I'm Stuck on the Business Side [I'm Stuck on the Business Side]

thumbtacks2 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:08:33 GMT

I was going to post this in the other "dress code" thread, but it really doesn't belong there. But I will quote something from over there.

Cybermagellan wrote:
BTW: I've gotten every interview I've ever applied for, and gotten second and third interviews.

Interesting. I wonder why I'm not getting any replies to the developer jobs I apply to?

Any tips for the rest of us? Especially those of us technically "stuck" on the business side of things? Even though I go home and write 3-D software...go figure. :s How do I get anybody to even consider me without a CS degree?

I don't have a CS degree (although I do have a 4 yr degree), but I've been programming in some form or another in one language or another on my own time for about the past fifteen years or so (including SQL, C++, and even assembly). I have yet to land a developer interview. Is networking the key? I've usually tried applying through large sites like Dice.com.

[C]

Some day, I'll start my own software company, but in the short term, I really need to cross over to the IT side of things.

in reply to I'm Stuck on the Business Side

Movie Studios Use Linux [Movie Studios Use Linux]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:02:21 GMT

I'm not a Shrek fan, but this article really surprised me:

DreamWorks Animation "Shrek the Third": Linux Feeds an Ogre

Linux Journal wrote:
DreamWorks Animation has more Linux geeks on tap than most Linux companies or open-source projects do. If you're interested in working on Linux in the motion picture industry, DreamWorks is advertising job openings for Linux technologists, including Systems Architect, Senior Systems Administrator, Senior Systems Developer, Systems Engineer, Animation Tools Software Engineer, Core Libraries Software Engineer and Software Engineer Manager.

How come you never hear about things like this? When can the general community hope to get some of these tools released to them?

in reply to Movie Studios Use Linux

Open Source Surprise [Open Source Surprise]

thumbtacks2 — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:01:53 GMT

I know, this thread title sounds like a recipe for a bad casserole.

Anyhow, I have been thinking about something. With "open source" software the code is supposed to be available to anybody that wants access to it. Also, the nature of the development model typically involves putting the code or alpha/beta versions on a site somewhere, and allowing practically anyone to join in at any time in the process.

Now, with Apple they seem to have mastered the element of surprise when introducing new products. Often new products are introduced at conferences. This creates a lot of "buzz". In contrast, Microsoft seems to be in some sort of transparency transition, with some attempts at "open source" and many product features talked up at length on various blogs and in articles...often well before product launch. This, to me, seems to dilute the element of surprise.

Both strategies have their pros and cons, but I do think Apple's style of product introduction is most memorable. So I ask...can the open source community ever have an element of surprise in anything they do? Has any open source project ever forced a developer to sign an NDA? What would happen if they did? I wonder how many proprietary companies have employees that sign up to "develop" on an OSS project, but not really do much of anything, and only take part to track where the competition is going?

Maybe the bigger question is if having an element of surprise even matters at all...

in reply to Open Source Surprise

Finishing Projects [Finishing Projects]

thumbtacks2 — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:39:37 GMT

For some reason, whenever I start on a new programming project in my spare time, everything rolls along great until a few weeks or months go by. Then, for some unknown reason, I usually lose interest (or something like that). This leaves me with lots of projects that have a good start to them, but are ultimately incomplete.

Does anybody have any tips on how to find the motivation again to finish them? A typical project that I start would probably take 9-15 months to finish properly. :(

in reply to Finishing Projects

Silverlight Meet Moonlight [Silverlight Meet Moonlight]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:19:05 GMT

Something to watch.

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

in reply to Silverlight Meet Moonlight

FF Extensions [FF Extensions]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:43:47 GMT

Has anybody here tried making their own Firefox extensions or add-ons? With all the recent drama surrounding Silverlight, I had some ideas I might try at a later date to see how far I could push 3-D functionality in a web browser (or not).

in reply to FF Extensions

Parsers Are Really, Really Fun [Parsers Are Really, Really Fun]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:22:37 GMT

I'm currently working on a model loader.

I'm using C++.

Although I've written simple parsers in the past, for some reason, this one is proving to be a bit more difficult. For instance, in the format I'm reading (.obj), a face can be represented like this:

f 1 2 3

or

f 1//2 2//3 3//1

or

f 1/1/1 2/2/2 3/3/3

Although I can pretty easily extract the first token ("f"), the next part gets sort of wacky. If no slashes are used, each individual number represents a vertex index. If a double slash is used, the first number is a vertex index, and the second in a normal index. If three slashes are used, the format is vertex/texture/normal indices.

Fun.

I have three options now. I can either rework the .obj python script in Blender to make it export the data in a more usable format (perhaps the best option, because obj files do not have header info) or keep working on a file format parser that uses the existing specs for obj/wavefront files. Or, I can just use some other format, but I would still need to write some kind of parsing functions.

What isn't helping things is that now I'm trying to decide if I want to abstract away the parsing duties to its own object (and reuse the code elsewhere for other things) or just get the model loader going and worry about the rest later.

I used to actually think that writing simple parsers was actually kind of fun, but this time around it's losing its charm. Like, real fast.

Thoughts?

in reply to Parsers Are Really, Really Fun

Summer of Code & Mono [Summer of Code & Mono]

thumbtacks2 — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:50:34 GMT

Per Miguel's blog, there are several entrants who will be working on Mono related projects for Google's Summer of Code, including this one:

One entrant wrote:
My goal is to create a MonoDevelop Add-in that adds support for C/C++.

Very ambitious, yet it would be really nice to see the results of this. :)

in reply to Summer of Code & Mono

Patching Resources [Patching Resources]

thumbtacks2 — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:52:43 GMT

What is the easiest way to update a user's machine if a piece of software you have written needs to be patched? For instance, let's say I sell a game in a retail outlet (or online), people install it, but later on I decide that something needs to be patched for one reason or another. What if that patch involves the main program/game engine? Would I just re-deploy/replace the main executable file on the user's machine (via a download of course)? Or is there a better way to approach this...? Are there resources/guides readily available with suggestions on how to do this? I don't have this need as of yet, but I'm sure it will come up down the road.

Thanks.

in reply to Patching Resources

Get/Set vs. Public Variables [Get/Set vs. Public Variables]

thumbtacks2 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:43:58 GMT

I'm currently writing a Camera class (which encapsulates the gluLookAt functionality in OpenGL) in C++ and have been indecisive about something. Which is a better practice...to have public variables in a class (some but not all), such as the camera location, what it points at, etc. OR to keep the variables private, and add get/set functions? On one hand having lots of get/set functions ("methods") seems a bit redundant, although it probably does hide certain data better. Then again, letting certain variables be public might help a class object mimic the concept of "setting/reading properties" a little better. Maybe it's just a matter of personal preference...?

in reply to Get/Set vs. Public Variables

wgl Font Question [wgl Font Question]

thumbtacks2 — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:03:13 GMT

I'm searching for more documentation on this, but is there any other way of scaling Windows fonts in OpenGL besides using this the glScalef(x,y,z) function? I'm currently using the font outlines function provided via wgl.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537567.aspx

Initially, I created the fonts via the wglCreateFont function (maybe that was misguided, I dunno), but it seems to ignore any sizing parameters I pass to it. It seems the only way I can change the font size is via glScalef.

Thanks.

in reply to wgl Font Question

What Am I Missing Here? [What Am I Missing Here?]

thumbtacks2 — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:16:00 GMT

Scoble calls this some type of "killer Vista app". How so? With the libraries I'm building and working on, it would seem to me to be fairly easy to develop an app that flips through photos or a music collection in 3-D (assuming I put a database or a set of webservices or whatever behind the interface). I've even thought about doing that with the videos (well, at least the jpeg images of them) that are on this site.

in reply to What Am I Missing Here?

Anybody Use Sourceforge? [Anybody Use Sourceforge?]

thumbtacks2 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:49:38 GMT

Just curious to see if anybody here has put any projects up over there. I have several ideas that I might post over there during the next several months, but I'm undecided right now on which ones because some of the implementions I would like to turn into proprietary products (and thus not release on that site). For starters, I would like to take the "flying notecards" thing I'm working on in the Sandbox (over in reply to Flying Cards