2006-03-14

Post Winter Break Update

So it's been a little while since I last posted. Schools been back in session for over a week now and I'm getting busy with school again, but I did accomplish some things during Winter Break. Not as much as I had hoped for in my last post though.

I created a level class for managing a level. The basic class functions are in place and the code to load and unload a level is working. The package chunk is now operational and I can load up a package that contains multiple chunks. Not sure right now if its 100% finished or not. It's been a little while since I looked at it, but it's at least functional.

I finally got everything working related to making the engine a DLL again. The last remaining piece had to do with the way I was overloading the new operator. It seems that you can't EXPORT an overloaded new operator from a DLL because of the name mangling that happens, so I fixed the problem by inlining the function calls in the header file. Easy enough solution.

Then I had to work on creating data for packages and levels to test my code. At first I had some hand coded data in a C file to test with, then I got around to making a Ruby script to build some sample level data. This lead to some rewriting of a lot of my older Ruby code. I'm getting more familiar with language and some of it's conventions. So I spent more time on this then I expected, and I'm still not done. For a little while now I'll most likely be working on some tools with Ruby, and possibly start playing around with Ruby/tk for some simple GUI tools.

If you've never heard of or played around with Ruby, I suggest checking it out. The more I use it the more I like it.

Unrelated to my game project, I also spent a lot of time playing around with cygwin on my iPod. It's been an ongoing project of mine. I installed cygwin onto my iPod a while ago now, so that I could have sort of a portable system with me. I use it with the computers at school so that I can use any of the command line tools I'm used to wherever I go. But getting it all to work properly takes some work, and I still don't have it working flawlessly. Maybe I'll write up a post sometime on how to get cygwin working on a portable drive, what I've learned along the way, and what problems I still haven't solved yet.

And lastly I got back into studying electronics. I got out my Radio Shack electronics kit and did some of the projects and I've been reading when I get a chance. I bought a used book on the subject and plan on buying a multi-meter. Very interesting stuff. You ever just wish things were like they are in Sci-Fi movies? I just want to upload all the info and know everything instantly.

Anyway, that's the latest.