Y u no release update?

[FHannes]

Hey guys,

 

Some of you might be wondering why I haven't released any updates in a while. After all, my finals have been over for 2 weeks now... Well, the reason basically comes down to, I have so much to do, that I don't know where to start... Fun, right? I have been slowly making my way through my todo list, taking down all of those little tasks that just have to be done at some point and I'm getting there.

 

I've actually started programming again a couple of days ago, with a little break to handle the recent attack on the forums. The latter of which aren't 100% restored yet, still missing some stuff like the theme, scar code boxes, ... But the important stuff is there, the rest is somewhat less important right now. What I'd like to do is get some updates over to you guys first.

 

I'm currently working on SCAR Divi 4.00, before my finals I was working on a rather large component of the IDE, which is still not quite finished. After overviewing me work so far, I've decided to make some important changes that will not only improve that particular system, but also add some future proofing, so it can be more easily extended in the future. I'm currently aiming to get an updated copy of the 4.00 pre-alpha out to you guys by the end of the week. As a spoiler, this version will (hopefully) be able to compile scripts consisting out of multiple files. It may be counter intuitive to some users of SCAR currently, but this does not mean that you will be able to create includes, at least not properly. Yet... Once this system is in place, it should be easily extended and the time between updates should also be shortened, this is just something I can't release until it's somewhat operational, or nothing works essentially.

 

How about SCAR Divi 3.39? I don't have an ETA right now, but I'd love it if you guys could just post some things you'd really like to see in it. But try to keep it manageable

 

I'm hoping to get the project system running again soon, so you guys can post bugs and suggestions in there again.

 

~Freddy

[LordJashin]

Why is it hard to get it to compile multiple files? Is the compiler that hard to work with?

 

Glad to know the mission is still on. Very fun indeed. For the forum software I know how that feels (reinstall, reinstall mods, reinstall custom edits) such a pain.

[FHannes]

It's not hard to compile multiple files, but it does have to be wrapped in a somewhat user friendly package Of course the multiprocess architecture does make it slightly more tedious, as everything has to be communicated between the processes, rather than being handled internally in a single process. The thing that takes the longest to develop is the user-interface though.

[slacky]

No doubt about that. Of all GUI-frameworks I've played around with, non are "easy" to work with (takes time), specially when it comes to multi-threading around the GUI and still keep it thread safe/avoid killing/stopping any other threads (communicating between threads is not straight forward)... Just takes a lot of time.

 

Anyways, look forward to seeing the next pre-alpha release.

Edited July 12, 2013 by slacky

[LordJashin]

Yeah I'm still learning Qt, and the threading is pretty cool. I haven't gotten to processes yet, and the QtProcess or w/e its called. I thought Thread Pools were the best! But yeah the learning just goes on and on, but I think once you get it down. The program using multi-processors, and thread pooling/good management reallllllllly helps you out, and the computer enormously. I mean I played this one game that was SINGLE Processor usage I think, and it always had problems that shined through because of that, especially with memory. Games are different though, but i still think some time can be taken to make them multi-processor/better threading.

 

But yeah, the computers nowadays totally rely on the multi-processor architectures. Like my computer for instance seems pretty fast for single core usage, but man if you get a good program that uses multiple cores on my computer. It'll finish its job so fast, especially anything having to do with Files, and Scans. Even Windows Updates work faster I might say than on other Win7 computer I've had to install them on.

 

Also learned about Deadlocking, Conflicts, etc with threading. But yeah, my big problem with learning Delphi, or maybe third party Delphi tools. Is there's no really good documentation that's easy to learn for me anyway. And the learning curve is just ridiculous sometimes. These documenters need to focus on clear code examples, and how one would normally use the class or structure, rather than just giving how to instantiate it, and then leaving it at that. Or letting you comb through the properties/methods so you can guess how to use it, or use google, which may have old version code usage anyway.

 

Idk how Freddy is able to do this. Especially with that image library, and some of the libraries that have almost no documentation. It must be hard at times.

Edited July 12, 2013 by LordJashin

[FHannes]

It's (clearly) taking longer than expected to get this done. I started my summer job last week, so my time has been limited (even more). I'm making progress though, even though it slow. I hope I can get a build out there by Sunday.

 

EDIT: I've made quite a bit of progress today. It's still unstable, and a lot of stuff is missing or half-implemented, but I'll release an updated alpha later tonight, once I get some more things done. If this system isn't functional by then, you can always benefit from the updated script engine. Seeing as regular scripting as possible before should be fully functional again.

Edited July 21, 2013 by Freddy