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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 08:36 | Permalink | Mark Here |
steve_ancell

 
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Here's a part of Mark Sibly's blog...

Ok, there's been a lot of conjecture about 'the future of Blitz' at blitzbasic.com lately, so it's probably a good idea to let everyone know that the fine minds at BRL are currently working on a solution to the 'BlitzMax on LOTS of platforms' problem - and yes, 'lots of platforms' includes the iPhone.

*Includes the iPhone ?* If that's the case, could that mean they might make a move on the console development stuff at some point !
Linkage: marksibly.blogspot.com/2010/03/bmx-news.html
And here's where I found out about it: blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=89674 |
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 09:10 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Jayenkai

 
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Cool!
Although I'm a wee bit aware of what day it is, but since it was posted a few days ago, I'll let my excitement get the better of me!
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 09:46 | Permalink | Mark Here |
CodersRule
 
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Will the iPhone need to be jailbroken? I assume so... |
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 09:55 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Jayenkai

 
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Depends. You'll no doubt still need a Mac to do it, in the first place.
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 10:02 | Permalink | Mark Here |
JL235

 
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No, it doesn't necessarilly need to be jail broken. There are lots of non-Apple products that can compile standalone apps for the iPhone. Adobe have one for compiling Flash into standalone apps for the phone.
But tbh, I can't see how BMax will be any better then the many other alternatives that are out there.
----- PlayMyCode.com - build and play in your browser, Blog, Twitter. |
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 11:16 | Permalink | Mark Here |
9572AD

 
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It's possible to compile for iPhone on PC, but you can't put it on the store unless it's compiled on a Mac.
----- All the raw, animal magnetism of a rutabaga. |
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 12:39 | Permalink | Mark Here |
CodersRule
 
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I didn't know that. Interesting. |
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 14:42 | Permalink | Mark Here |
JL235

 
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I also can't help thinking he should spend more time improving Blitz Max on it's existing platforms first. For example there are good reasons why people pay for Matlab. There are things it can do which are more difficult then using the alternatives. There are very few reasons why it's a good reason to pay for Blitz Max.
He should concentrate on adding more reasons!
----- PlayMyCode.com - build and play in your browser, Blog, Twitter. |
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 14:53 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Jayenkai

 
WW Entries : 103
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If I can click "Compile", and instantly have my game ported to iPhone, then that's feckin' fantastic.
If Mark can do it, then I say go for it. There's no reason not to. Apart from maybe Apple being a bit too bitchy about it!
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 15:51 | Permalink | Mark Here |
9572AD

 
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Of course, GLBasic already does this.
(Or, it was 90% finished last time I checked, anyhow.)
----- All the raw, animal magnetism of a rutabaga. |
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Posted : Thursday, 01 April 2010, 16:12 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Jayenkai

 
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Yeah, but I've already settled into BMax.
If the VisualC installer, that came with GLBasic, hadn't have crapped out, and refused to let me install the demo of GLBasic, then things might've been different.
But since MS borked it, I didn't get a chance.
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Posted : Friday, 02 April 2010, 05:00 | Permalink | Mark Here |
CodersRule
 
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If I can click "Compile", and instantly have my game ported to iPhone, then that's feckin' fantastic.
Exactly what I'm saying. Objective-C itself is confusing, but when trying to use it on the iPhone, my brain feels like it will explode. |
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Posted : Friday, 02 April 2010, 17:08 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Cower

 
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Objective-C itself is confusing Objective-C is beautiful and awesome and you suck. |
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Posted : Saturday, 03 April 2010, 18:11 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Cower

 
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Converting BMax to Objective-C wouldn't work due to the fact that BMax uses simple identifiers and Objective-C uses selectors for method names. |
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Posted : Thursday, 02 September 2010, 01:40 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Jayenkai

 
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Posted : Thursday, 02 September 2010, 08:08 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Afr0

 
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Posted : Thursday, 02 September 2010, 09:36 | Permalink | Mark Here |
JL235

 
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It's nice to see BlitzMax being improved. I've said it before that BMax doesn't have a 'killer app' to really give people a proper reason to use it over the free alternatives. But IMHO this however could be it.
A few minor thoughts...
* 'Proper' constructors, eg:
Method New( x,y )
Self.x=x
Self.y=y
End
I don't think he should reserve new as a method name. There is a reason why the majority of OO languages use the classes name also for the constructors name, i.e.
-->
It's a much better convention to follow as I might want to define a method called 'new'.

* Strings and Arrays are NOT objects in bmx2 the way they are in bmx1 - they are more like primitives such as int and float, eg:
Local t bject="Hello world" 'OK in bmx1, Error in bmx2.
To me, that looks like a BIG step back. He says it's because it's not supported as an object in all of the languages he is targetting. However they all support some form of objects (JavaScript being the oddest as it uses prototypes instead of classes) so he could have just defined his own String and Array classes and wrapped them up in that. It doesn't really matter if the outputted code is more ugly as your not building it in that language, your building it in BMax.
* Multidimensional arrays are out, although you can still have arrays of arrays, eg:
Local t[10,20] 'OK in bmx1, Error in bmx2
Local t[][10] 'OK in bmx1 and bmx2.
I presume this is because not all of those languages support defining multi-dimensional arrays??? But again I don't see why he can't just output some boiler plate code to do that initialization for you.
But again this does seem like a step in a very good direction!
----- PlayMyCode.com - build and play in your browser, Blog, Twitter. |
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Posted : Thursday, 02 September 2010, 09:40 | Permalink | Mark Here |
Jayenkai

 
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There's a MASSIVE difference between Blitz and BlitzMax, and people managed that hurdle. I'm going to trust Mark on this one.
...
Maybe...
'tis a "wait and see" issue, really.
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Posted : Thursday, 02 September 2010, 10:13 | Permalink | Mark Here |
CodersRule
 
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I might just have to get BlitzMax if the language changes prove to be decent. |
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Posted : Saturday, 04 September 2010, 12:38 | Permalink | Mark Here |
bram32
 
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Multidimensional arrays are out
I think that is because BlitzMax allows you to resize arrays. Perhaps that is something that is difficult to port to all these different platforms? |
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Posted : Saturday, 04 September 2010, 13:02 | Permalink | Mark Here |
JL235

 
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bram32 I think that is because BlitzMax allows you to resize arrays. Perhaps that is something that is difficult to port to all these different platforms?
I disagree as I see them as seperate features. For example in C you can define multidimensional arrays on the stack which you can't resize.
----- PlayMyCode.com - build and play in your browser, Blog, Twitter. |
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Posted : Sunday, 05 September 2010, 15:30 | Permalink | Mark Here |
dna
 
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Smart and clever group. Very good idea.
Don't forget the iPad and the forthcoming iTV or whatever it's called as well.
If the TV is programmable.
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Posted : Monday, 06 September 2010, 09:35 | Permalink | Mark Here |
9572AD

 
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"There's a MASSIVE difference between Blitz and BlitzMax, and people managed that hurdle. I'm going to trust Mark on this one."
Not me. No documentation meant I never even got a start into BlitzMAX. Nowt but a waste of my money.
----- All the raw, animal magnetism of a rutabaga. |
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Posted : Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 01:23 | Permalink | Mark Here |
waroffice

 
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i agree with 9572AD. |
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