Blitz on Rails
Community Forums/Showcase/Blitz on Rails
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| Something different this time, even more abstract than usual. I've been thinking lately that I'm fed up with implementing the same set of basic mechanics every time I start a game - init graphics, write out the main loop, set up object types with positions and physics and whatnot, and so on. So my first thought was, how about making my own little language where all I need to do is add in the bits I'm interested in? Well, writing my own compiler or interpreter is out, because that's a load of work I have no interest in, so my next thought was a code generator. If you've ever used Ruby on Rails, you'll be familiar with its use of ActiveRecord, where you define a model using fairly legible syntax like has_many friends, and so on. It pluralises and capitalises everything appropriately so you can read your code almost like natural writing. I've already got a parser written, I thought, so I'll have a go at that! Here's an example input: a drawable is a thing belongs to a list can draw can update add velocity to position a ship is a kind of drawable belongs to a list requires a name requires a position has many friend ships has many bullets has a velocity has a direction number can shoot make a bullet can turn can accelerate a bullet is a kind of drawable belongs to a ship requires a position has a velocity inherits velocity inherits position an asteroid is a kind of drawable belongs to a list requires a position requires a velocity requires a radius number can attract takes an asteroid can update attract every other asteroid main loop update every drawable draw every drawable velocity is a vector position is a vector name is a string and here's the code generated: Global Asteroids:TList=New TList Type TAsteroid Extends TDrawable Field pX#, pY# Field radius# Field vX#, vY# Method New() Asteroids.addlast Self End Method Function CreateAsteroid:TAsteroid( pX#, pY#, vX#, vY#, radius# ) End Function Method Attract( Asteroid:TAsteroid ) End Method Method Update() For asteroid:TAsteroid=EachIn Asteroids If asteroid <> Self attract asteroid Endif Next End Method Method Draw() End Method End Type Type TBullet Extends TDrawable Field pX#, pY# Field parentship:TShip Field vX#, vY# Method New() End Method Function CreateBullet:TBullet( pX#, pY# ) End Function Method Draw() End Method Method Update() pX :+ vX pY :+ vY End Method End Type Global Drawables:TList=New TList Type TDrawable Method New() Drawables.addlast Self End Method Function CreateDrawable:TDrawable( ) End Function Method Draw() End Method Method Update() pX :+ vX pY :+ vY End Method End Type Global Ships:TList=New TList Type TShip Extends TDrawable Field direction# Field Name$ Field pX#, pY# Field vX#, vY# Field myBullets:TList Field Friends:TList Method New() Ships.addlast Self myBullets = New TList Friends = New TList End Method Function CreateShip:TShip( Name$, pX#, pY# ) End Function Method Accelerate() End Method Method Shoot() bullet:TBullet = New TBullet bullet.vX = vX bullet.vY = vY bullet.pX = pX bullet.pY = pY bullet.parentShip = Self myBullets.addlast bullet End Method Method Turn() End Method Method Draw() End Method Method Update() pX :+ vX pY :+ vY End Method End Type Graphics 600,600,0 Setblend ALPHABLEND While Not (KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE) or AppTerminate()) For drawable:TDrawable=EachIn Drawables drawable.update Next For drawable:TDrawable=EachIn Drawables drawable.draw Next Flip Cls Wend I've only spent a few hours on it, so it's not structured brilliantly, but if I make it just a little bit cleverer, I think it could be a very interesting avenue of inquiry. |
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| That's the coolest thing I have ever seen. |
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| That's pretty good, you should see what else you can get it to do. Cheers Charlie |
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| This is really cool! :) |
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| We are doomed if Warpy ever decides to use his powers for evil... |
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| Awesome, this is how I imagine programming will be in the future except you'll speak to the computer and it will make some assumptions for you already so you don't need to specify every detail. Only problem with that is any pleb could be a programmer then and I'd be out of a job ;-p |
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| Yeah, what GaryV said. Please swear here and now to only use your powers for good, ie. for lazy programmers like me. |
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| Warpy is definitely on to something: that's the most annoying part every time a start a new project from scratch, even though I try to recycle as much as possible by using heavily structured code. That parser reminds me a lot of the latest Inform, but applied to abstract game logic. Very clever, very interesting, and also the implementation looks well thought of! |
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| wow thats a pretty cool parser/grammar recognition thing you have going. |
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| I think this would be great for beginers but personally it would just get in my way, as I have been using blitz for years and i am very comfortable with it. |
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| I find it only partially true. Out of the box is mostly useful for beginners, which can then adopt the the outputted template, and since every coder grows it's own style and codebase during time it isn't fit for everyone. However, regardless of expertise I still find repetitive tasks tedious, so the concept alone is interesting: it actually made me think of coding something like that for myself, as the icing on top of my codebase. :) |
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| I think writing stuff in a natural language will just take more time and effort, and since you still need to know how to program I don't see much use for this. But sure, it's a cool program, and might be of use to create the holy grail of programming language: just tell the computer in a natural language "what to do". |
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| To be clear, this is just a frameworking device, which you use at the start to get the structure of your program set up. Obviously, game logic and proper programming would be really long-winded in natural language. |
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| I think it's a pretty interesting approach Warpy. Definitely nice that you didn't have to type out all that code by hand - I mean, you had to spend time once writing the generator etc but you didn't have to sit and hand-write it, so like you said it's a good timesaver. I presume you would actually build this around a large library of functionality which would actually fill in the blanks for you - ie fill the functions with code to actually move objects and draw stuff etc? In a way it's kind of like a higher-level WYSIWYG game editor like Torque or something, but in the form of english language rather than clicking buttons and dragging boxes and stuff. Interesting. |
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| hm... Basic 2.0? |
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| I've wanted to make something, before I knew a lot about blitz I wanted to make a program that you can create 3D Models with. Not just any old program though, it would SOMEHOW (which is the problem) be connected to your mind so you could simply think of a model, and poof, it appears on a screen, along with a texture if you want it to. Or for programming a game, you could have something conencted to your mind while you sleep and you could record your dream as either a video or a game. That'd be awesome. |
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| @Green_Fire Last night I dreamt I was being chased by a Terminator and for a "normal" guy like me without military training or weapons that was pretty (annoyingly) exciting (read: stressing) experience. ...would've made a great game though. :-) |
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