Dev Blog - Trilarion

Discussion of ongoing programming work.
Forum rules
Posted relevant content can be used under GPL or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/) for the project. Thanks!
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XL - Network

Post by Trilarion »

After the start screen and packaging is done more or less, I now want to move on and quickly evaluate network communication just to check that we do not get surpises in this area. As a reminder: we want to keep it simple and OS independent. The Python standard libraries includes a low-level approach (socket) and a high level approach (xmlrpc) for network communication. Both have their advantages. xmlrpc (remote procedure calling via data packing and sending via xml) could mean less code but certainly also higher latency and more network traffic than using socket. Socket however could have some pitfalls (the How to is an essential read).

At the end of the next week we hopefully know more.
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

PS

Post by Trilarion »

I forgot to mention that the Qt library, our big friend, also has TCP based socket and server API. So this might be seen as somewhere in the middle between the two and since Qt is an essential part of our project now we can as well rely even more on it. I will evaluate it first because it also integrates the Signal/Slot communication model of Qt that we already use in so many other places.
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLI - QtNetwork

Post by Trilarion »

I only evaluated one of the three alterantives and so far I'm happy with it and then that's the way to go in the next future. The TcpSocket and TcpServer classes of Qt are more abstract and polished than the python sockets and allow sending arbitrary messages while integrating in the multithreading framework (using QThreads) easily. That's all I want and it comes for free. However there is still a lot to do in network. I will do a bit until friday then decide what's next.
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLII - GUI again

Post by Trilarion »

Working on the GUI again. There is an preferences window, there is even an editor window (albeit a black one currently) and you can switch forth and back between the start screen and the editor window. Not much to say otherwise.
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLIII - Javascript

Post by Trilarion »

Currently working on a simple taskboard which we can use to get an overview what tasks are available, in progress, etc.

For that I invented a data structure containing the tasks and a simple layout on a webpage. The data is stored within a file on the webserver and will get updated regularly by myself. The website loads the data via ajax/json (by jquery) and displays it more or less nicely via bootstrap (css/javascript frontend) and my own javascript.

I never did such things before and it is fun. Javascript + JQuery + Bootstrap is straightforward and easy to use. However my layout skills are limited. I will show it here when the first kind of running version is available and then hope for feedback.
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLIV - Taskboard

Post by Trilarion »

It goes faster than expected. Also I realized that it is a bit of an overkill to use Javascript or Ajax. Since the page is read only I could as well have produced static pages in Python without the need for Javascript. But it is fun using it. Next week the task board can start.
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLV - Preliminary taskboard

Post by Trilarion »

It's already online but I will tweak it a bit more in the next days. You can see a screenshot here:
Clipboard01.jpg
Clipboard01.jpg (55.62 KiB) Viewed 13544 times
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLVI - Display of the map

Post by Trilarion »

Again! And it has to be like this because I'm currently porting the map drawing part (of the editor) from Java to Python. There is not much that can be used in both languages because the graphics framework and the ideas are quite different. But well, now you know what I'm doing.

If I could wish for a graphics (map) style I would choose one like this which is from Legends of Eisenwald (Aterdux) to come out in a few months. it seems to be pre-rendered in a 3D renderer and it looks the style I want a strategy game to look. Basically this is what I'm dreaming of. But I will stay realistic, no doubt. :)
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLVII - Small things

Post by Trilarion »

So the first Python release comes closer. What do I do? Well I try not to include more big things but rather make the small things there are working. I know that nobody can and will play the game because there is nothing to play. Then I rather enhance what is there so people are not bugged by bugs. A very short but smooth experience is better than a slightly longer still very short and buggy experience.
User avatar
Trilarion
Founder
Posts: 845
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:27 pm
Location: Central germany

XLVIII - Git branching

Post by Trilarion »

I learned a bit more about the version control system Git and introduced a simple branching model into the project. So there is now a develop(ment) branch and all development will go there with features being developed in feature branches. Only releases will be on the master branch anymore and maybe there will be pre-release branches for bug fixing. Unfortunately another Github user (Wayne Arthurton) already forked the main branch, but so far published nothing on it. I hope he will get the new structure. I'm more or less done for the first release. Just need to make some really minor things.
Post Reply