From: Kartik Thakore Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:30:14 +0000 (-0500) Subject: new article X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=d502f71f4cb7e6073e2629cdba69f20e7001b721;p=sdlgit%2FSDL-Site.git new article --- diff --git a/pages/blog-0000.html-inc b/pages/blog-0000.html-inc index d97166b..aee216c 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0000.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0000.html-inc @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@

Articles

-
Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:
Made App loop() faster RT   Patched support for add support for gluquadric* sub RT   Made App init slimer RT   Added faster SDL::Color alternative RT   Added better error reporting for TTFont errors Added experimental win32 support RT [Update: v2.2.2.5 is better for windows support]
You can grab this release off CPAN .
[more]

Catching memory leaks in XS
Friday, 28 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here . The problem occurs where in XS there is
RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );  and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.
[more]

Alien::SDL 0.01 released!!!
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Tags: [Alien] [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
With yesterday's frantic coding to get windows compatibility setup we were left with a very crude way of installing. After some late night hacking I finally came up with Alias's suggestion to have Alien::SDL. All thanks to Alias's  generous access to his windows farm , I was able to make a easier module to install SDL deps on windows. Future plans are in place to get sources and compile them for other platform.Hopefully a SDL perl release will be out soon to use Alien::SDL now.
The above script is in test/testsprite.pl.
Until then you can do:
[more]

+
SDL Alpha 2: A sneak preview
Sunday, 06 December 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
So over the past week we have been working hard to release the next Alpha for SDL-2.3. In this release we have ported SDL_Image completely, fixed false negatives in our testing suite, improved conditional building. Also we have also started to migrate the very pretty SDL_GFX library. Here is the test for it, enjoy.


[more]

Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:
Made App loop() faster RT   Patched support for add support for gluquadric* sub RT   Made App init slimer RT   Added faster SDL::Color alternative RT   Added better error reporting for TTFont errors Added experimental win32 support RT [Update: v2.2.2.5 is better for windows support]
You can grab this release off CPAN .
[more]

Catching memory leaks in XS
Friday, 28 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here . The problem occurs where in XS there is
RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );  and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.
[more]

diff --git a/pages/blog-0001.html-inc b/pages/blog-0001.html-inc index 236d5fa..0f278e3 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0001.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0001.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1 +SDL Alpha 2: A sneak preview

-

The city of Rome was built,
with the first brick.


Alpha Release of new API

After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN.

Overview of 2.3_1

In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.


Next steps

  • Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on
  • Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks
  • Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +
Pretty or Ugly,
Code is Code
New or Old,
Code is Code
Fast or Slow
Code is Code 

So over the past week we have been working hard to release the next Alpha for SDL-2.3. In this release we have ported SDL_Image completely, fixed false negatives in our testing suite, improved conditional building. Also we have also started to migrate the very pretty SDL_GFX library. Here is the test for it, enjoy.


\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0002.html-inc b/pages/blog-0002.html-inc index 62c9b48..236d5fa 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0002.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0002.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need +Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1

-

The written word,
survives;
the tests of Time,
the fires of Hades,
and wrath of Pluto.


Documentation

In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org


--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +

The city of Rome was built,
with the first brick.


Alpha Release of new API

After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN.

Overview of 2.3_1

In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.


Next steps


--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0003.html-inc b/pages/blog-0003.html-inc index bc1ede2..62c9b48 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0003.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0003.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl +SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need

-
If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants. --Newton



Sol's Tutorials


When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!


To use this code you need the new Redesigned SDL_Perl Library


Getting SDL Dependencies


Only If you are on Linux (debian/ubuntu) you need the following dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl-net1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsmpeg-dev libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev

On Windows we recommend using Strawberry Perl. It comes with SDL-1.2.13 header files and libs included.

Both Windows and Linux needs to install Alien::SDL

$ cpan Alien::SDL
** Add sudo to this for Linux

Getting Bleeding SDL


The bleeding SDL is on github. Click download on this site .

Extract it and cd into the folder run 
$ cpan .
** The dot is needed
** in Linux you may need to do sudo

Then you can run this script by doing

$ perl examples/sols/ch02.pl
\ No newline at end of file +

The written word,
survives;
the tests of Time,
the fires of Hades,
and wrath of Pluto.


Documentation

In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org


--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0004.html-inc b/pages/blog-0004.html-inc index 51a18a5..bc1ede2 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0004.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0004.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Once in a while .... (set_event_filter) +Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl

-

Once in a while
Things just work!



So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here 

 1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 2 use strict;
 3 use warnings;
 4 use SDL v2.3; #Require the redesign branch
 5 use SDL::Video;
 6 use SDL::Event;
 7 use SDL::Events;
 8 
 9 SDL::init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
10 my $display = SDL::Video::set_video_mode(640,480,32, SDL_SWSURFACE );
11 my  $event = SDL::Event->new();
12 
13 #This filters out all ActiveEvents
14 my $filter = sub { 
15      my ($e, $type) = ($_[0], $_[0]->type); 
16      if($type == SDL_ACTIVEEVENT){ return 0 } 
17      elsif($type == SDL_MOUSEBUTTONDOWN && $e->button_button == 1){ return 0 }
18      else { return 1; }
19       };
20 
21 SDL::Events::set_event_filter($filter);
22 
23 while(1)
24 {
25 
26   SDL::Events::pump_events();
27   if(SDL::Events::poll_event($event))
28   {
29 
30   if(  $event->type == SDL_ACTIVEEVENT)
31  {
32  print "Hello Mouse!!!\n" if ($event->active_gain && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
33  print "Bye Mouse!!!\n" if (!$event->active_gain && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
34         }
35   if( $event->type == SDL_MOUSEBUTTONDOWN)
36    {
37  my ($x, $y, $but ) = ($event->button_x, $event->button_y, $event->button_button);
38  warn "$but CLICK!!! at $x and $y \n";
39  }
40 
41       last if($event->type == SDL_QUIT);
42   }
43 }
44 SDL::quit(); 
 
 
Tinker with $filter and look at perldoc lib/SDL/pods/Event.pod. 
 
Have fun,
--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +
If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants. --Newton



Sol's Tutorials


When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!


To use this code you need the new Redesigned SDL_Perl Library


Getting SDL Dependencies


Only If you are on Linux (debian/ubuntu) you need the following dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install libsdl-net1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsmpeg-dev libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev

On Windows we recommend using Strawberry Perl. It comes with SDL-1.2.13 header files and libs included.

Both Windows and Linux needs to install Alien::SDL

$ cpan Alien::SDL
** Add sudo to this for Linux

Getting Bleeding SDL


The bleeding SDL is on github. Click download on this site .

Extract it and cd into the folder run 
$ cpan .
** The dot is needed
** in Linux you may need to do sudo

Then you can run this script by doing

$ perl examples/sols/ch02.pl
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0005.html-inc b/pages/blog-0005.html-inc index 83a05ba..51a18a5 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0005.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0005.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code +Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)

-
Any code that is not marketed is dead code
--mst

You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this . 

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use SDL;
use SDL::Events;
use SDL::Event;
use SDL::Video; 

SDL::init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);

my $display = SDL::Video::set_video_mode(640,480,32, SDL_SWSURFACE );
my $event   = SDL::Event->new(); 

while(1)
{   
 SDL::Events::pump_events();  

 if(SDL::Events::poll_event($event) && $event->type == SDL_ACTIVEEVENT)
 {
  print "Hello Mouse!!!\n" if ($event->active_gain  && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
  print "Bye Mouse!!!\n"   if (!$event->active_gain && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
 }   
 
 exit if($event->type == SDL_QUIT);
}
\ No newline at end of file +

Once in a while
Things just work!



So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here 

 1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 2 use strict;
 3 use warnings;
 4 use SDL v2.3; #Require the redesign branch
 5 use SDL::Video;
 6 use SDL::Event;
 7 use SDL::Events;
 8 
 9 SDL::init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
10 my $display = SDL::Video::set_video_mode(640,480,32, SDL_SWSURFACE );
11 my  $event = SDL::Event->new();
12 
13 #This filters out all ActiveEvents
14 my $filter = sub { 
15      my ($e, $type) = ($_[0], $_[0]->type); 
16      if($type == SDL_ACTIVEEVENT){ return 0 } 
17      elsif($type == SDL_MOUSEBUTTONDOWN && $e->button_button == 1){ return 0 }
18      else { return 1; }
19       };
20 
21 SDL::Events::set_event_filter($filter);
22 
23 while(1)
24 {
25 
26   SDL::Events::pump_events();
27   if(SDL::Events::poll_event($event))
28   {
29 
30   if(  $event->type == SDL_ACTIVEEVENT)
31  {
32  print "Hello Mouse!!!\n" if ($event->active_gain && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
33  print "Bye Mouse!!!\n" if (!$event->active_gain && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
34         }
35   if( $event->type == SDL_MOUSEBUTTONDOWN)
36    {
37  my ($x, $y, $but ) = ($event->button_x, $event->button_y, $event->button_button);
38  warn "$but CLICK!!! at $x and $y \n";
39  }
40 
41       last if($event->type == SDL_QUIT);
42   }
43 }
44 SDL::quit(); 
 
 
Tinker with $filter and look at perldoc lib/SDL/pods/Event.pod. 
 
Have fun,
--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0006.html-inc b/pages/blog-0006.html-inc index 2b974bc..83a05ba 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0006.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0006.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Development Update +Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code

-
Short and Sweet

Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
  • SDL::Video at 97%
  • SDL::Events at 25%
  • ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

SDL Smoke tests

The major release maybe coming quicker than we thought. FROGGS++ for helping a lot out on this. However we need more testers!! Please contact us on #sdl and we will set you up with an account on Smolder.

[Edit] Please read http://sdlperl.ath.cx/projects/SDLPerl/wiki/Testing on how to get started in test!
\ No newline at end of file +
Any code that is not marketed is dead code
--mst

You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this . 

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use SDL;
use SDL::Events;
use SDL::Event;
use SDL::Video; 

SDL::init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);

my $display = SDL::Video::set_video_mode(640,480,32, SDL_SWSURFACE );
my $event   = SDL::Event->new(); 

while(1)
{   
 SDL::Events::pump_events();  

 if(SDL::Events::poll_event($event) && $event->type == SDL_ACTIVEEVENT)
 {
  print "Hello Mouse!!!\n" if ($event->active_gain  && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
  print "Bye Mouse!!!\n"   if (!$event->active_gain && ($event->active_state == SDL_APPMOUSEFOCUS) );
 }   
 
 exit if($event->type == SDL_QUIT);
}
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0007.html-inc b/pages/blog-0007.html-inc index 63b22df..2b974bc 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0007.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0007.html-inc @@ -3,4 +3,4 @@ Development Update
-

A stoic stone will sit idle,
but will some effort,
A rolling rock will run!


In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished


Commitment to Testing!

In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.

SDL::Video

For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done. 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.


Site Redesign + Migration

On the end of the spectrum, Froggs has been hard at work on the graphical design of the site. More over with mst's help we will soon be migrating to http://sdl.perl.org.



Documentation

Moreover this week we have seen an increase effort from magnet on the SDL docs. Kudos!


SWIG Experimentation

Finally Katrina has begun looking into SWIG as alternative for SDL in the future.
\ No newline at end of file +
Short and Sweet

Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.

SDL Smoke tests

The major release maybe coming quicker than we thought. FROGGS++ for helping a lot out on this. However we need more testers!! Please contact us on #sdl and we will set you up with an account on Smolder.

[Edit] Please read http://sdlperl.ath.cx/projects/SDLPerl/wiki/Testing on how to get started in test!
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0008.html-inc b/pages/blog-0008.html-inc index 76d8474..63b22df 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0008.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0008.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-The Future and Beyond! +Development Update

-
I do not think about awesomeness...
I just am awesomeness
n.n
--KatrinaTheLamia

Updates

Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.

Core Development

Acme (Leon Brocard): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.

Website and Windows Testing

FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.


Last Legacy Release


Ok! Now this weekend hopefully we will release our last legacy release, after this we move on! This release will focus on showing of SDL + Perl possibilities.

Pong + SDL::Game::Rect

garu has been working on making SDL object extensions that provide a more perly way to use and play with the SDL bindings. To demonstrate the benefits of this SDL::Tutorial::Pong is done and being polished up. SDL::Game::Rect is a peek in to the design and vision we have for SDL down the road.

Design

The design we have settled on for future release for SDL Perl can be broken in to two layers, SDL::* and SDL::Game::*. Previously the SDL Perl library tried to provide C bindings and provide Perl Idiomatic access. This was messy in regards to the single responsibility principle (do one thing and do it well).

We have decided to separate these two focuses into the two name spaces SDL::* and SDL::Game::*. SDL::* will provide straight access to SDL's C API, nothing less and nothing more. SDL::Game::* will extend and make pretty unicorns for Perl.

This design has already begin to pay of. One major benefit been in the XS readability. Moreover since structs are treated as objects, Perl manages their destruction, and deliver less memory leaks.
\ No newline at end of file +

A stoic stone will sit idle,
but will some effort,
A rolling rock will run!


In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished


Commitment to Testing!

In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.

SDL::Video

For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done. 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.


Site Redesign + Migration

On the end of the spectrum, Froggs has been hard at work on the graphical design of the site. More over with mst's help we will soon be migrating to http://sdl.perl.org.



Documentation

Moreover this week we have seen an increase effort from magnet on the SDL docs. Kudos!


SWIG Experimentation

Finally Katrina has begun looking into SWIG as alternative for SDL in the future.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0009.html-inc b/pages/blog-0009.html-inc index fe4b8d4..76d8474 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0009.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0009.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl +The Future and Beyond!

-
“Do or do not... there is no try.”
--yoda

The design before


The bindings before were all in one huge XS file. This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.

The design we are aiming for

Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.

First Step


We have began with SDL Rect. It is in github master branch now. We are in the progress of making it back compatible. Originally SDL::Rect took named variables as parameters for new(). Now since the constructor is in XS we have only unnamed parameters.


Before


SDL::Rect->new( -x => 0, -y => 0, -width => 0, -height => 0);

After


SDL::Rect->new(0, 0, 0, 0);

Ideally we would like both ways of constructing Rect.
\ No newline at end of file +
I do not think about awesomeness...
I just am awesomeness
n.n
--KatrinaTheLamia

Updates

Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.

Core Development

Acme (Leon Brocard): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.

Website and Windows Testing

FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.


Last Legacy Release


Ok! Now this weekend hopefully we will release our last legacy release, after this we move on! This release will focus on showing of SDL + Perl possibilities.

Pong + SDL::Game::Rect

garu has been working on making SDL object extensions that provide a more perly way to use and play with the SDL bindings. To demonstrate the benefits of this SDL::Tutorial::Pong is done and being polished up. SDL::Game::Rect is a peek in to the design and vision we have for SDL down the road.

Design

The design we have settled on for future release for SDL Perl can be broken in to two layers, SDL::* and SDL::Game::*. Previously the SDL Perl library tried to provide C bindings and provide Perl Idiomatic access. This was messy in regards to the single responsibility principle (do one thing and do it well).

We have decided to separate these two focuses into the two name spaces SDL::* and SDL::Game::*. SDL::* will provide straight access to SDL's C API, nothing less and nothing more. SDL::Game::* will extend and make pretty unicorns for Perl.

This design has already begin to pay of. One major benefit been in the XS readability. Moreover since structs are treated as objects, Perl manages their destruction, and deliver less memory leaks.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0010.html-inc b/pages/blog-0010.html-inc index 627ed29..fe4b8d4 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0010.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0010.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN +The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl

-
A single drop,
causes the ocean to swell

So 5 weeks ago, SDL Perl was broken. It had been for several years. After the last release SDL Perl works ... somewhat. The quick releases that you have seen have been work-arounds, fixes and refactoring. This is not bad for a few weeks of work but, there is a point where code smell and technical debt is too huge to fix with out redesigning. This is that point.

Since the redesigning will take time and effort it will be good to have a leg up. This leg up is Frozen Bubble 2.20. Frozen Bubble employs a lot of C and Perl hacks to cover up for SDL Perl's lacking. This will help in a sense fast forward the code status to 2008. Since Frozen Bubble is helping us out, we can go one step forward and help it out!

So Alias (Adam Kennedy) and I have started work on making Frozen Bubble CPAN accessible. Frozen Bubble is a well know game and making it cross-platform will bring lots of attention and hopefully contributions to SDL Perl.

In Alias's earlier post about this he mentioned about making a splash and some other stuff. I will talk about how and where we will be accomplishing this task.

First we will be tracking Frozen Bubble on the new SDL Perl Trac website. This site will be similar to Padre's Trac site. As a bonus for people looking to help out in SDL Perl I have separated tasks by perceived difficulty. This will help to breakdown harder task too.

For example for Frozen Bubble the two major bumps we have run into so far are:

Migrating the SDL Perl workarounds: Ticket #3
Making the Build System Portable: Ticket #7

The first one will be difficult as it involves XS. So I will break it down into easier tasks with specific instruction which can then hopefully be picked up by interested contributers. The second one there is sort of a forte of Adam so I will leave it up to him. This is the process I am proposing make hard tickets, break them down.

This will generate a lot of easy tickets that will hopefully be synchronized.  If you are interested in this please give me a shout on #sdl irc.perl.org or the mailing list at sdl-devel@perl.org and I will get you registered.

--yapgh



\ No newline at end of file +
“Do or do not... there is no try.”
--yoda

The design before


The bindings before were all in one huge XS file. This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.

The design we are aiming for

Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.

First Step


We have began with SDL Rect. It is in github master branch now. We are in the progress of making it back compatible. Originally SDL::Rect took named variables as parameters for new(). Now since the constructor is in XS we have only unnamed parameters.


Before


SDL::Rect->new( -x => 0, -y => 0, -width => 0, -height => 0);

After


SDL::Rect->new(0, 0, 0, 0);

Ideally we would like both ways of constructing Rect.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0011.html-inc b/pages/blog-0011.html-inc index 4f7d7ba..627ed29 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0011.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0011.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-HackFest: Results +Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN

-
The beautiful sunset,
is no match for,
the ugly sunrise

Results

On Sunday we had a hackfest on #sdl irc.perl.org. This is what we got done.




  1. MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++
  2. SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++
  3. SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++
  4. Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++
  5. Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.

Developers

All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
in the Docs for the SDL Perl Team section.

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +
A single drop,
causes the ocean to swell

So 5 weeks ago, SDL Perl was broken. It had been for several years. After the last release SDL Perl works ... somewhat. The quick releases that you have seen have been work-arounds, fixes and refactoring. This is not bad for a few weeks of work but, there is a point where code smell and technical debt is too huge to fix with out redesigning. This is that point.

Since the redesigning will take time and effort it will be good to have a leg up. This leg up is Frozen Bubble 2.20. Frozen Bubble employs a lot of C and Perl hacks to cover up for SDL Perl's lacking. This will help in a sense fast forward the code status to 2008. Since Frozen Bubble is helping us out, we can go one step forward and help it out!

So Alias (Adam Kennedy) and I have started work on making Frozen Bubble CPAN accessible. Frozen Bubble is a well know game and making it cross-platform will bring lots of attention and hopefully contributions to SDL Perl.

In Alias's earlier post about this he mentioned about making a splash and some other stuff. I will talk about how and where we will be accomplishing this task.

First we will be tracking Frozen Bubble on the new SDL Perl Trac website. This site will be similar to Padre's Trac site. As a bonus for people looking to help out in SDL Perl I have separated tasks by perceived difficulty. This will help to breakdown harder task too.

For example for Frozen Bubble the two major bumps we have run into so far are:

Migrating the SDL Perl workarounds: Ticket #3
Making the Build System Portable: Ticket #7

The first one will be difficult as it involves XS. So I will break it down into easier tasks with specific instruction which can then hopefully be picked up by interested contributers. The second one there is sort of a forte of Adam so I will leave it up to him. This is the process I am proposing make hard tickets, break them down.

This will generate a lot of easy tickets that will hopefully be synchronized.  If you are interested in this please give me a shout on #sdl irc.perl.org or the mailing list at sdl-devel@perl.org and I will get you registered.

--yapgh



\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0012.html-inc b/pages/blog-0012.html-inc index 40f22bb..4f7d7ba 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0012.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0012.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest +HackFest: Results

-
Silent but active,
Small but deadly.



Updates

Ok so my blog posts have gone down a bit due to me using my fingers for coding. We have started to get some updates to SDL docs so that good. Also some of the tutorials are shaping up. This is what I have been hacking this past week.









You can grab the code. Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.

Hackfest

So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org. We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
\ No newline at end of file +
The beautiful sunset,
is no match for,
the ugly sunrise

Results

On Sunday we had a hackfest on #sdl irc.perl.org. This is what we got done.




  1. MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++
  2. SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++
  3. SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++
  4. Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++
  5. Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.

Developers

All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
in the Docs for the SDL Perl Team section.

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0013.html-inc b/pages/blog-0013.html-inc index 8d5d729..40f22bb 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0013.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0013.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Thanks nothingmuch, and updates +Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest

-
struggle,
live,
cease,
die

After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic. So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.

SDL Perl Tutorials

This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone. I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online. Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.

If anyone has any really good tutorials for game development (regardless of language) or even request of tutorials. Send it my way I will look into them.

New SDL Perl site

Also we have begin work on a new site. It is still needs work. New Site.

--yapgh


\ No newline at end of file +
Silent but active,
Small but deadly.



Updates

Ok so my blog posts have gone down a bit due to me using my fingers for coding. We have started to get some updates to SDL docs so that good. Also some of the tutorials are shaping up. This is what I have been hacking this past week.









You can grab the code. Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.

Hackfest

So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org. We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0014.html-inc b/pages/blog-0014.html-inc index c9a5692..8d5d729 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0014.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0014.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Design of SDL::Rect +Thanks nothingmuch, and updates

-

you say things,
I hear,
but don't listen,

you show things,
I see,
but don't understand,

you write things,
I read,
but don't know.

Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.



Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS. So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.





Have at it I am a big boy. You can grab the code like this.
Only If you don't already have a local git repo:

mkdir SDL
cd SDL
git init .

Then do this or skip to this if you already have a local git repo
git pull git://github.com/kthakore/SDL_perl.git experimental
\ No newline at end of file +
struggle,
live,
cease,
die

After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic. So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.

SDL Perl Tutorials

This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone. I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online. Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.

If anyone has any really good tutorials for game development (regardless of language) or even request of tutorials. Send it my way I will look into them.

New SDL Perl site

Also we have begin work on a new site. It is still needs work. New Site.

--yapgh


\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0015.html-inc b/pages/blog-0015.html-inc index f2da0d7..c9a5692 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0015.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0015.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Updates and Design Decisions +Design of SDL::Rect

-

Storm clouds loom,
Thunder cracks,
Lightning blinds,
Farmers rejoice.

Some quick updates:
After someone bugged me to update the Ohloh site for SDL perl, I finally got around to doing it.


Some good news:
v2.2.2.11 seems to be doing a good job considering it has been started to be picked up Debian, Mandriva and other packager maintainers. The stats are currently at [PASS(11) FAIL(6) NA(1) UNKNOWN(35)].

Some OK news:
As you can see we have some fails occurring in the smoke tests. This is occurring due to the test on Mixer.pm. Mixer.pm depends on a sound card being available to the user running the test. This can be fixed by adjusting the test to check for sound cards before it runs but I am at a lost on how to do that.
In regards to the unknowns occurring it is due to the *nixes and macs not having SDL libs installed. The will be fixed when Alien::SDL downloads and compiles sources.

Some not-so-great news:
Currently the XS code simplification work requires redesign and there are several different ways of redesigning. This may break backwards compatibility, hopefully we can work around this. Soon we will present the two arguments for the designs in the mailing list.


Until next time here is  a hint of something coming soon (credits go to garu):


--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +

you say things,
I hear,
but don't listen,

you show things,
I see,
but don't understand,

you write things,
I read,
but don't know.

Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.



Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS. So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.





Have at it I am a big boy. You can grab the code like this.
Only If you don't already have a local git repo:

mkdir SDL
cd SDL
git init .

Then do this or skip to this if you already have a local git repo
git pull git://github.com/kthakore/SDL_perl.git experimental
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0016.html-inc b/pages/blog-0016.html-inc index 4f9d34c..f2da0d7 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0016.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0016.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Why I will be sticking to CPAN +Updates and Design Decisions

-
sculpted in clay,
then fired to glass.


Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.

The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl (kmx, jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.

If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
\ No newline at end of file +

Storm clouds loom,
Thunder cracks,
Lightning blinds,
Farmers rejoice.

Some quick updates:
After someone bugged me to update the Ohloh site for SDL perl, I finally got around to doing it.


Some good news:
v2.2.2.11 seems to be doing a good job considering it has been started to be picked up Debian, Mandriva and other packager maintainers. The stats are currently at [PASS(11) FAIL(6) NA(1) UNKNOWN(35)].

Some OK news:
As you can see we have some fails occurring in the smoke tests. This is occurring due to the test on Mixer.pm. Mixer.pm depends on a sound card being available to the user running the test. This can be fixed by adjusting the test to check for sound cards before it runs but I am at a lost on how to do that.
In regards to the unknowns occurring it is due to the *nixes and macs not having SDL libs installed. The will be fixed when Alien::SDL downloads and compiles sources.

Some not-so-great news:
Currently the XS code simplification work requires redesign and there are several different ways of redesigning. This may break backwards compatibility, hopefully we can work around this. Soon we will present the two arguments for the designs in the mailing list.


Until next time here is  a hint of something coming soon (credits go to garu):


--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0017.html-inc b/pages/blog-0017.html-inc index 61e4d70..4f9d34c 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0017.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0017.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN +Why I will be sticking to CPAN

-
The frozen wind,
made me shiver,
with excitement.

There has been some interest in making Frozen Bubble cross platform so I have forked Frozen Bubble v2.0 to my github repo. Any contributors are welcome! I will eventually be removing hacks that were needed to make Frozen Bubble work with the old SDL perl. The plan is to make Frozen Bubble cross platform by removing platform specific hacks and dependencies. One of the major switch will be from BSD sockets to SDL_net through SDL perl or XS. The main goal would be to be able to do 
cpan install FrozenBubble
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
\ No newline at end of file +
sculpted in clay,
then fired to glass.


Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.

The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl (kmx, jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.

If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0018.html-inc b/pages/blog-0018.html-inc index a8a1632..61e4d70 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0018.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0018.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Newbie Friendly Perl Projects +Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN

-
A seed needs soft soil and water to grow
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.

I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
  1. Look at SDL docs [link]
  2. See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [link] and the docs to this file [link]
  3. Use the pod format to add it to the source [link to using pod]
  4. {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [link to example]
  5. Submit code to github [link] or email them to me [link]

Basically assume nothing is known. I know this may seem demeaning but I am a newbie to Perl and sometimes I hate looking for crust (docs). I call it crust because a crust is useful for me to eat a pizza slice, but it has no flavor .

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +
The frozen wind,
made me shiver,
with excitement.

There has been some interest in making Frozen Bubble cross platform so I have forked Frozen Bubble v2.0 to my github repo. Any contributors are welcome! I will eventually be removing hacks that were needed to make Frozen Bubble work with the old SDL perl. The plan is to make Frozen Bubble cross platform by removing platform specific hacks and dependencies. One of the major switch will be from BSD sockets to SDL_net through SDL perl or XS. The main goal would be to be able to do 
cpan install FrozenBubble
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0019.html-inc b/pages/blog-0019.html-inc index 464b658..a8a1632 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0019.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0019.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Can someone please point me to good XS documentation! +Newbie Friendly Perl Projects

-A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?



This is the first time perldoc has disappointed me. The example on perlxs is wrong and fails. I do not wish to flame writers of perlxs but please check that your examples work! Ironically I know that broken tutorials is a problem with SDL perl too.

If anyone can point me to the simplest working exaple of XS with a c struct, it would be greatly appreciated.

\ No newline at end of file +
A seed needs soft soil and water to grow
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.

I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
  1. Look at SDL docs [link]
  2. See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [link] and the docs to this file [link]
  3. Use the pod format to add it to the source [link to using pod]
  4. {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [link to example]
  5. Submit code to github [link] or email them to me [link]

Basically assume nothing is known. I know this may seem demeaning but I am a newbie to Perl and sometimes I hate looking for crust (docs). I call it crust because a crust is useful for me to eat a pizza slice, but it has no flavor .

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0020.html-inc b/pages/blog-0020.html-inc index 4ca8719..464b658 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0020.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0020.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-More Games + Update +Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!

-

idle digits,
play,
away,
idle digits.

So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).

--yapgh

These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:

Hi all,
I hadn't checked this newsgroup in a while and was happy to see
that it still alive and well. I saw that some people had been sharing
some SDL Perl games online, and I had a few to share as well. At
"http://home.comcast.net/~g.f.taylor/GarrysGames.html" you can find four
games I have written as well as a simple flip book program to let a
child play at making animation on the computer. The games are "Toad" (a
Frogger wanna be), "RabbitHat" (like Centipede), "BunnyHunt" (sort of
like Pac-Man) and "Bonk The Buggies". All (with the exception of Toad
which in its very first incarnation was a game I wrote in TRS-80 Basic
back in 1981) were written originally to run on my Windows 3.11 PC for
my little girl so that she could play games which were not quite so
violent as games were starting to become at the time.


A few years ago I got the idea of trying to get them to run again
by rewriting them in Perl. The downloads are Windows XP/Vista installs
which include a bare bones Perl environment for running the games (the
installs put the code into its own separate place, and shouldn't
interfere with your existing Perl setups). I did this so that I could
share the games with friends and family who either don't have SDL
installed, don't have Perl installed, or don't do any programming and
just needed something that will run. The code as it currently stands
was not written for general publication, so there are probably places
where the Perl code itself is not always the best looking it could be,
but the games themselves work pretty well. Also, it is worth noting
that I wound up being lazy and made a few additions to the Perl SDL code
that I was using to add an additional function or two for printing text
onto the screen that was centered or right aligned.


While I have not made any Unix installs for the code, I have
actually run the games on a few Linux machines that I have access to,
where I also had installed SDL. I have not updated my SDL installs in
several years now, so there may be complications that arise if running
it with a new version of SDL.


I hope you enjoy the games (or at least aren't too mean about it
if you don't).
Garry Taylor
\ No newline at end of file +A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?



This is the first time perldoc has disappointed me. The example on perlxs is wrong and fails. I do not wish to flame writers of perlxs but please check that your examples work! Ironically I know that broken tutorials is a problem with SDL perl too.

If anyone can point me to the simplest working exaple of XS with a c struct, it would be greatly appreciated.

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0021.html-inc b/pages/blog-0021.html-inc index 65ae515..4ca8719 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0021.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0021.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Updates on Plan for v2.4 +More Games + Update

-
A fierce storm came,
With a crash,
Old oaks went lame.

After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu. We came up with the following plan for v2.4.


Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.


Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +

idle digits,
play,
away,
idle digits.

So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).

--yapgh

These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:

Hi all,
I hadn't checked this newsgroup in a while and was happy to see
that it still alive and well. I saw that some people had been sharing
some SDL Perl games online, and I had a few to share as well. At
"http://home.comcast.net/~g.f.taylor/GarrysGames.html" you can find four
games I have written as well as a simple flip book program to let a
child play at making animation on the computer. The games are "Toad" (a
Frogger wanna be), "RabbitHat" (like Centipede), "BunnyHunt" (sort of
like Pac-Man) and "Bonk The Buggies". All (with the exception of Toad
which in its very first incarnation was a game I wrote in TRS-80 Basic
back in 1981) were written originally to run on my Windows 3.11 PC for
my little girl so that she could play games which were not quite so
violent as games were starting to become at the time.


A few years ago I got the idea of trying to get them to run again
by rewriting them in Perl. The downloads are Windows XP/Vista installs
which include a bare bones Perl environment for running the games (the
installs put the code into its own separate place, and shouldn't
interfere with your existing Perl setups). I did this so that I could
share the games with friends and family who either don't have SDL
installed, don't have Perl installed, or don't do any programming and
just needed something that will run. The code as it currently stands
was not written for general publication, so there are probably places
where the Perl code itself is not always the best looking it could be,
but the games themselves work pretty well. Also, it is worth noting
that I wound up being lazy and made a few additions to the Perl SDL code
that I was using to add an additional function or two for printing text
onto the screen that was centered or right aligned.


While I have not made any Unix installs for the code, I have
actually run the games on a few Linux machines that I have access to,
where I also had installed SDL. I have not updated my SDL installs in
several years now, so there may be complications that arise if running
it with a new version of SDL.


I hope you enjoy the games (or at least aren't too mean about it
if you don't).
Garry Taylor
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0022.html-inc b/pages/blog-0022.html-inc index 93751a1..65ae515 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0022.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0022.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Code is not the only thing +Updates on Plan for v2.4

-

I did,
no one cared,
I spoke,
no one heard,
I wrote,
someone read.


After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this.


However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

\ No newline at end of file +
A fierce storm came,
With a crash,
Old oaks went lame.

After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu. We came up with the following plan for v2.4.


Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.


Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0023.html-inc b/pages/blog-0023.html-inc index 0347ee9..93751a1 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0023.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0023.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4 +Code is not the only thing

-
The early bird may get the worm,
and the second mouse may get the cheese,
but I want neither the worm nor the cheese,
'cause I am not a mouse or a bird.



       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:

  • Made App loop() faster RT 
  • Patched support for add support for gluquadric* sub RT 
  • Made App init slimer RT 
  • Added faster SDL::Color alternative RT 
  • Added better error reporting for TTFont errors
  • Added experimental win32 support RT [Update: v2.2.2.5 is better for windows support]
You can grab this release off CPAN.

This is still a stopover to the major release v2.4. Which will hope fully solve the memory leaks problems.


--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +

I did,
no one cared,
I spoke,
no one heard,
I wrote,
someone read.


After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this.


However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0024.html-inc b/pages/blog-0024.html-inc index 07f9357..0347ee9 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0024.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0024.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Catching memory leaks in XS +SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4

-
 I slay dragons, yonder

So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here. The problem occurs where in XS there is

RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );
 and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.

My question is how I can mitigate these memory leaks? One idea I had was to store all malloc'd pointers to an array that is safefree'd on DESTROY or hooked into perl GC somehow .


Any guidance is helpful.

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +
The early bird may get the worm,
and the second mouse may get the cheese,
but I want neither the worm nor the cheese,
'cause I am not a mouse or a bird.



       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:

You can grab this release off CPAN.

This is still a stopover to the major release v2.4. Which will hope fully solve the memory leaks problems.


--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/blog-0025.html-inc b/pages/blog-0025.html-inc index 24852d4..07f9357 100644 --- a/pages/blog-0025.html-inc +++ b/pages/blog-0025.html-inc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

-Alien::SDL 0.01 released!!! +Catching memory leaks in XS

-
I just code
don't know where it leads
or
how I will get there
I just code


With yesterday's frantic coding to get windows compatibility setup we were left with a very crude way of installing. After some late night hacking I finally came up with Alias's suggestion to have Alien::SDL. All thanks to Alias's  generous access to his windows farm, I was able to make a easier module to install SDL deps on windows. Future plans are in place to get sources and compile them for other platform.Hopefully a SDL perl release will be out soon to use Alien::SDL now.


The above script is in test/testsprite.pl.

Until then you can do:

in cpan
cpan> install File::Fetch
cpan> install Archive::Extract
cpan> install Alien::SDL

and in cmd
pip http://cloud.github.com/downloads/kthakore/SDL_perl/SDL_Perl-v2.2.2.tar.gz


Please post any feedback here.

Enjoy,
yapgh
\ No newline at end of file +
 I slay dragons, yonder

So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here. The problem occurs where in XS there is

RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );
 and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.

My question is how I can mitigate these memory leaks? One idea I had was to store all malloc'd pointers to an array that is safefree'd on DESTROY or hooked into perl GC somehow .


Any guidance is helpful.

--yapgh
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-CPAN.html-inc b/pages/tags-CPAN.html-inc index dc2bb0e..b8dc09a 100644 --- a/pages/tags-CPAN.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-CPAN.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: CPAN

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: CPAN

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Design.html-inc b/pages/tags-Design.html-inc index 1eed582..aa7c969 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Design.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Design.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Design

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Design

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Docs.html-inc b/pages/tags-Docs.html-inc index 1757c5a..84a7b5f 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Docs.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Docs.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Docs

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Docs

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Example.html-inc b/pages/tags-Example.html-inc index c83a2c1..02e710f 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Example.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Example.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Example

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Example

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Frozen-Bubble.html-inc b/pages/tags-Frozen-Bubble.html-inc index 1a0314c..d2c9b01 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Frozen-Bubble.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Frozen-Bubble.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Frozen Bubble

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

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Results for tag: Frozen Bubble

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-HackFest.html-inc b/pages/tags-HackFest.html-inc index f321916..90e7dee 100644 --- a/pages/tags-HackFest.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-HackFest.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: HackFest

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

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Results for tag: HackFest

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Perl.html-inc b/pages/tags-Perl.html-inc index 1e72e41..c3d2c85 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Perl.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Perl.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Perl

Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:
Made App loop() faster RT   Patched support for add support for gluquadric* sub RT   Made App init slimer RT   Added faster SDL::Color alternative RT   Added better error reporting for TTFont errors Added experimental win32 support RT [Update: v2.2.2.5 is better for windows support]
You can grab this release off CPAN .
[more]

Catching memory leaks in XS
Friday, 28 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here . The problem occurs where in XS there is
RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );  and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.
[more]

Alien::SDL 0.01 released!!!
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Tags: [Alien] [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
With yesterday's frantic coding to get windows compatibility setup we were left with a very crude way of installing. After some late night hacking I finally came up with Alias's suggestion to have Alien::SDL. All thanks to Alias's  generous access to his windows farm , I was able to make a easier module to install SDL deps on windows. Future plans are in place to get sources and compile them for other platform.Hopefully a SDL perl release will be out soon to use Alien::SDL now.
The above script is in test/testsprite.pl.
Until then you can do:
[more]

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Results for tag: Perl

SDL Alpha 2: A sneak preview
Sunday, 06 December 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
So over the past week we have been working hard to release the next Alpha for SDL-2.3. In this release we have ported SDL_Image completely, fixed false negatives in our testing suite, improved conditional building. Also we have also started to migrate the very pretty SDL_GFX library. Here is the test for it, enjoy.


[more]

Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:
Made App loop() faster RT   Patched support for add support for gluquadric* sub RT   Made App init slimer RT   Added faster SDL::Color alternative RT   Added better error reporting for TTFont errors Added experimental win32 support RT [Update: v2.2.2.5 is better for windows support]
You can grab this release off CPAN .
[more]

Catching memory leaks in XS
Friday, 28 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here . The problem occurs where in XS there is
RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );  and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Questions.html-inc b/pages/tags-Questions.html-inc index be4980f..0f9d81c 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Questions.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Questions.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Questions

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Questions

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Releases.html-inc b/pages/tags-Releases.html-inc index 571ba9c..2bf159b 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Releases.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Releases.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Releases

Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

Alien::SDL 0.01 released!!!
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Tags: [Alien] [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
With yesterday's frantic coding to get windows compatibility setup we were left with a very crude way of installing. After some late night hacking I finally came up with Alias's suggestion to have Alien::SDL. All thanks to Alias's  generous access to his windows farm , I was able to make a easier module to install SDL deps on windows. Future plans are in place to get sources and compile them for other platform.Hopefully a SDL perl release will be out soon to use Alien::SDL now.
The above script is in test/testsprite.pl.
Until then you can do:
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Releases

SDL Alpha 2: A sneak preview
Sunday, 06 December 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
So over the past week we have been working hard to release the next Alpha for SDL-2.3. In this release we have ported SDL_Image completely, fixed false negatives in our testing suite, improved conditional building. Also we have also started to migrate the very pretty SDL_GFX library. Here is the test for it, enjoy.


[more]

Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-SDL.html-inc b/pages/tags-SDL.html-inc index 010f0a4..5f16ad0 100644 --- a/pages/tags-SDL.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-SDL.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: SDL

Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:
Made App loop() faster RT   Patched support for add support for gluquadric* sub RT   Made App init slimer RT   Added faster SDL::Color alternative RT   Added better error reporting for TTFont errors Added experimental win32 support RT [Update: v2.2.2.5 is better for windows support]
You can grab this release off CPAN .
[more]

Catching memory leaks in XS
Friday, 28 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here . The problem occurs where in XS there is
RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );  and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.
[more]

Alien::SDL 0.01 released!!!
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Tags: [Alien] [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
With yesterday's frantic coding to get windows compatibility setup we were left with a very crude way of installing. After some late night hacking I finally came up with Alias's suggestion to have Alien::SDL. All thanks to Alias's  generous access to his windows farm , I was able to make a easier module to install SDL deps on windows. Future plans are in place to get sources and compile them for other platform.Hopefully a SDL perl release will be out soon to use Alien::SDL now.
The above script is in test/testsprite.pl.
Until then you can do:
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: SDL

SDL Alpha 2: A sneak preview
Sunday, 06 December 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
So over the past week we have been working hard to release the next Alpha for SDL-2.3. In this release we have ported SDL_Image completely, fixed false negatives in our testing suite, improved conditional building. Also we have also started to migrate the very pretty SDL_GFX library. Here is the test for it, enjoy.


[more]

Developer Release of SDL 2.3_1
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Releases] [SDL]
Alpha Release of new API After a considerable amount of hacking and rewriting we have release the first development release of SDL perl on CPAN .
Overview of 2.3_1 In this version our goal was to tackle the proper allocations and destruction of SDL resources. We have accomplished this for all SDL Core structures. Moreover we have also improved the test suite and documentation considerably. Please read the CHANGELOG for a more detailed look.
Next steps Complete bindings for Image, Mixer, ... so on Come up with a method to provide threading in callbacks Maintain and improve SDL Core as results for CPANTS come in
[more]

SDL Perl Documentation: Reviewers need
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
Documentation In an effort to learn from past versions of SDL Perl and improve. We have been writing lots of documentation for our users. Of course since this is the first time we have been providing documentation we need your help. Please review our docs, at sdl.perl.org and give us some feed back. Send us the feeback at sdl-devel@mail.org or join us at #sdl irc.perl.org
--yapgh
[more]

Migrating Sol's Tutorial of SDL to SDL_Perl
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Tags: [Example] [Perl] [SDL]
Sol's Tutorials
When I was struggling with SDL C a while ago, someone recommended Sol's Tutorial to me. It had not only help me understand video in SDL, but I believe my code has improved using Sol's code style. I would like to pass these along to fellow SDL_Perl users too. So here is the Ch 02 code of Sol's Tutorial in SDL_Perl. It will be getting more and more Perly as our team hacks on it. There is more to come!

[more]

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Why and How Frozen Bubble is going to CPAN
Friday, 02 October 2009
Tags: [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]


[more]

HackFest: Results
Monday, 28 September 2009
Tags: [HackFest] [Perl] [SDL]
MacOSX build is working again. It's still rough but Tetris works on it now. dngor++ SDL::Tutorial::Tetris is on CPAN as v0.15. nferraz++ SDL Perl docs are a little better now. magnet++ Finally experimental Rect and Game::Rect are behaving. There is still more work needed in Game::Rect. Moreover there are more tests on the experimental release. garu++ Also POGL is working experimentally with SDL.
Hopefully I can get the first three results into the next release soon. The next release 2.2.3 will go up as a developmental release first. Also the experimental branch is going up as version 2_4.
Developers All developers please tell me what to put you guys want to be put down as on the
[more]

Updates, Falling Block Game, and Hack Fest
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tags: [Docs] [Perl] [SDL]
You can grab the code . Note you will have to install deps yourself. Read the README file. It is not a tutorial yet, because it was hacked together in ~50 hours. But it playable now. During building this I found out that MacOSX (and Snow Leopard) has died again.
Hackfest So with dngor's help this sunday (27/09/09) we will have a hackfest to fix MacOSX support. Anyone with a MacOSX and wants to help is welcome on #sdl irc.perl.org . We will also try to fix up a lot of docs and the tutorial for a early next week release. Also if we can we will migrate to the new site.
[more]

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Design of SDL::Rect
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL]
Lately we have been working on cleaning up the XS name spaces of SDL perl. After some bumps and falls we came up with a separated Rect module. Rect is one of the most simple C struct as shown below.

Using the awesome perlobject.map as a reference I was able to create a blessed perl object in XS . So now SDL::Rect->new(...) gave us a blessed reference ready to go. And as an icing it would destroy itself properly no matter where it was used. But once I brought it into our existing code base, garu pointed out the extending it was a little bit of a mess. So far to extend Rect we have to something like below. Any comment or advice would be much appreciated.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Why I will be sticking to CPAN
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL]
Recently there was really long discussion on sdl-devel@perl.org about providing packages for SDL perl rather than focusing on CPAN releases. The gists of the argument was that SDL perl should be making platform specific packages for end users. I agree with this idea but I do have to face the truth.
The truth is there are very few developers currently working on SDL Perl. The truth is CPAN provides several tools that which currently drives development for SDL Perl. There are people interested in packaging SDL Perl ( kmx , jean and Jerome Quelin). The truth is there are other very critical areas we can focus on.
If there are people looking to package SDL Perl for their platform please contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org.
[more]

Frozen Bubble coming to CPAN
Friday, 04 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Frozen Bubble] [Perl] [SDL]
To do this the Makefile.PL will need to be rewritten a little bit. Moreover we will need to make test using code from Frozen Bubble so that it can be smoke tested on CPAN.  If contributors need more information please contact me.
[more]

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

Code is not the only thing
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Questions] [SDL]
After only several weeks of maintaining SDL perl, Today I have come to noticed how important it is to update README's, docs and so on. I will redouble my effort to do this .
However I am not sure where to start updating docs. Has anyone re-documented old modules before? Any advice? If anyone is interested in helping me to sort out documentation please contact me on sdl-devel@perl.org. For people wanting to learn the SDL base there is no better way.

[more]

SDL Perl v2.2.2 out and Plans for v2.4
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
       I have release v2.2.2 which includes several bug fixes:
Made App loop() faster RT   Patched support for add support for gluquadric* sub RT   Made App init slimer RT   Added faster SDL::Color alternative RT   Added better error reporting for TTFont errors Added experimental win32 support RT [Update: v2.2.2.5 is better for windows support]
You can grab this release off CPAN .
[more]

Catching memory leaks in XS
Friday, 28 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL]
So I am trying to find and plug memory leaks in SDL perl. Most of the memory leaks occur because in XS a reference is still held. One very expensive mem leak was caught by TELS really early on here . The problem occurs where in XS there is
RETVAL = (cast *) safemalloc( ... );  and safefree(...) is never called.
Here is a in code example lines 1082 on.
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Sneak-Preview.html-inc b/pages/tags-Sneak-Preview.html-inc index a661589..28e8cc2 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Sneak-Preview.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Sneak-Preview.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Sneak Preview

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Sneak Preview

Hello Mouse? An Example of the New Event Code
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Sneak Preview]
You need the new code from the redesign branch to use this .
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use SDL;
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Tutorial.html-inc b/pages/tags-Tutorial.html-inc index 1decf84..846edee 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Tutorial.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Tutorial.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Tutorial

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Tutorial

Thanks nothingmuch, and updates
Friday, 18 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Tutorial]
After a struggling with XS and opaque C structs in the experimental SDL::Rect for a long time. Nothingmuch comes along and solves my problem with this beautiful module XS::Object::Magic . So I will start moving my ugly XS to Magic Land.
SDL Perl Tutorials
This past week I have been working on the sorry state of SDL Perl tutorials. Currently I am working on a Tetris Clone . I am hoping to have it done by next Thrusday for TPM meeting. This tutorial is a mix of several tutorials I found online . Another Lunar Lander tutorial has been submitted by Nelson Ferraz.
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-Updates.html-inc b/pages/tags-Updates.html-inc index 41fc3dd..a540c8f 100644 --- a/pages/tags-Updates.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-Updates.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: Updates

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: Updates

Development Update
Monday, 09 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
Had an exam on the weekend so I am a bit late. Here is the progress so far.
SDL::Video at 97% SDL::Events at 25% ~1000 tests cases passing on Windows and Linux

[more]

Development Update
Monday, 02 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
In the past week the SDL Perl team has been busy! This is what we have accomplished
Commitment to Testing! In an effort to focus on continuing our focus on testing we have setup a Smolder site for the SDL redesign process. Currently we have two platforms (linux, windows32) regularly tested on here. If there are more people following the redesign process and would like to share their test results; contact us at sdl-devel@perl.org and we will provide access to you.
SDL::Video For the core development most of the focus has been on redesigning around the Video category of the SDL perl API. As of now we are 50% done . 19 functions out of 38 functions have been implemented and tested.
[more]

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

The beginnings of modular design for SDL Perl
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates]
The design before
The bindings before were all in one huge XS file . This was then exported into the SDL module. This means that the XS file has to handle with macros if any component (e.x SDL_Mixer) is not compiled. Moreover having ever binding in one XS file prevents use to treat C structs as object with only one point of free and malloc. This would be BEGIN and DESTROY in Perl. Also the monolithic design introduces a lot of bugs because we have to use free and malloc all over the place. Lastly SDL monolithic design has the constructor for all structs in both Perl and in XS.
The design we are aiming for Simple one XS per Module. This would also simplify the Build code.
[more]

Updates and Design Decisions
Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Tags: [Design] [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]


--yapgh
[more]

Updates on Plan for v2.4
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [Updates]
After some hunting for memory leaks, it became obvious that some rewrite of XS will be necessary. Since this will be a big undertaking I asked for some help from chromatic and garu . We came up with the following plan for v2.4.
Currently all XS is mapped to the SDL_perl module. This does not reflect the modular nature of the sdl libs. So the plan is to gradually move SDL structs and their respective functions to their correct namespaces. We will start with SDL::Rect as garu has added many tests for it. This way the build system will be a lot easier to hack since Module::Build was made for one XS per module. Moreover we will move the Build utilities to Alien::SDL, making it even simpler. The main idea is to adhere to single responsibility principle and encapsulation.
Obviously this will take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-XS.html-inc b/pages/tags-XS.html-inc index 44820e3..b09a6ce 100644 --- a/pages/tags-XS.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-XS.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: XS

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: XS

Once in a while .... (set_event_filter)
Friday, 13 November 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [XS]
So I have been hacking for a while on SDL::Events::set_event_filter. The code below is an example usage. The magic behind this is here
1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
2 use strict;
[more]

Can someone please point me to good XS documentation!
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [Tutorial] [XS]
A poor man begs,
A troubled man prays,
who shall answer?
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-games.html-inc b/pages/tags-games.html-inc index 673e41e..07350cf 100644 --- a/pages/tags-games.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-games.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: games

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

\ No newline at end of file +

Results for tag: games

The Future and Beyond!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Tags: [Design] [SDL] [Updates] [games]
Updates Since the last post SDL Perl has seen an increase of interest to both use and contribute to SDL Perl. Before I dig into the updates, I would like to acknowledge them.
Core Development Acme ( Leon Brocard ): Has started to work on the Redesign Effort with me. The help is much appreciated! Enjoy your vacation.
Website and Windows Testing FROGGS (Tobias Leich): Came in as a new user to SDL Perl. And after breaking the redesigned SDL Perl in as many ways possible he has decided to help out on the new site.
[more]

More Games + Update
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Tags: [Perl] [SDL] [games]
So while I am hacking away on v2.4 and breaking a lot of things. Here is a link to some more games for SDL Perl. These only work in windows now but I will look into bringing them to CPAN (with Garry's permission).
--yapgh
These where reported by Garry Taylor. Here is the rest of the email:
[more]

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pages/tags-index b/pages/tags-index index 1c4628d..eb24124 100644 --- a/pages/tags-index +++ b/pages/tags-index @@ -1,17 +1,16 @@ -Alien: blog-0025.html-inc -CPAN: blog-0016.html-inc,blog-0017.html-inc,blog-0018.html-inc -Design: blog-0008.html-inc,blog-0009.html-inc,blog-0013.html-inc,blog-0014.html-inc,blog-0015.html-inc -Docs: blog-0002.html-inc,blog-0012.html-inc -Example: blog-0003.html-inc -Frozen Bubble: blog-0010.html-inc,blog-0017.html-inc -HackFest: blog-0011.html-inc -Perl: blog-0001.html-inc,blog-0002.html-inc,blog-0003.html-inc,blog-0004.html-inc,blog-0005.html-inc,blog-0006.html-inc,blog-0007.html-inc,blog-0010.html-inc,blog-0011.html-inc,blog-0012.html-inc,blog-0013.html-inc,blog-0014.html-inc,blog-0015.html-inc,blog-0016.html-inc,blog-0017.html-inc,blog-0018.html-inc,blog-0019.html-inc,blog-0020.html-inc,blog-0021.html-inc,blog-0022.html-inc,blog-0023.html-inc,blog-0024.html-inc,blog-0025.html-inc -Questions: blog-0022.html-inc -Releases: blog-0001.html-inc,blog-0025.html-inc -SDL: blog-0001.html-inc,blog-0002.html-inc,blog-0003.html-inc,blog-0004.html-inc,blog-0005.html-inc,blog-0006.html-inc,blog-0007.html-inc,blog-0008.html-inc,blog-0009.html-inc,blog-0010.html-inc,blog-0011.html-inc,blog-0012.html-inc,blog-0013.html-inc,blog-0014.html-inc,blog-0015.html-inc,blog-0016.html-inc,blog-0017.html-inc,blog-0018.html-inc,blog-0020.html-inc,blog-0021.html-inc,blog-0022.html-inc,blog-0023.html-inc,blog-0024.html-inc,blog-0025.html-inc -Sneak Preview: blog-0005.html-inc -Tutorial: blog-0013.html-inc,blog-0019.html-inc -Updates: blog-0006.html-inc,blog-0007.html-inc,blog-0008.html-inc,blog-0009.html-inc,blog-0015.html-inc,blog-0021.html-inc -XS: blog-0004.html-inc,blog-0019.html-inc -games: blog-0008.html-inc,blog-0020.html-inc -personal: blog-0018.html-inc +CPAN: blog-0017.html-inc,blog-0018.html-inc,blog-0019.html-inc +Design: blog-0009.html-inc,blog-0010.html-inc,blog-0014.html-inc,blog-0015.html-inc,blog-0016.html-inc +Docs: blog-0003.html-inc,blog-0013.html-inc +Example: blog-0004.html-inc +Frozen Bubble: blog-0011.html-inc,blog-0018.html-inc +HackFest: blog-0012.html-inc +Perl: blog-0001.html-inc,blog-0002.html-inc,blog-0003.html-inc,blog-0004.html-inc,blog-0005.html-inc,blog-0006.html-inc,blog-0007.html-inc,blog-0008.html-inc,blog-0011.html-inc,blog-0012.html-inc,blog-0013.html-inc,blog-0014.html-inc,blog-0015.html-inc,blog-0016.html-inc,blog-0017.html-inc,blog-0018.html-inc,blog-0019.html-inc,blog-0020.html-inc,blog-0021.html-inc,blog-0022.html-inc,blog-0023.html-inc,blog-0024.html-inc,blog-0025.html-inc +Questions: blog-0023.html-inc +Releases: blog-0001.html-inc,blog-0002.html-inc +SDL: blog-0001.html-inc,blog-0002.html-inc,blog-0003.html-inc,blog-0004.html-inc,blog-0005.html-inc,blog-0006.html-inc,blog-0007.html-inc,blog-0008.html-inc,blog-0009.html-inc,blog-0010.html-inc,blog-0011.html-inc,blog-0012.html-inc,blog-0013.html-inc,blog-0014.html-inc,blog-0015.html-inc,blog-0016.html-inc,blog-0017.html-inc,blog-0018.html-inc,blog-0019.html-inc,blog-0021.html-inc,blog-0022.html-inc,blog-0023.html-inc,blog-0024.html-inc,blog-0025.html-inc +Sneak Preview: blog-0006.html-inc +Tutorial: blog-0014.html-inc,blog-0020.html-inc +Updates: blog-0007.html-inc,blog-0008.html-inc,blog-0009.html-inc,blog-0010.html-inc,blog-0016.html-inc,blog-0022.html-inc +XS: blog-0005.html-inc,blog-0020.html-inc +games: blog-0009.html-inc,blog-0021.html-inc +personal: blog-0019.html-inc diff --git a/pages/tags-personal.html-inc b/pages/tags-personal.html-inc index db63875..d816174 100644 --- a/pages/tags-personal.html-inc +++ b/pages/tags-personal.html-inc @@ -1 +1 @@ -

Results for tag: personal

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

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Results for tag: personal

Newbie Friendly Perl Projects
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Tags: [CPAN] [Perl] [SDL] [personal]
This is a reply to szabgab's post on how to get newbies interested in Perl modules. Being a newbie in Perl myself I thought I should take a shot.
I was thinking you can make projects more accessible to newbies by having a step by step plan included with where they need to look. For example for docs of SDL_perl:
Look at SDL docs [ link ] See where SDL_perl is using the same functions [ link ] and the docs to this file [ link ] Use the pod format to add it to the source [ link to using pod ] {BONUS} Come up with tutorial or cookbook [ link to example ] Submit code to github [ link ] or email them to me [ link ]
[more]

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