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 CAD / Development / 2670
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Subject: 
Re: Parts for LDraw or parts for POV-Ray?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.cad.dev
Date: 
Mon, 16 Aug 1999 13:19:53 GMT
Viewed: 
2808 times
  
Joshua Delahunty wrote:
> 
> You continue to amaze, Leonardo.  To have not been a programmer that
> recently, and to have come up with LeoCAD and make it work so well,
> it shocks me a little (in a good way).  :)

  If you liked the Windows version, you're going to be even more amazed
when the Linux version is ready. :) I just hope that someone else gets
impressed and offers me a job... (I'm going to graduate this semester
and I realized I don't want to work as a civil engineer) :)

> I wouldn't go that far.  In fact, I'd caution that we be VERY careful
> NOT to believe that for a moment.  TLG cares very much about what's
> done here, I'm sure, and the moment this effort steps out of hobbiest
> "mode" and starts to even APPEAR to affect profits or step onto a
> profit center, whether they've developed it yet or not, the developers
> of this project with be _sure_ to hear about it.

  I don't believe we need to worry about LDraw because TLG don't see
adults as a good market and it's too difficult for a kid to use it.
Besides that, they can complain about the parts but not about the
program itself (you can say that it's just a generic drawing program).
And I agree that if they think they're loosing money they won't think
twice before going after us.

> At this point in my narrative, the 0.75 sources were long gone, the
> web site had been taken down (because of the letter) to be replaced
> once btopia had been stabilized and was ready to realize.  He hadn't
> kept a snapshot of this spot in the development, so couldn't give me
> back the 0.75 sources, which as I said were actually more developed
> than btopia was at that point.

  That's a bad habit, it doesn't take much time to just put all the
source files in a zip package and save it in a floppy. You'll need the
original files anyway when a user sends a bug report.

> Being a CS student CERTAINLY does not make one a decent software
> engineer, nor does having been a lifelone "hacker" (or, if you
> prefer "coder").  Good design simply takes lots of pratice coupled
> with a sincere review of one's code by talented peers over time (or,
> for that matter, self-review of one's own code over time -- this
> helps us to realize for ourselves what are important design decisions).

  I'd say that looking at other successful projects is the best way to
learn, I've learned a lot just by looking at how other programs were
done. I've examined the Doom source code and it gave me a lot of ideas
on how to write cross platform code.

> I'm not saying that students don't do good coding, but they usually
> don't have the time or experience to sit down for a good design at
> the start.  More often, an idea germinates, some initial success
> with the idea leads to an interesting framework around the idea,
> and then features are added one-at-a-time on a whim and the
> application just snowballs. Rarely is there time or interest in
> taking what should have been a simple proof-of-concept or prototype
> and starting over with a clean, well-thought out and (most importantly)
> extensible design. [Unfortunately, I might add, much of the software
> in the professional arena suffers from this methodology as well]

  I couldn't agree more, the most important step in development is the
design. If you don't plan how things are going to be done before you
start writing, you'll have a lot of trouble later. I've learned that the
hard way and had to rewrite LeoCAD a couple of times.

> Trying to fit Windows code into the structure he created would have
> meant adding an X<->Windows layer.  I tried to get him to genericize
> some interfaces, so it would be easier to architect other windowing
> systems into the program, but that was an uphill battle (understandable,
> as he hardly had time to work on the features he wantd to).

  That's what I just did, I created a separate class (only with ANSI C
calls) to handle almost everything and the rest of the code would just
call members like "OnMouseMove" from this class.

Leonardo



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Parts for LDraw or parts for POV-Ray?
 
(...) IIRC (this would be from e-mail he sent me that I almost certainly no longer have, and is stuff I know because I was making an attempt to port it to a Windows version): - It was LEGO Germany - The dispute was over TLG's rights to "studded (...) (27 years ago, 15-Aug-99, to lugnet.cad.dev)

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