[Scummvm-devel] Re: [Scummvm-cvs-logs] CVS: scummvm/scumm scummvm.cpp,1.99,1.100 scumm.h,1.84,1.85

[tommyd at senet.com.au]

Quoting "J.Brown (Ender)" <ender at scummvm.org>:
> > And if you now say "oh but a new developer shows up, the first thing
> > he'll want to work on is a debugger", I won't even bother to comment
> > that and just laugh :-)
> 
> IMHO, this is the BEST place for a new developer to start. It would
> help them gain a better understanding of the functioning of the engine,
> whilst at the same time creating tools useful for them to examine
> behavior.

I'll pipe in here, since I've got anecdotal evidence. :)

Back when I had some time, and scummvm had just been made a sf.net project
(well, I'd just found out about it anyway, maybe it had been around longer), I
wanted to pull it to bits and understand what was going on. It was very hard,
lots of stuff was in one big class, and was poorly commented. I couldn't believe
how well it played DOTT, but couldn't really understand what was going on. So I
started playing around with the debugger, in the hope that I'd learn a bit
there. Turned out the debugger didn't do anything very much, although it had a
few pointers. I even submitted a patch for it to use readline, but I suspect
that no-one compiles with that turned on and I certainly haven't been
maintaining it.

I don't know even that code any more, so I don't have an opinion on this issue,
but the comment about new developers needed something said. :)

One day off in a dreamworld where I actually have some time, I'd like to get
involved again, but not any time soon, sadly.

You guys are all doing an amazing job, you've got my admiration!

Cheers

Tom


-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through SE Net Webmail
http://webmail.senet.com.au