[Scummvm-devel] FORCE_RTL

Max Horn max at quendi.de
Sat Apr 9 23:33:35 CEST 2011


Hi,

I just saw these commits:

Am 09.04.2011 um 18:44 schrieb dhewg:

> This automated email contains information about 4 new commits which have been
> pushed to the 'scummvm' repo located at https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm .
> 
> Summary:
> e2a0c09692 CONFIGURE: Use FORCE_RTL for the Wii backend
> 44ab256101 CONFIGURE: Use FORCE_RTL for the Android backend
> 90f47c7b1d ANDOID: Replace mkmanifest.pl with sh/sed code
> b0351e1b85 ANDROID: Automate the Manifest's versionCode

I am not thrilled about this at all: FORCE_RTL always was a hack. In fact, IIRC it was always meant to be temporary (right, Sunmax? ;). Seeing its use proliferate and no sign of anybody thinking about the ramifications is not ideal :/.

Why is this a hack? Because RTL is *still* not working correctly for many engines. The primary reason is the incorrect use of global / static variables, which are not reset when an engine is re-run. And some engines surely still leak memory. This is why some engines are marked as not supporting RTL
Now, unless I am  mistaken, the FORCE_RTL hack totally ignores those (meta)engine flags. Hey, it probably was introduced before we ever added those flags... 

So, I am very much tempted of ripping out the relevant code for FORCE_RTL right now, and thus force people who need this hack to finally work on a proper solution :). Which might involve coaxing a lot of engine authors into fixing their engines once and for all (I don't see why Eugene and me should be the only ones who do that ;).


Bye,
Max



More information about the Scummvm-devel mailing list