Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#1

Post by chrismdp » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 9:41 PM UTC

Why I switched from Ruby back to C++
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Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#2

Post by chrismdp » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 9:44 PM UTC

I'd be interested in HNers' views on whether I made the right call.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#3

Post by steve-howard » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 9:54 PM UTC

chrismdp wrote: post #2

I'd be interested in HNers' views on whether I made the right call.

Seems to me that no matter what the language du jour may be, games are still often written in c++. When you're not getting the performance out of the tools you're using and you've spent some time trying to work around the problems, I think it's the right call to switch tools.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#4

Post by benburkert » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 10:05 PM UTC

I wonder if he gave Rubinius a go before switching to C++. IANAGD, but i'm guessing some of it's features would benefit game engines: Tunable GC, profiling (http://rubini.us/doc/en/tools/profiler/), JIT/LLVM. It wouldn't solve the C extension problem (maybe FFI does?) or distribution though.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#5

Post by boneheadmed » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 10:10 PM UTC

Nice write up. I wrote my own 2d game engine in C++ a while back. Switching to Ruby was great, but I never made any games. I did make a couple of JavaScript HTML 5 games. But here again speed is a limitation, and so am looking into C (and eventually Objective C) to eventually do some iPhone game making. As great as it would be to make games soley with scripting/interpreted languages, I don't think we're there yet.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#6

Post by subwindow » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 10:14 PM UTC

I wonder if switching to JRuby wouldn't have solved some of his problems? I'd imagine that distribution is much easier on JRuby. I suppose the issue is with libraries, but I'm not familiar with the libraries he mentioned.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#7

Post by chrismdp » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 10:15 PM UTC

benburkert wrote: post #4

I wonder if he gave Rubinius a go before switching to C++. IANAGD, but i'm guessing some of it's features would benefit game engines: Tunable GC, profiling ( http://rubini.us/doc/en/tools/profiler/ ), JIT/LLVM. It wouldn't solve the C extension problem (maybe FFI does?) or distribution though.

No, I didn't. I love the features Rubinius gives you, but Windows support still needs a lot of work, and if I'd dived in to help, I'll never ship the game.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#8

Post by chrismdp » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 10:15 PM UTC

boneheadmed wrote: post #5

Nice write up. I wrote my own 2d game engine in C++ a while back. Switching to Ruby was great, but I never made any games. I did make a couple of JavaScript HTML 5 games. But here again speed is a limitation, and so am looking into C (and eventually Objective C) to eventually do some iPhone game making. As great as it would be to make games soley with scripting/interpreted languages, I don't think we're there yet.

Easy porting to iPhone in the future is another big plus I should have mentioned in the original post.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#9

Post by chrismdp » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 10:17 PM UTC

subwindow wrote: post #6

I wonder if switching to JRuby wouldn't have solved some of his problems? I'd imagine that distribution is much easier on JRuby. I suppose the issue is with libraries, but I'm not familiar with the libraries he mentioned.

Possibly, but I'm much more comfortable in C++ than Java. I also get a much easier route to iOS if I stick with C++.

Re: Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

#10

Post by chrismdp » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 10:17 PM UTC

steve-howard wrote: post #3

chrismdp wrote: post #2

I'd be interested in HNers' views on whether I made the right call.

Seems to me that no matter what the language du jour may be, games are still often written in c++. When you're not getting the performance out of the tools you're using and you've spent some time trying to work around the problems, I think it's the right call to switch tools.

Thanks: after three days I think it was the right call. I just found myself burning too much brain energy on things I didn't want to have to care about.