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Why I switched from Ruby back to C++

chrismdp.github.com

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

#91

Post by icebraining »

tedukUsziWos wrote: post #74
kenjackson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While what you say may be 100% true you might be shocked by the number of Ruby and Python devs I talk to who tell me that Ruby can do anything that C++ does if you're even a half-decent Ruby or Python dev. I've literally asked people, "What about something like Gran Turismo 7?" And I've literally been in rooms where every dev there (none game devs, all web devs) basically said if they were writing it in Ruby it could…

It's not because it would not be wise to write a Gran Turismo 7 in an interpreted language such as ruby or python that writing any game with such language wouldn't work. Not all games have such specific requirements as Gran Turismo 7 where huge teams want to extract the most power out of some very specific piece of hardware. Nowadays it gets easier and easier to use interpreted language as the hardware gets more and…

As an example, Toontown is a full game written in Python, with a C++ game engine (Panda3D) and runs without performance issues at all in a single core 1.6GHz CPU.

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

#92

Post by zizee »

chrismdp wrote: post #73
zizee wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought he was just calling into question the link-baity title. The title is designed to be controversial as people don't like their favourite programming language to be slandered, thus they will be obliged to read the article so that they can defend their baby. Using link bait as a title is contrary to HN guidelines, so if anything, it is the article that does not belong on HN, not the grandparent comment.

Fair enough: perhaps I should have been more specific about the context and thought of a better title.

Don't sweat it. I was more annoyed at the parents attack on the grandparent than your title. You got a discussion going, so well done :-)

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

#93

Post by gravitronic »

andrewflnr wrote: post #64
gravitronic wrote: post #37

I'm using SDL for writing a DJ application and have it cross-building on Linux, Windows, and the target platform (HP TouchPad). For the Windows build I'm using the excellent http://www.mingw.org/ Mingw32 environment. I compiled SDL and my other needed libraries myself and there's pretty much no code differences. The only downside to mingw32 is that my target platform has full POSIX and mingw32 doesn't, so sometimes I…

Just out of curiosity: why is compiling on Windows important if your target is POSIX? Is it just for development convenience?

Yes. For other reasons I am generally running Windows.

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

#94

Post by dextorious »

jtc331 wrote: post #67
zizee wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought he was just calling into question the link-baity title. The title is designed to be controversial as people don't like their favourite programming language to be slandered, thus they will be obliged to read the article so that they can defend their baby. Using link bait as a title is contrary to HN guidelines, so if anything, it is the article that does not belong on HN, not the grandparent comment.

Agreed. This is pure link bait.

Sure.

He coded his game in one language and then SWITCHED in mid-development to another, with all the delay and hassles that that brings, in order to get links...

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

#95

Post by igouy »

kenjackson wrote: post #43
mileszs wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, I help to organize a fairly active Ruby group, and I am certain that, if not zero, nearly zero of us would make this proclamation. In fact -- and I mean not to attack you, but just to illustrate how incredulous I am -- I tried to think of a reason there might be for you to fabricate or exaggerate that story. I don't really think you did, but my mind went there.

Didn't make it up. No reason to do so, although I suspect if I spent some time on HN I could find some posts about Ruby perf that don't jive with reality. But I will say this, do you think this guy made up his post about using Ruby to try to write this game? If you don't think it fabricated, do you think he's alone? I do think there is a fundamental problem, especially with respect to perf, that a lot of people have…

> And it doesn't help with the blogs and articles that constantly come out saying that Java or Ruby or Lisp is faster than C/C++

Show them some numbers

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/which-programming-lang...

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

#96

Post by chrismdp »

cheald wrote: post #18
chrismdp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll look into LUA. Never used it back in my games dev days as it was just coming into vogue.

Just because the Lua community will ream you out for the mistake (though it's the only thing they're mean about), it's "Lua" (Portuguese for "moon"), not an acronym. :)

The joys of iPhone autocorrect :) thanks.

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

#98

Post by pjmlp »

tptacek wrote: post #22
fleitz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ObjC++ might be an even better fit

I always got a "stay on the golden path and away from ObjC++" vibe from ObjC++, kind of like trying to ask Rails to do database stuff without using ActiveRecord in 2008. You can easily write C++ code without having to bridge ObjC's object system to C++'s object-and-generics system: provide a simple C API to your C++ libraries. But the other thing is, one reason to do ObjC at all is to avoid all the heartache that com…

It is just a shame that in some areas Objective-C is still lacking compared with more modern languages:

- a proper module system; - reliance on the primitive #import/#include which slows down compilation - no namespacing, relying instead on conventions to avoid clashes

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

#99

Post by shaunxcode »

boneheadmed wrote: post #40
shaunxcode wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what about lua/love/corona?

I've thought of using Lua and if I recall correctly, work has been done to develop iPhone games with Lua as well? Ah, where is the time?

yeah corona sdk (which is not free, but seems to be worth the price of entry from my dabbling) compiles for iphone and android from common lua codebase. The api docs are easy to read, tons of examples and plugins (box2d etc.). I threw together an ipad app for my "boiling water" game I've been joking about for years with corona in about an hour having only ever looked at lua from afar. If you grok js/ruby/python than lua will be simple.

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

#100

Post by lelele »

ansgri wrote: post #59

After working 1.5 years on soft-realtime video processing systems (and game development fits this category), I feel like there's no real alternatives to C++. Because (1) when you have performance problems you can inspect the code in the disassembler and get full control of what's going on, and (2) compilers now are really smart (think msvc11 and gcc 4.6), so it just rarely make sense to sacrifice 10x speed for 3x inc…

What about using an higher level language for game logic, and optimizing critical section of code with C/C++?
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