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Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

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Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#61
post #26

For me personally it is interesting to see that Notch seems to prefer Dart Editor (Built on the Eclipse platform) over something like Intellij IDEA or Webstorm ( https://www.dartlang.org/tools/webstorm/ ).

He doesn't seem to like it: "Argh! This editor pretty horrible" - Notch (Aug 25 2014 19:37 UTC)

Also something like "Argh! This doesn't let me use the mouse... I have to wrestle this" - Notch (Aug 25 2014 19:49 UTC)

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#62
post #48
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm watching now and it doesn't seem that bad, sure he switches tabs with the mouse but it seems like he is using quite a lot of keyboard shortcuts otherwise. I'd almost wager he has a plugin to emulate vim or emacs keybinds, seeing as he's moving the cursor forward by words and jumping around the code a lot without using the mouse at all.

By the powerful sound of the keystroke when moving words, I'd say he is using Ctrl+ . That is very common in Windows. BTW I'm not able to switch between OSX and Windows (home & work) efficiently - Windows' shortcuts are so much easier on my hands. Is there any way people make the two OSes more similar?

I know on Windows you can use AutoHotkey[0] to recreate all your OS X keybindings, but I'm not sure about recreating Windows binds on OS X.

[0] http://www.autohotkey.com/

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#63
post #32

Hey Notch, why Dart?

Is notch a HN member?

None of the usernames he usually uses seem to be registered. He does respond frequently on Reddit. Maybe there's an equivalent thread over there? He seems to be too busy coding to respond to any comments at the moment, though.

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#65
post #52

Btw, this is 2014 and I feel like we would already be able to play a simple game like Doom in the browser, just like the real thing. But no.. --edit-- ...multiplayer with several people, of course.

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Legal/Infringement_Notices/3_June_2...

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#66
post #57
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is this really live? I mean -- hardly see him pause for thought or anything. Interesting to see he just uses plain 'ol Eclipse (Eclipse FTW!).

Yeah it's really live - he's done a lot of work on stuff similar to this so he's probably got a mental checklist of everything that needs to happen. He's pretty good at what he does: making games! Rarely is watching somebody write code entertaining, but he makes it so.

i like his games -- been playing minecraft off-and-on with some friends for years -- but I have to admit, most of his games look very similar. the thing he's working on now looks like it could have been made from in minecraft. Use Craftbukkit or MineForge and you can just add things like new overlays and ui's... bam! new game.

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#67
post #52

Btw, this is 2014 and I feel like we would already be able to play a simple game like Doom in the browser, just like the real thing. But no.. --edit-- ...multiplayer with several people, of course.

Try this in the latest Firefox:

http://kripken.github.io/boon/inception/

The inner doom game is playable.

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#68

I'm so impressed watching Notch program in realtime. "Last Minute Christmas Chopping" was an eye opener for me. ( http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview... ). I was totally baffled when he started to draw the ascii character map pixel by pixel in an 48h competition, but the result was usable and actually quite simple. My takeaway is this: Doing something quick and dirty for a first draft and imp…

> My takeaway is this: Doing something quick and dirty for a first draft and improve it later on often leads to better results in the long run than planing and over-engineering a solution beforehand, because you can start refining details much earlier or throw away bad approaches without investing too much time.

I like Dart because it supports what you've described really really well. Optional type annotations enable you to don't worry about types when you do rapid prototyping.

Once your understanding of a good solution solidifies you can sprinkle type annotations over function signatures and wherever it makes sense to get great tooling support and to fortify core parts of your code base :)

In a nutshell it enables project lifecycles many companies go through many times (something written in Ruby eventually might have to be rewritten in Java for performance and tooling/collaboration support) yet being able to stick to one language which removes a ton of complexity.

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#69

I'm so impressed watching Notch program in realtime. "Last Minute Christmas Chopping" was an eye opener for me. ( http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview... ). I was totally baffled when he started to draw the ascii character map pixel by pixel in an 48h competition, but the result was usable and actually quite simple. My takeaway is this: Doing something quick and dirty for a first draft and imp…

I was totally baffled when he started to draw the ascii character map pixel by pixel in an 48h competition

Yeah, he always does a good job of it. The rules allow you to use pre-created fonts now, I'm not sure they did when notch started to do LD48 though.

Re: Notch programming a Doom-like in Dart

#70
I think it's great to see some live programming, with all the goofs and dead ends. While I appreciate the prepared demos that are common at conferences and elsewhere, they are more of a quick way to provide an intro to something new, and I feel they can give beginners the wrong idea about how real programming works. Seeing the whole development process, warts and all, live like this is amazingly educational. Props for doing this Notch!
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