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[daigidan]

I've stumbled over here from the OGRE3D wiki and am pleasantly intrigued by what I've read so far. :]

I'm not really a player of MMORPGs, but I want to help build one. That may seem an odd statement, but I'm a long-time tabletop GM with the concomitant compulsion to create worlds. The feeling has been growing in me that online games and virtual worlds represent an emergent form of art and communication, and I want to get in on the fun.

PW caught my eye after reading the design objectives, many of which figure in the never-to-be-realized-one-man-MMORPG-project-in-my-head. So I'd like to offer what help I can and would appreciate some input on where I could be useful. To that end, a little about me.

I am something of a computer generalist, working on one of the top three instant messaging networks (that isn't said to toot my own horn, just to make folks aware that I have experience with large scales and loads). My C++ skills are woefully lapsed and I've never done any game programming, but I am a solid programmer in other areas. My modeling skills are rudimentary, although I did work with 3DMax in another lifetime. I consider myself a good writer and I've got plenty of ideas in the fantasy genre. My primary asset is that I'm a quick study. ;] Any pointers on where I could jump in would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[Jerky]

Welcome to Project Wish! We are glad you are intrigued by what we have to offer thus far, as we hope to only do better as time goes on. If you are interested in a true interview, we hold those in a private forum, where you can share personal information more freely, so we can get a better sense of who you are.

Otherwise, we are always open to more ideas in the forums. Out of curiosity, what were you doing on the Ogre wiki?

[RicoSuave]

Daigidan,
I saw from your app that you're quite proficient in Python, Perl, etc. I've been getting more and more into Python myself, though more out of necessity than desire. What's your opinion of it? I've found it anti-intuitive from time to time, but maybe you've picked it up faster than I did. Maybe it's the lack of brackets or what I consider limited functionality, but I don't like it.

I've been using a scripting platform called 'AutoIt.' Have you heard of it before? It's scripting is far more (I believe) user-intuitive and friendlier. Inline help, builtin IDE, script to .exe conversion, and even system/kernel calls. Wow! Sounds like I'm trying to sell it or something. Sorry. Anyway, just curious.

Glad to see you here. I hope to see you around more in the future... as soon as I finish my move to my new residence (N.Y.).

Again, welcome!

-Rico

[daigidan]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Rico. I have somewhat mixed feelings about a few facets of Python, but overall I'm becoming a fan. The whole indentation-to-close-blocks thing took some getting used to, but there are some powerful language features I really like, especially list comprehension. I moved to Python for a project I had been working on using Perl on Linux, where I needed to create a number of parallel workers. Perl's ithreads just weren't cutting it, but Python's native thread support is working swimmingly. I don't script on Windows terribly often, so I can't really compare Python with AutoIt, but I can say that Python is great for HTTP calls and has a fast XML DOM parser, making it a good fit for web services. The syntax is sparse and looks foreign at first, but there is a method to Pythonic madness I'm discovering. :]

Best wishes for a smooth move!

[RicoSuave]

Thank you, and yes, I agree that Python's ability to cross-platform is a huge selling point (as if they sold it). In my business, over 99% of the systems I deal with are Windows-based in some way, thus naturally, I started focusing on Windows scripting myself.

One more quick question if you don't mind...
Have you experienced any problems with Python scripts if you open/edit a script using Notepad, then doing so later with an IDE? Where I work, we have many hands on a single file, editing and tweaking it. Some use Notepad; some use IDLE; we all experience problems with indentation not transferring correctly from one editor to the next. Just wondering. Thanks.

-Rico

[daigidan]

Yes, I've seen issues with indentation from IDEs -> Notepad or vice versa. Problems arise when the relative indentation level differs or when tabs and spaces are intermixed. The common recommendation is to pick a number of spaces, and then make sure that everyone's IDE uses that same number of spaces instead for a tab.

This is one gripe that I find legitimate about Python or any language where whitespace is significant, but arguably one advantage is that it forces prettier code. As a longtime Perl writer of Perl one-liners I sometimes chafe at it, though. ;]