Recent posts

#61

Competition 2025 / Re: Cloned replays, ZCT285 to ...

Last post by MiDiaN - November 21, 2025, 12:40:54 AM

This is really not cool, but from what I can tell, the rules page only talks about this under the Team section, where it says you can't use teammates' replays.

Good idea Cas! It might be hard to detect automatically with good accuracy but it's still better than nothing.

#62

Chat - Misc / Re: Association game

Last post by Erik Barros - November 21, 2025, 12:15:41 AM

mrs. peacock

#63

Stunts Related Programs / Re: SDL 3

Last post by Matei - November 20, 2025, 11:48:35 PM

but if so, why just from the width and not the height?

This is why:

printf("Set %dx%dx%d\n",8*RGLOB_screen->pitch/BITSPERPIXEL,height,BITSPERPIXEL);

File graphics/forsdl3/graph2d.c, line 153. The height reported is just the value sent to the function, not the resulting height of the window, which was obviously also reduced, but as mentioned above, I don't know how to find it.

[is]

#64

Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: Restunts repository - Git ...

Last post by Matei - November 20, 2025, 11:40:20 PM

It may seem so because we now see everyday programs taking up hundreds or megabytes or gigabytes,

Try my game:

https://matei.one/idxscr.html#download

Besides, if you only need to load a PNG file and then save it, you depend on code that can also process compressed audio, for example. It's like carrying the computer with your program.

Not with my functions, which draw graphics and save BMP files only with the standard C library. I didn't need to read BMP files until now though, but I could do that.

Which brings me to this. If you send somebody a letter in a random language

That's the C language, it's not random, and "somebody" is the hardware to which you send it, which also has who knows what drivers and other programs on it.

and you accompany it with a guy who speaks a hundred languages including it,

That's SDL and it will translate your letter to anyone to whom you sent it. The idea is that you don't know who you send it to, but SDL will translate it to anyone. No DOS though.

https://matei.one/idxchess.html

but the version for DOS/DOSBox, which is available below, uses some graphical functions available with Open Watcom, as SDL has no support for DOS.

But SDL not only does this, it also doesn't even provide the translator guy:

As mentioned, SDL is the translator.

#65

Stunts Related Programs / Re: SDL 3

Last post by Duplode - November 20, 2025, 11:35:14 PM

Good catch; I wonder if my environment is somehow interfering with the window size (will try to find out later).

Yes, it is my environment. I normally use XMonad (a tiling window manager) on this computer; switching to a Xfce session I get no segfaults, and the expected 800x600 size is reported. Maybe the two pixels taken by the window borders are somehow being deduced from the available window size (but if so, why just from the width and not the height?). It's mostly academical now, but if I find a workaround for XMonad (and I guess there must be one) I'll post it here.

#66

Chat - Misc / Re: Association game

Last post by CTG - November 20, 2025, 11:22:30 PM

mustard

#67

Competition 2025 / Re: Semi-Retirement Announceme...

Last post by CTG - November 20, 2025, 11:21:23 PM

How could I miss this one?

Have fun in private life, Helmuth!

#68

Stunts Related Programs / Re: SDL 3

Last post by Matei - November 20, 2025, 11:16:12 PM

You can also try with various resolutions (file "config") and see what happens. Is the resolution set in "config" ever reported properly?

#69

Chat - Misc / Re: Association game

Last post by Cas - November 20, 2025, 11:14:34 PM

Sausage

#70

Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: Restunts repository - Git ...

Last post by Cas - November 20, 2025, 11:13:40 PM

as soon as you would try to write a multi-platform wrapper (capable as SDL2-3) around input,output,sound,etc. you would see that the SDL api is really small for what its helping/keeping from you - you're just not used to it - thats all

It may seem so because we now see everyday programs taking up hundreds or megabytes or gigabytes, but really, it's huge. Take the most complicated game from the 90s, strip out data (animations, graphics, audio) and you'll see the code is rarely more than a megabyte. SDL is a layer on top of a layer, on top of a layer and so on. The degree of dependency and lack of knowledge of how the code works is extremely high. No person that worked on it understands all the code and nobody making programs for it does either. Besides, if you only need to load a PNG file and then save it, you depend on code that can also process compressed audio, for example. It's like carrying the computer with your program.

Yes it does. All you have to do is make your graphical and sound functions work with all 3 versions of SDL, which is what I did.

Which brings me to this. If you send somebody a letter in a random language and you accompany it with a guy who speaks a hundred languages including it, you could say the letter is written in a lingua franca, but that's not true. It's the translator that makes it seem so. And of course, you can send the letter in an envelope, while carrying the guy overseas may require a seat on a plane or a room in a ship. But SDL not only does this, it also doesn't even provide the translator guy: it just tells you that translator exists and you have to find it and bring it home yourself, ha, ha.

---
I realise all this may not matter to many people. Some of us may be very picky with their food, but can sleep anywhere, while others can eat rubbish, but then need a comfy mattress. I like clean, logical, comprehensive code... I don't like using black boxes. I feel the need to have full control and know what I'm doing. Not having that is uncomfortable to me and even very boring, because seeing the inside mechanisms of things is what has attracted me to many things I'm passionate about, including programming.