[CF-Devel] RE: GTK editor

[Mark Wedel]

Yann Chachkoff wrote:
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      Andreas Vogl wrote:
     
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      >Then we have two editors and the development effort is split
     
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      >in half.
     
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      >The idea behind the Java Editor was to have one editor for
     
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      >everybody. With a GTK editor, the linux guys will maybe work
     
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      >on the GTK and the windows guys on the Java Editor.
     
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      >And just like with the clients, whenever there is a new feature
     
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      >we have to update two map-editors instead of one.
     
     
 The above is all true of course.  The problem is that if the java editor is too
slow/too memory hungery or you just don't have a good jvm, people won't use it
at all.

 One hope is that the format of the maps (and objects) will not change that
much, so any changes should hopefully be minor.  OTOH, from the past we have
seen that is not the case.

 The one advantage of a C client (beyond speed) is that it has the potential to
share a lot of the code currently in the server (similar to how the Xt editor
currently does so).  This then means that it is just a matter of copying code
over vs a reimplementation.


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      >Not to mention how unpredictable the future of a toolkit like GTK can be.
     
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      The GTK toolkit seems to be quite widespread today and should not disappear in
     
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      the next years.
     
     
 Of course, the XT toolkit is still available.  The problem is that no one is
going to learn it at this point in time, and toolkits have a evolved a bit in
that time frame, making things much easier to do.

 I would say that Gtk will remain available indefinately - the question is at
what point people no longer no it/learn it.

 Java can of course have the same problem.  3 years from now, someone may have a
greatly suprerior toolkit to swing or whatever else, at which point the java
editor could have the same problem.  I think this is less likely in java, as
fewer people are driving new tookits (plus as a recent language, the toolkits
are probably better developed)

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      >I don't want to stop you developing this editor. And I'm certainly
     
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      >not mad with you for doing it.
     
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      >It just makes me a little bit sad to see how Crossfire developers
     
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      >never cooperate on anything.
     
     
 I agree with Andreas on the cooperation aspect.

 The problem I have generally been seeing is that a great amount of code
suddenly shows up without prior discussion.  The code may have been agreed on in
principal, but never really discussed.  The people then wonder why everyone
isn't using/helping out on that code.

 I think it would be really useful to say 'I plan on working on XYZ.  What do
other people think?'  People may give some useful suggestions.  Some people may
say just don't do it/I don't see the point.  Such talk would not prevent you
from doing that, but if that is said by several people, it should then not be
surprising that others are not continuing the work.