On Jan 2, 2007, at 8:48 AM, Daniel Stenning wrote:
Happy New Year everyone.
Putting any issues of reliability, performance and bug-fixing to
one side,
what are the three other things you would like added to RB this year ?
Here my 3:
1) Allow RB to create dynamic libraries such as DLLS, dylibs, RB
plugins
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely! (Oh, did I mention
'absolutely'? :) )
2) Templates
Definitely a good idea, but bug fixing is - IMHO - much more
important now.
3) Ability to call C or RB callback functions via function
pointers/references
How about the ability to export an RB 'object' (Window, Module, or
Class) as an object-code file in a specified format (Mach-O for
linking in with ObjC/Cocoa, and whatever the object-code formats are
for VC++ (before .Net), .Net itself, Java .jar files, and whatever
Linux uses for their gcc/linker.)
I would add some items of my own:
4) The ability to seamlessly use an external editor to create/edit RB
source; i.e. make the RB 'objects' (windows, modules, classes, and
class interfaces) as references to a file (the same kind you get if
you export them now), but the text of the source would be in the data
fork, and the 'goodies' (overhead) would be in the resource fork (or
the dot-underline file in Windows/Linux) The syntax would then be
just as if you were writing it in an RBScript, except you wouldn't
have the 'context' object. There'd probably have to be one major
limitation though; RB would have to create the file initially.
5) A "OpenGL Game.rb" project (wouldn't do much, just set up OpenGL,
load a 3DMF file, create two instances of the object, and allow the
user to rotate/translate one of the objects on an RB3D, handle
collision detection (this is why there would be TWO 3DMF objects
created!) and finally call any OpenGL shutdown/cleanup code when they
press the 'q' key.
6) Other simple "demo" projects that exercise all the runtime
functionality of various RB goodies (the built-in controls, a simple
RB database, Threads, MemoryBlocks and binary file I/O, etc...) These
would also serve as a sort of 'regression test bed'; by comparing the
functionality under different releases, we could see if something
broke, or was fixed, and the simple demo project could be sent back
to RB with a bug report.
7) A revised release model; users with a valid license code for any
version of RB back to 5.0 would be able to purchase a 'bug fix' for
any specific issue (one per platform per license) listed as a [bug]
or [kis] in the release notes for that version or greater. Obviously,
earlier releases would cost more; Pro licensees would get 1/2 off for
fixing a bug that applies to both the standard and pro versions of
that release, and 1/3-1/4 off for a Pro-only bug in that release.
Also, there would probably have to be some minimum charge 'just to
take a look' to make it worth RS' time (it may turn out the the bug
CAN'T be fixed in that release, but it may have been fixed in a later
release due to an upgrade of the IDE/compiler or whatever.)
This way, a bug that's a show-stopper for one person/group could
get attention (for a mission-critical app), but - for those who feel
the bug is merely 'annoying' or 'cosmetic' - would simply be rolled
into the next major (or perhaps, minor) release for everyone else.
-or-
Keep the current release model, but when someone files a bug
report (or a 'vote' on an existing issue), and a release occurs (at
some later date) that 'supposedly' fixes the bug whose report they
filed/voted-on, they'll get a special license code that'll let them
try it out with all features enabled (for their particular license
type) for - say - 10 days. If it does fix the issue, they can then
buy that release from RS, using the issue code for that bug report as
a 'special coupon' code when ordering to get 10% off (or some such.)
If not, then they just go back to their previous release and
uninstall the new release.
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