In article <469A1ABC.10284.43339D@???>,
"Tim Wegner" <twegner@???> writes:
> Just to say it again: Rich does not speak for anyone other than
> himself
Just to say it again: Tim and Jonathan don't speak for me.
Really, what's the point of such a statement?
When have I ever claimed that I spoke for someone else?
Is there some implied threat in reminding people that I don't speak
for you or Jonathan?
You guys are free to do whatever you want with the code, as am I.
That's what open source is all about. I don't need anyone's
permission or blessings to change the code.
You have been free to modernize and improve the code all along; many
of the improvements I've made to improve understanding the code have
nothing to do with being freed from the restraints of the DOS memory
model. Using symbolic constants instead of magic numbers. Breaking
long functions into smaller functions with intention revealing names.
Extracting duplicate code into functions instead of repeating it inline.
Changing variable names to make them more revealing of their intention.
Nothing in the DOS world was preventing those improvements from being
made, yet they remained undone.
We started this discussion of modernization about ten years ago, and
while everyone agreed with the goals then, nothing was done about it.
In 1999 I contributed the majority of the source needed to move the code
to where we are currently, in terms of functionality. The contribution
languished. Since then, not much has happened to the main code except
for the occasional bug fix patch. You can't even *compile* the DOS code
without ancient compilers that noone can get anymore.
Tim says I have strong opinions as if that's a bad thing. What kind of
spineless person has an opinion without defending it? I'm backing my
"strong opinions" up with actual work on modernizing the code and dragging
it kicking and screaming into 1990s and then into the 21st century.
I'll also be happy to back my opinions up with data, my nearly 30
years of experience writing software and my 20+ years of experience in
computer graphics. My "strong opinions" are conventional wisdom in the
rest of the graphics and software engineering world; its only on this
list where people react like I'm saying the earth is flat.
Its evolve or die. The long, slow, languishing, death bed scene has
been going on for about 10 years. I'm moving ahead with no apologies.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <
http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
