Programming, computers, etc. [Serious]

[Anonymously Famous]

Not without some serious stretching. As I mentioned in a previous post, it usually goes ...a3, a2, a1, a0. In the case of base 1, an would always be 1, and the only number to represent it would be 0. I suppose you could have nothing (the empty string) represent 0 and each symbol be 1, but then it's no better than the "tic mark" system. In a way, it's worse, because there's a separate symbol for 5 in the "tic mark" system.

(Edited to prevent me from making a total fool out of myself for misremembering the post I was responding to)

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Wizard was talking about base 1.

[Anonymously Famous]

Of course he was.

*Stealthily edits previous post without leaving a trace*

[atomtengeralattjaro]

that's actually true because you left 2 traces

[Anonymously Famous]

I guess it is in a way, isn't it?

Okay, programming question: Prolog. Anyone heard of it or used it? What do you think?

[atomtengeralattjaro]

i(haven(t(used(it(before)))))

[Anonymously Famous]

Neither have I. If I remember correctly, though, I did have to write a parser for it for a programming class once. But I've never used it as a language. I only ask because it's one of the only full programming environments currently available on the PortableApps website (I guess they do also have XAMPP, which is a portable Apache server with MySQL, PHP and a lite version of PERL... See the Daily Thread for more about PortableApps). I got it on my computer because I could, and was just wondering about its usefulness.

Oh, and they also have an NSIS environment. NSIS is a scripting language used to create Windows installers.

[Dreams]

I will look at it and look.

[hobobuster]

Ahem, I am going to interrupt here to say...

http://forums.asdf.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17849

you all, GET IN HERE D:! I needs help :/

[Anonymously Famous]

Been there. Done that. I'll post more in detail when I have more time and/or you can give us more details on what you need.

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Today I've been working on figuring out how Silverlight applications can communicate with each other and a server..
(The game I'll be making for my thesis will probably be semi-peer-to-peer, but i'm not entirely sure yet on the details)
It turns out Silverlight doesn't allow regular UDP socket-based communication (fast, unreliable, connectionless), only TCP (slower, reliable, connection-based), and even that only works if a so called socket policy server is present. I really don't see how all this makes Silverlight more secure, but meh.

The only other way of fast communication between peers in Silverlight (that i've figured out) is UDP Multicast. Multicast is a strange beast. I figured out how to use it, but it means every peer would receive every game update, which is not what I want.. so I'd need to encrypt some messages. Which is cool, but I'm not sure how much of a delay will all the encryption/decryption introduce.. Anyways, I've acquired a neat open-source library for an easy-to-use RSA cryptosystem, and there are built-in symmetric cryptosystems in Silverlight, so I'll be able to do it I think..

(Oh, the game will be a top-down shooter, multiplayer, and there will be some AI options too, probably..
The server will host the website and the lobbies, and it'll do the matchmaking and start the games, from which point the peers will do the rest and start playing with each other..)

[Anonymously Famous]

That sounds like fun. Since it's Silverlight, I'm assuming the game will work in a browser?

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Yes, it will. And I won't need a muscle server to back it

[Dreams]

That's great! Good luck on your project! Try not to break your router!

[atomtengeralattjaro]

haha thanks. i won't break my router, but i might just DDOS myself

[Anonymously Famous]

That sounds painful.

So... I'm looking to find an "easy" way to develop GUI utilities for several platforms. I want them to be standalone applications that don't require any software to be installed (other than the utility, of course).

I've found that FreePascal has compilers for several platforms (including PowerPC Macs!). Haskell also has this (though you need to get an older compiler if you want to compile for older Macs). I know, of course, that C/++ does, and that Java will supposedly work on anything (though technically you have the dependency of JRT being installed).

Any other suggestions? Also, other than Java, do you know of any languages where you can generate a finished product for a Mac on a PC?

[atomtengeralattjaro]

sadly, i don't know any..

About my project, it turns out you can't effectively use the multicast thingy in silverlight, not on the open internet at least.. So all that remains is TCP sockets. I hope it'll work, everyone says TCP is not very good for realtime gaming.. I wouldn't need a lot of traffic, but in order to prevent/detect cheating, I kinda do.. I'm a bit worried.

[Anonymously Famous]

I wish you the best of luck.

[Dreams]

Go back to oldschool wire connections.

[Dreams]

Sorry for the double post, everyone, but it's been a while.

I am encountering a serious problem! With the new fancy python 3.2.
I was playing around with tkinter that comes with the download, and I have a serious issue. Every time I try to close the program, instead of closing, it glitches out and freezes. I wonder if I have to change something in my program, or what? Plz help Thanks guys.