Scripting language

[Rasbelin]

Hmmm... maybe we should make Stella Polaris into an OpenGL powered 3D tic-tac-toe game.

[targon]

OK, but make it without me

[Blake]

I can definitely see the merits of a SL. What about Lua with tuLua (tolua is a tool that greatly simplifies the integration of C/C++ code with Lua)

[Kurilka]

Seems good to me, but i'm not an expert (is there any in StPDT?)...

[targon]

OK, Lua is't worst script out there.
I may suggest you Guile, as it's good example of real rather than toy language, but I figured out its Scheme syntax (S-expressions that is) may terrify most of StPDT. It's pity, but I can't change the way of things: most people think they know programming while they actualy do't know any Lisp dialect.
So Lua may be used, it is't bad as is, but you should know that its "upvalues" are very downgraded variant of Lisp closures. In fact, Lua may be viewed as "Lisp for lazy", excuse me.
Python, on other hand, seems to be 1) successful language used in many successful projects 2) implementation rather than language in its own right 3) way to heavy in runtime and not much elegant in syntax.
New candidate languages for public dissection?

[Kurilka]

Tcl?

[targon]

Tcl? Just say No!

[Kurilka]

that was just an option,
maybe Perl ?

[targon]

Nice language, very _elegant_ syntax
It's sometimes hard to bind Perl to non-trivial applications, and it was designed for deals other than game logic.

[Kurilka]

Yeah, so i see almost just 2 alternatives:
1. Lua
2. Guile

there a mor languages(e.g. http://www.elasticworld.org/), but we'd better use something robust and wide-accepted
Lua is a bit simpler so I vote for it (it's not that I can't youse scheme, but it's better that "ordinary" user could use scripting)

[targon]

In fact, Guile and Scheme ist something so "unordinary", it's used in Gimp, for example. BTW, we may in fact use distinct langs for server or client side scripting, while it is't 100% good (but client scripts must be keept at clients side as security measure and server side scripts are simply pointless for client). I'm artist, not a coder, so while my personal preference is Guile (among other things it has true threading support, BTW) I know that most of burden of coding is on your shoulders so final selection is yours.

[Vultur]

Sorry, but I think I'm bit confused...
C++ (+ some scripting done from us) is not enough to code all the core?
I'm building a class to handle Menus: I know that it can be done using SDL routines, but I prefer use customized class to have a better graphic...
If there are libraries to do this things faster pls explain well all the features. An example: I've found 4 libraries to handle Zooming/Textures, but only one has a complete documentation with a stable code:SGE (can be found on SDL page)
It's totally useless propose dozen of programs known only by a people or two, only because "they look nice". It's a matter of time: no one can read all the documentation of all libraries, learn to use them and discover that they are totally "useless/obsolete/cannot do that thing I desire to add"...
Or not?
I suggest to Blake to post a topped closed thread where to put all the official libraries/programs used and their specific use.
Example:

Core: C++ & "Scripting language"
Graphic:SDL+SDL_image(for .png format)+SGE
Event handling:SDL
...

[targon]

C/C++ is enough for the core, but game itself is't just a core. We need some higher abstraction layer to explain game logic and other things. It's too boring to code all this stuff on C++.

According to image loading, did you try DevIL (Developer Image library), it integrates seamlessly with OpenGL. And that about making GUI via GL textures rather than ordinary blits, it's faster for modern cards and promotes good things like automagic scaling, blending etc.

[Kurilka]

And by the way didn't we agree that we will use OpenGL?
Shouldn't be there some voting?
And about scripting also.

[targon]

OpenGL and no voting. Game is meant to be cross-platform so forgot about DirectX and friends. I said about OpenGL for _menu_ system. It ist very common but some games seems to use it in that manner; at least, you will have consistent system and clean Z buffer. Bah, one more: do't forget about poor souls owning 3D goggles (it's cheap nowdays). 2D menu system with some 3D in background/main window/PiP looks _really_ wierd in that goggles.