PROJECT: Source Code: Project Team

[Keygen]

The only way I can imagine that comments could cause a source not to compile it would be if they had not the characters // or /* in front of them. Of cource I am not a programmer wizard so I might miss something. I am pretty confident that Mr. Ogre erased what was enclosed within the comments and not just the characters that declare that what follows them is a comment in a compiler.

What probably was lost with the comments were parts of unimplemented code that were inclosed into comments for possible future use like patches, expansions or new releases instead of been deleted in the first place.

[Admiral PJ]

The comments don't affect compiling directly, they are just like notes in a margin on a book, that give you extra information about the work.
If the comments are completely removed it could be difficult understanding what code does what, but the variable names and function names help a lot to understand things.
/* and */ comments can be trickier to remove as if the */ end of comment isn't removed properly some of the code can be commented out too.
Comments are not seen by the compiler, just for helping Coders understand their or others code.

Its a shame the comments won't be there, some of them could have had ideas for new bits to add in CTP2, things that hadn't been compeleted for release.

[Leland]

Sorry, I have never played CTP2... what exactly are the Pacman sprite and game that st_swithin was talking about? Is it a hidden game-within-game sort of thing, or something else? Or is it something that didn't make it to the final game because it was commented away?

I'm trying to figure out what exactly is meant by "comments linked integrally into the code for obfuscation purposes". The way I see it, the only way you can do this with C++ is to bypass the preprocessor and/or the compiler...

[centrifuge]

Originally posted by Leland
Sorry, I have never played CTP2...

We'll forgive you

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Leland
Sorry, I have never played CTP2... what exactly are the Pacman sprite and game that st_swithin was talking about? Is it a hidden game-within-game sort of thing, or something else? Or is it something that didn't make it to the final game because it was commented away?

I guess it's some kind of easter egg, but to my knowledge noone has ever activated it, so it could indeed not really exist.

I'm trying to figure out what exactly is meant by "comments linked integrally into the code for obfuscation purposes". The way I see it, the only way you can do this with C++ is to bypass the preprocessor and/or the compiler...

...which sounds absurd, but I've seen strange things done in the name of obfuscation. On the other hand, I think someone might have mentioned it if they were using a custom compiler... We do know that MS VC++ 6.0 was used.

I guess we'll find out if and when we get a look at the source. In the mean time we can hope that the whole thing is a misunderstanding and it compiles easily - but I'm not getting my hopes too far up .

[LDiCesare]

Maybe they used the preprocessor for comments?
Think:
#define THIS_IS_A_COMMENT
#ifdef THIS_IS_A_COMMENT
int pacman;
#endif

[Keygen]

Why do such a think LDiCesare?

[st_swithin]

The pacman egg was all in the comments. MrOgre is VERY clever. Of course, he had to take all the comments out, so any reference to it is probably gone.

It was pretty cool, though. I wish we could have left it in.

[star mouse]

Compiler?

Does anyone know the exact compiler that was used? To compile the code properly, we may need the exact same compiler that was used, down to the correct version.

This is important. Without comments in 1.2 million lines of source code, you have no way of knowing if any of those lines of code are workarounds for compiler bugs. If a different compiler is used, the code is very likely not to run properly due to different compiler bugs.

There is also the matter of the stripping of the comments removing compiler directives. Do we know if any of the comments that were removed were compiler directives?

[st_swithin]

MS DevStudio 5, I think. Although I'm sure MrOgre would have made sure it still compiled before saying he was done with it.

[Pyaray]

MS Dev Studio 6 Pro.

Pyaray

[st_swithin]

Hi Py!

[RalphTrickey]

Has anyone used www.SourceForge.net? I know that they host some collaborative projects. I don't know if they need to follow the GPL.

Also, has anyone approached Miles Sound Library about the availability of the old version of their sound library?

Ralph

[Tamerlin]

I have visited the Miles Sound System site and a version of Miles Sound System can be downloaded, as it seems possible to export and import files and as the sound we need are on the CtP2 CD-ROM, isn't this little software enough?

Tamerlin knows he doesn't have the necessary knowledge and that there are 99,99% chances that the answer is NO but he can help asking a stupid question.

[Peter Triggs]

Thanks for those suggestions, Ralph.

But we're not that organized yet. Hopefully, once the code is actually online more experienced people from the open source community will turn up and want to get involved.

And I hope you find us just as friendly around here as you folks over in Colorado Springs.