<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <blockquote cite="mid45F84AB8.6010509@linux.ca" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Don Hopkins wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">SimCity in Python will be totally programmable in Python, so what should we program it to do? And how can we refactor it into general purpose, reusable components? </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> Will SimCity itself be implemented in Python, or will there just be some kind of scripting interface to SimCity? </pre> </blockquote> The idea is to preserve the original SimCity code (written in C) so it you can still play the original game, and expose it to Python through functions, variables, hooks and callbacks. I might have to wrap the C code in a C++ class, so it's encapsulated and possible to have any number of the simulators running independently in memory at the same time, without using any global variables. (As distasteful as C++ is, it's good for a few things like encapsulating old C code!) I'm planning on using SWIG to expose the SimCity interface to Python, so it will be possible to plug the same code into other scripting languages that SWIG supports as well (given some work with language-specific typemaps and convenience functions, etc). <blockquote cite="mid45F84AB8.6010509@linux.ca" type="cite"> <pre wrap=""> btw, Develop (or pieces of it) might provide the code editing functionality. In fact, Develop (possibly not until gen2) might also provide a visual code editor (flow chart-ish, or similar) </pre> </blockquote> Over time, I'd like to document how the code works, and factor out parts of SimCity into modular functions that you can call from Python, which you can override in Python to do your own stuff before, after, or instead of the original C code. Then you can replace and instrument parts of the simulator in Python (like the traffic simulation, or the economic simulation), and plug in new features (like your own scripted disasters), but still have the original simulator there if you want to run the classic SimCity. Parts of it can be rewritten in Python so they act the same but they're general purpose and easy to reprogram by subclassing, like the monster, tornado, helicopter, etc. Then you could use a visual programming language to subclass them and customize their behavior. <blockquote cite="mid45F84AB8.6010509@linux.ca" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">That is pretty cool! However, it might be desirable to leave in classic SimCity mouse-based editing as an option, in case someone wants to build a large map by hand with the mouse. </pre> </blockquote> Absolutely: it's important to always support the original SimCity user interface and behavior! I want to enable extensions through optional plug-ins, hooks (extension points, like "aspect oriented programming") and subclassing, and preserve the original behavior and interface, while cleaning up and modularizing the code. -Don </body> </html>