5 ms·

This is a trip, seeing code I wrote 25 years ago. It's actually kind of scary how identifiable my style is; in a lot of ways I am still the same coder, although

by dfan 9y ago

This is a trip, seeing code I wrote 25 years ago. It's actually kind of scary how identifiable my style is; in a lot of ways I am still the same coder, although I tend to work at a much higher level of abstraction now. There was a certain craft to weaving all sorts of linked lists back and forth all the time and maintaining invariants that looking at my old code makes me a little nostalgic for, but I can't say I really miss it much.

marvin 9y ago
It is so incredibly fascinating to know that people who wrote legendary, old-school software are still hanging around, in this community no less, and contributing to software discussions decades later. Awesome :) I was barely walking under my own power at the time you worked on this, by the way. Probably the same for many others who have fond memories of old games and get to meet the people behind them. (Side note: Did anyone on HN happen to work on Jedi Knight? Modding that game was my first under-the-hood exposure to computer software, from modding to hacking around the asset checksums to cheat or do other shennanigans in multiplayer on MSN Gaming Zone).
BlindGod 9y ago
I found this fascinating https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/03/16/when-coding-style-survives-compilation-de-anonymizing-programmers-from-executable-binaries/ https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/03/16/when-coding-style-surviv...
stiGGG 9y ago
These are the type of comments I love hn for!
angersock 9y ago
What was the EDMS business? Also, any good stories from your origin days?
- dfan 9y ago
  EDMS = Electronic Document Management System? Like source control? I honestly don't remember. These source files all have rcsid tags so probably we were using CVS? In our previous project (Ultima Underworld) our computers weren't even networked and I would go around grabbing floppies with changes from coworkers and merging their code into the master by hand. Here are some of my Ultima Underworld stories: https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifying-code/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifyi... https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-story/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-...
- hacoo 9y ago
  According to a Kickstarter update from Nightdive, EDMS was the physics system, written by Seamus Blackley. It stands for 'Emetic Dynamics Modeling System'... Possibly a reference to the way discarded items would go flying out the center of the viewport :) Edit: EDMS/SOLITON.CC confirms above is correct (speculation about origin of the name is still speculation, however)
  - dfan 9y ago
    Oh, that EDMS! I had totally forgotten its code name. Seamus's physics system was really ahead of its time, but unfortunately a ton of the work of getting a physics system to work in a real game is dealing with edge cases, numerical stability, etc., and we had huge problems getting everything to an industrial-strength state. (You will probably not be surprised if you look at the code.) Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri's full biped physics eventually had to be replaced by run-of-the-mill sphere physics just to make sure that things worked 100% of the time instead of 95%. Flight Unlimited was the real culmination of Seamus's physics work.
mankash666 9y ago
Hi - many here do not know who you are, and are interested in your bio. Your HN profile doesn't have one. Can you please add one, or link to one. Thanks
- dfan 9y ago
  Done.

by dfan 9y ago

marvin 9y ago

It is so incredibly fascinating to know that people who wrote legendary, old-school software are still hanging around, in this community no less, and contributing to software discussions decades later. Awesome :) I was barely walking under my own power at the time you worked on this, by the way. Probably the same for many others who have fond memories of old games and get to meet the people behind them. (Side note: Did anyone on HN happen to work on Jedi Knight? Modding that game was my first under-the-hood exposure to computer software, from modding to hacking around the asset checksums to cheat or do other shennanigans in multiplayer on MSN Gaming Zone).

BlindGod 9y ago

I found this fascinating https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/03/16/when-coding-style-survives-compilation-de-anonymizing-programmers-from-executable-binaries/ https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/03/16/when-coding-style-surviv...

stiGGG 9y ago

These are the type of comments I love hn for!

angersock 9y ago

What was the EDMS business? Also, any good stories from your origin days?

dfan 9y ago
EDMS = Electronic Document Management System? Like source control? I honestly don't remember. These source files all have rcsid tags so probably we were using CVS? In our previous project (Ultima Underworld) our computers weren't even networked and I would go around grabbing floppies with changes from coworkers and merging their code into the master by hand. Here are some of my Ultima Underworld stories: https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifying-code/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifyi... https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-story/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-...
hacoo 9y ago
According to a Kickstarter update from Nightdive, EDMS was the physics system, written by Seamus Blackley. It stands for 'Emetic Dynamics Modeling System'... Possibly a reference to the way discarded items would go flying out the center of the viewport :) Edit: EDMS/SOLITON.CC confirms above is correct (speculation about origin of the name is still speculation, however)
- dfan 9y ago
  Oh, that EDMS! I had totally forgotten its code name. Seamus's physics system was really ahead of its time, but unfortunately a ton of the work of getting a physics system to work in a real game is dealing with edge cases, numerical stability, etc., and we had huge problems getting everything to an industrial-strength state. (You will probably not be surprised if you look at the code.) Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri's full biped physics eventually had to be replaced by run-of-the-mill sphere physics just to make sure that things worked 100% of the time instead of 95%. Flight Unlimited was the real culmination of Seamus's physics work.

mankash666 9y ago

Hi - many here do not know who you are, and are interested in your bio. Your HN profile doesn't have one. Can you please add one, or link to one. Thanks

dfan 9y ago
Done.