4 ms·

An in-progress JRuby port of notch's 48 hour "Ludum Dare" game competition entry

26 points by there 15y ago

trungonnews 15y ago
jruby is getting better everyday. :)
- bobfunk 15y ago
  And seems like InvokeDynamic is just about to make it even more awesome! Charles Nutter tweeted this about running the port on Java 7: https://twitter.com/#!/headius/status/106217563788283904 https://twitter.com/#!/headius/status/106217563788283904
mrspeaker 15y ago
One thing I was taken back by while watching Notch coding (besides his incredible productivitiy) was that all of his code was super-simple... no crazy tricks (besides some nice bit-twiddling), no weird data structures, no language-specific magic: I don't know much Java but I understood every single thing he did! That's awesome. In fact, the source code is so straightforward that I think you could almost automatically generate the game in other languages!
- ido 15y ago
  Well to be honest there is very little language-specific magic in java - the base language is very simple (in terms of complexity of the language, not how easy it is to code in).
- petercooper 15y ago
  Yes. Most of the game was easy to port. Fiddly and time consuming, but easy. Some of the math sections I could copy, run a few regexes over, and paste. Had to watch out for casting to integers, the difference in how 'super' works, and some quirks in the JRuby-Java bridging, but it was mostly a breeze.
wccrawford 15y ago
I'm really disappointed in myself for not taking advantage of watching him code. Seeing the source code is one thing, but it's another to watch someone work. I learned a lot from pair-programming with others, so I can't imagine why I didn't see the utility in this. However, it has inspired me to dissect his code and learn from it, and hopefully be ready to submit my own entry in the next one. I imagine I'll need to put a lot of practice in before then so I can be ready to code an entire game in 48 hours. Any tips are welcome!
- petercooper 15y ago
  Enjoy the first few hours here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYBUCYUNn3Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYBUCYUNn3Q
  - wccrawford 15y ago
    Awesome, thanks!
grimen 15y ago
Very nice, good work Peter! It crossed my mind too when I peeped Notch code (was a bit addictive) to try port it in jruby, as it was as already mentioned a very explicit Java implementation. The FPS was higher than I expected it to be, for a script language that is. :)

26 points by there 15y ago

trungonnews 15y ago

jruby is getting better everyday. :)

bobfunk 15y ago
And seems like InvokeDynamic is just about to make it even more awesome! Charles Nutter tweeted this about running the port on Java 7: https://twitter.com/#!/headius/status/106217563788283904 https://twitter.com/#!/headius/status/106217563788283904

mrspeaker 15y ago

One thing I was taken back by while watching Notch coding (besides his incredible productivitiy) was that all of his code was super-simple... no crazy tricks (besides some nice bit-twiddling), no weird data structures, no language-specific magic: I don't know much Java but I understood every single thing he did! That's awesome. In fact, the source code is so straightforward that I think you could almost automatically generate the game in other languages!

ido 15y ago
Well to be honest there is very little language-specific magic in java - the base language is very simple (in terms of complexity of the language, not how easy it is to code in).
petercooper 15y ago
Yes. Most of the game was easy to port. Fiddly and time consuming, but easy. Some of the math sections I could copy, run a few regexes over, and paste. Had to watch out for casting to integers, the difference in how 'super' works, and some quirks in the JRuby-Java bridging, but it was mostly a breeze.

wccrawford 15y ago

I'm really disappointed in myself for not taking advantage of watching him code. Seeing the source code is one thing, but it's another to watch someone work. I learned a lot from pair-programming with others, so I can't imagine why I didn't see the utility in this. However, it has inspired me to dissect his code and learn from it, and hopefully be ready to submit my own entry in the next one. I imagine I'll need to put a lot of practice in before then so I can be ready to code an entire game in 48 hours. Any tips are welcome!

petercooper 15y ago
Enjoy the first few hours here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYBUCYUNn3Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYBUCYUNn3Q
- wccrawford 15y ago
  Awesome, thanks!

grimen 15y ago

Very nice, good work Peter! It crossed my mind too when I peeped Notch code (was a bit addictive) to try port it in jruby, as it was as already mentioned a very explicit Java implementation. The FPS was higher than I expected it to be, for a script language that is. :)