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I would say it's more like a builder arguing against building codes. A high-quality building can certain be built without them, but sticking to some known form

I would say it's more like a builder arguing against building codes. A high-quality building can certain be built without them, but sticking to some known formulas makes sure that everyone working on it is able to anticipate what others are going to do. It also makes sure that the building won't collapse, though this aspect doesn't really apply to software. Software has gotten a lot more complicated since the 1990's and from my experience, projects where design patterns are used effectively run a lot more smoothly than those where they're not used or not used effectively. It's great when you can open a project from 15 years ago and say "Actually, the code isn't too bad!" because the developers followed some rules of thumb. I agree with Casey that these rules of thumb aren't going to lead to higher-quality software from the end user's perspective. I doubt that they're going to make it worse though, unless they're blindly followed.

krapp 5y ago
On the other hand, Casey's been working on Handmade Hero for almost a decade, and has what amounts to an overengineered debug room with less actual gameplay complexity than you'd find in any framework tutorial. Meanwhile actual game developers would pick up a framework, use all those abstractions and libraries Casey finds unnecessary and surpass Handmade Hero in an afternoon. There's something to be said for not wasting time on things that don't matter to anyone but yourself, and code aesthetics is often one of those things.
- leoncaet 5y ago
  He works on HH for about 2 hours per week.
  - krapp 5y ago
    That's still far too much time for far too little progress. Six hundred videos and counting, each over an hour in length. What is there to learn except how not to develop a game, much less (as I recall him claiming) a AAA quality game.
  - holyyikes 5y ago
    That's not true. He works on it offline, and honestly, even if he did only work on it 2 hours per week, it's STILL not as far along as it should be by now for a supposed game development "guru." You got hoodwinked.
- holyyikes 5y ago
  What's hilarious is that if you actually look at the code he's written for it, it's a horrible ball of spaghetti. The whole thing is a scam. Just because HE says "this is bad code" doesn't mean it's bad, and just because he wrote it, it doesn't mean it's good. Most people would find the clusterfuck he wrote unmaintainable, and the funny thing is that it doesn't even really DO ANYTHING YET.
  - Jadinette 5y ago
    The goal of Handmade Hero is to show how to do everything from scratch, not how to make a game as fast as possible using existing technology. I agree that the game is currently light on the gameplay side of things, but he said countless times that he doesn't like gameplay code and that he's an engine programmer. I don't know if you watched a lot of episodes, but actually, each hour of him programming is full of complicated stuff which is hard to follow, but he does that in the blink of an eye. Each time you think that you understood something, he starts doing something way more complicated and he always nails it. Look at how many programming streamers are able to speak 2+ hours continuously without any cut. Most of the youtubers have to look at their source code written before turning the camera on to be able to retype it during the video! Even for a simple Tetris or something! I'm curious to know what you think is unmaintainable in his codebase. Sure he uses alternative little-known techniques for say, memory management, but once you know what is going on, the code is pretty clear I think. He posted an issue about the Windows terminal being slow, and proposed simple things to speed things up. What happened? The Windows Terminal team declared that what he proposed is an entire doctoral research project that would be a massive investment. He did the freaking thing in 2 days and said that it's "nothing" and "very simple". The team then apologized for being dumb and is now working on implementing his idea, that they described as "original" and "very valuable"
    - holyyikes 5y ago

krapp 5y ago

On the other hand, Casey's been working on Handmade Hero for almost a decade, and has what amounts to an overengineered debug room with less actual gameplay complexity than you'd find in any framework tutorial. Meanwhile actual game developers would pick up a framework, use all those abstractions and libraries Casey finds unnecessary and surpass Handmade Hero in an afternoon. There's something to be said for not wasting time on things that don't matter to anyone but yourself, and code aesthetics is often one of those things.

leoncaet 5y ago
He works on HH for about 2 hours per week.
- krapp 5y ago
  That's still far too much time for far too little progress. Six hundred videos and counting, each over an hour in length. What is there to learn except how not to develop a game, much less (as I recall him claiming) a AAA quality game.
- holyyikes 5y ago
  That's not true. He works on it offline, and honestly, even if he did only work on it 2 hours per week, it's STILL not as far along as it should be by now for a supposed game development "guru." You got hoodwinked.
holyyikes 5y ago
What's hilarious is that if you actually look at the code he's written for it, it's a horrible ball of spaghetti. The whole thing is a scam. Just because HE says "this is bad code" doesn't mean it's bad, and just because he wrote it, it doesn't mean it's good. Most people would find the clusterfuck he wrote unmaintainable, and the funny thing is that it doesn't even really DO ANYTHING YET.
- Jadinette 5y ago
  The goal of Handmade Hero is to show how to do everything from scratch, not how to make a game as fast as possible using existing technology. I agree that the game is currently light on the gameplay side of things, but he said countless times that he doesn't like gameplay code and that he's an engine programmer. I don't know if you watched a lot of episodes, but actually, each hour of him programming is full of complicated stuff which is hard to follow, but he does that in the blink of an eye. Each time you think that you understood something, he starts doing something way more complicated and he always nails it. Look at how many programming streamers are able to speak 2+ hours continuously without any cut. Most of the youtubers have to look at their source code written before turning the camera on to be able to retype it during the video! Even for a simple Tetris or something! I'm curious to know what you think is unmaintainable in his codebase. Sure he uses alternative little-known techniques for say, memory management, but once you know what is going on, the code is pretty clear I think. He posted an issue about the Windows terminal being slow, and proposed simple things to speed things up. What happened? The Windows Terminal team declared that what he proposed is an entire doctoral research project that would be a massive investment. He did the freaking thing in 2 days and said that it's "nothing" and "very simple". The team then apologized for being dumb and is now working on implementing his idea, that they described as "original" and "very valuable"
  - holyyikes 5y ago