modding on linux?

[thesleepless]

is it possible to create units on linux?
i can create models using blender
and textures using the gimp
but upspring and cobbler seem to be windows only,
is there a multi-platform solution for creating units?

a few other thoughts:
is there a reason (other than historical ones) that spring uses cob, tdf & fbi formats instead of lua for scripting in these areas? would it perhaps be better to port everything to use lua for some consistency since lua is easily compileable on any platform?

could perhaps these tools (or multiplatform counterparts) be merged into the spring tree rather than as external apps?

[Tobi]

Spring SVN already uses LUA for pretty much everything moddable. If a mod has TDF/FBI files they are loaded to LuaTables using a LUA TDF parser.

Only exception is COB; for that I'd guess another animation system would have to be integrated (skeletal animation?). Which means abstracting the model/animation subsystem properly in the engine first.

Upspring is already in the Spring repository. I don't think it makes much sense to put others in though, especially not if they are finished and no one is actively maintaining them anymore.

There's a patch on mantis that should make upspring compile on linux:
http://spring.clan-sy.com/mantis/view.php?id=516

[Peet]

Lurker is working on a new cob compiler as a long-term project, I'm sure he'll work to make it work crossplatform. In the meantime, try running scriptor in WINE.

[imbaczek]

He is? I've done a little bit of COB compiler stuff, it does constant folding, but no code generation.

http://repo.or.cz/w/bosc.git

never announced it though, it's not complete (and the version in the repo isn't even current...) don't have the time to start hacking on it again.

[Agon]

On Linux there is generally lag of support for modding.
I tried to compile upspring on Linux but it did not compile without a error.
And with wine it does not work 100% it's starts and after load it closes.
This force me to install Windows (BTW: I DON`T LIKE WINDOWS)
If someone would have time to do some modding programs for more than Windows support it would be very nice.

[AF]

A glass of wine might help you there?

[Tobi]

And with wine it does not work 100% it's starts and after load it closes.

[AF]

He was refering to upspring, I suggested wine for the others though I didnt notice peet had done the same.

[Treeform]

some problem here

[FLOZi]

He is? I've done a little bit of COB compiler stuff, it does constant folding, but no code generation.

http://repo.or.cz/w/bosc.git

never announced it though, it's not complete (and the version in the repo isn't even current...) don't have the time to start hacking on it again.

Yay! Please finish it.

[thesleepless]

rather than coding a new bos2cob compiler, wouldn't it be less work and probably better to replace cob with lua (as an option obviously, so old stuff can still use cob but new units can be programmed with lua).

are there any good reasons not to do this?
if not i'm happy to do the work to port it.

[imbaczek]

are there any good reasons not to do this?
if not i'm happy to do the work to port it.

This would of course be useful, but keep in mind that:
1. there's a metric truckload of BOS code that's already in the field and works (and works well)
2. COB is very simple, the interpreter is probably faster than lua (only integer maths, only one datatype, etc.)
3. there are some issues with suspending execution that need an elegant solution in Lua (see BOS sleep opcode) - possible with coroutines, but not exactly easy on modder brains. (unless you could hack something that hides this complexity.)

If these don't scare you, feel free to hack something up.

PS. A COB JIT would be cool, but not sure it's worth it.