I’m going to be releasing a few new libraries in the next several days, both by archive and public subversion.  I’ve already bought the domains and built a forum for them.  I even wasted a couple hours subversion automating everything down to the line of having little library websites made automatically, with custom per-library color palettes.

I was a little bored.

So we’re going to have three libraries progressing in the immediate future, with quite a few more over time:

1. HtStub – An embeddable, zero-config, zero-behavior secure Erlang webserver
2. SC A-Star – An efficient, modular ECMAscript (flash/actionscript, javascript, jscript etc) A* implementation with support for custom grid geometries (includes algorithm tutorial)
3. TestErl – unit, regression and stochastic testing for Erlang
4. ScUtil – a fairly large list of gap filling functionality for Erlang

In the near future, I will add C++ and PHP libraries, as well as many some libraries for more obscure languages like FormulaONE, Mozart-Oz, Factor and maybe (sadly) Delphi.  I have more than 30 libraries ready for release.

All those repos are pretty empty at the moment.  That will change in coming days, and I’m sure I’ll post lots of boring little snippets here about whatever minor new thing my crap does.

Yay!

That’s right.  Netflix will give you a million bucks if you can write an algorithm which one-ups their existing algorithm by 10% or better on grounds of predicting what their customers will like, based on their prior history.

Now that’s a win.

I haven’t written a roguelike in a long, long time. Last time, I used the traditional light-per-room model for lighting from the original Rogue; these days, I don’t find that at all satisfactory. It’s time for a proper shadowcaster.
Read the rest…

I can’t believe someone beat me to Nano-X on the DS. SO VERY LAME.

Mad props to Bret, I’m just jealous. But, good work, and also I hate you now.

I’m working on a field-of-vision implementation for Southgate at the moment, which is both very fast and highly accurate. Read the rest…

Why would I say that?

Because every time I develop a tool to make things easier, that just gives me an excuse to make a system triple as complicated. Every time I make something easier, it turns harder. This is something of an annoying habit of mine, though it’s also led to some of the best things I’ve invented. That said, it’s also led to a lot of wasted time and extra complexity – not that that’s exactly a terrible thing in a hobby project, but still. Whether this is going to turn out in that fashion remains to be seen.
Read the rest…

Dungeon Generators are strange creatures.

I’m discovering, since I haven’t attempted one in several years, that the older a programmer you are and the more strange tools in your belt, the more fun dungeon generators are to write. Back in the day, it seemed like a huge and painful task. Now that modularity is second nature, it’s turning into a joy to write. This is sort of a surprise to me; last time I wrote a Roguelike, the monster system was by far and away the most entertaining, and the level system something of a chore. I kind of wonder whether the new monster system is going to be as much fun.
Read the rest…

Minimum Test Driver is a great tree-culling algorithm. That said, my implementation is broken, so mtd(f) can go to hell.

Read the rest…