On Wednesday 27 July 2005 18:21, skaller wrote:
> Just an aside-- but this is why
> most games are utter crap. The developers have no idea
> how to develop high level code, so they focus on weenie
> details of graphics, and as a result we have stunning
> high performance motion interfacing to the most banal
> rubbish I have ever seen. As time goes by things just
> seem to get worse.

I would have put that much more elegantly but, basically, I agree.

> I sure hope using Ocaml can help to fix this problem,
> and allow the real game programmers to focus
> on game design -- the way they did in the days
> of Zork when all that pretty embellishment just
> wasn't possible.

Never heard of Zork. Apparently you could get it on 8" discs. Have you seen 
Darwinia?

I have actually been thinking about writing an "OCaml for Games Programming" 
book. I think there is a lot of scope for interesting and unusual material in 
such a book and I think there are lots of possible examples which would 
demonstrate the power of OCaml for general purpose programming whilst also 
making wicked cool games. The downside is mainly the lack of state-of-the-art 
OpenGL bindings.

I think there is ample market for a games programming OCaml book but it would 
be difficult to sell it at a low enough price (again, I think it would really 
benefit from being full color). So I'm now thinking that it might be better 
suited to educational software rather than a book. Not least because 
on-screen 3D graphics would really help to explain things. When we finish it, 
Presenta should be ideal for this...

-- 
Dr Jon D Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd.
Objective CAML for Scientists
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/products/ocaml_for_scientists