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  • Pygame: Save a list of objects/classes/surfaces

    - by Sam Tubb
    I am working on a game, in which you can create mazes. You place blocks on a 16x16 grid, while choosing from a variety of block to make the level with. Whenever you create a block, it adds this class: class Block(object): def __init__(self,x,y,spr): self.x=x self.y=y self.sprite=spr self.rect=self.sprite.get_rect(x=self.x,y=self.y) to a list called instances. I tried shelving it to a .bin file, but it returns some error dealing with surfaces. How can I go about saving and loading levels? Any help is appreciated! :) Here is the whole code for reference: import pygame from pygame.locals import * #initstuff pygame.init() screen=pygame.display.set_mode((640,480)) pygame.display.set_caption('PiMaze') instances=[] #loadsprites menuspr=pygame.image.load('images/menu.png').convert() b1spr=pygame.image.load('images/b1.png').convert() b2spr=pygame.image.load('images/b2.png').convert() currentbspr=b1spr curspr=pygame.image.load('images/curs.png').convert() curspr.set_colorkey((0,255,0)) #menu menuspr.set_alpha(185) menurect=menuspr.get_rect(x=-260,y=4) class MenuItem(object): def __init__(self,pos,spr): self.x=pos[0] self.y=pos[1] self.sprite=spr self.pos=(self.x,self.y) self.rect=self.sprite.get_rect(x=self.x,y=self.y) class Block(object): def __init__(self,x,y,spr): self.x=x self.y=y self.sprite=spr self.rect=self.sprite.get_rect(x=self.x,y=self.y) while True: #menu items b1menu=b1spr.get_rect(x=menurect.left+32,y=48) b2menu=b2spr.get_rect(x=menurect.left+64,y=48) menuitems=[MenuItem(b1menu,b1spr),MenuItem(b2menu,b2spr)] screen.fill((20,30,85)) mse=pygame.mouse.get_pos() key=pygame.key.get_pressed() placepos=((mse[0]/16)*16,(mse[1]/16)*16) if key[K_q]: if mse[0]<260: if menurect.right<255: menurect.right+=1 else: if menurect.left>-260: menurect.left-=1 else: if menurect.left>-260: menurect.left-=1 for e in pygame.event.get(): if e.type==QUIT: exit() if menurect.right<100: if e.type==MOUSEBUTTONUP: if e.button==1: to_remove = [i for i in instances if i.rect.collidepoint(placepos)] for i in to_remove: instances.remove(i) if not to_remove: instances.append(Block(placepos[0],placepos[1],currentbspr)) for i in instances: screen.blit(i.sprite,i.rect) if not key[K_q]: screen.blit(curspr,placepos) screen.blit(menuspr,menurect) for item in menuitems: screen.blit(item.sprite,item.pos) if item.rect.collidepoint(mse): if pygame.mouse.get_pressed()==(1,0,0): currentbspr=item.sprite pygame.draw.rect(screen, ((255,0,0)), item, 1) pygame.display.flip()

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  • Collision detection, stop gravity

    - by Scott Beeson
    I just started using Gamemaker Studio and so far it seems fairly intuitive. However, I set a room to "Room is Physics World" and set gravity to 10. I then enabled physics on my player object and created a block object to match a platform on my background sprite. I set up a Collision Detection event for the player and the block objects that sets the gravity to 0 (and even sets the vspeed to 0). I also put a notification in the collision event and I don't get that either. I have my key down and key up events working well, moving the player left and right and changing the sprites appropriately, so I think I understand the event system. I must just be missing something simple with the physics. I've tried making both and neither of the objects "solid". Pretty frustrating since it looks so easy. The player starting point is directly above the block object in the grid and the player does fall through the block. I even made the block sprite solid red so I could see it (initially it was invisible, obviously).

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  • Java.net Reborn

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Java.net, the home of  Java community projects, has been re-launched with a new look and new tools for developers.  The move from CollabNet to the Kenai infrastructure offers more flexibility for developers who want to host or contribute to community projects.  Instead of the large, fixed infrastructure per project (for example, several mailing lists per project), Kenai's ala carte features allow users to take only what they need. "We will continue to have the great mix of blogs, forums, and editorial content as well as new tools on the project side, including Mercurial, Git, and JIRA for developers," Java.net Community Manager Sonya Barry explains.  The migration was huge effort. Over 1400 projects were migrated (and some 30 projects are left to go). A large part of the migration was a big cleanup of abandoned projects. With the high abandonment rate of open source projects, the was a lot to remove. The new java.net site is smaller, faster and now the percentage of good, current content is much higher. Check it out at http://home.java.net/   Technorati Tags: java,java.net,oracle,oracle technology network del.icio.us Tags: java,java.net,oracle,oracle technology network

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  • The Ideal Platform for Oracle Database 12c In-Memory and in-memory Applications

    - by Michael Palmeter (Engineered Systems Product Management)
    Oracle SuperCluster, Oracle's SPARC M6 and T5 servers, Oracle Solaris, Oracle VM Server for SPARC, and Oracle Enterprise Manager have been co-engineered with Oracle Database and Oracle applications to provide maximum In-Memory performance, scalability, efficiency and reliability for the most critical and demanding enterprise deployments. The In-Memory option for the Oracle Database 12c, which has just been released, has been specifically optimized for SPARC servers running Oracle Solaris. The unique combination of Oracle's M6 32 Terabytes Big Memory Machine and Oracle Database 12c In-Memory demonstrates 2X increase in OLTP performance and 100X increase in analytics response times, allowing complex analysis of incredibly large data sets at the speed of thought. Numerous unique enhancements, including the large cache on the SPARC M6 processor, massive 32 TB of memory, uniform memory access architecture, Oracle Solaris high-performance kernel, and Oracle Database SGA optimization, result in orders of magnitude better transaction processing speeds across a range of in-memory workloads. Oracle Database 12c In-Memory The Power of Oracle SuperCluster and In-Memory Applications (Video, 3:13) Oracle’s In-Memory applications Oracle E-Business Suite In-Memory Cost Management on the Oracle SuperCluster M6-32 (PDF) Oracle JD Edwards Enterprise One In-Memory Applications on Oracle SuperCluster M6-32 (PDF) Oracle JD Edwards Enterprise One In-Memory Sales Advisor on the SuperCluster M6-32 (PDF) Oracle JD Edwards Enterprise One Project Portfolio Management on the SuperCluster M6-32 (PDF)

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  • Foreach loop with 2d array of objects

    - by Jacob Millward
    I'm using a 2D array of objects to store data about tiles, or "blocks" in my gameworld. I initialise the array, fill it with data and then attempt to invoke the draw method of each object. foreach (Block block in blockList) { block.Draw(spriteBatch); } I end up with an exception being thrown "Object reference is not set to an instance of an object". What have I done wrong? EDIT: This is the code used to define the array Block[,] blockList; Then blockList = new Block[screenRectangle.Width, screenRectangle.Height]; // Fill with dummy data for (int x = 0; x <= screenRectangle.Width / texture.Width; x++) { for (int y = 0; y <= screenRectangle.Height / texture.Width; y++) { if (y >= screenRectangle.Height / (texture.Width*2)) { blockList[x, y] = new Block(1, new Rectangle(x * 16, y * 16, texture.Width, texture.Height), texture); } else { blockList[x, y] = new Block(0, new Rectangle(x * 16, y * 16, texture.Width, texture.Height), texture); } } }

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  • Running multiple box2D world objects on a server

    - by CharbelAbdo
    I'm creating a multiplayer game using LibGdx (with Box2d) and Kryonet. Since this is the first time I work on multiplayer games, I read a bit about server - client implementations, and it turns out that the server should handle important tasks like collision detection, hits, characters dying etc... Based on some articles (like the excellent Gabriel Gambetta Fast paced multiplayer series), I also know that the client should work in parallel to avoid the lag while the server responds to commands. Physics wise, each game will have 2 players, and any projectiles fired. What I'm thinking of doing is the following: Create a physics world on the client When the game is signaled to start, I create the same physics world on the server (without any rendering obviously). Whenever the player issues a command (move or fire), I send the command to the server and immediately start processing it on the client. When the server receives the command, it applies it on the server's world (set velocity etc...) Each 100ms, the server sends the new state to the client which corrects what was calculated locally. Any critical action (hit, death, level up) is calculated only on the server and sent to the client. Essentially, I would have a Box2d World object running on the server for each game in progress, in sync with the worlds running on the clients. The alternative would be to do my own calculations on the server instead of relying on Box2D to do them for me, but I'm trying to avoid that. My question is: Is it wise to have, for example, 1000 instances of the World object running and executing steps on the server? Tomcat used around 750 MBytes of memory when trying it without any object added to the world. Anybody tried that before? If not, is there any alternative? Google did not help me, are there any guidelines to use when you want to have physics on both the client and the server? Thanks for any help.

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  • How to create a thread in XNA for pathfinding?

    - by Dan
    I am trying to create a separate thread for my enemy's A* pathfinder which will give me a list of points to get to the player. I have placed the thread in the update method of my enemy. However this seems to cause jittering in the game every-time the thread is called. I have tried calling just the method and this works fine. Is there any way I can sort this out so that I can have the pathfinder on its own thread? Do I need to remove the thread start from the update and start it in the constructor? Is there any way this can work? Here is the code at the moment: bool running = false; bool threadstarted; System.Threading.Thread thread; public void update() { if (running == false && threadstarted == false) { thread = new System.Threading.Thread(PathThread); //thread.Priority = System.Threading.ThreadPriority.Lowest; thread.IsBackground = true; thread.Start(startandendobj); //PathThread(startandendobj); threadstarted = true; } } public void PathThread(object Startandend) { object[] Startandendarray = (object[])Startandend; Point startpoint = (Point)Startandendarray[0]; Point endpoint = (Point)Startandendarray[1]; bool runnable = true; // Path find from 255, 255 to 0,0 on the map foreach(Tile tile in Map) { if(tile.Color == Color.Red) { if (tile.Position.Contains(endpoint)) { runnable = false; } } } if(runnable == true) { running = true; Pathfinder p = new Pathfinder(Map); pathway = p.FindPath(startpoint, endpoint); running = false; threadstarted = false; } }

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  • 4 Places To Find Up-To-Date Antivirus Test Results Online

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Everyone wants to be using the best antivirus and wants to know how they perform, so a list of places you can find this information would be useful. It’s not really reasonable to do any testing yourself; way too time-consuming. x places you can find antivirus test results – av comparatives, av test, http://www.westcoastlabs.com/realTimeTesting/article/?articleID=1   Do you know how effective your antivirus programs is? A variety of organizations regularly compare antivirus programs, throwing a large amount of malware samples at them, seeing how they perform, and ranking them in comparison to each other. It would be very time-consuming to test 30 different antivirus programs in virtual machines with a large amoutn of malware samples yourself, which is why these test results are so useful. Why Does 64-Bit Windows Need a Separate “Program Files (x86)” Folder? Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows

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  • In an Entity/Component system, can component data be implemented as a simple array of key-value pairs? [on hold]

    - by 010110110101
    I'm trying to wrap my head around how to organize components in an Entity Component Systems once everything in the current scene/level is loaded in memory. (I'm a hobbyist BTW) Some people seem to implement the Entity as an object that contains a list of of "Component" objects. Components contain data organized as an array of key-value pairs. Where the value is serialized "somehow". (pseudocode is loosely in C# for brevity) class Entity { Guid _id; List<Component> _components; } class Component { List<ComponentAttributeValue> _attributes; } class ComponentAttributeValue { string AttributeName; object AttributeValue; } Others describe Components as an in-memory "table". An entity acquires the component by having its key placed in a table. The attributes of the component-entity instance are like the columns in a table class Renderable_Component { List<RenderableComponentAttributeValue> _entities; } class RenderableComponentAttributeValue { Guid entityId; matrix4 transformation; // other stuff for rendering // everything is strongly typed } Others describe this actually as a table. (and such tables sound like an EAV database schema BTW) (and the value is serialized "somehow") Render_Component_Table ---------------- Entity Id Attribute Name Attribute Value and when brought into running code: class Entity { Guid _id; Dictionary<string, object> _attributes; } My specific question is: Given various components, (Renderable, Positionable, Explodeable, Hideable, etc) and given that each component has an attribute with a particular name, (TRANSLATION_MATRIX, PARTICLE_EMISSION_VELOCITY, CAN_HIDE, FAVORITE_COLOR, etc) should: an entity contain a list of components where each component, in turn, has their own array of named attributes with values serialized somehow or should components exist as in-memory tables of entity references and associated with each "row" there are "columns" representing the attribute with values that are specific to each entity instance and are strongly typed or all attributes be stored in an entity as a singular array of named attributes with values serialized somehow (could have name collisions) or something else???

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  • How to make Box2D bodies automatically return to a initial rotation

    - by sm4
    I have two long Box2D bodies, that can collide while moving one of them around with MouseJoint. I want them to try to hold their position and rotation. Blue body is moved using MouseJoint (yellow) towards the Red body. Red body has another MouseJoint - Blue can push Red, but Red will try to return to the start point thanks to the MouseJoint - this works just fine. Both bodies correctly rotate along the middle. This is still as I want. I change the MouseJoint to move the Blue away. What I need is both bodies return to their initial rotation (green arrows) Desired positions and rotations Is there anything in Box2D that could do this automatically? The MouseJoint does that nicely for position. I need it in AndEngine (Java, Android) port, but any Box2D solution is fine. EDIT: By automatically I mean having something I can add to the object "Paddle" without the need to change game loop. I want to encapsulate this functionality to the object itself. I already have an object Paddle that has its own UpdateHandler which is being called from the game loop. What would be much nicer is to attach some kind of "spring" joint to both left and right sides of the paddle that would automatically level the paddle. I will be exploring this option soon.

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  • Detecting collision between ball (circle) and brick(rectangle)?

    - by James Harrison
    Ok so this is for a small uni project. My lecturer provided me with a framework for a simple brickbreaker game. I am currently trying to overcome to problem of detecting a collision between the two game objects. One object is always the ball and the other objects can either be the bricks or the bat. public Collision hitBy( GameObject obj ) { //obj is the bat or the bricks //the current object is the ball // if ball hits top of object if(topX + width >= obj.topX && topX <= obj.topX + obj.width && topY + height >= obj.topY - 2 && topY + height <= obj.topY){ return Collision.HITY; } //if ball hits left hand side else if(topY + height >= obj.topY && topY <= obj.topY + obj.height && topX + width >= obj.topX -2 && topX + width <= obj.topX){ return Collision.HITX; } else return Collision.NO_HIT; } So far I have a method that is used to detect this collision. The the current obj is a ball and the obj passed into the method is the the bricks. At the moment I have only added statement to check for left and top collisions but do not want to continue as I have a few problems. The ball reacts perfectly if it hits the top of the bricks or bat but when it hits the ball often does not change directing. It seems that it is happening toward the top of the left hand edge but I cannot figure out why. I would like to know if there is another way of approaching this or if people know where I'm going wrong. Lastly the collision.HITX calls another method later on the changes the x direction likewise with y.

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  • Japanese Multiplication simulation - is a program actually capable of improving calculation speed?

    - by jt0dd
    On SuperUser, I asked a (possibly silly) question about processors using mathematical shortcuts and would like to have a look at the possibility at the software application of that concept. I'd like to write a simulation of Japanese Multiplication to get benchmarks on large calculations utilizing the shortcut vs traditional CPU multiplication. I'm curious as to whether it makes sense to try this. My Question: I'd like to know whether or not a software math shortcut, as described above is actually a shortcut at all. This is a question of programming concept. By utilizing the simulation of Japanese Multiplication, is a program actually capable of improving calculation speed? Or am I doomed from the start? The answer to this question isn't required to determine whether or not the experiment will succeed, but rather whether or not it's logically possible for such a thing to occur in any program, using this concept as an example. My theory is that since addition is computed faster than multiplication, a simulation of Japanese multiplication may actually allow a program to multiply (large) numbers faster than the CPU arithmetic unit can. I think this would be a very interesting finding, if it proves to be true. If, in the multiplication of numbers of any immense size, the shortcut were to calculate the result via less instructions (or faster) than traditional ALU multiplication, I would consider the experiment a success.

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  • Desktop application, dependency injection

    - by liori
    I am thinking of applying a real dependency injection library to my toy C#/GTK# desktop application. I chose NInject, but I think this is irrelevant to my question. There is a database object, a main window and several utility window classes. It's clear that I can inject the database into every window object, so here DI is useful. But does it make sense to inject utility window classes into other window classes? Example: I have classes such as: class MainWindow {…} class AddItemWindow {…} class AddAttachmentWindow {…} class BrowseItemsWindow {…} class QueryBuilderWindow {…} class QueryBrowserWindow {…} class PreferencesWindow {…} … Each of the utility classes can be opened from MainWindow. Some utility windows can also be opened from other utility windows. Generally, there might be a really complex graph of who can open whom. So each of those classes might need quite a lot of other window classes injected. I'm worried that such usage will go against the suggestion not to inject too many classes at once and become a code smell. Should I use some kind of a service locator object here?

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  • Inspiring the method of teaching. Example- C++ :)

    - by Ashwin
    A year ago I graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Considering C++ as the first choice of programming language I have been in the process of learning C++ in many ways. At first - five years back - I had many conceptions, most of which were so abstract to me. It started when I knew almost everything about Structs in C and nothing about Classes in C++. I went through a great time experimenting them all and learning a lot. I had a hard time evaluating Procedural programming vs Object-Oriented Programming. Deciding when to choose Procedural or Object-Oriented Programming took a great deal of patience for me. I knew that I cannot underestimate any of these Programming styles... Though Procedural programming is often a better choice than simple sequential unstructured programming, when solving problems with procedural programming, we usually divide one problem into several steps in order regarded as functions. Then we call these functions one by one to get the result of the problem. When solving problems with Object Oriented Priciples we divide one problem into several classes and form the interaction between them. Evaluating these two at the beginning (as a learner) required a lot of inspiration and thoughts. Instructing to think step by step. Relative concepts to understand deeply. Intensive interests to contrast both solving in both POP and OOP. If you were ever a mentor: What ideas/methods would you teach to students in which it will Inspire them to learn a programming language (in general, computer sciences)?

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  • JSON Support in Azure

    - by kaleidoscope
    Please find how we call JavaScript Object Notation in cloud applications. As we all know how client script is useful in web applications in terms of performance.           Same we can use JQuery in Asp.net using Cloud  computing which will  asynchronously pull any messages out of the table(cloud storage)  and display them in the     browser by invoking a method on a controller that returns JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) in a well-known shape. Syntax : Suppose we want to write a  JQuery function which return some notification while end user interact with our application so use following syntax : public JsonResult GetMessages() {      if (User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)      {     UserTextNotification[] userToasts =           toastRepository.GetNotifications(User.Identity.Name);          object[] data =          (from UserTextNotification toast in userToasts          select new { title = toast.Title ?? "Notification",          text = toast.MessageText }).ToArray();           return Json(data, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);      }         else            return Json(null); } Above function is used to check authentication and display message if user is not exists in Table. Plateform :   ASP.NET 3.5  MVC 1   Under Visual Studio 2008  . Please find below link for more detail : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee335721.aspx   Chandraprakash, S

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  • XNA 4.0, Combining model draw calls

    - by MayContainNuts
    I have the following problem: The levels in my game are made up of a Large Quantity of small Models and because of that I am experiencing frame rate problems. I already did some research and came to the conclusion that the amount of draw calls I am making must be the root of my problems. I've looked around for a while now and couldn't quite find a satisfying solution. I can't cull any of those models, in a worst case scenario there could be 1000 of them visible at the same time. I also looked at Hardware geometry Instancing, but I don't think that's quite what I'm looking for, because the level consists of a lot of different parts. So, what I'd like to do is combining 100 or 200 of these Models into a single large one and draw it as a whole 'chunk'. The whole geometry is static so it wouldn't have to be changed after combining, but different parts of it would have to use different textures (I think I can accomplish that with a texture atlas). But I have no idea how to to that, so does anybody have any suggestions?

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  • Should you create a class within a method?

    - by Amndeep7
    I have made a program using Java that is an implementation of this project: http://nifty.stanford.edu/2009/stone-random-art/sml/index.html. Essentially, you create a mathematical expression and, using the pixel coordinate as input, make a picture. After I initially implemented this in serial, I then implemented it in parallel due to the fact that if the picture size is too large or if the mathematical expression is too complex (especially considering the fact that I made the expression recursively), it takes a really long time. During this process, I realized that I needed two classes which implemented the Runnable interface as I had to put in parameters for the run method, which you aren't allowed to do directly. One of these classes ended up being a medium sized static inner class (not large enough to make an independent class file for it though). The other though, just needed a few parameters to determine some indexes and the size of the for loop that I was making run in parallel - here it is: class DataConversionRunnable implements Runnable { int jj, kk, w; DataConversionRunnable(int column, int matrix, int wid) { jj = column; kk = matrix; w = wid; } public void run() { for(int i = 0; i < w; i++) colorvals[kk][jj][i] = (int) ((raw[kk][jj][i] + 1.0) * 255 / 2.0); increaseCounter(); } } My question is should I make it a static inner class or can I just create it in a method? What is the general programming convention followed in this case?

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  • Burg Custom Icons work only with specific themes

    - by el10780
    I have made a custom icon for burg loader for my Lenovo Recovery Partition.I have made 3 icons : large_qdrive.png (128 X 128 pixels) small_qdrive.png (24 X 24 pixels) grey_qdrive.png (128 x 128 pixels) The .png icons that I created I made them using gimp from a qdrive.ico file that I found in the Lenovo Recovery Partition. I transferred the icons to the /boot/burg/themes/icons folder and I added to the class list of the grey,large,small and the hover files the following lines : -qdrive { image = "$$/large_qdrive.png" } in the large file -qdrive { image = "$$/small_qdrive.png" } in the small file -qdrive { image = "$$/grey_qdrive.png" } in the grey file -qdrive { image = "$$/grey_qdrive.png:$$/large_qdrive.png" } in the hover file I ran sudo update-burg and after that I modified the following line in the burg.cfg file : menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" --class windows --class os { to menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" --class qdrive --class os { and I also tried to change the title for the Lenovo Recovery Partition,so I tried this as well: menuentry "Lenovo Recovery Partition (on /dev/sda2)" --class qdrive --class os { None of this tries enforced actually burg loader to use the custom icon that I made and I can't figure out why. I have to mention also that there are a few themes that I have installed in burg which actually are able to use the small_qdrive.png icon that I made,but all the others which use either the large_qdrive.png or the grey_qdrive.png weren't able to use the custom icons. I have double checked for typos in all the files that I have created or I modified,so I am pretty sure that I haven't misspelled anything. I have checked also the title of the custom icons that I made and neither of them have a typo. I have looked also if there are any other folder that the themes might use to retrieve the icons,but it seems that all of them except for **Fortune** theme,which I downloaded from OMG!UBUNTU,use the icons folder which is located in /boot/burg/themes/icons I tried to add the custom icons to the icons folder of the theme **Fortune**,but still nothing happened.

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  • One Step-Ahead A-Star

    - by Jonathan Dickinson
    I am attempting to create a server-centric RTS (as opposed to usual parallel synchronised simulation route of most RTS games today) - however I am still leveraging the discreet N-turns-ahead paradigm discussed by one of the AOE developers on Gamasutra. I have [possibly questionably?] decided that the path finding should only ever find the next cell the entity needs to move to, and was wondering if anyone has any clever ideas on how to optimize the algorithm for this specific scenario - or any other ideas on how to keep the pathfinding as lean as possible on the server. I have investigated a few possible algorithms but could only come up with one appropriation: Tiered A-Star - Relatively large T1 tiles, work out (and cache) each cell as you enter it. Other than that: doing the full A-Star pass and caching the entire path, which might use too much memory if a large amount of units are present. I know about the existence of naive progressive pathfinding algorithms (if you hit a block, turn in the direction closer to your target etc.) but they suffer from infinite feedback loops - and very poor pathing even if visited blocks are memorised. Not an option. Many thanks.

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  • StreamInsight 2.1, meet LINQ

    - by Roman Schindlauer
    Someone recently called LINQ “magic” in my hearing. I leapt to LINQ’s defense immediately. Turns out some people don’t realize “magic” is can be a pejorative term. I thought LINQ needed demystification. Here’s your best demystification resource: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattwar/archive/2008/11/18/linq-links.aspx. I won’t repeat much of what Matt Warren says in his excellent series, but will talk about some core ideas and how they affect the 2.1 release of StreamInsight. Let’s tell the story of a LINQ query. Compile time It begins with some code: IQueryable<Product> products = ...; var query = from p in products             where p.Name == "Widget"             select p.ProductID; foreach (int id in query) {     ... When the code is compiled, the C# compiler (among other things) de-sugars the query expression (see C# spec section 7.16): ... var query = products.Where(p => p.Name == "Widget").Select(p => p.ProductID); ... Overload resolution subsequently binds the Queryable.Where<Product> and Queryable.Select<Product, int> extension methods (see C# spec sections 7.5 and 7.6.5). After overload resolution, the compiler knows something interesting about the anonymous functions (lambda syntax) in the de-sugared code: they must be converted to expression trees, i.e.,“an object structure that represents the structure of the anonymous function itself” (see C# spec section 6.5). The conversion is equivalent to the following rewrite: ... var prm1 = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Product), "p"); var prm2 = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Product), "p"); var query = Queryable.Select<Product, int>(     Queryable.Where<Product>(         products,         Expression.Lambda<Func<Product, bool>>(Expression.Property(prm1, "Name"), prm1)),         Expression.Lambda<Func<Product, int>>(Expression.Property(prm2, "ProductID"), prm2)); ... If the “products” expression had type IEnumerable<Product>, the compiler would have chosen the Enumerable.Where and Enumerable.Select extension methods instead, in which case the anonymous functions would have been converted to delegates. At this point, we’ve reduced the LINQ query to familiar code that will compile in C# 2.0. (Note that I’m using C# snippets to illustrate transformations that occur in the compiler, not to suggest a viable compiler design!) Runtime When the above program is executed, the Queryable.Where method is invoked. It takes two arguments. The first is an IQueryable<> instance that exposes an Expression property and a Provider property. The second is an expression tree. The Queryable.Where method implementation looks something like this: public static IQueryable<T> Where<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, Expression<Func<T, bool>> predicate) {     return source.Provider.CreateQuery<T>(     Expression.Call(this method, source.Expression, Expression.Quote(predicate))); } Notice that the method is really just composing a new expression tree that calls itself with arguments derived from the source and predicate arguments. Also notice that the query object returned from the method is associated with the same provider as the source query. By invoking operator methods, we’re constructing an expression tree that describes a query. Interestingly, the compiler and operator methods are colluding to construct a query expression tree. The important takeaway is that expression trees are built in one of two ways: (1) by the compiler when it sees an anonymous function that needs to be converted to an expression tree, and; (2) by a query operator method that constructs a new queryable object with an expression tree rooted in a call to the operator method (self-referential). Next we hit the foreach block. At this point, the power of LINQ queries becomes apparent. The provider is able to determine how the query expression tree is evaluated! The code that began our story was intentionally vague about the definition of the “products” collection. Maybe it is a queryable in-memory collection of products: var products = new[]     { new Product { Name = "Widget", ProductID = 1 } }.AsQueryable(); The in-memory LINQ provider works by rewriting Queryable method calls to Enumerable method calls in the query expression tree. It then compiles the expression tree and evaluates it. It should be mentioned that the provider does not blindly rewrite all Queryable calls. It only rewrites a call when its arguments have been rewritten in a way that introduces a type mismatch, e.g. the first argument to Queryable.Where<Product> being rewritten as an expression of type IEnumerable<Product> from IQueryable<Product>. The type mismatch is triggered initially by a “leaf” expression like the one associated with the AsQueryable query: when the provider recognizes one of its own leaf expressions, it replaces the expression with the original IEnumerable<> constant expression. I like to think of this rewrite process as “type irritation” because the rewritten leaf expression is like a foreign body that triggers an immune response (further rewrites) in the tree. The technique ensures that only those portions of the expression tree constructed by a particular provider are rewritten by that provider: no type irritation, no rewrite. Let’s consider the behavior of an alternative LINQ provider. If “products” is a collection created by a LINQ to SQL provider: var products = new NorthwindDataContext().Products; the provider rewrites the expression tree as a SQL query that is then evaluated by your favorite RDBMS. The predicate may ultimately be evaluated using an index! In this example, the expression associated with the Products property is the “leaf” expression. StreamInsight 2.1 For the in-memory LINQ to Objects provider, a leaf is an in-memory collection. For LINQ to SQL, a leaf is a table or view. When defining a “process” in StreamInsight 2.1, what is a leaf? To StreamInsight a leaf is logic: an adapter, a sequence, or even a query targeting an entirely different LINQ provider! How do we represent the logic? Remember that a standing query may outlive the client that provisioned it. A reference to a sequence object in the client application is therefore not terribly useful. But if we instead represent the code constructing the sequence as an expression, we can host the sequence in the server: using (var server = Server.Connect(...)) {     var app = server.Applications["my application"];     var source = app.DefineObservable(() => Observable.Range(0, 10, Scheduler.NewThread));     var query = from i in source where i % 2 == 0 select i; } Example 1: defining a source and composing a query Let’s look in more detail at what’s happening in example 1. We first connect to the remote server and retrieve an existing app. Next, we define a simple Reactive sequence using the Observable.Range method. Notice that the call to the Range method is in the body of an anonymous function. This is important because it means the source sequence definition is in the form of an expression, rather than simply an opaque reference to an IObservable<int> object. The variation in Example 2 fails. Although it looks similar, the sequence is now a reference to an in-memory observable collection: var local = Observable.Range(0, 10, Scheduler.NewThread); var source = app.DefineObservable(() => local); // can’t serialize ‘local’! Example 2: error referencing unserializable local object The Define* methods support definitions of operator tree leaves that target the StreamInsight server. These methods all have the same basic structure. The definition argument is a lambda expression taking between 0 and 16 arguments and returning a source or sink. The method returns a proxy for the source or sink that can then be used for the usual style of LINQ query composition. The “define” methods exploit the compile-time C# feature that converts anonymous functions into translatable expression trees! Query composition exploits the runtime pattern that allows expression trees to be constructed by operators taking queryable and expression (Expression<>) arguments. The practical upshot: once you’ve Defined a source, you can compose LINQ queries in the familiar way using query expressions and operator combinators. Notably, queries can be composed using pull-sequences (LINQ to Objects IQueryable<> inputs), push sequences (Reactive IQbservable<> inputs), and temporal sequences (StreamInsight IQStreamable<> inputs). You can even construct processes that span these three domains using “bridge” method overloads (ToEnumerable, ToObservable and To*Streamable). Finally, the targeted rewrite via type irritation pattern is used to ensure that StreamInsight computations can leverage other LINQ providers as well. Consider the following example (this example depends on Interactive Extensions): var source = app.DefineEnumerable((int id) =>     EnumerableEx.Using(() =>         new NorthwindDataContext(), context =>             from p in context.Products             where p.ProductID == id             select p.ProductName)); Within the definition, StreamInsight has no reason to suspect that it ‘owns’ the Queryable.Where and Queryable.Select calls, and it can therefore defer to LINQ to SQL! Let’s use this source in the context of a StreamInsight process: var sink = app.DefineObserver(() => Observer.Create<string>(Console.WriteLine)); var query = from name in source(1).ToObservable()             where name == "Widget"             select name; using (query.Bind(sink).Run("process")) {     ... } When we run the binding, the source portion which filters on product ID and projects the product name is evaluated by SQL Server. Outside of the definition, responsibility for evaluation shifts to the StreamInsight server where we create a bridge to the Reactive Framework (using ToObservable) and evaluate an additional predicate. It’s incredibly easy to define computations that span multiple domains using these new features in StreamInsight 2.1! Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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  • Create a thread in xna Update method to find path?

    - by Dan
    I am trying to create a separate thread for my enemy's A* pathfinder which will give me a list of points to get to the player. I have placed the thread in the update method of my enemy. However this seems to cause jittering in the game every-time the thread is called. I have tried calling just the method and this works fine. Is there any way I can sort this out so that I can have the pathfinder on its own thread? Do I need to remove the thread start from the update and start it in the constructor? Is there any way this can work. Here is the code at the moment: bool running = false; bool threadstarted; System.Threading.Thread thread; public void update() { if (running == false && threadstarted == false) { thread = new System.Threading.Thread(PathThread); //thread.Priority = System.Threading.ThreadPriority.Lowest; thread.IsBackground = true; thread.Start(startandendobj); //PathThread(startandendobj); threadstarted = true; } } public void PathThread(object Startandend) { object[] Startandendarray = (object[])Startandend; Point startpoint = (Point)Startandendarray[0]; Point endpoint = (Point)Startandendarray[1]; bool runnable = true; // Path find from 255, 255 to 0,0 on the map foreach(Tile tile in Map) { if(tile.Color == Color.Red) { if (tile.Position.Contains(endpoint)) { runnable = false; } } } if(runnable == true) { running = true; Pathfinder p = new Pathfinder(Map); pathway = p.FindPath(startpoint, endpoint); running = false; threadstarted = false; } }

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  • Linking Libraries in iOS?

    - by Bob Dole
    This is probably a totally noob question but I have missing links in my mind when thinking about linking libraries in iOS. I usually just add a new library that's been cross compiled and set the build and linker paths without really know what I'm doing. I'm hoping someone can help me fill in some gaps. Let's take the OpenCV library for instance. I have this totally working btw because of a really well written tutorial( http://niw.at/articles/2009/03/14/using-opencv-on-iphone/en ), but I'm just wanting to know what is exactly going on. What I'm thinking is happening is that when I build OpenCV for iOS is that your creating object code that gets placed in the .a files. This object code is just the implementation files( .m ) compiled. One reason you would want to do this is to make it hard to see the source code and so that you don't have to compile that source code every time. The .h files won't be put in the library ( .a ). You include the .h in your source files and these header files communicate with the object code library ( .a ) in some way. You also have to include the header files for your library in the Build Path and the Library itself in the Linker Path. So, is the way I view linking libraries correct? If , not can someone correct me on this ?

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  • How can I discourage the use of Access?

    - by Greg Buehler
    Lets pretend that a very large company (revenue numbers with more than 8 figures) is looking to do a refresh on a software system, particularly the dashboard used by employees. This system was originally put together in the early 1990's to handle inventory tracking and storage across a variety of facilities (10+). Since this large company is now in the process of implementing some of these inventory processes with SAP they are in need of a major refresh. The existing system: Microsoft Access project performs dashboard duties Unique shipping/receiving configurations at different facilities require unique forms and queries within the Access project Uses 3rd party libraries referenced by Access to directly interface with at control system (read: motors, conveyors, and counters) Individual SQL Server 2000 instances (some traces of pre-update SQL Server 6.0 documents) at each facility The Issue: This system started as a home brewed inventory tracking scheme with a single internal sponsor who is still in charge of the technical direction. The original sponsor prescribing the desired deliverables that are being called for in the current RFP. The RFP describes a system based around a single Access project. Any suggestion that Access is ill suited for a project of this scope are shot down under the reasoning that "it works for the scope now". Are there any case studies, notices, or statements that can be used to disuade this potential customer from repeating their mistake? Does Microsoft make any statements directly about when it is highly recommended to ditch Access?

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  • How should I structure my database to gain maximum efficiently in this scenario?

    - by Bob Jansen
    I'm developing a PHP script that analyzes the web traffic of my clients websites. By placing a link to a javascript on the clients website (think of Google Analyses), my script harvests information like: the visitors IP address, reference link, current page link, user agent, etc. Now my clients can view these statistics via a control panel that I have build. These clients can also adjust profile settings, set firewall rules, create support tickets and pay invoices. Currently all the the traffic is stored in one table. You can imagine that this tabel would become very large as some my clients receive thousands of pageviews per day. Furthermore, all the traffic data of each client would be stored in the same table, creating a mess. This is the same for the firewall rules currently, and the invoice and support system. I'm looking for way to structure my database in a more organized way to hold large amounts of data of multiple users. This is the first project that I'm developing that deals with so much data, and would like to hear suggestions and tips. I was thinking of using multiple databases to structure the data. The main database will store users data (email,pass,id,etc) admin/website settings. Than each client will have an unique database labeled prefix_userid, which carry tables holding their traffic, invoice, and support ticket data. Would this be a solution, and would it slow down or speed up overall performances (that is spreading the data over muliple databases). I have a solid VPS, but would like to safe and be as effient as possible.

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  • How should I describe the process of learning someone else's code? (In an invoicing situation.)

    - by MattyG
    I have a contract to upgrade some in-house software for a large company. The company has requested multiple feature additions and a few bug fixes. This is my first freelance style job. First, I needed to become familiar with how the application worked - I learnt it as if I was a user. Next, I had to learn how the software worked. I started with broad concepts, and then narrowed down into necessary detail before working on each bug fix and feature. At least at the start of the project, it took me a lot longer to learn the existing code than it did to write the additional features. How can I describe the process of learning the existing code on the invoice? (This part of the company usually does things in-house, so doesn't have much experience dealing with software contractors like me, and I fear they may not understand the overhead of learning someone else's code). I don't want to just tack the learning time onto the actual feature upgrade, because in some cases this would make a 'simple task' look like it took me way too long. I want break the invoice into relevant steps, and communicate that I'm charging for the large overhead of learning someone else's code before being able to add my own to it. Is there a standard way of describing this sort of activity when billing for a job?

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