C plus plus version

Original document (and comments) by Taldor in black, comments by Numsgil in Red.

We discuss the C++ design and coding standards in here. A wiki is much handier then a forum or PM's for this.

Language switch

You wonder why we're switching? Because VB is for simple, gui based programs. Darwinbots is nor a simple program, nor gui based. In contrary C++ is a powerfull language, but it has a higher development cost.

Visual Basic controvercy

C++ design

General concepts

• Class based approach. In some cases, procedural in others. It's a value decision I'll make as I port the code.
• Portable code. Where possible. Preferably in house or free library wrappers for non portable functions, such as multithreading and OS timers.

Structure

See the present VB code

The VB stucture is not a good C++ structure. VB and C++ are totally diffrent languages.

Only in the microscopic sense.

Could you please explain? To me they seem totally diffrent.

When you view the way in which the VB modules interact, that's exactly the same way the C++ modules will interact.

Wether you paint in black and white or in color, shapes are going to be the same.

Shapes and colors have very little to do with the structure of a program.

• User Interface (Fox Toolkit)
  • Simulation sub window (3D - OpenGL)
  • Darwin (the simulation engine)
    • Tie
      • Robot
        • Sense
      • Veg

To be used everywhere:

• Vector_4 (using uBLAS) Present vector class is from this gamedev.net article. I'll use whichever is fastest, feel free to perfrom benchamrks
• Matrix_4 (also using uBLAS) See above
• Random (using 'srand()' and 'rand()') See the chapter on random numbers
• Object (the base class) Depends on the class

C++ coding standards

1. C++ C++ libraries where such libraries do what I want them to do, C libraries otherwise. Another value decision. All C librairies are included in C++. Mixing C and C++ isn't the easiest task, however OO C++ and procedural C++ can be mixed easily. I agree, but I've been having some trouble with various C++ libraries that immediatly goes away when I switch to the C versions. Might just be my compiler MSVC++ 6.0 Prolly, it's crap. :-P Try the MinGW version of the gcc compiler.
2. Four spaced tabs - Aye.
3. External librairies when possible (ie. Boost) Internal libraries where possible, to decrease the number of code dependancies, except where external libraries perform the job faster/more comoprehensively than internal libraries can.
4. Use the 80 character line If you insist... Yup, I do. ;-)
5. Fox Toolkit
6. OpenGL

Quotes

1. "There must be something terribly wrong with your code. Please fix it." -- Dev-C++

See also

1. RoundTable
2. C/C++ Reference
3. C++ FAQ Lite