Are we there yet?

…Not quite, but I think we’re in the final stretch now!

I now have a usable debugger up and running. It’s currently pretty simple but the basics are in, ie: you can run/pause/step/enter/leave mx2 code and see all the variables on the stack as they are updated. And wow, you forget how much easier a debugger can make life when you’re so used to going without!

The bad news is that I wont be ‘releasing’ this just yet. The debugger – all the GUI stuff in fact – is based on mojo2, and mojo2 is IMO not quite ready for release. I did consider releasing a ‘mojo2-old’ style module, but I have decided against that as it would also need to include an ‘old’ version of the app/window stuff and would just confuse things in the long run I think.

I have abandoned plans for a whole new 2d module, and have instead decided to soup up mojo2. The biggest change I am planning to make here is getting rid of the mojo2 ‘Renderer’ class, which is currently used for lighting/shadows (well, you can ‘sort of’ do these directly with canvas but it isn’t pretty). Instead, lights will be ‘added’ directly to drawlists, in the same way ShadowCasters are. The Renderer class was a pretty good idea, but it forced you to use/create a scenegraph design which IMO just didn’t ‘fit’ with the rest of Mojo2’s ‘immediate mode’ approach.

Most of the ‘grunt work’ stuff like images, fonts, drawing etc will remain the same (with several enhancements) so most of your mojo2 code will look the same/similar, unless you’re using Renderer of course. A backward compatibility Renderer class is a possibility here if there is enough demand.

As for the IDE, I have scaled back my ambitions here a bit. I was (and in the long run, still am) planning on building a ‘plugin’ based IDE, that would allow you to write plugins for stuff like map/scene editors, file conversion tools etc, but I think I got a bit ahead of myself here. This is something best done with a reasonably mature set of APIs, and mx2 just isn’t there yet, to put it mildly!

So the ‘new’ Ted2 is simpler than I originally intended, and in fact bears a stricking resemblance to Ted1. This is pretty much complete now, although it lacks ‘options’ dialogs (you will need to edit JSON files) and a few other bits and pieces. Also, although I wanted to do ‘native’ menus, I ended up doing custom ones instead – it was just faster/easier than getting native menus going on Windows/MacOS/Linux and of course will work everywhere.

I also get that not everyone will use Ted2, so I am also planning to do something like ‘mx2db’ that includes the debugger but is used the same way as mx2cc.

My current goal is to get a V1.0 of mx2 together so people can start actually using it. In addition to what’s already up on github, this will include:

* Ted2 (with usable debugger)
* Custom Gui module.
* Sexier Mojo2 module.
* Decent set of docs.
* Usable help system.
* mx2db for people using 3rd party IDEs.

Things that will not, alas, be in V1.0:

* Threads
* Reflection
* Module manager (soon!)
* Android/iOS support (soon!)
* Custom 3D Module

It’s been about a year now since I started mx2 and yes, like seemingly all software projects, it’s taken longer than originally planned. I have probably taken the ‘long way around’ with a few things, but I do think the end result is going to be pretty cool. I have used it a LOT myself over the last 6 months (something I probably didn’t do enough of with monkey1) and, while there is stil lots to do, I am really happy with the general direction it’s taking.

Bye!
Mark