source.txt

So, here it is. The HEX source code.
Be prepared for shock, drama, laugh
and tears. It's even better than `dynasty'.
At the same time, it sucks even more.

Portability? Who said "it's going to be
like trying to get windows NT running
on a 8088". Or worse. Best thing to do?
Snatch the offsets/structures/sizes, and
start all over. Totally from scratch.

I have a couple of requests, that I hope you
will obey. I can't do anything to stop you,
I just hope you won't act like an average nobrain
AOL guy (gay?) and piss people off.

1: Do NOT use C++ code. Straight C, please.
2: Rewrite everything in C code (straight).
3: Make it PORTABLE. No x86, SUN, MAC, dos,
   windows, linux or any other dependent code.
   (Of course you will have to have SOME of it
   to get screen output et cetera, but try to
   do it in a portable way, requiring the least
   work for anybody else trying to port it).
4: 16/32/64-bit clean. Endian cleannes also.
   If any endianness issues come up, assume x86 endiannes. 
   I'd rather see code using sizeof(int) than something
   having baddy baddy #defines  and  #ifdefs. Remember:
   as few #ifdefs as possible!
5: Try not to duplicate any of my bugs/shortcomings.

Also, I'd like to still be mentioned as the Author.
This might seem quite ludicrous if you just did a
total rewrite, but there's an idea behind the madness:

I DON'T want a million HEX copies floating around.
*ONE* port per platform, done by serious people.
Everybody will get the credit they deserve! Also,
*ONE* person should be in charge of distributing new
releases for each platform. I'd like to be notified of
new releases (at least until I say otherwise), and all
ports should also be uploaded to both cdrom.com (at least
if it's a x86 port, I don't know if they want amiga/other_
weird_machine ports). I'd also like to be able to provide
links to all existing ports.


Well, I might be overly optimistic about all this.
Currently I'll only release the source to ONE team,
since I'd like a working code base in straight C.
Then I'll make the code publicly available (both the
old pascal code and the new C code base), and then
people can start playing around if they want to. I'll
probably want to make a new DOS version (with a 32bit
C compiler this time). Somebody should probably do a
windows version, so I can finally stop getting emails
from "those people who shouldn't have bought a computer".
I mean, people who don't even care to read the manual
before sending bitchy emails. Guess how many of those
came from AOL? (Not that ALL AOL'ers are lamers, though.
It's sad that there's reasonable people using AOL, since
there's a goddamn shitload of prejudice against it :-D).


Hope you can use it! -- Sune Marcher, suneman@silkeborg.bib.dk