[Exophase]

This one fixes some things (one serious fatal bug in particlar), adds some small things... you should definitely all download it.

A lot of source was changed so something might have been broken; if you find any problems let me know and they'll be fixed in a new version released by early January.

http://www.digitalmz...mes/mzx281b.zip

- Exo

[GetDizzy]

Awesomeness, exophase. Keep up the damned good work.

[ajs]

Binaries available from http://tinyurl.com/exsp2 soon.

Great work Exo.

--ajs

[weasel]

Exophase, on Nov 27 2005, 04:39 PM, said:

A lot of source was changed so something might have been broken; if you find any problems let me know and they'll be fixed in a new version released by early January.

Here's to hoping that said broken things won't seriously affect the DoZ before then. But nevertheless, thank you Exo for releasing a new version. Even though I won't notice all the new stuff for weeks.

[Nedemai]

*sigh*

[Exophase]

wildweasel, on Nov 28 2005, 12:16 AM, said:

Exophase, on Nov 27 2005, 04:39 PM, said:

A lot of source was changed so something might have been broken; if you find any problems let me know and they'll be fixed in a new version released by early January.

Here's to hoping that said broken things won't seriously affect the DoZ before then. But nevertheless, thank you Exo for releasing a new version. Even though I won't notice all the new stuff for weeks.

Getting an update in before that time may be impossible. Then again, I might be able to get one in around December 14-15 depending on what my exam schedule is like then and if I've finished grading or not. Things are a bit up in the air right now and I'm pretty busy, but let's just hope for the best and see if nothing broke. If anything did it's probably obscure enough to be publically noted and avoided for DoZ games (although this would never actually stop anyone)

- Exo

[Exophase]

Nedemai, on Nov 28 2005, 01:50 AM, said:

*sigh*

If you're sighing at the number of releases lately I don't really know what to say to make things better for you D: 2.81 was a little rushed, and didn't have the best testing *cough* but given the circumstances for me and everyone else it was about the best that could be mustered. If it's any consolation it should be noted that I have yet to release a new version (new number/letter) without including at least one genuinely new feature. Look at 2.80f, which was released days after 2.80e; it was another vital bug fix version but I tirelessly added worthwhile features to make it worth downloading for everyone else. The new things in 2.81b are pretty minor but it still contains more than bug fixes over 2.81.

- Exo

[Revvy]

What's the big deal with downloading new versions? It takes about 5 seconds, the archive window opens and I extract. The only bit that takes time is opening the config.txt and my old config.txt in windiff and making sure there's nothing important I need to change.

[ajs]

NEW in 2.81c

+ Automatically download latest MegaZeux version via HTTP! Never download MZX again!

You never know..

--ajs

[Exophase]

ajs, on Nov 28 2005, 07:41 PM, said:

NEW in 2.81c

+ Automatically download latest MegaZeux version via HTTP! Never download MZX again!

You never know..

--ajs

But then MZX would need to include an HTTP library, just for that. That alone might bulk the binary size noticeable, unless there are some lightweight libraries for it out there.

- Exo

[Dr Lancer-X]

exo, a 'http' library can basically be sockets.h: grabbing a file from an address isn't much more than opening a connection to the domain and sending a GET request for the path.

[Revvy]

Exophase, on Nov 28 2005, 08:55 PM, said:

ajs, on Nov 28 2005, 07:41 PM, said:

NEW in 2.81c

+ Automatically download latest MegaZeux version via HTTP! Never download MZX again!

You never know..

--ajs

But then MZX would need to include an HTTP library, just for that. That alone might bulk the binary size noticeable, unless there are some lightweight libraries for it out there.

- Exo

SDL_net is like a 20kb DLL or something.

[Exophase]

Okay, I'll look into it, I guess. >_> Then I can release updates all the time without ajs moaning at me, oh joy! Okay, that's probably not true.

- Exo

[paulguy]

Would it compile, too? Or just grab the sources.

[RoSS]

It would probably take the latest binary.

[GetDizzy]

I think paulguy's point is that wouldnt work well on linux at all.

[Exophase]

Insidious, on Nov 29 2005, 12:44 PM, said:

I think paulguy's point is that wouldnt work well on linux at all.

It could pick binaries depending on the platform you're on. If binaries aren't available it could try to build from source.

Would MZX need unzipping support as well or would it just download raw files? Would it use binary diffs? This whole issue is more complicated than it seems at first.

- Exo

[Revvy]

If Firefox can do it, you can too! Binary diffs are the way to go!

Actually, I'd just go with a simple updated.txt which is read off the server which details what files were changed and gives checksums. MZX then downloads these files straight, makes sure they match the appropriate checksum then uses the new version next time mzx loads.

[paulguy]

That would be fine for windows but not linux/macos.

[Dr Lancer-X]

Why? Just download the binaries. Programs can be distributed fine using binaries.

[GetDizzy]

Its a problem because the only possible supplier of linux binaries at the moment has a 64-bit machine whereas we do not.

This post has been edited by Insidious: 30 November 2005 - 12:51 PM

[Exophase]

Insidious, on Nov 30 2005, 07:50 AM, said:

Its a problem because the only possible supplier of linux binaries at the moment has a 64-bit machine whereas we do not.

So what? That doesn't mean his binaries have to be 64bit.

- Exo

[Koji]

Just have a define in preprocessor code, that sets itself to the appropriate Platform, and downloads a file according to the define. And places it into the directory in ziped or non-zipped form so long as the user is notified that theres an upgrade ready in their folder.

[Mr_Alert]

Perhaps have compile-time options to define whether to download updates at all, whether to build from source or download binaries, and where to download the stuff from?

EDIT: Also, I wonder how you'd install the update on Linux without root/Administrator (assuming it's installed in /usr or other similar place).

This post has been edited by Mr_Alert: 01 December 2005 - 01:58 AM

[Koji]

TOO MANY BUILDS D=

My way doesn't expand the number of builds so it's better.

[Mr_Alert]

No, no. The compile time options will mostly be used by packagers so that when they make the builds, it downloads updates for that build instead of the official build or whatnot. Would be useful for someone making binary builds of MZX for platforms not officially supported by it, like *BSD (even though I think FreeBSD has a Linux compatibility layer), Linux on processors other than x86, BeOS, etc. Maybe even patched versions of MZX...although that might not be too well recieved. Anyway, you wouldn't have a binary for every possible combination of compile-time options.

[ajs]

Linux users don't need this anyway, we can already write very competent scripts to do this automatically.

I think this shouldn't be Windows only, but it should be binary only and should do changes using binary diffs if possible, so it's dialup friendly.

To be honest, it could be as easy as including "rsync.exe" in the distribution, then running an rsync server somewhere (which is 5 minutes to set up) that will binary diff for us, has an established protocol, and could easily be wrapped by MZX. I think reinventing the wheel here is unnecessary (unless a GUI is deemed necessary).

By the way, you guys can compile binaries now. 2.81b comes with a super-duper package.sh for compiling STATIC linux versions.

Just make sure you have a static libogg and libvorbis in your path, then type:

./config.sh linux-static

With no other flags, and it will automatically build a windows-esque, locally runnable version of MZX with a statically compiled libogg/libvorbis/libstdc++..

Tell me how it goes!

--ajs

[apage43]

ajs, on Nov 30 2005, 08:20 PM, said:

statically compiled libogg/libvorbis/libstdc++..

that sounds freakin huge

[ajs]

MZX's symbol stripped, so it only ends up 2-300 KB larger.

--ajs