Dark Bit Factory & Gravity
ARCHIVE => Archive => Cobra => Topic started by: Shockwave on February 04, 2007
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I must admit that although the IDE looks great and there's a good chance to look at the commands, there was no way to see how the language really would perform out of the blocks so I've just purchased a copy...
Thoughts so far are that the transaction was smooth but the download link is fucking terrible. 6kbps on a 2mb wireless broadband connection! Still, the 14.5 mb of Cobra is inching it's way towards me in a quite enticing way.
If the language is (as I suspect) a really good alternative to BB2D I might even put up a few Cobra Licenses as prizes in future demo comps to get some newbies learning to code :D
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Graham, seriously you ned to complain about the slow download of your product mate. I expected it to come a lot faster.
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Mmm. I created an executable with Cobra.. For some reason I cannot pack it with UPX or KKrunchy but there must be some margin for compression because the size has come down a little when I packed it into a rar file to upload.
This is Clydes plasma compiled into an exe.. It's definately running a lot faster than the original with debug mode turned on, speed wise and looking at the code I'd say it's on a par with Blitz 2D, the exes seem like they could be smaller than Blitz..
Early days..
Btw, the online manual in the IDE is not much use. There's not even a search function, this needs fixing up in a future version.
This is very, very, very stupidly easy to learn basic programming with though.
Btw, Graham, if you're reading this nothing in the examples that uses Fmod will compile.
Also the pricing is misleading, Cobra Actually costs £35 when you add on the vat.
As a language it seems to be a bit better than I thought, I'll have some fun with it for sure.
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It won't run on my computer, crashes every try. Are there any dll files one would need to run it?
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I wouldn't have thought so mate... I'm sure Graham would be interested in this.
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Doesn't seem to do anything at all here.
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Mmm. I created an executable with Cobra.. For some reason I cannot pack it with UPX or KKrunchy but there must be some margin for compression because the size has come down a little when I packed it into a rar file to upload.
I believe the compiler packs using UPX when creating the exe.
the fmod thing is broken. :(
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For some reason I cannot copy the text in the error report, but its one of those standard error windows where you have the option of sending it to microsoft.
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@SW:
1st, thanks for your first impressions on cobra ( full version ).
2nd, unfortunately the programm doesnt start here either ???
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That's really wierd how it's failing on other machines. Shame fmod is fucked in Cobra :(
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I can confirm the EXE is already UPX packed, it goes from 168->80Kb roughly.
However when it's packed it crashes, first with a 'report to microsoft bug' dialog and then with a second (cobra specific? since I don't recognise it) dialog which says it read from location 0x00000000.
If I unpack it using UPX -d (latest version), then it just exits without showing any dialogs at all.
WindowsXP SP2, if that helps.
Jim
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Doesn't run on my Win 2K box either.
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Does this run on any other box apart from mine?
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Yep Runs fine on my machine :) I would post the deatails of the problems on Squeakyduck forum rather than here so Graham is sure to read them. Make sure you have the latest patch. There was some mention of Win 2K problems but since I don't have 2K I paid no attention to the comments.
Oh yeah I'm running XP / 512/ Athlon 1.2 ghz / DX9c etc.
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Yay! Cheers Bill.
You're right, I should go over there and have a look for some patches and post the problems..
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Hi matey,
Some mixed comments there :D
Still to answer a few for ya.
Sorry about the download speed, but that's down to SWreg rather than me, I've done some tests and not had a particularly bad download speed. Hopefully you where just unlucky.
From the size of the above, you've just compiled, not compiled/packed the exe.. This means it will only work on your machine (or anyone else with cobra installed). Compile / pack includes the engine in the exe (sorry it bloats, but I have mentioned that in the past, I'm slowly working on reducing the size, but it is a slow process).
*edit* had to run off, here are a few more answers.
The runtime is packed using UPX, partly to stop it from being repacked (as this would break the feature to bundle the engine inside), the rest of it is packed using another packing process which should yeald the same if not better results to UPX. Only real scope for additional packing is the section of your own code (which may get packed too in future).
I'm probably going to make the FMOD binding available as a free / unsupported binding, generally FMOD's pricing was just too steep for an indie like myself to support, hence the change.
Help is being updated as we speak, there is a thread about it on the forums, includes searching as well as tutorials etc.
Price, it does mention 'may include local taxes', sorry nothing I can do about the tax man (again a thread about this on the site).
Don't forget to register your purchase at squeakyduck, then you can get to the updates (although I think you are up to date if you've just downloaded).
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Cheers for the reply Graham, overall I am impressed at the simplicity of the language, it should be easy for people to pick up. I'm going to play with it until I get a good enough working knowledge of the language to be able to support it properly here.
I'll certainly pop over and register my download at your place.
As for the coments being a mixed bag, overall my impressions are good, the language is accessable and I'd pitch it a little bit less difficult than Blitz, but it certainly has areas which will need improving as you release future updates, like the online command reference etc..
Hope your sales are going well.
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Thanks, glad you are liking it :updance:
The aim was certainly for it to be an easy language to work with, but with the features I was missing from blitz.
Don't forget, feel free to suggest improvements I'm all ears (hmm no smiley for all ears ;) )