[geeks] Writing software [was Re: Can't decide on an OS]

[Phil Stracchino]

On 10/02/13 03:34, Mouse wrote:
> Oh, one minor additional note:
> 
>>>> See, again, the post of 2012-10-31 and the various other posts on
>>>> the same general topic.
>>> That post describes a phobic response [...]
> 
> I don't think so.  I don't _fear_ the Web.  I _hate_ it.

I don't hate the web.  But I am angry and frustrated at the mindset that
insists any and every online service absolutely must be implemented via
the web.  The web is a big shiny hammer accessible by technically
unskilled people who think PHP is a serious programming language[1], and
everything looks like a nail to them, even when they're quite clearly
trying to smash a square peg into a round hole by sheer brute force and
bloody-minded ignorance.

A great example of this is the Web-based first-person gaming engine
recently published and in limited use[2] by several major game companies
(Crytek for example, publisher of the Far Cry and Crysis game series).
I actually tried out one of those games, not realizing until I actually
started it that it was web-based instead of merely having a web-based
installer.  And my god, it was ATROCIOUS.  It was HORRIBLE.  It was
unplayably laggy and jerky.  It was like being on an 80286 again (on a
machine with six 64-bit cores and a graphics card with 480 vector
pipelines).  It completely boggles me that anyone ever managed to
convince anyone that it was a good idea in the first place, and I'm
quite certain it was possible only because all of the managers and
investors involved were completely ignorant both of the technical
limitations of the web environment and of the actual needs of
first-person games.


[1]  http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/
[2]  I've only heard of one Crytek game using the engine, promised with
lots of hype, then it released and ... suddenly vanished from the news.
 I'm guessing it crashed and burned the moment actual gamers got to try
it hands-on and told Crytek exactly how badly it sucked.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino
  Babylon Communications
  phils at caerllewys.net
  phil at co.ordinate.org
  Landline: 603.293.8485