> > > > > > > how is the ra2 normals coming along? has anyone gone back to working on them since last time?

> > > > > > Apparently, the claims LtZack made, were nothing more then a hoax. On condition I don't have too much real work and that some people behave properly, i'll start on the RA2 normals again.

> > > > > ok, but Alon doesn't count coz he can't stop swearing.

> > > > Shit boner fuck cock motherfucker cunt ass bitch dildo donkey raper

> > > okaaaay I'd say we're pretty much fucked.

> > > anyway. about my programming adventures. i still cannot figure out what version of MSVC++.NET i'm supposed to buy coz Microsoft hasn't told me. maybe i should just ask them but my mum says not to coz she says why should Microsoft talk to me. my mum is so supportive of my programming career isn't she? in the place which i'm going to learn VBscript (which i hate) and javascript. they had MSVC++6.0 on the computer so i had a go at trying to make the hello program. i couldn't get it to work. the instructor couldn't figure it out either. i think you're gonna have to wait a while before my computer game is ready.
> > :confused: VBScript and JavaScript don't have enough performance to run a game, right?

> errr i think the scripts only output text or files right?but about the speed of basic and java, nobody can give me a straight answer on this. i must say i'm tempted to move to java because the compiler is free and the source looks almost totally identical to C. but if i did that everyone would have to download the massive Java Runtime Environment thing which is the thing that is equivalent to Direct X i think. finding someone to help me with MSVC++ is getting ridiculous; everytime somebody fixes me up with some whizz programmer that they say can help me convert my program to work in windows, it turns out they know nothing about C++ and only about Java and Basic. so what do you think? should i move to java instead of C++? i never seen any java games though so i don't know if they can do what i need concerning hardware usage. if i make my program in java i can run it on different types of computers without changing the source code or even the exe, right?
Agreed, the JRE is big and a pain to install - just tell everyone to install Opera with Java first and it's installed - Opera installs JRE properly. Java is compiled into .class files - binary, platform-independant files. I've just had a course in Java, and I must say I'm not impressed by it's performance - especially String performance is very bad. Searching an array is faster than doing a position search inside a string.
Another things is that there are 'links' for Java with OpenGL I believe, but for a 3D application I'm not sure Java has enough performance to do it - I don't think so.
Performance-wise this is how I see languages:
C++ >> Delphi (Object Pascal) >> Visual Basic (EXE) ?? Java >> Visual Basic (debug) >> JavaScript/VBScript
So I think C++ is fastest, and I think it's a close call between compiled Visual Basic exe's and compiled Java. Note: there is a 'HotSpot' optimizer for Java, which greatly improves performance. Perhaps that'll make it faster than VB (EXE), or possibly even Delphi (nah, don't think so).