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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: [comp00] compiling happy.inf
Message-ID: <G31JEC.H75@world.std.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 14:11:00 GMT
References: <G2yH17.Et7@world.std.com> <972484636.82040@rexx.com> <8t836t$f56$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <972530894.557972@rexx.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
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Xref: news.duke.edu rec.games.int-fiction:57949

Andrew Plotkin  <erkyrath@eblong.com> wrote:
>I compile it about five hundred times. Two or three of those times, I
>intend to upload the game file (to beta-testers or public release),
>and then debugging/strict mode should be off. 497 times, I intend to
>test it myself. When I'm testing it myself, I *want* strict mode; I
>want as many errors reported as possible.
>
>So 497/500ths of the time, I want strict mode on. It kinda makes sense
>for that to be the default case.
>
>I still don't know if I would have done it that way.

It seems to me the problem is the linking of debug mode and strict
mode.  If games got released that were still compiled with strict
mode but not debug, they'd be bloated, but they would still behave
as the author intended.

I've yet to invest the effort in learning to use debug mode;
perhaps my opinion of the subject would change after working
on a larger game, but as it stands now, it seems to me I wouldn't
need *debug* mode anywhere near 497/500ths of the time (although
as with most debugging decisions, you may prefer to default to
debugging on since you don't know in advance on a given run
whether or not you'll need it).

Then again, perhaps it's for the best that debug is left on
in some shipping games, to offset the possibility that they
have bugs.  Ultima 7 included a secret "cheat mode" which allowed
you to do things like create a new object of any type; some people
who had their games messed up due to bugs were able to correct
their problems by cheating (although I don't know whether Origin
took the next logical step and trained their CS staff in how to
walkthrough such cheating^Winteractive-bug-fixing over the phone).

SeanB
