A poll to settle the naming debate:
0 voters
And for the lazy people who can’t be bothered to scroll:
Finnish Food:
File Formats:
Retro Stuff:
Why not use file format for the the first name and retro stuff for the last name?
Not a bad idea, though I think the other way around works better.
Rather than:
Or maybe a mixture?
I like these the best 
Perhaps in the future the opponents along with their names could be procedurally generated, plus you might use some of these words for their home planets too.
I am planning to put 3 pilot per page, so there is room for the name and a short info, like the motto or something.
I think that would make them a bit too generic.
Their planets can be named after Finnish food. :P
Actually, I was only half-serious with that suggestion 
, but I think we got really nice names with combined retro themed and file formats names. I am happy I do not have to chase “Liha Pulla” (a meatball) in the race
I understand to Finnish people it must feel weird if they know the words, better stick to the other sets.
Next, I am going to have a break of gfx related coding 
I am going to implement small chiptune fanfares and melodies to the game with the help of @jonne’s SFX Editor. At first I was thinking to implement an own music player class, but after browsing PokittoLib I decided to use exiting Synth.h API for that. That is the same API the Tracker is using for playing tracker files from SD, but I will define the song as an array instead.
Hey Hanski, I have already added note duration as a parameter to the Synth.
My intention was to implement this: http://abcnotation.com/
There is a command-line open source version here:
I am confused.
Alda claims to be a ‘programming language’, but it looks to me just another way of notation.
What am I missing?
EDIT: at the very best, Alda could be called a markup language. But programming language it definitely is not. Disappointed.
Because if it were, it would be a cool idea indeed.
They probably mean the wide definition of a programming language – a declarative, special-purpose, non-Turing-complete complete programming – the meaning in which even HTML can be seen as “document programming”. You can use it to “program” a music controller – i.e. make it do stuff – and it behaves in a way similar to classic programming languages (REPL), but you can’t make general programs with it.
But it could be used as a “sublanguage” in another scripting language to make it fully programmable.
Yes, I can see there is a support for that, but not in (Synth_songfuncs.cpp) void updatePlayback() which I plan to use ( indirectly)
I’m with @jonne on this, I don’t consider markup languages to be programming.
(And we’re not alone in this belief.)
You’re not telling the computer how to do something, you’re describing data to it.
It’s a subtle but important semantic difference.
That said…
What you’re missing is that it supports inline Clojure.
So technically it’s still a markup language, but it allows the embedding of another language,
so it’s like HTML with embedded JavaScript.
I think some people would be happy to be chasing meatballs. :P
(Mario chases mushrooms after all.)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m with you too, this isn’t programming in usual sense. I’m trying to offer an explanation, and my point is that words have multiple meanings, and there exists a meaning of the term programming language that is very wide in scope and some people are using it, and I think this is the case here.
There are languages, such as Prolog, that aren’t telling computer what to do, but are programming languages. There are also languages that aren’t Turing-complete and are telling computer what to do. And there are languages that aren’t Turing-complete and are often called programming languages, e.g. SQL and Charity.
So as there is no clear bordeline, by continuing to study languages and trying to find a definition that really captures the essence of a programming language, you arrive at some form of that very general definition, like: a programming language is a formal language that defines how to produce some output (usually from an input, but it’s not required – imagine a program that just computes pi). And by this very broad definition a lot of things like HTML or a text file (joke, but technically fits the definition) is a programming language.
I have nothing against that. I just think the originator of the project is not being honest. If it were a real programming language (or even partially so) it would have things like flow control and arithmetics and then it would be a very interesting proposition, because it would open up the idea of writing procedural music. Now its just notation.
I see – a kind of “misleading advertising” – I can agree with that. Maybe if you rise an issue at GH, they could change it.
I had my reply all written, then I decided I just can’t be bothered to argue.
Nobody’s going to change their opinion, so there’s no point, it’s just a waste of time.
All it’s going to do is derail the thread even more.