ae ~master-20160928-origin

About this library

ae (fully named ArmageddonEngine) was initially intended to be the open-source part of an ambitious D rewrite of the 1999 video game "Worms Armageddon", of which I am a maintainer. As the library accumulated code and found use in various projects, its original purpose diminished. In the future, if there is sufficient reason for it (e.g. to allow static linking), it may be split up into multiple libraries.

License

Most of this library is licensed under the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. Some modules may have a different license (e.g. public domain); check the comments at the top of each module for details. You can generally expect the library to be GPL-compatible.

Using this library

For a complete-newbie Windows tutorial of setting up ae and building an SDL game demo, see here.

This library is not meant to be compiled as a static (.lib, .a) or shared (.dll, .so) library. Do not attempt to do so; you will run into problems with multiple entry points, dependencies you may not need, and other problems. Instead, it is intended to be used as a source library, together with a build tool (e.g. rdmd).

The recommended way to use the library is to set it up as a git external in your project's root, as seen here. This will link your project with a specific commit of the library, to avoid breakage due to API changes (see below).

Overview

The library is split into the following packages:

• ae.demo – This package contains a few demos for various parts of the library. Most of these are SDL demos.
• ae.net – All the networking code (HTTP, NNTP, IRC) lives here.
• ae.sys – Utility code which primarily interfaces with other systems (including the operating system).
• ae.ui – Framework for creating 2D games and graphical applications (SDL, OpenGL).
• ae.utils – Utility code which primarily manipulates data.

Notable sub-packages:

• ae.utils.graphics – Contains a templated graphical context optimized for speed, and basic support for a few image formats.

Data

Many modules that handle raw data (from the network / disk) do so using the Data structure, defined in ae.sys.data. See the module documentation for a description of the type; the quick version is that it is a type equivalent to void[], with a few benefits. Some modules use an array of Data, to minimize copying / reallocations when handling byte streams with unknown length.

Networking

ae uses asynchronous event-based networking. A select-based event loop dispatches events to connection objects, which then propagate them to higher-level code as necessary. The library may eventually move to a generic event loop, allowing for asynchronous processing and multiple event loops for different subsystems.

UI

Not much here yet. There is a working game demo in ae.demo.pewpew.

Warning

The library is in a constant state of flux, has no version numbers, and may never have a stable API. At the moment, it is little more than common code I use in various projects, optimized/organized for however much my time/mood allowed at the moment. The library may undergo significant changes, possibly even entire paradigm shifts, as I discover better/more efficient ways to use D.