Reinterpreting EDL 2.0

[Goombert]

Hello ENIGMOs, I'm excited to share some exciting news with you all regarding ENIGMA's language design and the future of the engine. It has been a long and treacherous path in recent years to correctly parse C++ while balancing the user friendliness and smooth learning curve of traditional GML. After an arduous discussion on the prospects of JDI, we decided an alternative approach would give us everything we want and more.

I'm here today to announce that me and Josh have completely redesigned EDL from the ground up. We looked at earlier design cues that Mark Overmars took with GML and realized that we were emphasizing the C origins of the language way more than its COBOL or BASIC nuances. We believe there is no doubt that this reimagined EDL will serve to bring a vast new audience to the ENIGMA development scene like we have never seen before. Whether you feel that too many operators makes for a daunting language to memorize, or you prefer statements that read like English, EDL 2.0 will make you feel perfectly at home with Visual BASIC 6 all over again.

In order to make this easier for everyone we have outlined an incremental approach to replacing the current JDI over the coming months.

* The current JDI has to go, so we will begin by hoisting the current EDL up by its drag and drop boot straps.
* Once we have hammered out any regressions from the EDL->Drag and Drop conversion, we will delete the current JDI.
* I will then begin integrating the FreeBASIC compiler in place of the old JDI.
* A drag and drop -> VB6 converter will be developed.
* Finally, we will drop the EDL->Drag and Drop converter.

This would have been a nearly impractical objective in the past, but there has never been a better time than now for us to make this transition. There may be bugs along this road to progress, but if we can stick it out, I'm certain that we can usher in a new era of game development utopia. Please stay tuned and thank you all for your continued interest in ENIGMA!

[HitCoder]

Oh boy am I hyped for this implementation! I expect this is going to really broaden our horizons on possibilities within the engine, and can potentially help with the development of my own engines such as SONiGMA and my Visual Novel builder app. I'm so excited, Enigma everything so far has seemed SO PROMISING! 

[Dragonite]

Always good to see progress with the development. I couldn't quite grasp what will be the differences for the end user, though.
Either way, gambatte!

[Josh @ Dreamland]

The joke was that we were switching to Basic.

[Darkstar2]

The joke was that we were switching to Basic.

Speaking of jokes, have you ever considered the possibility of re-writing ENIGMA from the grounds up, say, perhaps in DarkBasic 

[time-killer-games]

The joke was that we were switching to Basic.

Yeah, I thought Robert was high when i read that...

[Darkstar2]

The joke was that we were switching to Basic.

Yeah, I thought Robert was high when i read that...

Oh blimey! I just realised this was written on April 1st, had me fooled

Good one Robert !

[Goombert]

Speaking of jokes, have you ever considered the possibility of re-writing ENIGMA from the grounds up, say, perhaps in DarkBasic

Quite frankly, I like the sound of rewriting ENIGMA in Darkstar2BASIC. I really want to see us get back to the basics of programming.

[Darkstar2]

Speaking of jokes, have you ever considered the possibility of re-writing ENIGMA from the grounds up, say, perhaps in DarkBasic

Quite frankly, I like the sound of rewriting ENIGMA in Darkstar2BASIC. I really want to see us get back to the basics of programming.

Well DarkBasic / DarkBasic Pro is now free open source, it is a game creation language on its own, with structured BASIC like commands, though it might not be suitable for ENIGMA, though for 3D development, yes, it provides better 3D functionality than GMS, though limited in terms of quality, but still better than what GM can do.  I haven't been following much progress since, but from what I remember it was based on Microsoft DirectX, at the time DX7 dunno if they support newer revisions though.  It also does not compile - it emits bytecode which is appended to an interpreter, so in other words "runner".

Game making engines the likes of FPS Creator, FPS X10, Game Guru, were all based on DarkBasic - I have seen of the games people created with them, and they are far better than the 3D stuff I have seen made with GM / GMS.

As far as rewriting ENIGMA in DarkBasic, I don't think so   Unless people are planning to make 3D only games, otherwise it might come at a performance cost.

[time-killer-games]

ween