"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools"

Quite a good guideline if you are making a game/application foolproof.

Let’s do something simple:

4 / 2 = 2 – Rest: 0

We all know how to do this, 2 fits two times into 4, nothing remains and thus rest is = 0.
The modulo operation to get this “0” would be

var rest = 4 % 2;

Now let’s actually take it into account with something that gives us some “rest”:

5 / 2 = 2.5; Rest: 1

Okay, stop now. That doesn’t make sense. Right?! 2.5 times 2 is 5, there is nothing left over!? Well no. If you make a modulo operation, it is as if you make the division with integer numbers. In this case this means:

5 / 2 = 4; Rest 1

Because as an integer number, 2 only fits two times inside 5. And the remainder of the operation is 1, the number it takes to make the full 5.

And again, in modulo this is:

var rest = 5 % 2; // = 1

One more example before I go into “real-life-application” examples:

8 / 3 = 2.666~; Rest: 2 – Or in Modulo result:

8 / 3 = 2; Rest: 2

Okay, let’s make this a real life example. For instance, a simple function that tell us if the a number is odd or even:

function IsEven(num)

{

    return !(num % 2);

}

This is easy explained. The function calculates the modulo for the division “num/2” if the number is even, the result will be 0. As the function is called “IsEven” I invert the result (using !) so that instead of 0 it returns 1. If the function would be called “IsOdd” you can leave it without the !, like this:

function IsOdd(num)

{

    return (num % 2);

}

We can even use it in a clever way to execute something every n’th frame:

...

while(1)

{

    if(total_frames % 5 == 0) // every 5 frames

    {

        temp += 1; // add 1 to temp

    }

    wait(1);

}

...

Modulo is a great way to do counters and do lots of tricky operations in just a matter of a single line. If you know how to use it, modulo is a mighty operator and can optimize your code BIG TIME.

What I wanna say with that is, I tried to updgrade the blog from 2.6.2 to 2.7 and it kinda messed everything. I had to deactivate all the plugins and themes before I got to see anything but a blank page.

I hope Google picks this up in case someone else saw all those other Google results and still is wondering why his blog doesn’t work: DISABLE THE WP-STICKY PLUGIN, it causes a conflict, because the new WP version already has a built-in sticky function.

First of all, if you have a big widescreen monitor, use the space, don’t maximize windows’ but rather arrange them the way that you use 3/4 of the monitor for your most important program (e.g. WED) and the other 1/4 for tools or some other secondary program you access often (e.g. SED). If you have two or more screens, it’s advisable to use the monitors one program for each one. For example like me:

I use my 17” Screen for SED, and additionally also move the sidebar from WED to the second screen, so I have the entire 21” Screen for WED, and WED only. Also I use a minimalistic Windows theme. If you don’t want to install new Windows themes, you can also just set the theme setting for “Active Window Bar” to a smaller value, so the title bars of your windows are smaller and occupy less space.

WED

I have adjusted the key mapping in WED, so I have to move the mouse less and have more time doing the actual work rather than running the mouse across screen all the time to select the appropriate tools.

Keeping in mind that I have a German keyboard (if you have an American/English keyboard, just imagine the Y and Z key swapped) this is how I mapped them:

• > – Select mode
• Y – Move mode
• X – Rotate mode
• C – Scale mode
• A – Vertex mode
• S – Edge mode
• D – Face mode
• [Tilde] – Show properties window
• F8 / F9 – Build / Run (A4 Nostalgia!)

Now you have a incredibly increased workflow in WED, once you get used to use these shortcuts, you can modify and move objects in a matter of split seconds instead of wasting precious time moving the mouse to your toolbar every time you need to change the mode.

SED

I use a different syntax highlighting as you can see from the screenshot above. I consider it more tranquilizing to the eyes than the bright default scheme, this way you don’t get the infamous “tired eyes” from programming hours and hours through the night. If you like the theme, you can download it at the end of this post.

If you are still using A6 and are bound to C-Script, or use C-Script for other reasons, then it is a good idea to give your variables useful names to remember what type of information they store as C-Script only has one variable definition.

For example:

var bIsUsed = false; // b for Boolean

var iEnemyCount = 10; // i for Integer

var dDistanceFromPlayer = 2.3; // d for Double/Decimal

var hMusicFile; // h for Handle

var sTempString = str_create("Hello World!"); // s for String

string sTestString = "Just a test"; // Same here

Also remember, that you can use variables and even skills to save strings in them! That makes it easier to create string arrays (which are a bit tricky when using the “text” object, for example:

// Single String

var sOneString;

sOneString = str_create("This is the content");

// String array

var sStringArray[5];

sStringArray[0] = str_create("The");

sStringArray[1] = str_create("cake");

sStringArray[2] = str_create("is");

sStringArray[3] = str_create("a");

sStringArray[4] = str_create("lie");

// And in skills

my.skill1 = str_create("Wohoo!");

// You can access them just as easy, no workarounds.

draw_text(sOneString, 200, 200, vector(255,255,255));

draw_text(sStringArray[2], 200, 300, vector(255,255,255));

draw_text(my.skill1, 200, 400, vector(255,255,255));

That’s enough for now! Practice with what you learned today, and then I’ll publish some new advise!