OK, I gotta hand it to CoPilot.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

I think I need to learn Godot or something for the prototyping phase. Even if I end up writing the whole game twice, iterating on gameplay ideas in 6502 assembly does not seem at all like a more efficient use of time. I was so excited to get something running in VICE but now I'm overwhelmed enough by the high level concepts (proc gen maps and the dual grid stuff at the moment) that trying to think it through at a super low level just isn't working.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

I think I'm making a charset/tileset editor now, somehow? Why are all the existing tools for this stuff so complicated and confusing?

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Qt Quick/QML has too many ways to make runtime errors. Why am I dealing with static types and a compiler and static analyzers if I can still have random brokenness I'll only find at runtime by clicking the right place?

This does not spark joy.

[matt@toot.cafe]

@swelljoe Have you looked at Slint (https://slint.dev/)? Its accessibility is a work in progress, but as I understand it, it supports static typing all the way through. Written in Rust, but supports a few languages, including C++ and Python.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@matt I hadn't heard of it. I kind of settled on Qt because it's so mature, has accessibility features baked in, has good tooling (qmillint, Gammaray, etc.), and I could find a lot of examples (I simply need examples, my brain can't do anything with just an API reference). And, it's not terrible that I got an excuse to refresh and modernize my C++ skills a little bit.

But, when it comes to building something big, I kind of already know I don't want to use C++ or Qt. Probably Rust or Zig.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@matt oh, they're aiming straight for Qt's embedded/auto market, huh? They have a backend targeting Linux without X or Wayland. Very embeddy. https://docs.slint.dev/latest/docs/slint/guide/backends-and-renderers/backend_linuxkms/

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@matt but, it looks really nice! Reactive UIs seemingly without the island of garbage upon which they built React.js.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

More progress on the sprite editor. Preview looks OK, now (it was stretched to fill the space before, because I'm still figuring out how to make things specific sizes and shapes and locations in QML). Save also works correctly.

I also made a little guy with a big butt and big ears, I guess.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Tried to refactor Main.qml into separate components without any alteration of the appearance or functionality.

In the distance, sirens.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Maybe that joke is obscure tumblore and I should explain.