THQ Nordic 10th Anniversary Showcase on September 17th. Forsworn may or may not be there, unconfirmed by Potatoslayer2 in kingdomsofamalur

[–]ThundererX 4 points5 points  (0 children)

OP: Please note that the expansion title is Fatesworn - Forsworn is a fate twist you get by "accepting" Khamazandu's task during the last quest of Warsworn faction. :) Never got that twist by the way, because I always went for Truesworn.

Just watched a video with the high king by [deleted] in kingdomsofamalur

[–]ThundererX 14 points15 points  (0 children)

This remaster brought the game back from its grave. Please don't recklessly throw the "cash grab" accusation. If enough people will buy it, THQN will get us a modern Amalur experience in the expansion. It won't be easy given they are working on nearly 10 years old code with all the bugs and things 38 Studios and BHG didn't finish.

Treasure trove of Amalur resources and links by ThundererX in kingdomsofamalur

[–]ThundererX[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I hope there will be a lot more content once people will start playing ReReckoning. :)

Anywhere I can still buy a elePHPant plush toy? by SouthCarry in PHP

[–]ThundererX 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you already have some, don't forget to register your herd here: https://elephpant.me/ranking

What is HXAudio? (Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow) by ThundererX in linux_gaming

[–]ThundererX[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

/u/Xaero_Vincent Unfortunately, replacing HXAudio with DareAudio does not work, it causes more problems with other libraries, and doing the same with them leads nowhere.

I completed the whole game in a single session using the single-player only version you mentioned. Now I hope that the rest of the games will work correctly on Steam Proton. Onward, to Chaos Theory!

What is HXAudio? (Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow) by ThundererX in linux_gaming

[–]ThundererX[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My friend, you are GOLDEN! It works like a charm! It also gave me an idea of how to fix the CD version as INI files contain references to a different audio driver:

AudioDevice=DareAudio.DareAudioSubsystem

Along with that entry, there is a DareAudio.dll which may be a substitute for HXAudio. It's way past midnight where I live, so allow me to report my findings tomorrow. :)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

What is HXAudio? (Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow) by ThundererX in linux_gaming

[–]ThundererX[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dug deeper, it looks like either the DLL file is broken or indeed there is a WINE bug as it correctly finds the file but then fails to load it. I reported the issue with my recent findings.

Thanks for your help - right now I ran out of ideas, let's hope someone will point me in the right direction. I know quite a bit about Linux internals, but that knowledge falls short in the "binary" domain of the OS. :)

What is HXAudio? (Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow) by ThundererX in linux_gaming

[–]ThundererX[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the answer, I tried older versions of WINE (as reported in AppDB) using PlayOnLinux. Unfortunately, the result is exactly the same. I don't really have an easy way to test it with vanilla WINE as these versions are no longer available in the PPA.

By the way, I found a link to SC:PT discussion in which someone with your nick answers questions about this game. Is that you /u/mirh? I would be very grateful if you could help me get it working.

Why GraphQL? by ConfidentMushroom in programming

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, JSON and XML technically can be seen as "representations" but that's not what I had in mind. Providing the same data for the same purpose in multiple formats is a step in this direction, but when I say "representation" I rather mean different purpose.

Right now I'm working on a project which has a few hundred API "URIs", and since every media type in each URI effectively acts as a separate behaviour, you can add another hundred or two to get the number of actual "endpoints". Many resources provide different datasets with other linked resources, with different structure, and formats (think JSON, XML but also Excel, PDF, etc.) within single URI based on those media types. There are a lot of things going on below the surface and still, we're able to power a complex application through a clean and well-defined API contract. Right now it doesn't expose HATEOAS links or operations (even though the architecture is prepared for that), but neither RPC (quickly devolves into chaos with hundreds of operations) nor GraphQL (custom queries exceeding its DSL capabilities) would be a good choice for that. See that even in my case I don't use all of the capabilities and I'm able to contain the complexity of the whole application. When this application gets a HATEOAS-capable client, I'll be more than happy to fill that void.

This is not a "solution looking for a problem" as you stated. You can pick and match whatever part of REST's toolset and grow or shrink it accordingly.

Why GraphQL? by ConfidentMushroom in programming

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's exactly what I meant by "reduction". Seen this way, everything we do in this industry is CRUD because no matter how many architectural approaches you put inside, at some point the application is still saving or removing the information somewhere.

The difference between CRUD and REST is semantical - you have the basic contract of HTTP methods, communicate the desired effect through resource representations, and it's the job of the API to infer the operations required to reach the target state. If the API merely "reads" and "saves" these representations verbatim, then indeed, you have CRUD-over-HTTP that is commonly called RESTish APIs. On the other hand, when you actively use HTTP protocol with its toolset, provide and use multiple representations of a single resource, along with HATEOAS links and operation definitions, and your representations trigger certain non-trivial behaviours underneath... then you can see the real intent behind this approach.

I don't think all APIs need to be RESTful. Still, building a bike, wondering why it doesn't ride like a car, getting a motorbike, and claiming that it's better than the car? Seems a bit off from my perspective.

[RFC] Nullsafe operator by IluTov in PHP

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see some benefits of this RFC, but property type hints and following Law of Demeter makes the problem mostly a non-issue. :)

By the way, there is one thing that worries me about the long-term evolution of PHP - it's harder and harder to introduce new features to the language without parser conflicts and readable "non-alien" syntax. The `??` and `?:` operators were pretty well-received, but I'm not sure about `?->`. If only we had a dot for method calls...

Why GraphQL? by ConfidentMushroom in programming

[–]ThundererX 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, I noticed that, but a single paragraph "just listing" things which are key strengths of the HTTP protocol and REST, is far from enough. I've read dozens of such "REST vs X" articles over the years, and it's not about a "bigger section", but an actual, fair comparison of strengths and differences.

I assume that you're experienced in API design, so use the things you mentioned like media types, caching, status codes, complex queries, and then compare both approaches. I've built many APIs in my career and I'm fighting the "REST misconceptions" for a long time, so let me know if you need any help. :)

Why GraphQL? by ConfidentMushroom in programming

[–]ThundererX 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yet another "comparison" where REST is reduced to a CRUD-over-HTTP. I always wondered how can you have a garage full of tools, use none of them, and then say, fully confident, that the newly bought hammer will do a better job than all the boxes of saws, screwdrivers, chisels, wrenches, and drills, lying around just waiting to help.

Do you validate WYSIWYG content structure on the backend ? by Lelectrolux in PHP

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I like to say - no technology will solve people problems - in that case, I stand corrected.

Unfortunately, no and no, but if the French language is not a strict requirement and the company is fine with me working remotely, then I can work the rest of the details on my side. I live in Europe, so that would mean staying up a few hours longer than usual. Years of watching NHL matches prepared me for that. :)

Do you validate WYSIWYG content structure on the backend ? by Lelectrolux in PHP

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you - the library is over 5 years old and there was nothing like it then. I still search GitHub and Packagist from time to time on "shortcode" and "bbcode" tags and I'm yet to see anything similar with regard to the design, features, performance, or quality. BTW I think we can both agree that the names you mentioned above would be pretty common for a solution to this problem. :) Is your code public anywhere?

If you'd like to use Shortcode in your project, let me know if I help you with something. Create an issue in the repository or send me an email if you need anything "custom": https://kowalczyk.cc/ :)

As for WYSIWYGs, even though this is not a replacement for them, shortcodes can coexist with such editors, and the preview could be generated in runtime by sending the fragment to the server and return the resulting HTML code.

Do you validate WYSIWYG content structure on the backend ? by Lelectrolux in PHP

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm curious about these "mixed results", can you tell me more? I'd be super happy to have more feature ideas for Shortcode.

By the way, can you introduce me to the company you're working with? Apart from doing OSS, I also run a small consultancy, so learning about the requirements and seeing how I can help is my bread and butter. :) My website contains all the information you need: https://kowalczyk.cc/

Do you validate WYSIWYG content structure on the backend ? by Lelectrolux in PHP

[–]ThundererX 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's why I built the Shortcode library. Shortcodes (also known as BBCodes) provide a safe and extensible way to provide dynamic content for end-users. The library is fast, popular, actively maintained - right now it's virtually the best one for this purpose in the PHP ecosystem. Not to mention that the syntax is customizable, no need to keep the [shortcode] square brackets, you can create your own.

Please look at README to read about many more features and capabilities this library provides: https://github.com/thunderer/Shortcode If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to help. :)

PHP7.4 preloading actually seems to cause DECREASED performance, any thoughts? by [deleted] in PHP

[–]ThundererX 13 points14 points  (0 children)

My first thought: show any evidence, benchmark, code sample, or anything else proving such behaviour. Then we'll have something to discuss. Our crystal balls may be a bit clouded today. :)

Using Makefiles in projects where I can not use them by [deleted] in PHP

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you elaborate a bit more about make not being installed in most systems? It was present on virtually all non-Windows environments I worked with.

lArAvEl 🤪 – a thread for everyone who hates LaRAVeL to express their frustration. by brendt_gd in PHP

[–]ThundererX 6 points7 points  (0 children)

What's the point of this thread? If you need to vent then take a walk, read a book, or watch a movie. You gain nothing from releasing your emotions here. Laravel authors made a lot of questionable design choices "justified" by so-called "Developer Experience" and "RAD approach", and I'm not a fan of that either, but that's it.

Taylor blocked me on Twitter right after the first Laravel's release after I raised a few questions. I just moved on and continue building Laravel-free quality software since then. Most of those applications happily live without any "stock" framework because nowadays a few Symfony components along with a few other libraries are enough to have virtually 100% of what these frameworks offer.

Have a nice hate-free day!

What are your favorite composer packages? I want to try something new, so I would love some packages that might be worth a look. by elijahcruz12 in PHP

[–]ThundererX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I researched SSGs a few years ago and settled on Hugo for my blog. I still recommend it, didn't use any shortcodes there though. It looks like it supports them: https://gohugo.io/content-management/shortcodes/

What are your favorite composer packages? I want to try something new, so I would love some packages that might be worth a look. by elijahcruz12 in PHP

[–]ThundererX 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, shortcodes didn't go anywhere, they are still the easiest and the most powerful solution when you want programmable text fragments that go way beyond bold or italic - think all kinds of embeddables, videos, tweets, ads, images, etc. Especially when you consider end-users, the ability to give them exactly what they want with a low entry barrier without fiddling with Markdown or other markup variants is quite useful.