Python in game development?

[Gerry Quinn]

In article <uya2rpfja.fsf at ctwd0143.fitlinxx.com>, David Bolen <db3l at fitlinxx.com> wrote:
>gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn) writes:
>
>> In article <8lh588$oti$3 at news.fsu.edu>, Ronald Steedman
> <steedman at quake.cs.fsu.edu> wrote:
>> > A full compile of a complex software package can often take 30 seconds or
>> > more. That can be frustrating when you're trying to find and remove bugs.
>> > You try one thing, wait 30 seconds, try another thing, wait 30 seconds...
>> >
>> > Imagine how an intepreter would help. Try one thing IMMEDIATELY SEE THE
>> > RESULT... try another thing IMMEDIATELY SEE THE RESULT... then you only
>> > compile the application when you're finished and want a faster program.
>> 
>> If I were your boss I would make sure you had no access to an 
>> interpreter!  I would even slow down your compilation by giving you an 
>> older machine ;-)
>> Changing things at random and hoping the problem goes away is not the 
>> way to fix bugs.
>
>Where in the above did he say "random" and "hope"?  Being able to
>iteratively and interactively make changes hardly has to impact the
>methodology used in arriving at those changes to be made.
>
>Or are you saying that the use of a compiler would remove the need to
>ever iterate more than once on a bug fix?  I'm not sure I'd agree :-)
>

Even 10 iterations would be only 5 minutes.  A bug that took that many 
iterations to kill would require much more than 5 minutes thought.  
Clearly if compile time is frustrating in such a case, the time devoted 
to thinking about the bug is insufficient.  Furthermore, if it appeared 
to go away after trying this and trying that, I am not confident that it 
would be properly fixed. 

Sometimes, you do find the problem by applying a half thought out 
change, finding it works, and then realising what the problem was.  But 
a compile time of 30s is neither here nor there, IMO.

Gerry Quinn                                   
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