The combat is turn based and I like it. There is only so much you can do at the beginning though (read: spam ‘Attack’). I enjoyed the travel around the world map in an airship. No combat to deal with means I get where I’m going faster. When you’re trying to get to a boss and you used your last mana in the last battle, there’s not a whole lot you can do.

Start with a video tutorial on how to use github:  The Insider Guide to GitHub

Next, a guide to using git on windows: An Illustrated Guide to Git on Windows

And finally, learn to write good commit messages for yourself and fellow programmers: Writing good commit messages

Inverted CON $4000
Open CON $8000
Baud CON T9600 + Inverted

command VAR Byte

steps VAR Word
counter VAR Word
motor VAR Byte
speed VAR Byte

DEBUG "running"

DO
PULSOUT 12, 750
PULSOUT 13, 750
PULSOUT 14, 750
PULSOUT 15, 750

SERIN 16, Baud,[command]
SELECT command
CASE "m"
GOSUB motion
CASE ELSE
GOSUB default
ENDSELECT
PAUSE 20
LOOP

default:
SEROUT 16, Baud, ["n",0]
RETURN

motion:
' m motor speed steps
SERIN 16, Baud, [motor]
DEBUG motor
SERIN 16, Baud, [speed]
DEBUG speed
SERIN 16, Baud, [steps]
DEBUG steps

RETURN

And with that code setup on the bot, I used this nice function in C# to send the orders to the servos connected to the bot.

private static SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM4", 9600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);
private static Queue toSend = new Queue();

private static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting for data...");
port.DataReceived += new SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(port_DataReceived);
port.Open();

Thread reader = new Thread(Read);
reader.IsBackground = true;
reader.Start();
motion(0,100,10); // run first servo counter-clockwise at full speed for 10 seconds
}


static void motion(byte motor, int speed, int seconds)
{
if (speed < -100) { speed = -100; } else if (speed > 100)
{
speed = 100;
}
double loop = (1.5 + 20 + 1.6) / 1000;
int pulses = (int)Math.Round(seconds / loop, 0);
lock (toSend)
{
toSend.Enqueue(Convert.ToByte('m'));
toSend.Enqueue(motor);
toSend.Enqueue((byte)(speed+100));
foreach (byte b in BitConverter.GetBytes(pulses))
toSend.Enqueue(b);
}
}


static void Read()
{
while (true)
{
if (toSend.Count > 0)
{
byte var = new byte();
lock (toSend)
{
var = toSend.Dequeue();
}
port.BaseStream.WriteByte(var);
}
Thread.Sleep(10);
}
}


The Linux flist heartbeat bug was fixed before I decided to take a break, so hopefully on the next release we will see even more mcsharp servers on flist.

I’ve started with recoding the level data to save ram, and it’s working.   Ram usage from my modifications fell from ~1-5 gigs to ~30-450 megs.  I’ve also improved CPU usage by decreasing the number of threads spawned by the server.

Maybe i’ll work on enhancements for ripley.  For anyone who doesn’t know, I found some source code on a lisp pastebin type site for some C#/Mono code called “Ripley”.  The code is designed to rip streaming music.  It is designed to work with the streams on sky.fm and one of its sister sites.  I want to add the option to select which songs you want to save.  I also would like to change them to mp3′s.  The stream is AAC.

I got redmine working on my home server, so that’s one project completed recently.

www.minecraft.net