Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas update!

Hi all!

Well, I finally got around to dusting off the old Christmas lights for the web site so it must be time for a blog update too!

I was hoping to have SOMETHING out re: monkey by Christmas, but it became apparent a few weeks ago that that just wasn't gonna happen so the new target is now for a mid January release.

The software is IMO mostly finished, if a bit rough around the edges (still fixing little things on a daily basis) although the docs currently suck. I plan on spending my Christmas 'break' mostly on docs, hopefully with a hangover much of the time - just kidding!

The whole 'production' side of things is something I think BRL products are missing a a bit these days compared with the old Guildhall/Idigicon days. Despite our, erm, 'creative' differences, Guildhall/Idigicon did I think take a lot of the weight off my shoulders when it came to the docs and general production side of things, and I do kind of miss that.

I don't really enjoy being responsible for EVERYTHING - and there are aspects of what I do that I know I could be doing a lot better (or at least someone else could be doing a lot better!) - but I have somehow managed to end up existing in this weird kind of 'bubble' down here in Auckland, New Zealand!

So at some point next year I intend to make an honest attempt at getting someone with some kind of business sense involved in the BRL experiment, quite possibly with the initial aim of producing a 'physical' version of monkey.

And there's that 'monkey' reference again - what can it mean?!?

Well, after surprisingly little thought and consultation (although I DID check with the 'Mono' guy...) I have settled on a name for the next programming language from BRL: 'monkey'.

In addition, the lightwight 2d app module that I am working on will be called 'mojo'.

Note that the two are separate: monkey will be 'just' a programming language, with the only IO related function probably being 'Print', while mojo will be an optional extension module.

The plan at this point is to make monkey free and open (in all respects), while charging for mojo (possibly with a free html5 version, or maybe a dual license GPL release - haven't decided on the 'demo' yet).

So stay tuned - interesting days ahead!

Peace out,
Mark

30 comments:

  1. I've also updated my blog with some information about the Ide I'm writing for Monkey. Just in case anyone is interested: http://www.blide.org/?p=560

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  3. This sounds really great but take your time to celebrate Christmas. I hope we'll see a successful release of monkey and mojo - I'll definately get both if mojo will be affordable (which all of the Blitz products were so far so I'm not too concerned about that).

    Merry Christmas to you Mark, and of course all people at BRL

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  4. Sounds great! I'll be getting this.

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  5. Jesus.
    monkey reminds me JAVA(CRAP) monkey engine
    and mojo Austin Powers.

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  6. Definitely going to be buying this when it comes out. I've always been a huge fan of the blitz languages, and I think monkey(love the name), will be the best one yet :)

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  7. Sounds Great!
    How will the language and platforms integrate into the current Blitz site?
    Will there be a whole new website and forums?

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  8. good update, thanks

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  9. Wow! Thats great news! I thought you were a year away from release.

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  10. Well done Mark. My birthday happens to be in mid January so you know what to get me ;)

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  12. Let me understand: it means that in theory people could change the language to be used? I would love to use python and the mojo to display the output :)

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  13. how are things going with the release schedule?

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  14. yea any news we are eager :)

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  15. This all sounds fantastic, can't wait to have a go!

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  16. I would just like to say that I think monkey is a terrible name. It has a number of negative connotations, not least that programmers in languages that people think are substandard are often called monkeys-- like "perl monkey."

    I really, really think it is a horrendous choice of name, one of the worst you could possibly choose. Something like XB78u14 would be better hands down.

    That said, I'm looking forward to it very much. I just discovered Max recently and I'm blown away by it. I will be all over the new product and I'm very excited about it.

    Please add mod/xm support!

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  17. The name is unimportant really, it's what it can do that I'm excited about. Not that monkey is a bad name imo.

    I wouldn't think it'll get mod/xm support (as much as I'd like that being a long term impulse tracker fan!) Because of it's "lightweight" core it won't natively have that kind of functionality. However it won't be long til someone puts a bass/fmod lib together that will support those formats.

    ...while I'm here...any news on a release date? :D

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  18. please give us some information on monkey and its release to the world ;)

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  19. Mark that is just awesome. You now I am not the only one hardly await your new language but could you please send a sign of life? :)

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  20. Hey new blog layout? *g* Looks better than the dark one...

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  21. Hes just changed the background to keep us entertained :)

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  22. Hello Mr. Sibly.
    I would like to know if Monkey will allow the production of games like the current BlitzMax. One of the best BlitzMax features in my opinion is the ability to compile almost-C-performance code on all the major personal computer platforms (Win/Mac/Lin). Also, BlitzMax is a fairly complete and powerful tool, I would like to know if you plan to update it at least to run on newer operating systems (Windows 8, newer libCs on Linux). Or Maybe you could add a way to link the dependencies statically.
    Also, what do you mean with "free and open (in all respects"? Is it going to be opensource?

    Thank you.

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  23. @Repy: Monkey is NOT BlitzMax2. It won't just produce executables for Windows like BMax. It's more a compiler for different target platforms like Android, iOS, HTML5 and so on...

    With free and open he probably means that Monkey (the language itself) will be open source.

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  24. Mark, just a question I hope to get answered before Monkey comes out:

    Will it be possible to use inline C++ code in Monkey? Thanks!

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  25. I don't think I've ever cared this much about a programming language release.

    In fact I know I haven't. In 30 years.

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  26. When can I try BMX2? I would like to try it on my android phone.

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  27. not sure why no update here but it's out...
    http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/

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