JakaJancar

Ykkrosh, I still couldn't get my mind off this, and I found Rhino has serializable continuations: http://wiki.apache.org/cocoon/RhinoWithCon...re_Serializable Also see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/289370/...e-continuations

Ykkrosh, V8 supports snapshotting. I think it's platform independent, not sure about security... As for size, the header file (v8/include/v8-profiler.h) says the snapshot is rougly equal to the heap size. I've written a small test to make a snapshot and it's quite easy, but I haven't managed restoring it yet. If V8 is an option, I can research this further. However, making multiplayer games saveable only by the host solves the issues of portability, security and size too (no network transfer). I'm not sure whether this is an acceptable tradeoff. It sure is for me, but I'm biased Separate contexts really seems to me as the way to go. In that case, Array's are correct to be different, since each script might have modified Array.prototype. They shouldn't be passed directly anyways. Also closures, require(), and other issues you mentioned are no longer issues. I agree completely about the higher level API being written in Javascript, it makes perfect sense. You don't wanna be defining a bunch of proxy classes in C++. Browsers implement a lot of things in Javascript too. The question is whether you should expose the lower-level API to AI scripters? I think you shouldn't. Not only is there not much value in it (assuming you have a good higher-level API), it also makes it harder to change underlying implementation of things. I don't think you realize what opportunity you have here. Javascript is a nice language, but what's really good about it is that everyone knows it. Combine that with a clean and simple high-level API which everyone who ever played the game instantly understands, and the barrier to entry for writing AIs/campaigns/whatever is ZERO. That means it's really easy to attract new developers. You know those school competitions where people write their AIs for a simple silly board game and their programs are then run one against the other? Imagine them writing AIs for 0 A.D I'm willing to help with this Javascript API / high-level to low-level "bridge".

I'm somewhat interested in this topic and registered just to express how appalled I am at the below abuse of a perfectly nice language This is uuugly. An empty script should be a perfectly valid AI, albeit one that does nothing. The global object (a la 'window' in browsers or 'process' in node.js) should be a 'game' object and my window to the world (=API). Example: game game.startTime game.victoryConditions game.players (array of Player) game.me (my Player) game.map (map stuff) game.canCheat (if true, script can set unit attributes (e.g. armor), move stuff instantly, see everything...) ... aPlayer.units (e.g. me.units for my units) ... aUnit.build(what, where) aUnit.work(where) // build, gather, repair ... a la right-click aUnit.location aUnit.attack aUnit.armor And OMG, the "message handling"... There should be a ton of events defined, which I could listen to with standard addEventListener (or 'on' shortcut) / removeEventListener: var MIN = 60*1000; var barracks = ...; // Between 5min and 10min, the barracks should pick a unit type and build as many as possible setTimeout(function() { var end = new Date+5*MIN; var unitType = .. pick the best available unit..; barracks.build(unitType); barracks.on('unitBuilt', function(e) { if (new Date < end) this.build(e.unitType); // same unit }); }, 5*MIN); // At 10min, send all allies a message setTimeout(function() { game.allies.forEach(function(ally) { ally.tell('My army is ready!'); }); }, 10*MIN); Also, please don't be silly with stuff like constructors and include parameters being in the manifest. Use the manifest for name, description, author, etc. Stuff that you need when you're *NOT* loading the JS file. Who says my AI will be written OOP and not functionally? Why do I need a constructor? Also, I'll include stuff myself, tyvm (possibly based on runtime decisions). Just offer me an api like CommonJS's require(). Please, please just don't concern yourself with what is in the script file AT ALL (name conflicts, classes...). Just run the AI script and offer a global object with an API. AI script calls the engine, not the other way around. You don't see browser vendors and node.js guys worrying about your code structure, they just give you an api. Also, give every AI it's own JS environment. There's nothing wrong with globals, let AI devs use them if they want. Please just serialize the entire Javascript environment transparently, don't pass these limitations to the AI developer.