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ICU is intended to be a multi-feature game code development utility.
ICU is not intended to be a game designer / maker.

ICU's core purpose is as a Project Management Workspace. It will allow the user/coder to import code and media into a temporary workspace, visually & intuitively coordinate those resources, and finally export a complete project with about 50%-80% of the coding completed automatically.

The workspace allows the project manager/coder to view a project from a unique perspective. Project files can be easily moved around on the project management workspace.

Additional features to come:
Drag & drop to combine code snippets/sections/libraries into a single source code page.
Media importing (images, music/sound, etc.)
Find & Replace tool (useful for globally editing variable/function names)
Various code writers/exporters
Large Library of game-related source code
Project Export
Save/Load Workspace




The idea for ICU comes from the Code Cuts project. That project will end and evolve into this project.

Added...
Labels for icons (will work on click-to-rename functionality next).
Drag & drop to combine code snippets/sections/libraries into a single source code page.
Delete Icon (mouse over icon and press the [Delete] key)
>>Note: This will only delete the icon, it does not delete the temporarily source code or model, so there is no danger of losing anything.


I see a lot of views, but no comments yet. Has anyone given this a try?

Perhaps some fail to grasp the concept?

I tried it And i think it's great good job!

I have to say it.....


AHHHHH i'm in the ICU lol ok i'm done with cheasy jokes


Esspecially good job on the Icons thats great gui work! although the random WinAPI kinda threw me off for a second.

@RiiDii,
I get the concept, but I'm not sure how useful something like this will be, in the format you've laid out.

I like codecuts - it's a nice simple concept with a single program that does one thing relatively well. I can see the point of that, although it could do with one or two improvements.

This however seems to be trying to replace a very small part of the development process - the initial project setup.

I currently use the IDE, a couple of explorer windows and gvim (great search/replace) to do that, and just as important, I can get all of those to work my way and fit on-screen all at once (the window in ICU is too large for my small display). I can also continue using exactly these same utilities/methods for updating my project at the end of the development cycle as I can at the start.

My initial suggestions to you are:
- Make the display resizeable and the layout configurable, at least as much as is reasonable.
- Drop the workspace idea and simply allow importing from the project file & source files so you can update an existing project.
- Allow very flexible search/replace (regexpr, not just fixed text).
- Include a templated source code idea so that you are asked for key names etc for an automated search/replace. This could also include some sort of conditional code inclusion/exclusion.

Thanks for the suggestions IanM. I was not aware of the screen-size issue.

I suppose (without really thinking it through until now) the target audience for this utility would be;
* A novice coder/programmer - someone who just purchased DBPro
* Knows a little about coding in Basic
* Wants to dive into making a game (and wants more than just a game designer/maker).

With your suggestions, I can see expanding this so that there is a "Pro" mode, which would be better suited to experienced coders.

This utility is intended to help with the setup process. I can also see adding in an import project feature. I have been toying around with that idea, but your advice certainly has put some weight behind those thoughts now.

Search and Replace is intended, but I had not thought through how extensive it needs to be. I have some additional ideas for the search/replace, which do include using regexp.



One of the reasons I am using a workspace to accomplish this task is the long-term intention of adding in features exactly as you are describing using a visual layout and flow diagram. For example:

[Source1]--->[Filter1]--->[Find/Replace1]--->[Source2]===>[ResultSource]

This layout would take Source1, filter it using [Filter1] (which would perhaps remove functions or whatever), process a Find/Replace function, and add Source code from Source2. The final product would be stored in the ResultSource. If the Find/Replace doesn't work like it was expected to, then the user can just edit the [Find/Replace] page and the workspace will reprocess the [ResultSource]. Of course, this diagram is in wonderful text, but the workspace would be prettier.

The layout could include more complex layouts, like: