Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: "Martin Keates" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: Linux questions Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 16:01:33 +0100 Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 41 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: modem-1475.panther.dialup.pol.co.uk X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 (intial note - I haven't set up my ps2-linux yet (lacking in some important parts... like a ps2...) so the following is just based on browsing the dvds) > It comes with a GCC Compiler and some sample apps, but no cross compiler - > so you need to compile your games on the PS2 itself. You can build a cross compiler yourself if you're that way inclined. playstation2-linux.com has source/builds for gcc-3.0.3 (I think the one on the dvd is gcc-2.9.something). The chip docs indeed are very detailed, but also very low level and with few examples of how to actually do anything. The vast majority of the docs/environment are aimed at linux and not games development (which is to be expected really). It looks to me like doing anything beyond simple noddy little programs will take a lot of effort (especially for an individual user). But hell - that's never stopped me before... Plus I'm sure people will start to make helper libraries to make game dev easier, but I wouldn't expect those to appear for a while. Yaroze users (who use gcc, at least) should be familiar with linux style compilation/makefiles and the like, but if you've no unix experience it will be a pretty steep initial learning curve. There's certainly no lacking in the linux packages department. Everything I thought I might need is there - compilers, editors (vi(m), emacs), image processing stuff (gimp, libjpeg, imagemagick), shells (bash...mmm) and so on. There are over half a gig of rpms on disk 2. Is it the logical next step forward for yarozers? Well maybe... To be honest it looks like for the amount of effort needed to get something good running on ps2 you could produce something stunning for yaroze, and as long as opsm keep running demos you've also got the chance of having a disk of your work produced to show off to people. On the other hand, if you're looking for an industry job, then I would expect that learning the ins and outs of the ps2 would be invaluable (note - no experience to back up that assertation, except that it worked for me and pcs/direct x). Martin.