Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 02:00:00 -0700
From: yackd@alaska.et.byu.edu (Don Yacktman)
Subject: Re:  Rebundling WarKit

Just a quick note on bundles...the general idea is sound, but be
forewarned:  going so heavily to bundles will make it harder for
the programmer to get exactly what they want interface-wise (cf.
Xox, which is effectively what you're saying...a game engine you
plug bundles into.)

With the GameKit I chose to use a library and standard interfaces
for a reason:  flexibility.  If you go whole hog into the bundles
you'll have many of the problems the Xox engine has.  (Not that it
is a bad game; it's just not quite as flexible as I'd like.  Even
so, it is more flexible than most people on the net can imagine.
I can say this because I've seen the source.)

Two other things to note about bundles:  you base app will launch
much faster, but when the bundle is first loaded everything stops
for a bit while things are linked together.  Also, keeping around
symbols for the dynamic linker will make your app almost double
in code size.  If you have a lot of tiffs and sounds like Xox,
you hardly notice, but you should be aware that bundles are hard-
drive space hungry.

This isn't to discourage you on the idea, though.  I'd recommend
you make the design flexible enough that the bundle idea is there
for the cases where it will work.  In other cases, have a library
available for the use of the developer who is willing to dive in
more deeply.

Just some thought...

Later,
-don