Software Engineering for Computer Games

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Software Engineering for Computer Games

• Programming tools

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Programming tools

• Core message of today

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Programming tools

• Core message of today
• USE TOOLS!!!

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Programming tools

• Core message of today
• USE TOOLS!!!
• programming tools can have huge impact on
  programming productivity

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Design tools

• Typically, give support to diagram design, e.g.
  UML diagrams.
• Most tools are sensitive and directed to the
  syntax of the corresponding diagrams.
• More sophisticated tools perform some
  verification.

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Source-code tools

• Editing tools
• Integrated development environments (IDE)
• Language-specific editing and formatting
• Integrated compilation and error detection
• Integration with source-code control, build, test
  and debugging tools
• Code browsing capabilities
• Interactive help
• Brace matching

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Source-code tools

• Editing tools
• Integrated development environments (IDE) -
  cont.
• Templates for common language constructs
• Smart, automated indenting
• Automated refactoring
• Constrained context for search-and-replace
• Multiple files simultaneous editing
• Side-by-side diff comparisons
• Multilevel undo
• And other features...

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Source-code tools

• Analysing code quality
• Picky syntax and semantics checkers
• Check syntax, pointing at common mistakes that
  would pass unnoticed by compiler syntax checker,
  suggesting a double check to the programmer.
• Metrics reporters
• Measure code features, e.g. complexity of
  routines, number of lines of code, number of
  modifications in each routine, and others...

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Source-code tools

• Version control
• Source-code control
• Dependency control
• Project documentation versioning
• Linking of requirements, code and test cases

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Source-code tools

• Data dictionaries
• Keep track of data items
• Ontological management of projects
• Avoid name clashes

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Executable-code tools

• Code creation
• Compilers and linkers (of course...)
• Build tools
• Code libraries
• Setup and Installation
• Testing
• Debugging

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Final remarks

• The types of tools discussed here a sample of
  existing tools for code construction.
• Apart from code construction, many other aspects
  of software engineering have relevant tools to be
  taken into account, e.g. project management tools.