Acorn Heroes

Beg.  Borrow.  Steal.

Got an existing game, and you feel comfortable with the code?  Take a copy, rip out the guts of it, and start prototyping.  Need to perform a Fourier transform?  Do a Google search and mash the code you find into your prototype.  Know that a friend has solved a given problem before?  Ask them if they can send you the relevant code.

So you’ve found some useful code, but it doesn’t represent vectors the same way you do?  Don’t go through the borrowed code doing a search/replace – it’ll take too long and may introduce errors.  Instead, simply convert vector data on the way in and out with a simple piece of wrapper code.  Remember, CPU and memory are free.

Rapid prototyping is about getting results fast.  Sometimes the fastest way to get a result is to use working code from somewhere else.

Related posts:

1. Rapid Prototyping Rule #6
2. Rapid Prototyping Rule #4
3. Rapid Prototyping Rule #3
4. Rapid Prototyping Rule #7