For the past few blogs I've been going on about Robocode and my robots. I wanted to show you, my faithful viewers (or anyone who is hopefully reading this), my creations. Yes, you get to see horrible mechanical abominations run amok trying to blast each other on the electronic field of battle! (Catchy, huh?)
At first, using something like a regular hosting site sounded good, but they're expensive and not worth the cost unless there are many files that are hosted in the site. Those hosting sites are usually in the range of $100 to $200 a month and up. I wondered if using something like Dropbox to store my files would be better. It was better than getting a regular hosting site, but since only the account holder can improve and upload files, this wouldn't be as good as a hosting site where other contributors can improve the project. Someone then told me about Google project hosting and it seemed good to try out. Google project hosting is free with an account and allows the user to add contributes that can improve the project. It does have a limit on the total size of all hosted content, but it is very generous with the size. With that, I have created a Google project page here, where you can get copies of my robot.
Setting up the site was quick and easy as Google gave easy to follow advice and examples in order to get started with creating a site to host any project. Once I set up the Google project site, I uploaded my Robocode robot to the page. Google also allows for users to access files on Google projects using a SVN client. I know that there are many SVN clients out there: TortoiseSVN, Git, and SmartSVN, are some to name a few. An SVN helps to control the different versions of a program when there are many contributors to a project. Using an SVN helps to keep track of changes made to a document or program so that the people working on a collaboration can be kept informed and updated with different versions of the file or program that is being developed.
In order to get the carnage you know and love, you have to a few things first before you get to sample all that goodness of simulated twisted metal and pixelated destruction.
First, you have to go to my Google project hosting site here. You can download the .zip file that is located on the left sidebar of the main page or navigate to the downloads page and download the .zip file from there. Alternatively, if you have an SVN client installed, you can get the source files by navigating to the source page and using the web address located there to download the files through your SVN client. Also, make sure you read the UserGuide and DeveloperGuide under the Wiki section for other important information.
I have a few last thoughts about TortoiseSVN that had come up while using TortoiseSVN. While TortoiseSVN is fast and easy, I noticed that there is no easy way to perform a batch load of new files that need to be uploaded easily. I can select files individually as well as folders, but to upload several select files is much more tedious because they need to be uploaded one by one. I also tried to batch load into a subfolder, then using TortosieSVN's repository browser to move the files from the subfolder to the correct location, would result in the browser taking a long time and hanging on my computer. TortosieSVN also gives no indication that it is installed properly on a Windows system until you right click, where a TortoiseSVN action list would be shown. TortoiseSVN is a system that is not normally installed and brought up like a program, but it performs like a subsystem. I would rather have TortoiseSVN run like a normal program, but with shell integration TortoiseSVN works faster which I would guess is better for people who are working on other projects that need to be filed quickly.
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