Introducing SDL Perl

Douglas E. Miles

Phoenix.pm

What is SDL?

http://www.libsdl.org/
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Provides access to 2D/3D Graphics, audio, keyboard, mouse, and joystick
Cross platform
Bindings to many programming languages

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What is Perl?

Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister

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What is SDL Perl?

Perl bindings to SDL
- http://sdl.perl.org/
- SDL::* layer
  - Low-level SDL access
- SDLx::* layer
  - Higher-level game abstractions
Yet Another Perl Game Hacker

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Installing SDL Perl

Alien::SDL
Several install options

Use already installed SDL libraries
Build all from source
Build certain libraries from source

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Surfaces

Everything is drawn on a surface (SDL::Surface)
Even the screen is a surface
Coordinates
- Upper left corner
  - x = 0
  - y = 0

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Examples

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Animation

CPU time per loop iteration problem

Turbo button
Multi-tasking OSes with variable load

Fixed FPS

Doesn't work for computers that are too slow
Wastes cycles idling

Utilizing physics

Based on the passage of time rather than cycles
Fix Your Timestep (Detailed explanation)

Animation

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