Vaughan

A variable is a piece of memory with a name. It stores an object in your RAM which makes access to it very quick. An INI is a format to a file. Disk I/O is VERY slow compared to accessing a piece of memory. You should avoid disk I/O wherever possible, that's why we cache a lot of things. I think Robin caches a lot of stuff in Origins, really. As for this problem, I would advise you to do some reading if you're serious about doing this by yourself sometime. If all you're looking for is a shortcut to get this done, I might advise you recruit someone whom is familiar to do it for you. ^^

I disagree. I started off pretty bad myself, and I'm good at what I do now. A lot of these people are young, quite young. Providing them with such an easy engine to use does expect them to get such easy and quick results back, but we know the ease of this engine does not linearly represent how many players you'll get it and how fast you can produce a quality project. However, I once had the same thought process as above now. I'd have to say I've turned out pretty good, and I've good grasp on everything now. I see posts I made back in 2005 and laugh. You're right though, anyone who thinks they can memorize the calls and syntax, and be a programmer. If you're reading this, think again. That's maybe 20% of it, the other 80% is going to spent with you not writing any code but rather attempting to solve something in better and more interesting ways.

As have I, over-saturation over crap is highly an issue. Though, having said that you could be working a bit harder to give more advice and links where to start. Just saying is all, I understand where you're coming from, but there are much more subtle and nicer ways to put things, and they might even grow into fine developers one day.

Just wait up, if he finishes, he finishes. If not, it won't be the first time. As for Robin, you may be correct in most - if not all - of your points; however, most people are fairly new and don't understand the concept. They are eager to help, and eager to develop the 'next new game' or help out the community. You should be helping the community flourish, not being a cynical bastard. That is all. :)

You people awfully bitch a lot for 'free'.