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[APAKane]

Hey, I am in my second year of a computing minor degree, and would love to help with some aspect of coding this game. I couldn't find any recent posts or topics about this, so I thought I would just go ahead and throw that out there.

[ChJees]

I think many would want to help ToadyOne with coding Dwarf Fortress . (Including me)

But some things are best made alone by one. Even if we helped so would we need to study the code for months before even we could start doing something serious.

[Dasleah]

We all help where we can. But Dwarf Fortress is a one-man show for Toady at the moment. However, I'm sure there are all manner of people that would love to see someone throw their talents at Liberal Crime Squad or Kobold Quest.

[Draco18s]

Hey, I am in my second year of a computing minor degree, and would love to help with some aspect of coding this game. I couldn't find any recent posts or topics about this, so I thought I would just go ahead and throw that out there.

Good luck.  Toady's not letting go of the code, not even if you try to pry it out of is cold, dead fingers.

You're also like the 4th person to try in as many years.

[qwertyuiopas]

Two words: Battle Champs.
In one of the release announcement threads, Toady posted a game called "Battle Champs" that was a stripped version of Dwarf Fortress built into a new game.

At the least you get access to the drawing and raw-parsing code.
Here.

[Tormy]

Hey, I am in my second year of a computing minor degree, and would love to help with some aspect of coding this game. I couldn't find any recent posts or topics about this, so I thought I would just go ahead and throw that out there.

Ah god, not this again. Toady has stated in some similar topics, that he needs no help. It just wouldn't work. Think about it. 

[Capntastic]

Yeah, it's pretty much in the FAQ that he doesn't want help, and anyone who would be 'with the program' enough to help would've read the FAQ to know that.

[Emperor_Jonathan]

You can help by getting a job and donating to him. 

[Vicomt]

Yes, we know Toady doesn't want anyone to play with code. take that as read.

However, I think that the coders amongst us *might* be able give him some pointers when it comes to esoteric data structures and design ideas, thats where we, as ALPHA testers come in.

No one man, as far as I am concerned (being a developer of 15+ years experience) can hold the entirety of an application in his head, unless its a trivial implementation. Add in the wonders of user modification, insanely odd uses of a generic engine, and the myriad of choices that an application like DF allows, and the beauty and simplicity of the design can very quickly become chaoticised (look ma, a new word!) with specific case coding constructs. Been there, Done that, re-written the engine multiple times and got the pizza.

I'm not belittling Toady's stated preference for handling the code himself (It's the way I like to work as well), but I really do like to see him give us the gems of information on the backend structure, and I'd love, and I know others would love, to be able to join him in a virtual brainstorm sometime.

Who knows? maybe someone out there has the perfect solution for something that Toady hasn't got the design perfectly sorted for

[Tormy]

You can help by getting a job and donating to him. 

Word! 

[Skanky]

However, I'm sure there are all manner of people that would love to see someone throw their talents at Liberal Crime Squad or Kobold Quest.

This will also give you some experience working with Toady's code. As DF shares some code with these previous iterations, the best chance to get your code incorporated into DF is to prove your code works well.

[Draco18s]

No one man, as far as I am concerned (being a developer of 15+ years experience) can hold the entirety of an application in his head, unless its a trivial implementation.

Toady is a god like that.

[Vicomt]

No one man, as far as I am concerned (being a developer of 15+ years experience) can hold the entirety of an application in his head, unless its a trivial implementation.

Toady is a god like that.

I'm not denying that he's good, and I'm not denying that he can probably hold a lot of broad structure and design in his noggin, but I said "the entirety of an application" meaning every single detail of every single class/object/method. That's what I say is impossible.

In my experience, as soon as you move implementation details out of your head to concentrate on other structure or code, it becomes extremely difficult to keep track of the scope and references of said details, and you start hitting problems when you refine bits of structure and forget that you've used the same structure in multiple places.

[kcwong]

OP: If you want to help, you can make utilities for the community. Like many already did: Dwarf Companion, 3Dwarf, etc.

[Jifodus]

I'm not denying that he's good, and I'm not denying that he can probably hold a lot of broad structure and design in his noggin, but I said "the entirety of an application" meaning every single detail of every single class/object/method. That's what I say is impossible.

In my experience, as soon as you move implementation details out of your head to concentrate on other structure or code, it becomes extremely difficult to keep track of the scope and references of said details, and you start hitting problems when you refine bits of structure and forget that you've used the same structure in multiple places.

The only reason why it's impossible is because at the beginning of a project you generally can't see all the pieces. It's not that you can't track every little detail (see this), it's just that you can't see every little detail, unless you're omniscient.

Also, I've seen enough to state with certainty that Toady has some sort of amazing documentation that we never really see. We see parts *cough*DEVPAGES*cough*, but there's way more.

OP: If you want to help, you can make utilities for the community. Like many already did: Dwarf Companion, 3Dwarf, etc.

I was about to say this myself. I've quietly been trying to lower the requirements to become a utility writer, and I'm not alone.