Source Pawn: A journey of gaming discovery

OK, so it's not technically C++ but it's written in and based off C++ and I haven't done anything actually related to C++ yet this week so I'm going to talk about something that combines the schools love of open source and my love of the Source engine.

At the request of one of my Internet friends I have recently downloaded the tools for "Source Pawn" it's a psuedo interpreted, objectless, terribly packaged (It downloads as a.gz (an open source version of zip) that extracts into a .TAR (an open source version of RAR)that extracts into a proper folder) language designed for writing mods and plug ins for the Source gaming engine. It apparently shares attributes with PHP, C++, javascript and a big mess.

That's not to say it's a bad thing. Quite the opposite. While some parts of it seem very messy, this is probably the first time that a language has been written by fans specifically for the purpose of modding a single set of games. As a feat it's quite remarkable and a stellar example of what an open source fan community can do when united by a common love and goal.

No games outside of the source engine's has ever had as numerous a collections of plugins, mods, open source coders as the source games and Source Pawn is the main reason. The recent DOS attacks many servers were facing was fixed in it, and all for free, because (and this is the part you guys will like) in order to keep it all community generated and free the creators have a strict policy that anything created in Source Pawn MUST have it's source code posted online for all to see. There are of course developers who create their own extensions to write tools in allowing them to make a nice profit off their work but for the most part, when Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike Source or Half Life 2 get a new mod it's available for the public, free of charge and with its source code laid bare so that everyone can bug hunt it and improve it for the rest of the community.

So I look forward to writing and testing my first plugins for this strange love child of gamer geekdom and open source philosophy. And when I have nothing C++ based to say in the future I'll fill you all in on how it goes.