Right then, here's a few tips for all you door coders out there...


1) to make text output faster, call DOOR_WriteText() as little times as possible

  e.g. say you were writing your help for a door to the screen and you were doing
  it like this...

  DOOR_WriteText("This is a cool door\r\n");
  DOOR_WriteText("and here is some \r\n");
  DOOR_WriteText("rather cool help text\r\n");
  DOOR_WriteText("hope you like it!\r\n");

  DON'T, do it like THIS instead..

  DOOR_WriteText("This is a cool door\r\n"
                 "and here is some \r\n"
                 "rather cool help text\r\n"
                 "hope you like it!\r\n");

  the above examples BOTH do the same thing, but the second example is better
  because a) code size is smaller b) execution time is faster and c) screen
  output is faster!

2) code routines that are called lots of times in ASM...
   (but comment it well so you can convert it to PowerPC code!)


3) Load your doors own private config files from "ProgDir:MyConfig.CFG" rather
   than specifying an absolute path like "HBBS:Doors/MyDoor/MyConfig.CFG"

   This makes it easier for sysops to move files where they like..

   (you can also get the name of the directory that your program was run from
   by getting argv[0] and turning the last / into a NULL

   e.g.  argv[0]="MyHD:hbbs/doors/mydirectory/myfile.hbbs"
                                             ^ change this to a 0....

4) Have a look at the source code files HBBSCommon.c and HBBSNode.C to see
   what cool library functions you can use, and there are loads!!!

5) Write docs for your door, see HBBS:Docs/BlankDoor.guide for a template
   amiga guide file..

6) Test it before you release it.

7) Send me a copy of it (http://come.to/hydrabbs)

8) If you've got any coding questions, use the message board on the web site
   or e-email me direct. (see http://come.to/hydrabbs)