You have reached the old site!
You should be ashamed of yourself. Visit the .tk site:
http://bl.pagemac.com

Welcome to the Official BlueLightning Website! Here, you will find information about the BlueLightning project, it's programmers, documentation, downloads, and more! We will try to update this site as often as possible, and keep you informed on our status.
http://bl.pagemac.com

Update 1.17.2002

Speedy

SqueakMac has a long history of breaking things. Dishes, plates, working source code, perfectly planed programs, relationships, flowerbeds, concrete walls, his face, banana soup, his 1GHz+ ThunderBird CPU, his power supply -- you get the idea (hopefully, lol). So if you know him, you wouldn't be at all suprised if I tell you that both of his computers got "squeaked" on. Meaning (without getting to technical): they're fried. Yup. Dead. Goners. When he tells you he's going to install another piece of hardware, beware. Bzzt. Now SqueakMac has to do the all familiar reinstalling all his programs/OS from SCRATCH of both his computers. The new site was on one of them and hopefully he made backups (;-D). So.... lol .... yup... now you know! The site is still scheduled to be released on Sunday. And as a sidenote: those speeds below, they're wrong. But I'm improved BL's speed from 14x slower than C++ to about 7x slower -- a bit faster than interpreted Java. This is about the fastest you can go without a JIT (possibility of one in the future). So good news!

Update 1.11.2002

SqueakMac

More good news! After 3 failed attempts to make a good layout that I liked, I finally came up with one! I think it will work out great. Lots of people have complained about this current layout (God knows I have... I have no idea what I was on when I made this thing... It's too.... oh dang, what's the word.... oh yeah, ugly.) If you want to see it, you don't get a direct link. You have to look for it. It's really not hard. I'll give you a hint: surf around PageMac and read past updates. If you can't find it, well, should you really be a programmer? :-) Anyways, I'll be in the process of moving the site over. If for some reason you can't find the site in the future, go to PageMac (which will always be at the same URL) and find a link to the site from there. Also, I'm getting new computer parts... so the server will have more RAM, I think. And I think that's about it. Oh yeah, BTW, I'm using C# now for the IceBreaker and PowerGen. Not VB.NET. I hate VB.NET. If you use it, you should use C# instead.

Update 12.14.2002

Speedy

Good news! This site will get completly remodeled by SqueakMac, and be run on his dedicated Athlon 1.1ghz computer! You can find more information about the [root], his server, in his site, PageMac. More great news, we've added a new semi-memeber to our team, Ally Duncan (Flexx). He'll be coding our inline assembler. We hope that soon he'll be a full member after the completion of some work. This week has been amazing. SqueakMac's progress on the compiler was minimal in VB.NET. Now he's switching to C# and excited. And it keeps on coming! BL::Object, the mother class in the BL Framework is now many times faster! Although it's not final, today I've discovered a way, using a play on templates, to make using BL::Object just as fast as normal c++ code. I still have to test around with it to see if this new technique will fit with all the other components, if not, then we'll have to return to the current one. Well, here are the speed tests (the new object uses inline methods, the current one is too big for that): Current BL::Object: 94 Templated Object: 117 Templated No Real Base Object: 16 C++ Code: 12 What we did: Create a double and an int, give them values, add them to each other, swap them, and repeat a WHOLE bunch of times. You will learn more about these objects soon.

Update 12.2.2002	Speedy
We're having some trouble with the registration page. Apparantly, for several people who registered in the last two months, well, we didn't get their data from the page. So if you were one of those, or if you wish to register, please email us with your email address, your comments and your name (if you want to give it to us).

Update 12.2.2002

Speedy

For all of those confused by how BlueLightning works internally, you will all be pleased with the next newsletter. We will include some source code (header files) of the base BL classes and explanations of each member so you can get an overall idea of how it all works. This will be in, of course, C++. Just give us a few weeks, I, Speedy, have a lot to code still until we can say that we have a stable, efficient framework we can publish. Just an update, BL will no longer run as fast as before (the speed of compiled VB); it will most likely run at Java speed. Why? You will soon see. That's why we're thinking about a completly integrated subset of BL -- maybe called SubZero? -- which will have the same syntax but will compile to different bytecode and be much faster, however, with limited features. All this, of course, is not final. You always have the inline assembler... Anyways, in the newsletter, we will also include the official syntax in it. Your votes were sharply in one direction! But until then, SqueakMac still has a lot of work to do... and he knows what it is! =D Just a note: We're kids, we don't work on BL full-time.

Update 10.26.2002	Speedy
At this current time, a syntax poll is being run. What type of syntax do you want to see in BL? Vote now; email us for the list! We will tally up on Thrusday or Friday.

Update 10.26.2002

Speedy

Wow, we've been gone for quite a while! Over a month. Anyways, we've decided that BL will most probably (chance of 99%) be coded in .NET with some unmanaged C++ code. BL is getting a complete makeover. Almost all of the code for iSpark! will be discarded because of plan #5. In it will be the final, complete specification about how EVERY part in BL works so it will take at least a month to write out and discuss. We might, might give the whole, complete version to certain people who can help us optimize it (for free, of course, lol). And another thing, we're planning in moving this entire site to one of Squeakmac's many computers. It's a dedicated 1.1ghz Athlon server just waiting for the BL site. The site itself might also be redesigned, we don't know.

Update 9.21.2002

SqueakMac

Hey guys! Yeah, we're here... But I wasn't for a while! If you didn't know (maybe you visit PageMac), my BIOS was being dumb. Anyways, since my computer is up again, I've worked on BL. I've fixed some bugs in the IDE, such as the line number problem (you can see it in the screenshot). I also started on the compiler... it'll be simple at first, but it will become powerful! Remember, if you have anything you think we might want (code, gfx, etc), send it to us! If it turns out we use it, you'll get a nice discount on the final product! Still, BL will be cheap without the discount.

Update 9.3.2002

Speedy

Plan #4 has been released today! It has info about BL files and project and how BL links packages together so that they act like DLL's or assemblies. It's got lots of nice, juicy detials about BL! lol! I'm real sorry for it's formatting, it just takes to long to format it into HTML and Word doesn't do it right... You can check it out in the Documentation section. It was written about two weeks ago but Squeakmac and I had to discuss it first. The official syntax paper will come out soon, too. Plan #5 has been started and will be the last plan until we have coded a significant part of BL. BTW, if you register now, you will also get the second newsletter which just came out yesturday - it has a sneak peak to BL-ASM! And oh yea.... we're thinking about putting a great new feature... operator overloading!

Update 8.27.2002

Speedy

Plan #4 and the parts of the offical syntax was written a week ago. Squeakmac and I are now discussing it and deciding on our next plan of action. We will release what little of it will be public very soon, in a few days. As for the long awaited BL-ASM, you will have to wait a little more. Plan #4 and school (which has started for both of us) has drained our time. It's only 3/4 of the way done, with the biggest part comming up, and is over 2,500 lines of pure VB code already (that's excluding comments, whitespace, etc)! More about it will be released later. Register and you'll get to beta test it; you won't be disappointed!

Update 8.15.2002

Speedy

We haven't updated in a while since we've been real busy with BL. The inline assembler will have a new set of instructions for begineers. For example, one of the functions of the '_mov' instruction will let you place a register into an fpu register down the fpu stack like this: "_mov st3, eax". If you know ASM, you know that this is illegal but in BL ASM, this is automatically converted to the right instructions. All this takes a long time since I (Speedy) have been making it as optimized as possible. I estimate that the beta ASM will come out by the end of next week.

Update 8.7.2002	Speedy
Squeakmac has re-designed the site. How do you like it? The official logo of BlueLightning is the above above you, "BlueLightning: [ spark of the future ]." We still have to change a few things in the site such as the fonts in some areas. By the way, our progress in BL has been incredible...

Update 8.7.2002	Speedy
Just a quick note: we will be beta testing the inline ASM compiler as well as the temporary IDE (which is very good looking!) real soon; maybe in less than a week. To recieve these beta tests, please register. Also, the documentation section is going to get a complete make-over. It's going to look much, much better!

Update 8.4.2002	SqueakMac
I've uploaded some screenshots of the BlueLightning temporary IDE. Check them out! I worked hard on them... well sorta. :-D Also, the newsletter will be coming out shortly; it's got a lot of information on BlueLightning, and you'll be happy you signed up. I also will be uploading a guestbook soon, if I can find a good provider... or maybe I'll just get the script somewhere...

Update 8.4.2002

Speedy

Squeakmac and I have registered a domain name for the BL site! All thanks to Alex Martinelli for his domain suggestion. Now you guys can point your browsers to www.blue-lightning.tk (or without the www) to reach this site. And it's got just one pop-up. But, if you're using Internet Explorer, just add us to your favorites with a simple name like bl and all you got to do is type bl in your address bar and you come here - even easier! By the way, the newsletter is comming out real soon. Maybe in the next 24 hours.

Update 8.1.2002	Speedy
Hey people! Thanks for all your feedback on BL and your registrations. Keep them coming! I added Mini-Plan #3 so you can check it out at the documents page. It describes BL's GUI - a very interesting read. We will update you on the status of the BL project when the newsletter comes out, later this week. So far, so good! Also, Squeakmac will soon add a guestbook to this page.

Update 7.17.2002	Speedy
The BlueLightning Site is ready to go! Yeah! Everything is up and running and now we can concentrate on the actual coding of BL. If you want to register to get bi-weekly updates and beta tests, use the mailing list page. In the rare case that that doesn't work use the method described in our last update in July 16, 2002. Please Register!

Update 7.16.2002

Speedy

The BlueLightning Team now has an email address! If you want to email us (Speedy and Squeakmac) please use this email BlueLightningTeam@hotmail.com. This will ensure that your email is read prompty and not deleted by any junk mail filters we may have. Feel free to email us with any suggestions you have on BL, or if you wish to register, please email with "Register" as your subject line. Doing so will put you in our beta testing list. You will also recieve updates on BL every now and then. (Don't worry! We won't bombard you with emails, just one every two weeks or so.)

Update 7.15.2002	SqueakMac
The new page is currently under construction... Hopefully, it will be completed soon, and you will be able to view all sorts of information about the BlueLightning Project, including documentation, code samples, screenshots, and more. Hang around, BlueLighting is just getting under way!