[ODE] Breakable Joints

[David Walters]

> > - It is very difficult to oversee the impact of your patch.
> >   the patch file is very large: 22K lines.

I've uploaded a simplified patch file, it should be much easier to see
what's changed!  Personally I'm not sure exactly what's going on in
the core of this patch - it seems to be doing something complex in the
joint stepping functions - but I'm not sure what. I wonder if the
original author still reads this list and can explain.

Also, I've had time to look at the joint feedback system, and it does
seem pretty much all you'd need to implement exactly the same
functionality, quickly and easily in whatever wrapper you use for ODE.

I guess it all depends on how you see the main ODE project now and in
the future - I think I wrote my last message from the point of view of
making it something more than a kernel. But maybe I'm confusing the
project for something it's not: a fully comprehensive physics system
with loads of bells and whistles and support packages and 'kits' to do
stuff with.

I think I've missed the point that that's what the ODE user is
supposed to come along and write for themselves - to their
requirements, and maybe even release _that_ as open source (like
various people have done already) to help people who don't want to
spend the time doing that task themselves.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not so sure it's a good idea to
add this breakable feature for the reasons I've given. If the work
that it is doing is somehow better than using dJointGetFeedback then
maybe I'd have a case - but for now I think it's not necessary to
bloat up the code just for the sake of possible "helpfulness".


(sorry for another lot of rambling!)

Regards,
Dave.