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| Programming: Starting Out |
| Jaded God - Nov 25, 2003 |
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mg:  |
racketboy | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
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start out with visual basic -- THEN try game programming. you have to get your feet wet first | ||||
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dhau | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
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I would recomend starting out with SDL... or Allegro... on Windows or Linux first. On Windows I would recomend using MinGW... rather then VC++, because it will expose you to gcc, binutils and makefiles. This will be very helpful on consoles  | ||||
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racketboy | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
| I don't recommend VB for a final development situations, but I just suggested it as a newb programming enviroment until he gets his variable, loops, and ifs down | ||||
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gameboy900 | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
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I love VB. It's a good language. Easy to learn. Powerful (especially the lastest .NET version). FAST (test long ago have shown that a similar program written in VB was only 4-6% slower than the same program written in VC++ (they use the same compiler). That may seem like it's slower but compared to the ease of use you get it's a big difference when you're writing serious business apps with hundreds of windows and objects. Don't knock VB just cause it says Basic in it's name. It really is a powerful language. | ||||
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racketboy | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
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really it depends on what you're developing and how much time you want to put into it. there's lots of aspects to that debated | ||||
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dhau | Nov 25, 2003 | |||
VB.NET is just a variation of C# syntax. There is no essential differences over then case insensitivity | |||||
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dibz | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
| Actually, I ment C, not Visual C++. If you want windows dev I also recommend MingW. Stay far away from the Visual line of products IMHO. | ||||
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Jaded God | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
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Yea this is no fun... I am in TRUE BASIC comp prog I class in school right now and its like 40 years old and one of the first prog languages. I am relying on getting all the programs from friends and failing the tests because it is boring as all hell and retarded. I guess if I can't do that then I won't be able to do C and C++  I can do HTML very well, but this is a pain in the ass... Why isn't their an easier language. | ||||
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dibz | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
| Umm, its not that bad. Just keep trying, use examples...try using Allegro for your gfx programming needs (very easy to use, I learned it when I was like 12). If you cant get that, maybe try some web programming, its not quite as complicated. Perhaps PHP or Perl? | ||||
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racketboy | Nov 25, 2003 | |||
That's exactly how I started out. Now I'm a paid "professional". It just takes time. It also depends on how goo your teachers are. My HS BASIC teacher basically stunk -- he was a math teacher. I played around with HTML on my own -- even though it's not a true programming language. I also toyed with programming on my TI calculator. I didn't really learn much til I got to college. | |||||
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Scared0o0Rabbit | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
I didn't have access to programming classes in HS. I wrote my first program when I was about 6 or 7 in dos using basica lol. I then jumped right into c++, which was quite hard at first. I dropped it for a number of years and didn't do any programming. I then got into programming my casio graphing calculator, then to the ti calculator line. I wrote a text based rpg on my ti-86 that was prettygood, but then a teacher erased it  in college I've blown right through the intro to c++ class, because of how easy it is. And I pick upthe stuff so fast that I actually can't take classes, I get bored with how easy it is too fast then I stop going and have to drop the class lol. I now work in an industry not even kind of related to computers LMAO. In any case, the moral of my story is: Start with basic until you get the basics (sorry about the pun) down, things like loops and whatnot, then move on to c++.Oh and goto is the devil, don't use goto. | ||||
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ExCyber | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
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I'd recommend learning with Java rather than VB. It's more widely supported, the syntax is very similar to C (which you'll want to learn), it exposes you to some key low-level concepts without dumping you into a hell of anonymous crashes and type mismatches, and you can get free full-functionality tools. Just don't buy too heavily into the object-oriented dogma. C/Allegro isn't such a bad idea either, especially if you can find a good tutorial centered around actually building a game/demo, which might hold your interest better than a purely technical presentation. The key regardless of language is to understand the problem you're writing the program to solve - once you've written the program in your mind, you just have to "port" it to the language and paradigm you want/need to use. Some pointers: Java homepage... Your First Cup of Java... (compiler setup / Java Hello, World!) Java Language Basics... (core language tutorial) Step-By-Step Programming... (introduction to Java APIs and developing actual applications) How to Ask Questions the Smart Way... (not Java-specific) | ||||
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racketboy | Nov 25, 2003 | |||
Haha my COBOL teach in college would not accept an classwork that had a goto in it. Then I started working here and it's standard to use gotos everywhere. It was hard to get used to. One thing I hate here is they don't like us to use nested IFs. Sometimes it's just a major pain to avoid them. | |||||
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dhau | Nov 25, 2003 | |||
Dude, HTML is related to coding in the same way writing checks it related to creative writing | |||||
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Scared0o0Rabbit | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
| yeah my c++ teacher wouldn't accept goto's either lol. No nested if's? wtf? Only thing I can think of is it makes it harder to read... but with comments that shouldn't be a problem. | ||||
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slinga | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
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My two cents: ace your hs basic class. When you get to college you'll realize that a lot of your professors can't teach (and guess what, they couldn't care less, they're there to do research). Find a good book, find resources on the web, have your friend tutor you, but do well in this class. To a total beginner at programming I recommend starting off with a lot of C++, then some Java, then C. Once you've done that mastering any language shouldn't be too hard provided you have the right resource materials. | ||||
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Scared0o0Rabbit | Nov 25, 2003 | ||
| yeah, I'm pretty much a n00b programmer. However, from what I've looked at, most languages are very similar, only a few small changes to syntax. | ||||
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