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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Can I learn rudimentary programming from a book?

Plaupius on 09 April 2009

I just thought of another benefit of starting with Java: the Java compiler produces error messages that are WAY more informative than for example gcc, and also when your program crashes, the Java stack dump is pretty handy in finding out where things went wrong.

Also, thinking about game programmin, a big portion of cell phone games are coded in Java ME. So it is not really that bad of a choice to enter game programming.



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HappySqurriel on 09 April 2009

A book is a pretty good place to learn the syntax of a programming language, and it will teach you to wright code that compiles, but it is a pretty shitty resource for learning how to program ...

Much like an natural language, in order to be fluent in a language you have to understand the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of the language which (really) only comes from being forced to solve difficult problems and having to deal with other people's code.

 

 

 



HALOOOOOOOO on 09 April 2009

I sort of want to start programming now...



bardicverse on 09 April 2009
the_bloodwalker said:
bardicverse said:
Starcraft - Even with C, its pretty much a crap run, lots of syntax and screaming over forgetting a semicolon someplace. I'd suggest a friendlier language for starting to get your feet wet in programming. I reiterate- Dark Basic Pro, great for starting.

 

I do not recommend Dark Basic Pro for game programming, for it does not really have OOP that you can accomplish on other languages like Java, C#, C++ or Python to make games with all the advantages. I tried it and then looked for anotehr engine because of the many limitations.

Inthe case od programming to make games there are many tools available

for C# I reccomend XNA

For Python I recomend Panda 3d

for C++ I reccomend: Ogre3D(for prefessionals),  DarkGDK(better than DB Pro) or Irrlicht(good start)

for Java, you can try JME

 

Thats odd, as Ive seen full on 3d FPS games made with DBPro. Sure, not the most graphically amazing stuff, but decent stuff can be done. The beauty is that you'll find achievement in programming quickly, much easier learning curve than Java or C. Perhaps you didn't have the right resources?

@Starcraft- the other side you can get into is LUA, which is a scripting language, one that is widely used in game programming/development these days. Last I checked, LUA is free to use.

Edit - btw, if you wanted to get into mobile programming, might as well learn programming for iPhones. The whole mobile industry is conforming to that as THE mobile platform.



the_bloodwalker on 09 April 2009
bardicverse said:

Thats odd, as Ive seen full on 3d FPS games made with DBPro. Sure, not the most graphically amazing stuff, but decent stuff can be done. The beauty is that you'll find achievement in programming quickly, much easier learning curve than Java or C. Perhaps you didn't have the right resources?

@Starcraft- the other side you can get into is LUA, which is a scripting language, one that is widely used in game programming/development these days. Last I checked, LUA is free to use.

Edit - btw, if you wanted to get into mobile programming, might as well learn programming for iPhones. The whole mobile industry is conforming to that as THE mobile platform.

 

I gree that DBPro is a quick tool to make games rather easily, but soon you will come to see many of it's limitation when you want to advance furter into game development.

FPS and Racing games are easy to develop in the gereric form of development (if not useing FPD creator), but when you want to advance in programming you will need other tools or even make your own Dlls to get it to work right which in the end can be a terrible mess. that could easily be avoided with DarkGDK.

Besides I consider that knowing from the start about classes and oop (that DBpro does not have and will never) is crutial for effective game development



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alephnull on 09 April 2009
NJ5 said:
@dbot: I agree, but that's something which can be done no matter what the language. C++ doesn't force you to use OOP strictly like that, it gives you a lot of freedom.

 

OOP is a way of thinking, you don't need language support to do it. After all, the first C++ "compilers" would just map the code to C statements and compiled with a C compiler.



alephnull on 09 April 2009

Also, good luck using SSE or Altivec instructions with C++ objects. Alignment is already hard to deal with, and harder still with structs.



Words Of Wisdom on 09 April 2009
starcraft said:

I thought I was all set, then I go out drinking for just a few hours and a war has started.

Quite.  No good can come from pursuing these dark arts.  I would advise you one last time to stay as far away from these "programming" things and take up a respectable hobby--preferably one that puts you outside, away from TVs/computers, and around people.



786_ali on 09 April 2009

I seriously recommend python



Initiating social expirement #928719281

HappySqurriel on 09 April 2009
786_ali said:
I seriously recommend python

 

I thought only Rol could pull off this kind of sarcasm ...

Python is one of the few living languages that still has significant whitespace characters ... For an experience programmer (in particular someone who has a lot of experience with Python) this is not a big deal, but for someone learning Python (in particular as someone's first language) having a program spit out a syntax error because of a character which you can't see (unless you have an IDE that displays whitespace) becomes amazingly frustrating.