Questions for programmers.
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Printed Date: 09 June 2026 at 8:42am
Topic: Questions for programmers.
Posted By: Etheric_Shock
Subject: Questions for programmers.
Date Posted: 04 April 2013 at 5:11am
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I've been getting interested in programming lately and would like to know a few things.
1. How does anyone get experience/learn programming? Costs? 2. What language/program is worth while to learn? I've used Game Maker before, but they throw you in without any real instruction for their language. And their updates ruin your program file. |
Replies:
Posted By: programgamer
Date Posted: 08 April 2013 at 12:27pm
| Well, there's this really great community I found a while back, I'll put a link right here: http://forum.moosader.info/ - http://forum.moosader.info/ . For a first programming language, I dunno, I guess you'll have to ask there. |
Posted By: Blueberry_pie
Date Posted: 10 April 2013 at 8:51am
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It's perfectly doable to learn programming without spending money. There are plenty of free tools you can use and the internet contains tons of useful resources (although depending on your learning style, you may prefer a physical book). If you're interested in games programming, specifically, I can recommend the http://forums.tigsource.com/ - TIGSource forums . |
Posted By: Etheric_Shock
Date Posted: 11 April 2013 at 4:31am
| Both are great links. Thanks. |
Posted By: ggrin
Date Posted: 11 April 2013 at 9:03am
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If I were you I'd chose some cross-platform framework or even an engine that satisfys your needs and picked one of the available languages: c#, boo and js for UnityEngine for ex.
I started with ActionScript 3 and still think that it has it's advantages (speaking of a 2d small projects). No need to learn about rendering, a lot of documentation, very quick develompent — you could try some of your game dev ideas and realize if they are worty enough. For now, if I wasn't knew any langs I'd started with a http://haxe.org/ I think. Or C#. |
Posted By: Nppsf
Date Posted: 13 April 2013 at 11:05pm
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Hey OP,
1. codecademy.com is a really really great resource. 2. What are you looking to do? I am not big into programming, so I couldnt tell you particular virtues of certain languages, but I can see the differences. Python for example, is well known for its simplicity and elegant syntax. People like it because it makes sense, and its easy to work with. Ruby is a newer language that is praised for similar reasons. Languages like C, or C++, or even Java are a bit more fundamental, and less user friendly. The syntax in Java, Javascript, C, and C++ all look the same to me, but I know my programmer friends would kill me for saying that. The thing is, its not necessarily an advantage to use simple user-friend programming languages like Python. By making it easier to use, you also rob yourself of the opportunity to see what the computer is really doing with your programming. Sometimes that understanding really helps, such as when something breaks. Hope this helps. |
Posted By: Etheric_Shock
Date Posted: 14 April 2013 at 8:12am
| I'm looking to do hobby indie games in the Castlevania side scrolling style. Like Symphony of the Night and its successors, it'd be a live action side scrolling rpg. Also. I'm aware of some languages being comparable or incompatible with different systems. I'd like to eventually port to different handhelds (iOS, android, windows op, etc). |
Posted By: tyrannotorus
Date Posted: 19 April 2013 at 1:21pm
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I had the same questions you had when I started programming. I tried C/C++, but I couldn't get anything to compile and didn't understand the errors it was spitting out. I moved to Actionscript (Flash games) and found it much quicker and easier to understand for a beginner. It's all free with flashdevelop.org. and there are plenty of engines and resources ready-made to jumpstart your game like FlashPunk and Flixel - and lots of simple tutorials for using both. Actionscript is practically identical to Java, PHP, JavaScript and Haxe as well - all languages for doing different (mostly internety) things. If I were choosing to learn today however, I would choose Unity3d.com. Think of it as flash that can do 3D and not openly shunned by Apple. All the languages are the same after learning one. |
Posted By: Raf
Date Posted: 15 May 2013 at 6:29am
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Originally posted by Nppsf Languages like C, or C++, or even Java are a bit more fundamental, and less user friendly. The syntax in Java, Javascript, C, and C++ all look the same to me, but I know my programmer friends would kill me for saying that. The syntax of them ARE alike. In big lines, you got two "families" of programming syntax: C-style (with curly brackets, semicolons at the end of each line, etc) and BASIC-style (no curly brackets but IF END IF stuff, no semicolons, etc). Of course you also got some weird stuff that doesn't fall in either one of the two families (Prolog and the likes), but for ages now, these are the two "families". Java, Javascript, C and C++ all fall into the same one. It also makes picking up a new language alot easier once you get the hang of one. Alot of principle are the same, and the syntax is mostly the same, so you'll end up spending most of your time learning the particularities of that language, instead of learning basic concepts and syntax. So, best thing is to first get familiar with the syntax and basic concepts. I find "user-friendly" languages without too many frills can help out big time with that. I myself (aside from dabbling in QBasic as an 8-year old) learned those basic concepts from a scripting language that only allowed 256 integers, 256 strings, 256 booleans, and that's it. Wanted to give them a name? You had to define it in a separate file. No loops, functions, nothing. Closest to that were GOTO statements. You'll learn the very basics quickly then, and from there on, you can go on getting the hang of loops and such. Or you can skip the stupidly limited language (cause in the end, that's what it is  ) and go to a "user-friendly" language that has those already.Stuff like AGS' scripting, Flixel (for Actionscript), and such might be the best. If you haven't done any programming at all and don't know the very core basics, I wouldn't jump in and start with Java, let alone with C/C++ (the pointers'll make your head explode :P ) |
Posted By: Xhukari
Date Posted: 23 June 2013 at 12:40am
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I also use Actionscript, though I am out of date with AS 2.0, I will second that there is a lot of documentation and good forums to help with it (especially AS3). Now I'm not sure about about AS3, but certainly for AS2, a lot of solutions you may use within it don't translate well to other programming languages since Flash has such a emphasis on the timeline, most of how the code operates is programmed around it. Like how Flash Player will only execute a piece of code on a frame equal to the FPS you set the swf at. Though saying that, Flash is moving towards HTML5 converters, and currently they have something known as Stage3D which looks pretty impressive from the demos I have seen of it floating around the web.
Flash also has a bunch of sites around the web which supports selling the games you produce; Kongregate could sponsor you and you'd receive a portion of the ad money. And don't ask me how, but some Flash Games can get on Steam. The biggest I know of is Binding of Isaac. |