A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

The Partridge Family were neither partridges nor a family. Discuss.
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freqit
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Joined: February 18th, 2017, 4:47 pm

A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by freqit » February 18th, 2017, 5:17 pm

Hello all!

I have been reading the forums for 2-3 weeks now and watched up to episode 6 of chili's tutorials. I'm almost 40 year old and trying now to learn how to code. I have choosen to start with https://processing.org/ which have a fairly easy syntax, just to get the logical thinking going. It's a Java based language with many similiarites to c/c++. My goal with this is to atleast be able to create some graphical stuff before moving on to c++. Also in my mind, i will use it as a prototype development enviroment as it goes quite fast to code visual stuff further down the path.

I have set some goals which i need to be able to achieve before moving on to c++.
1: code a scrolling text (90's amiga style).
2: add wobble to the scrolling text and other effects (colors,rainbow,alpha and so on...)
3: a starfield with parallax scrolling
4: fractals and pixel manipulation
5: some image(png,bmp,jpeg,ansi-art) manipulation

As you clearly can see I'm a fan of old intros/demos as I grew up with em on the atari/amiga/early pc's.
So what I want to be able to do is to make a intro.Framework for myself so I can put together intros
fairly quick, and spend more time on the "design" aspect of the intros/demos.

I did code some basic on the 286 PC's, made some text games and rouge fantasy games. I then moved on a bit to asm but did not get so far, was able to move pixels around and get text to the screen and so on, basic stuff, nothing advanced at all, but veeeery long ago.

So now to some questions, am i stupid to use the other language first? should i just jump into c++?
For me it seems that the worst part to overcome is the logical thinking, using the while/for/else/else if and so on to build what I want to achieve. Setting up classes and functions correctly.

I'm also looking into qt.io for cross-platform development as a friend told me that he uses it to code games, is this valid? Need more input before spending time with it :)

Any suggestions on how should achieve my goals quickly? Any book i should buy? Any other tutorials besides chili's? Any information is welcomed :)

Well, I have tons more questions but my time is running out, gotta get back to work!
Sorry for the messy post as I only got 15 min to write it before i start working again, hehe !

Thanks all!

albinopapa
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Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by albinopapa » February 18th, 2017, 7:24 pm

So now to some questions, am i stupid to use the other language first? should i just jump into c++?
For me it seems that the worst part to overcome is the logical thinking, using the while/for/else/else if and so on to build what I want to achieve. Setting up classes and functions correctly.

I'm also looking into qt.io for cross-platform development as a friend told me that he uses it to code games, is this valid? Need more input before spending time with it
Don't be bringing your weak ass languages here, this is a C++ haven... :)

No seriously. If it is easier for you to code in procedural languages or use a more complete framework, then go for it. There are a lot of people out there that feel that classes just slow down development, and so choose to stick with functions and structs like in standard C.
If you think paging some data from disk into RAM is slow, try paging it into a simian cerebrum over a pair of optical nerves. - gameprogrammingpatterns.com

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chili
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Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by chili » February 22nd, 2017, 3:00 pm

Chili

Byteraver
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Joined: May 19th, 2016, 6:48 am
Location: Belgium, Europe

Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by Byteraver » February 23rd, 2017, 7:45 pm

Hi!

Oldschooler here too. Exactly the same age, background (pc demo scene enthusiast) and knowledge level (or lack thereof). Start with Chili's framework immediately if you want to learn how to program and do most of the stuff yourself (loading images into memory and so on). If you know how to program and just want to create games, you can use a more complete framework such as sfml I guess. Personally I enjoy doing everything myself. But it has to be said I care more about learning than about creating actual games at this stage. I would definitely use C or C++ though. Hope this helps.

freqit
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Joined: February 18th, 2017, 4:47 pm

Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by freqit » February 25th, 2017, 4:16 pm

The thing is with the other language is that it goes really, really fast to code visual efx, perfect to test out the idea before moving (porting) it to c++. At least this is how we did it back in the day. Coded stuff in Qbasic then moved on to ASM/C.

Maybe there is no need for it today?

Second, I have some background in coding and jumping in to processing and p5 for web development seems easier and will let me do stuff ASAP therefore motivating me more to continue coding :D As over the years I have gone through the beginning of both qbasic/asm/c/c++ and kinda wanna pass that point I was before. Read and completed a couple of books during the years.

My plan is ofc to learn c and c++ as I would like to know how things really work and start from "zero", but I feel if I do that now I might get stuck and lose motivation. Time is also of an essence since I'm working full time and probally won't have more than 1-2h to spend on learning and coding each day, except free days and holidays ofc.

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Zedtho
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Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by Zedtho » March 2nd, 2017, 7:03 am

Porting things from one language to the other doesn't need to happen anymore nowadays.

But I never had the chance to see why they used to do it, so if you could elaborate (if you have the time for that, that is)
that would be awesome!

freqit
Posts: 15
Joined: February 18th, 2017, 4:47 pm

Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by freqit » March 2nd, 2017, 2:49 pm

Zedtho wrote:Porting things from one language to the other doesn't need to happen anymore nowadays.

But I never had the chance to see why they used to do it, so if you could elaborate (if you have the time for that, that is)
that would be awesome!
well the big reason was to test an idea with qbasic before writting it in asm as the coding lines for asm is huge. Saves a lot of time to have all the logic and functionallity down before starting the project in asm.
it was quite a lot moving from qb to asm to qb to asm. I myself did not get that far with my asm coding but my friends did, as i did mostly tracking (music) and ansi/ascii art for the intros/demos and such.

at least that's how they explained it to me, was probally a lot more but over 20 years ago so can't remember :D should be some old school coders in here that can elaborate further on that topic.

Byteraver
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Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by Byteraver » March 2nd, 2017, 8:13 pm

So you made .mod / .xm s3m modules? Funny, my hobby consisted of writing mod / xm players ;) I love these old skool tunes still.

freqit
Posts: 15
Joined: February 18th, 2017, 4:47 pm

Re: A oldschooler trying to learn to code.

Post by freqit » March 3rd, 2017, 12:19 am

yes, i used protracker on amiga and then fast tracker 1 and 2. :)

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