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English how to learn programming

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old Re: how to learn programming

Jawohl
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user Yates has written
Creating games starts with modding them. It's how you learn to understand the game physics. Find a cool game you would like to create a custom mod for, then start with that programming language.

But don't dive straight into the deep end, I learnt Lua by simply creating a colour text on say, and after that I had an admin script with 1 fuckillion buttons. Now I do PHP, Lua, Javascript, Java, SQL & AJAX (and a little C++ on the side - nothing big) all thanks to that shit colour text.
Spoiler >


Thank you Yates... you were actually helpful...
Jokes aside, I did a few mini mods of Carnage Contest... I may start again...and one decent mod for stranded 2 but that isnt programming.

Thanks for the assistance

user DannyDeth has written
You won't learn to program in a day, no matter how hard you try ( took me two years of messing around as a child before I could do anything useful ). So yeah, you will have to dive in and see where your learning process takes you.

+1 for Yates' idea as well. There is a lot of mathematics involved in programming, and if you want to do 3D games, the math is even more obfuscated and hard to wrap your head around.

Just keep at it, there is no shortcut.


Yeah same, I did a few 2d games when I was in my last year of primary school and a dozen in high school... but it took me 3ish years of messing around... you probably remember some of the shit games I upload here on UN... that was 3 years ago...

old Re: how to learn programming

Apache uwu
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user Yates has written
& AJAX (and a little C++ on the side - nothing big) all thanks to that shit colour text.
I don't consider HTML & CSS to be an actual language because it looks like shit 
;D


Agreed on everything. But, AJAX is just using native functions within Javascript (XMLHttpRequest), and CSS especially makes everything look amazing (unless you mean the syntax).

@Topic: I'd recommend starting with a strict language, the one thing I regret was being exposed to too many loose, weak languages. In my case, it became extremely difficult to learn the higher up langs simply because I was too used to doing everything in a few lines. A few concepts that were hard for me to get down were scopes, types/casting, references, alloc/dealloc, garbage collectors, etc)

I'd also recommend doing an easy personal project, and not just following tutorial projects. Attempt an easy task, and if you need help, search up a small portion of it. You'll feel like you accomplished something, and you'll gain knowledge on the smaller tools you need to build up to the larger/more complex projects.

old Re: how to learn programming

Zakerou
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So there are diligent people who wanna make a game...Well, I can give you these advises for you:

Learn the basics of programming. I recommend using a structured programming language like C. This includes the following topics:


> Linker, Compiler
> Runtime
> Stack, Heap
> Use of libraries
> Variables (Values, Addresses, etc.)
> Primitive datatypes, composite datatypes, abstract datatypes and pointers
> Declaration, Definition and Initialization
> Type casting
> Arrays (Simple + Multidimensional)
> Control structures
> Functions/Methods (Call-by-Value, Call-by-Reference, Return values, Scope, Lifetime etc.)
> Static and Dynamic memory allocation
> Recursion

Later - as you want to learn how to make a good game - you can focus on object oriented programming. A very powerful and beautiful prorgamming paradigm (C++, Java etc):

> Inheritance (Extenstions, Downcasting etc.)
> Polymorphism
> Dynamic binding
> Virtual machines
> Objects (Classes + Abstract classes)
> Garbage collector
> Interfaces
> Serialization
> Generics
> Collections
> I/O
> GUI
> Threads
> Network


Only with THIS knowledge you CAN make a basic 3D game depending on how good you have learned it. All of those points are very very important.

Also, start making little personal projects - Tutorial projects will teach you the basics, but never give you your own logic thinking of solving problems. You need a lot of experience to do so. A 3D game takes a lot of time as well as a lot of knowledge in performance, optimization and right use of libraries. A wrong programming style can kill your project completly.

Oh and I forgot: You need your time. Never be in a rush or you won't even make it, except for you are a genius ...

If you keep these points in mind, you are on your best way for a game developer.

old Re: how to learn programming

ohaz
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@user Zakerou: I don't really think that you need to know that much about the linker, or about how a compiler works to be able to program. Also, starting with something like C might stop a lot of people from learning how to program - I would've never started programming if I'd started it with C. I'm sure.

old Re: how to learn programming

Zakerou
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@user ohaz:

The first semester in "Computer Science - Software and Information Engineering" at university was about that topics. First language: C. And C isn't a difficult language if you start from the beginning. At first sight it looks like horror but one of the main slogans of programming: "Keep you head cool".

Also I didn't mention to know how a compiler works nor as I said how a linker does. He can think about it what it is to get basic knowledge of programming.

But yeah you need to know it if you wanna make a game. E.g. Memory management, API, Calling Conventions, Methods of Graphical Presentations etc. I prefer you know it to be a good game developer.

old Re: how to learn programming

ohaz
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user Zakerou has written
The first semester in "Computer Science - Software and Information Engineering" at university was about that topics. First language: C. And C isn't a difficult language if you start from the beginning. At first sight it looks like horror but one of the main slogans of programming: "Keep you head cool".
Well, I had C beginning from the second semester. We started with Java (because you can explain OOP in java... have fun doing that in C).
And honestly, I really think starting with a language that doesn't confuse you with pointers, and that every data structure in fact can also be cast to every other data structure, somehow is easier.
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