Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Levi]

Edit: Whoops, doublepost

[GlyphGryph]

Yah, I can send you the pdf if you don't like that web version. Didn't even realize there was a web version.

And as a final note in this thread, drawing is waaaaaaaaay easier than coding.

[Levi]

And as a final note in this thread, drawing is waaaaaaaaay easier than coding.

For some people.  I can barely do a stickman right.   

[GlyphGryph]

Ah, but here's the thing. Say you know nothing about either topic.

You CAN draw. It's easy enough to do untrained.
You CAN'T code. It can't be done untrained.

All you need to do to draw well is to spend a lot of time drawing things, preferably things you can see.

[Levi]

I suppose that is true, I never thought of it that way.

[blackmagechill]

And as a final note in this thread, drawing is waaaaaaaaay easier than coding.

For some people.  I can barely do a stickman right.   

I already knew most of how code works, and I'm horrible with drawing (not too shabby with a clay knife though), because I've done HTML for knowledge of syntax and I'm passing a high-school Algebra class right now (for NO credits, welp), so I get the idea of how variables and strings and booleans work, just not the actual, y'know, code. It's like know the grammar of a language but not the actual words.

[lordnincompoop]

Ah, but here's the thing. Say you know nothing about either topic.

You CAN draw. It's easy enough to do untrained.
You CAN'T code. It can't be done untrained.

All you need to do to draw well is to spend a lot of time drawing things, preferably things you can see.

I disagree. It's just that many of us were trained to draw from a very early age, so we don't remember it.

Writing, childhood crayon drawings, all of those count.

[Neonivek]

Drawing well can be extremely tough...

I have poor motor controls so much so that I even have an IEP that includes poor writing and writing speed. (I am not expected to finish hand written essays in the alloted time... as it would be nearly impossible and actually outright painful)

I have gotten some skill but it can be seriously disheartening when you seriously lack not only talent but that you have "Anti-talent" as in anyone who attempted it as much as you do would be further ahead.

The reason Coding is appealing is because you can replace talent with knowledge much easier then replacing talent with skill with drawing.

You just can't cheat at drawing like you can at coding.

Drawing is also EVIL! There are many times I was like "I am totally going to draw!" and then the second my pencil hits paper I go "Wow, this is nothing like what I wanted to draw". Coding at least it is a "If I had more time" rather then "Wow, I am a horrible coder"

[freeformschooler]

Oh hey, I know how you feel! I always want to draw things but they look awful even though I draw all the time. If you're interested there's this thing called Processing which uses Java (but you don't have to know much about Java to use it as its "IDE" and functionality make it much simpler). It's basically like a sketchpad for computer generated drawings (though you can do other stuff too of course) but you have to code them. To get an idea of what is possible look at David Bollinger's page although that may not be your style as he mainly does fractal type stuff.

[blackmagechill]

I'm using Why's Poingiant Guid and it seems to work out rather nice, explaining things rather simply and with enough humor to keep from being a textbook type thing. I downloaded Ruby 1.8 I think, and it's suppose to just look like a command prompt window, right? I always expected something a little more.... Bright. and with toolbars.

[GlyphGryph]

Why would you need toolbars for programming?

And technically, the console is only for testing stuff. What you are probably going to start doing soon is writing your code in a text file with the .rb extension, and then running that file with ruby.

[Max White]

Java is easy, and very portable. I don't think apple has a JVM for the iphone, but I know just about every good smart phone does, so it would be easy to go onto mobile platforms.

[Virex]

Why would you need toolbars for programming?

And technically, the console is only for testing stuff. What you are probably going to start doing soon is writing your code in a text file with the .rb extension, and then running that file with ruby.

If you do, get something with syntax highlighting and parenthesis matching or you'll be tearing your hair out. (Notepad++ works pretty well for things like that). Alternatively, you may like the features a real IDE offers (automated package management, advanced refactoring options, versioning, autocompletion), in which case Netbeans is an excellent choice.

[Max White]

Notepad ++ is just about the minimum you would use, else your going to be loosing your sanity faster then somebody in lost.

[Virex]

True. Having lived with autocompletion for my whole coding life (first on Neatbeans and more recently with Emacs), simple text editors like notepad++ don't really cut it for me any more (except for when I worked with assembly because who needs autocompletion for 3-char codes?), so I'm often a bit wary of people advising others to write stuff in a text file.