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[Siquo]

On the other hand I fear it may have spoiled me for post-university...

Meh, I can probably get you a job like that, as long as you're willing to join the dark side.

Your avatar is relevant.

[Valid_Dark]

Why should I use XML instead of just plain data files?

[GlyphGryph]

Because there's no such thing as a plain data file.

[Fayrik]

Because there's no such thing as a plain data file.

What about .bin and .dat, and other Binary Serialization dumps?

Why should I use XML instead of just plain data files?

Simply put, because if the data is largely text based, XML makes it much easier to read and or modify.
Unless you're using a SQL database but that has it's own set of ups and downs.

[GlyphGryph]

What about .bin and .dat, and other Binary Serialization dumps?

Even binary files contain an encoding that must be deciphered and often parsed. But I suppose they are close enough.

[Killjoy]

Why should I use XML instead of just plain data files?

Because XML has a few nice features, there exists a lot of parsers of varying quality, and it can be handwritten.
Depending on how much data you need to load, XML can be an okay file container.
If you need to load a lot of data fast, binary files will be the best choice.

[Valid_Dark]

Why should I use XML instead of just plain data files?

Because XML has a few nice features, there exists a lot of parsers of varying quality, and it can be handwritten.
Depending on how much data you need to load, XML can be an okay file container.
If you need to load a lot of data fast, binary files will be the best choice.

this was the kind of answer I was looking for.

[Lightningfalcon]

I managed to succesufully sign up for AP Computer Science the other day, and I have a question-
How easy is Java to learn?
How similar is it to C++?

[Max White]

How similar is it to C++?

Pretty easy to learn, but takes some time to master. Java is an OOP language, so while the syntax and language specifics can be picked up without too much effort, what you really need to learn are your patterns.

How similar is it to C++?

If you asked me how similar German is to English, and I only spoke German, English and French, I would say it was very different. If you asked me how similar German is to English, and I only spoke German, English and Korean, I would tell you it is very similar.

It has its differences. I would say that Java is easier. Still, across the spectrum of all programming languages, I would say that they are very closely related.

[Toxicshadow]

In XNA 4.0, is it possible to use variable's values in a texture file name? For example,

Code: [Select]

//Snipping everything except what I'm specifically referring to:
    "SpriteBase_" + Direction;
//Direction is an Int16, based on Up/Down/Right/Left, this is meant to achieve a filename of "SpriteBase_1" or "_2", etc...
Also, could you give me some pointers on how to achieve this in the update logic. Even better, how to achieve this in my Sprite class?

Excuse my nubness, just started with XNA :/

[Mego]

I managed to succesufully sign up for AP Computer Science the other day, and I have a question-
How easy is Java to learn?
How similar is it to C++?

In my opinion, Java is very easy to learn, but difficult to master. It gives you a lot of slack with concepts, so it's great for introduction to programming. However, it doesn't do so great of a job of weaning you off of those bad practices, so when you move to more complex programming, you run into brick walls frequently. See Stargrasper's rant about Strings; link is in the OP.

[Toxicshadow]

I managed to succesufully sign up for AP Computer Science the other day, and I have a question-
How easy is Java to learn?
How similar is it to C++?

In my opinion, Java is very easy to learn, but difficult to master. It gives you a lot of slack with concepts, so it's great for introduction to programming. However, it doesn't do so great of a job of weaning you off of those bad practices, so when you move to more complex programming, you run into brick walls frequently. See Stargrasper's rant about Strings; link is in the OP.

Not to steer off his question, but imo scripting languages like Python are much better for an introduction to programming. Though, Python is the same with Java in that you can develop bad practices.  (Like omitting ;'s since they arent required in Python(As far as I remember?))
Though, taken from a different post, the Java and Python are very different:

Code: [Select]

#In python:
name, age = john.summary()

//In Java:
Object[] summary = john.summary();
String name = (String) summary[0];
int age = ((Integer) summary[1]).intValue(); #primitive types require boxing


[Skyrunner]

Code: [Select]

#In python:
name, age = john.summary()

//In Java:
Object[] summary = john.summary();
String name = (String) summary[0];
int age = ((Integer) summary[1]).intValue(); //primitive types require boxing


...fixed?

Currently having trouble with a bug where all the numbers in my vector ending up being -1.#IND, which, I think, means I divided by zero somewhere. @_@ I don't think I did... but...

Also, it seems that my perlin noise module is returning 0, always. Why!? ;_;

[MadocComadrin]

Not to steer off his question, but imo scripting languages like Python are much better for an introduction to programming.

Eh, if you want to introduce the layman with no intent of doing anything too serious, then a scripting language is a good start. For a first year CS student with a some knowledge of basic programming concepts, you'll want a high-level OOP programming language, like Java, C# or C++. (I actually think it's better to start people off with C++. It might be harder to teach, but the people who get it will be better off in the long-run.)

[Mini]

In XNA 4.0, is it possible to use variable's values in a texture file name? For example,

Code: [Select]

//Snipping everything except what I'm specifically referring to:
    "SpriteBase_" + Direction;
//Direction is an Int16, based on Up/Down/Right/Left, this is meant to achieve a filename of "SpriteBase_1" or "_2", etc...
Also, could you give me some pointers on how to achieve this in the update logic. Even better, how to achieve this in my Sprite class?

Excuse my nubness, just started with XNA :/

You can yes, Content.Load simply takes a string and gets whatever content happens to have that name. However in this situation it would probably be better to have all of the direction sprites be in a single sprite sheet, and use the direction*spritesize as an offset for which sprite to draw, using one of the draw methods that has a source rectangle.