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[Valid_Dark]

I don't understand why C is still taught and used,
can't C++ do everything C can do plus more,
I mean, can't you type C code in a C++ program?

[Siquo]

I don't understand why C is still taught and used,
can't C++ do everything C can do plus more,
I mean, can't you type C code in a C++ program?

Wait, article, let me find it...

There you go: http://damienkatz.net/2013/01/the_unreasonable_effectiveness_of_c.html

TBH, I dislike C and love C++, but I don't have to program databases from scratch.

[Immortal]

Galen, do you have any sources I could read up on?
I've done, connect4(perfect), several other board games, and have done a few competitive robotics competitions (First Robotics). I am currently taking on a 2d space game though and I am kind of lost on how to approach it.

[GalenEvil]

Immortal: One book that has helped me a lot and is my general reference resource is "Artificial Intelligence for Games: 2nd Edition" by Millington and Funge. It explains various AI development techniques and different modules to make use of. A few, which you will no doubt need, are Steering Behaviours, Finite State Machines, and other decision making methods. All can be be added to modularly which gives a lot of flexibility in their usages. The Linear Theory of Battleship is also a fun read

Hope that helps I bought the Millington book a while back so not sure how much it currently costs but an Amazon search will tell you It's worth buying. If you can't afford it then you can *cough* get it through other means */cough* if you look for it.

[Virex]

I don't understand why C is still taught and used,
can't C++ do everything C can do plus more,
I mean, can't you type C code in a C++ program?

Using C++ pulls in all kind of crap from the standard library and adds memory overhead. That doesn't matter much for a PC, but when you're strapped for space, like on an integrated device, C gives you most of what C++ need without gobbling up your limited memory. Sure, C++ Can be made as efficient as C, but that requires a good compiler, so early on, C compilers for new architectures are better than C++ compilers.

[Mego]

The main reason my professor gave is because it's a Computer Architecture and Organization class, so we'll be looking at what the actual assembly instructions do, and how the C code becomes assembly. C++ name-mangles during compilation to support overloading and other OOP features, so C is actually a better choice here.

[Immortal]

Thanks Galen. Edit: Been looking up the topics you mentioned. Great help so far.

To the above, C is used because it is the fastest. Hands down. It is the lowest level, high level programming language.

[GreatJustice]

Made a game in AS3, and it's finally finished. It's a basic maze game, but it functions reasonably well so far as I can tell. However, I suspect my code is a bit messy and could have been cut down at spots. If anyone wants to critique it, provide suggestions, etc, it's right here.

[alway]

Galen, do you have any sources I could read up on?
I've done, connect4(perfect), several other board games, and have done a few competitive robotics competitions (First Robotics). I am currently taking on a 2d space game though and I am kind of lost on how to approach it.

There's a bunch of different AI approaches.

The first is used in games, and is the most easy. It uses simple logic, state machines, and a variety of other primarily deterministic algorithms, with a bit of fuzzy logic mixed in. IMO, the boring crap which is more 'programmer common sense' than anything else.

The second is the connectionism approach. Neural networks and similar. They will probably do what you want most of the time if you do it right, but you probably won't know how or why. Good for pattern recognition.

The third is the evolutionary approach. Genetic algorithms. You pretty much give it a goal, then it tries to get as close to the goal as possible, even if the problem isn't well defined. Good if you know what you want, but not how you want it. Good for occasionally creative solutions.

The most recent and most successful variation is mixing in Bayesian Reasoning. Markov models, bayesian networks, and a few others. Based very heavily in statistics. They can be used on their own or in combination with subsystems consisting of other AI techniques; if you want to learn more about these, go here:

https://www.ai-class.com/home/

Seriously, it deserves that size. It's the online course that pretty much started the whole 'coursera' thing, and basically will take you from beginner level AI all the way up to the level where you could probably code a self-driving car. The course part is over, and so there aren't the homeworks or exam problems, but those don't really add anything anyway. It also has comprehension check questions scattered throughout, with explanations if you didn't understand the concept.

The guys teaching it are as good as it gets. Peter Norvig literally wrote the book on AI; "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach," which is pretty much the book on AI. Sebastian Thrun was the head of the team that created Stanford's self driving car, the first to complete the DARPA Grand Challenge, before moving on to Google to create the Google self driving car. So yeah; basically the top guys in the field.

[Skyrunner]

To the above, C is used because it is the fastest. Hands down. It is the lowest level, high level programming language.

That's just not true. C can and usually isthe fastest, but it isn't hands-down fastest. You can write fast C++ or slow C as easy as anything. :/ Depending on usage, C and C++ have near identical speeds. I remember one person benchmarking a certain program and finding that C++ was slower solely due to the compilers having different optimizations for the identical function (something to do with memory allocation...). Fixing it solved the problem.

... Though I guess that means C does tend to be faster, if only due to compiler differences... >_<

I have to motivate myself to do stuff! But I keep doing other things instead of codjng. >.>

[Valid_Dark]

Idk, I see what you guys are saying, but those are dumb reasons.  yeah it may compile faster, but i don't mind waiting another 1 second - 1 hour(or longer) for something to compile. 
and things like one of the reasons listed in that article

It's not that OO type systems force fractal complexity to happen, but they encourage it, they make it easier to do the wrong thing. C doesn't make it impossible, but it makes it harder. C tends to breed simpler, shallower types with fewer dependencies that are easier to understand and debug.

I agree that OO type systems encourage fractal complexity, but it doesn't have to be that way,
You can program C++ in a non OO way if you want.
and C++ has cool / helpful things like classes, and things like stringstreams (which I much prefer over the C way of doing strings) and C++ style strings in general, and not to mention it can still do C-style strings if thats your fancy.
maybe I'm just pigheaded, maybe I just love c++ But I still favor it over C,

and the things about it having a bigger community, and compilers working better for it, and stuff, thats because it's been around longer, and people refuse to move on.
C++ is the future. . .

[Skyrunner]

I think I was talking about runtime fastness, not compiletime fastness...
Compiling speed is fastest is scripting languages, due to lack of compiling! xD

I like C++, but it's not the future. It's pretty much in its prime (especially in the game industry) or almost past it.

[Valid_Dark]

yeah, I know scripting languages don't have to compile, but we were comparing C and C++.
if you think C++ is almost past its prime for the game industry, what do you think is going to replace it?
and don't say Java,.

[Skyrunner]

Well, obviously I have no idea, because it's still going to be 'in' for a long time. :/
And I don't like Java.

[Valid_Dark]

I have a feeling Java is going to be coming up in the world here soon though,
what with Android games being Java,
and that dumb box, Ouya or whatever it's called, that indie game console, is going to be Java only,
and Nvidia's new game console is going to be mainly Java based.