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[MagmaMcFry]

tl;dr:

Code: [Select]

git gud

[Putnam]

i love git and use it for basically everything

i am currently using it to keep track of undertale saves, no joke

also

http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/04/git-koans/

[RoguelikeRazuka]

People say that in order to learn C++ (as any other programming language) effectively I should apply it while working at problem I'm particularly interested in. I love computer games, and I always dreamed of making one, but some say C++ is a bad choice for a novice as an instrument to make a computer game with. Then, what are typical problems solved with the use of C++? I mean, what programs are typically written in C++?

[Reelya]

Nah, just make a game and don't listen to the naysayers. It doesn't have to be a complicated game or anything. Generations of coders had c/c++ as their first language at college. And it's easier than ever to learn it. We didn't even have the 'net when I learned it. But now you have a wealth of tutorials and search engines with encyclopedic content on every language feature. If you can't learn to code with all that support when previous generations learned to code amazingly with just a bunch of books, then there's a problem.

[Putnam]

c++ is not a bad tool for making a game

i mean, there's a shitload of linker headaches and stuff, but it's not bad

[i2amroy]

If you've never used it for like anything before it might be a bit tricky for building something from scratch though.

Honestly my advice is to find a good open source project that uses it that you like (*looks pointedly at his signature*) and help them out. Or at least choose something a tad bit simpler if you intend to build from scratch; it can quickly become a lot of work. (Though I guess if you were doing something like minesweeper it wouldn't be a big deal ).

[Reelya]

Tetris is a good scope for a starting project.

[MagmaMcFry]

Tetris is a good scope for a starting project.

Seems a bit complex for a starting project. I would recommend something like Flappy Bird first, to get familiar with game loops and draw calls.

[miauw62]

I got some basic elements of a very buggy tetris working in Curses.

It was really buggy though, and I sort of gave up on it after I coded somewhat functioning collision detection because pieces kept looping across the screen and the edges behaved clearly and i couldnt get line clearing to work.

[MagmaMcFry]

I got some basic elements of a very buggy tetris working in Curses.

It was really buggy though, and I sort of gave up on it after I coded somewhat functioning collision detection because pieces kept looping across the screen and the edges behaved clearly and i couldnt get line clearing to work.

Yeah, there are lots of intuitive approaches to writing Tetris that end up as a frustrating and buggy mess.

[miauw62]

i implemented each block as a 2d array + an x and y position. the 2d array was shit to work with and the x and y positions had some obvious issues.

i was also constantly confused as to what numbers i should be feeding into my draw functions.

[RoguelikeRazuka]

Nah, just make a game and don't listen to the naysayers. It doesn't have to be a complicated game or anything. Generations of coders had c/c++ as their first language at college. And it's easier than ever to learn it. We didn't even have the 'net when I learned it. But now you have a wealth of tutorials and search engines with encyclopedic content on every language feature. If you can't learn to code with all that support when previous generations learned to code amazingly with just a bunch of books, then there's a problem.

The problem with the tutorials that are easily found on the web (at least, with those ones that I've skimmed over so far) is that they are quite brief and not much eloquent. 'Live' examples would be much preferable for a knockhead like me. I mean, I know what a pointer in C is, so what? Some say pointers are great giving simplistic examples (like a swap function) which are useful to simply demonstarte the work pointers do, but utterly unconvincing to me in terms of why I would ever care about pointers since I see no applications of them in a field of activity that interests me. And the information that is not in active use tends to be treated carelessly and eventually gets forgotten because one has more important things to take into consideration.

[i2amroy]

Generally you're going to want to be passing around references instead of pointers in C++ (unless it being able to be NULL is actually an intended goal). Pointers are mostly because C doesn't allow references to be passed, so instead you would pass pointers. There's also a few other small reasons why you would use them, but the main reason in C++ is going to be because you can't really use anything else well, and references aren't going to work as you need them to.

[Mesa]

So I don't know how many people know (or care about) this, but I've been in an IT (and therefore programming is one of the more important classes) high school for 2 years now, and right now my curriculum covers C++ (no OOP sadly), JavaScript and later on probably also PHP.

And well, sometimes my brain gets completely overwhelmed by the vastness of the IT field as a whole (even though i'm only focused on the fraction of it), yet the stuff I'm doing is relatively simple still.
(I much prefer JavaScript to C++ right now but that's beside the point)

I guess this is a glorified PTW. Depending on how anxious I might feel I'll probably post here sometimes because man oh man am I bad at programming...or more specifically, math, which from what I gather is a pretty significant part of it.


(Though I'm not the one doing the programming specifically I'm part of a free open source game project I'll probably make a thread about at some point.)

[Moghjubar]

RoguelikeRazuka:


You can make a game in C/C++ without any libraries... just make it using the console.

In fact, you can do quite a bit with just the console: I made a weapon damage simulator/tester, complete with refreshing console screen based on a set FPS/sim time.  No libraries at all, editable and reloadable files or in game editing, etc.

In any case, if you want to do C/++ I would get used to the basics like that, and definitely learn file I/O.