9 replies to this topic

[aaronsme]

well im 14 and want to start young (already made a html learning center)
and wondering whats the best thing for game design e.g the most compatible,multi platform........ i have heard great things about c and c++ but are they worth it or do i need to learn a better lang also if c++ is the best whats a good compiler or what ever it is thank you for any info =)

[kulik]

C/C++ is really worth it. Most of the other languages take ideas and features off these languages. And every imaginable platform supports them.

The start in these languages is hard though, you will have to get over it.
Good luck

[Dom_152]

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Express is free and a good way to go if you're on a Windows platform. It's a nice environment. If you want to do Windows applications you'll have to download the Platform SDK separately though. If you're not using windows then Dev C++ is probably the next best choice.

[wiury123]

Quote

If you're not using windows then Dev C++ is probably the next best choice.

or Code::Blocks. www.codeblocks.org ;-)

[SamuraiCrow]

I usually don't recommend C++ as a first language due to its difficulty but Python, my usual first choice, is going to be significantly retooled soon and compatibility will fail with the proposed version 3.0 that they're working on. (BTW, one of the biggest improvements is that they are DROPPING the CLib requirement so that it will run independently of the C runtimes on Windows.)

-edit-
Dev C++ doesn't have a non-Windows verison AFAIK. GCC is a good compiler though. The MinGW version of GCC is the best GCC for Windows that I know of. If you plan on using free software, you can certainly use Visual C++ Express, but most general-purpose free software is designed for Linux and will build using GCC ONLY.

I'd recommend Code::Blocks for most purposes except cross-compiling to other platforms as they don't seem to have that in the current release candidate 2. If you're going to maintain compatibility with other platforms such as Linux, the MinGW compiler under Code::Blocks is your best bet. If you program any Windows-specific code, you'll probably want Visual C++ Express instead.

[GameEngine_Designer]

There is no such thing as "A best langauge" it all depends on the programmer and how good he/she is with the language. Most people say VB6 sucks but look at vbGORE and some commercial developers still using it. Also, I am 15 years old, I work with VB6 and C++ in teh middle of learning ASM and Blender3D, it's good to start out youg like us, by the time we go to collage for game design(Probably Computer Science maybe different for you but I am going for CS.) you can take the tests and still get credit for the course. I also use MSVC++2005EE. I suggest you work with Text games at first with Win32 as a console application.

Hey, I can help you out a bit if you want me too, just give me an email.

Hope to hear from you soon either for help or hear about one of your games!

~ Tyler

[.oisyn]

GameEngine_Designer said:

Most people say VB6 sucks

And for very good reasons. Not because it's not C++ or anything, but because the language *does* have very serious flaws. If you want to program in VB, use VB.Net. But anything before that should die and never be used again.

[anubis]

Ages ago there has been quite a long discussion on this board about what language you should expose yourself to, while learning the basics. In my opinion the two basic schools that crystalized out of this were a) keeping yourself as far away from the machine (the specifics of the computer) you are working on as possible ( the arguement here is that you first need to get a grasp of the basic algroithms, that are important, instead of being directly confronted with the limitations of a particular machine you are working on ). Classical languages to start out programming with here would be Scheme (Check out the MIT introductory stuff on this... http://mitpress.mit..../book/book.html) or other lisp dialects. Python, Ruby or Smalltalk are popular examples as well. When I first went to university this was the standard way of teaching programming. Moto: Start out with the abstract and go down from there.

Good books : The MIT one I mentioned... and http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/, which is a nice intro to LISP

The other way would be b). I hardly know anyone on the web who hasn't taken this aproach. Of course I can't speak for everyone, but my motivation for getting into programming was, that I got interested in how to create games on a certain platform. Like I owned an Amiga 500, when I was young and moved from playing games on it to writing them (I rented books form the local library on programming... Today I would be extremely surprised to find any books on programming in a school library... My first original programming effort was on an 286... I had recently moved from my Amiga to the PC because of XWing and other titles. In short, the PC started to become an atractive platfrom, as Comodore began to go the way of the Dodo). In this case picking a language that exposes some amount of the underlying system to you can be very helpful. C/C++ today is probably the prime example here (Not because it's a good language... it isn't (*moveflameproofunderwearinposition*)... but because a lot of people are familiar with it and there is more information out there than for any other language). The main didactic experience here would be that you will be confronted with stuff that is neatly hidden away in more abstract languages, like being able to directly access the piece of memory your program works on.
By starting out pretty much at the metal like this (at least that's the theory), you will get a pretty good feeling for what your computer actually does when running a program you write.

Good books on c/c++ : http://www.amazon.co...82918696&sr=8-1
http://www.oreilly.c...og/masteralgoc/

One thing to take away from any discussion about programming languages is that they all share a crucial aspect of equality, in that they are all able to perform the same computations. In that respect it might be the best idea to look at a few languages and pick whatever you feel most comfortable with.

edit: The c++ books i proposed are actually quite bad, since they are more or less advanced. A good idea would be to check out your local Barne's and Noble's (or whatever shop your local mall features) and browse through the introductory books they have in stock.

[aaronsme]

thanks also i will try c++ and if that doesnt work out good i will wait for python to be retooled thanks guys.

SamuraiCrow said:

I usually don't recommend C++ as a first language due to its difficulty but Python, my usual first choice, is going to be significantly retooled soon and compatibility will fail with the proposed version 3.0 that they're working on. (BTW, one of the biggest improvements is that they are DROPPING the CLib requirement so that it will run independently of the C runtimes on Windows.)

-edit-
Dev C++ doesn't have a non-Windows verison AFAIK. GCC is a good compiler though. The MinGW version of GCC is the best GCC for Windows that I know of. If you plan on using free software, you can certainly use Visual C++ Express, but most general-purpose free software is designed for Linux and will build using GCC ONLY.

I'd recommend Code::Blocks for most purposes except cross-compiling to other platforms as they don't seem to have that in the current release candidate 2. If you're going to maintain compatibility with other platforms such as Linux, the MinGW compiler under Code::Blocks is your best bet. If you program any Windows-specific code, you'll probably want Visual C++ Express instead.

[Borogove]

Python. Don't fear the Python 3000 upsets.