I need to ask a C++ programmer a question

[KiKaL]

Alright well next year I will be a senior and we have a thing called Advance Learning Education "ALE". Basically its where if you feel there is a subject you want to learn more about but our school doesnt teach it you can teach yourself it. Well I want to look more into C++. So that im set on. I know VB and know just the VERY basics of C++. Well I have to come up with a goal for the end of the semester. Well Im like geeze thats hard, I dont know what I will be capable of learning in C++ in a semester. I want to make a game so I was thinking maybe a game such as Hardball? I think that would be possable but Im not sure. If thats to easy/hard, do you have any other ideas?

 

[Smartweb]

Learning C++ in a semester wouldnt' be very hard, especially if you already know another language. The only hard part about making your game would be creating the logic that you would have to use for any other language too. You don't get VB's simple forms system, but you wouldn't learn anything if it was easy.

 

[KiKaL]

So its doable? you would say?

 

[Smartweb]

Yes.

 

[Cowboy Shane]

If you are planning on doing anything graphical, then you will also need to factor in the time to learn a GUI toolkit on top of C++

 

[KiKaL]

Alright thank you, this is exactly the info im looking for, so for a game like Hardball, you know kinda like a single player pong where you break blocks with the ball. So is the toolkit very difficult to learn for something of that nature? Also so should I learn C++ and get comfotable with that before moving on to a book on the GUI toolkit? What exactly is a GUI toolkit?

 

[everclock]

It is doable IF:

1. You invest a lot of out of school time

2. You have decently fast computers that are very stable (there is nothing worse than a slow computer that crashes b/c of instability and your programming errors on top of that

3. You understand that creating a c++ program without a good compiler is frustrating. Creating a c++ game where the graphics librarys are confusing is even more frustrating.

My advice: Honestly, I cannot tell u to set small goals, so go for it. But be prepared to invest a lot of time into the graphical portion. A lot of graphical programming has little to do with actually coding and more with implementing the code the right way.

 

[Roof Jumper]

well, I would worry first about learning C++ in a semester, than learn an API (application programming interface)in your spare time, such as Win32 for windows or GTK/X11 for linux.

 

[KiKaL]

Hmm you guys have kinda scared me, Im wondering I should make my goal a bit easier, such as a checkers game by the end of the year, and a dos program by the end of first semester.

 

[everclock]

Why not set a non-graphics related goal for the end of the first semester, and the end of the year do a graphics project. That is the way my AP Computer Science class at high school went. We had a hell of a time getting the graphics librarys to work. I can honestly say that of the 30 computers in the room, only about 4 had the graphics library working right at a time. My teacher (her husband a programmer) could not do anything about it.

The point is, set at least one goal you know you can accomplish, because if you do not reach that first goal, you will become demotivated, and that is not a good thing. You never know what could hold you back. Could be the computer or software, not you.

 

[KiKaL]

Alright thank you all so much for all this help. Any ideas on what I could do for a non-graphical project? I dont really have any idea of what I could do.

 

[Titan386]

It's hard to set a goal like this before you've even started using the language much, because things will defintely come up as you progress that make the goal more difficult than you orginally expected. I would suggest you take it one step at a time, but if you do set a long term goal, I wouldn't make it "I will create XYZ program".

Why do I say that? Because if you concentrate your efforts on one program, you will probably overlook important parts of the language, its libraries, and the learning experience in general. Data structures, for example, is a rather boring topic, but it is essential to know at least a few flexible data structures when designing a program of any considerable size. If you bypass such topics for things that may seem more relevant to the program you're working on - like a graphics API for example - you'll probably create a program that works, but is poorly constructed.

I'm self taught in pretty much all I know about programming, and I did try to set goals to make specific programs, much like you're doing. I did make them, but when I look at them now, after learning more of computer science theory, they seem to be unorganized messes. Though I'd like to improve upon them, it is often easier to just start from scratch anyway.

I don't know how you're planning to learn C++, but as I learn programming, I've found it most effective to learn from books. In particular, The C Programming Language by Ritchie and Kernighan, as well as The Practice of Programming, by Kernighan and Pike, have offered numerous insights not only towards the syntactical issues of specific languages, but also the general stylistic elements of computer science. I've found the later to be much more important.

BTW, if you need a graphics API, SDL is nice. It's simple to use (mostly), portable, free in every meaning of the word, and it works well.

Best of luck

 

[KiKaL]

Yea I wouldnt set goals but its for my senoir project, so I have to set goals : /

 

[everclock]

Hers an idea, its also a very common "first major project"

I am assuming that by the time your first semester is over you will understand classes, but i'm not sure. Either way this can be done with or without classes.

This is just a general idea:

Make some sort of banking financing program that allows for multiple users (passwords if you use classes) and allows for depositing and withdrawing from several different accound types. Also maybe allow "wiring" of money, intrest over time, and other such novelties.

Here is another idea:

Create a ASCII hangman game. Dont laugh at this. If you have never programmed much before, this will not be an easy task. This can easily be done without classes. Structures might help, but arent necesary.

 

[KiKaL]

Yea here what someone on another forum said I should make my goals, make say an ASCII card game such as black jack for my first semester project, and then maybe a Graphical Tic-Tac-Toe game for my second. Would those be able to give me a challenge, but a challenge that is possable?

 

[everclock]

ASCII card game? Do you mean you would have an AI in there to play against? If so, do not make this your first project. The graphcal tic-tac-toe is a good idea, but will not be as easy as it sounds.

 

[KiKaL]

Nah there wont really be any AI for say black jack, The cards will be random, and then I can just make an if then using a random number saying if its less then say 17 but higher then 14 make it use a rnd where it will choose true or false or whatever and if its true, it will hit, if not it wont. Probably doesnt make a lot of sense lol but once I learn more I think I could do it.

 

[captain_sHiFTy]

i'm in gr 12, and took an infotech course last semester (1 semester course).

we learned flash actionscripting for first half of the semester (teacher was new at it so it was mostly trial and error on our part), then c++ for the second half.

my advice, would be to find a good c++ book or tutorial and learn all the basics, and a little bit of depth into it. Then go find a flash actionscripting tutorial. Flash actionscripting is almost identical to c++ as far as i could tell, with a few of its own functions and operators.
with a little bit of trial and error you could make a good object based flash game, then when you re ready move on to make a game using some other graphical gui (such as a 3d rendered one in maya or 3dmax, or an ascii game etc).

we did art based flash games which are messy and slow, but very easy to do. i suggest learning object oriented however. it took a month to two months for some of the kids in my class to create VERY nice looking games (mine wasnt very good because i was doing a bunch of websites for our teacher instead)

also you can download a free trial of flash mx 2004 if you dont own a version of it yourself, or pick up an educational version for like 20 bucks.

 

[Mr.Radar]

If you're looking into getting into C(++) I'd reccomend getting Abosolute Beginner's Guide to C by SAMS Publishing. It's a very good introduction to the C family of languages, though it is frustraiting that they only give you enough information to write very simple programs, but not enough to write anything useful. I recently purchased Teach Yourself C in 21 Days (also by SAMS Publishing) but due to school I haven't been able to get past the first few chapters ("days") but, looking ahead, it seems as though it is much more indepth than ABGtC and covers many more standard functions. It's also thicker than my "college" dictionary and comes with the GCC 3.2 (Linux) compiler (ported to Windows by the MinGW project) and Bloodshed DevC++ 4 developent environment.

 

[G18241]

hi mate i aint a c++ but i got an idea for the none graphical game ure wanting...why not make something like a RPG where u give options of directions and items to pick up etc. Im not sure how you would do it or how easy it would be but as it doesnt need graphics on itu could use it, and then you could adapt it and add graphics later on when u get a bit better or need to