Need advice from a PROGRAMMER

[Josh42]

Someday soon, I want to get into making games and programming. I would like to know what language(s) you recommend for doing this. I already am learning java but could take up c or c++ also. What do you think? Thanks.

[RobRich]

I would like to say that I'm a programmer, but I never got past the basics of C++ and Fortran77. I just lost interest, as hardware seems more appealing to me.

Any rate, C++ is very useful for writing games. Most news games are in Visual C++, since executing D3D or OpenGL graphics calls is rather simplified due to wide range support for 3D libraries in the C enviroment.

Robert Richmond

[hd581]

C seems to be one of the most popular launguages. Low overhead w/ still a lot of functionality. For large projects though, I second the vote for C++ or Visual C++. They're aren't very different syntax-wise.

[cyphen]

"C" is all but dead. If you are just starting out, C++ all the way - it's much more graceful than C.

[GlobalNameSpace]

For Windows game programming a very good book is called "Programming Secrets of the Gameing Guru's" (or close to that). It introduces you to Windows programming (which is basically built on top of C++ so your using Microsoft's data structures) and then takes you into DirectX which is how games are made for Windows now.

Really good, it even goes into programming AI for games and various other considerations. You need Visual C++ 6 (at least the introductory version comes with the book).

Also know that DirectX will be how you write games for the upcoming XBox.

[Warthog]

I too lost interest, like Rob. But I was using Visual Basic, a much simpler language. I was thinking of going back to it (after only a 6 month break) just to understand and maybe create a few apps. I doubt I'm going to go into programming seriously.

Warthog

[Josh42]

yeah, I don't think I'll ever get into programming seriously either, but I think it would be fun (and very gratifying) to make games and such. Most of you agree that c++ is nice and I've never heard of visual c++. It must be new. None of you mentioned java. Why not java for games??

[cyphen]

because JAVA is SLOWWWWW----
it's not a compiled language, which can be nice in a way, because a user can modify the code easily without having to trace thru archaic machine language. but it's way too slow for my tastes. I'm not a serious programmer, but one of my friends is. He uses Visual basic, but he admitted that the executable from C++/visual C++ is much faster than that from Visual Basic. I have some programming background in C, and graduated to C++, which was, like i said, much more graceful.

[SysOpt]

I'd highly suggest posting this question to codeguru.com (http://www.codeguru.com)'s message board.

[Brangwen]

I just started learning C++. I do think it's a gas, but how far I'll get given my real job and other obligations I don't know. Try www.Free-Ed.Net (http://www.FreeEd.Net) to get a 21-day free course on C++.

Good luck!

Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by Brangwen (edited 05-28-2000).]

[Josh42]

Thanks for all your posts everyone. Your comments are very appreciated!

[hd581]

cyphen, don't write off C so fast. Perhaps you haven't had as much exposure to it as I have but it seems anything but dead. Probably the majority of development I've seen in Linux/FreeBSD is in C not C++ (though I've seen both). Unix was written in C not C++. Windows NT was written in C not C++. It's still around and it's not as bloated as other languages.

There's a niche in different markets for different languages.