Arevos

Perl doesn't have that much of an advantage over PHP these days, and Perl's looking decidedly creaky and old. Perl's spiritual successor is arguably Ruby, which is a much more powerful and structured language, and has a rather good web framework in Ruby on Rails.

Python also has some good web development frameworks (CherryPy, SQLObject, Django etc.)

namvictor

Thank you for reply.
But can you tell me what is dark basics and where can I find that?
Thanks.

Polyphemus_

Google is your friend, and that post is quite off-thread. You should start a new thread for such questions.

namvictor

I don't have permission to create a new thread.
Can you help me to create a new thread about game programming?
Thanks.

lectricpharaoh

If you want to get into games programming, then you need to learn the basics first. That is, learn the syntax of your language, such as how to declare variables and functions/procedures, use library (or built in, depending on language) functions, and that sort of thing. Don't worry if all of this stuff is done using plain text; that is fine. What you should learn here is basic console I/O (printing stuff on the screen, and getting simple input from the keyboard), file I/O (in some languages, like C and C++, it's virtually the same as console I/O), and some techniques and concepts.

Then, you need to figure out how to do a few things using your environment (compiler and OS) of choice. You'll need to figure out how to a) get user input in whatever form (mouse, keyboard, and joystick/gamepad being popular ones), b) draw stuff on the screen (this may be as simple as drawing pixels and lines to blitting images to texture mapping; I suggest you stick to the simple stuff at first), and c) implementing some sort of timing.

Once you've got this knowledge, you should be able to write a simple single-player game. The key point here is simple; try something like Tetris or a 2D top-view scrolling game (the latter isn't as simple as it might seem). Once you have done that, you will be able to tackle something more complex. Try making it two-player (at the same computer, using different keys and/or input devices). From this, you will (hopefully) learn about creating state objects to represent each player. This has two benefits: first, you can save/restore the states to implement saving/loading of games, and second, you will gain scalability by being able to instantiate more of these objects.

If you want any kind of multiplayer game that uses two or more computers, you'll also need to learn sockets programming so the machines can talk to one another.

Try to keep your code as generic as possible, especially if using an object-oriented language. Don't make a 'monster' class, and then duplicate all of this into a 'friendly NPC' class. Rather, make a 'creature' class, putting all the common characteristics there, and then derive other types from it. The 'creature' class might even be derived from a 'sprite' class, with other subclasses representing inanimate objects, projectiles, and the like.

Don't hard-code things in unless you have a valid reason to do so, and even then, try to use symbolic constants; NUM_PLAYERS makes much more sense than 2, and it's much easier to change the constant definition rather than change every occurence of 2 that refers to the number of players without accidentally changing any occurences that refer to something else.

Game programming is one of the most complex types of programming there is, so you will have to work at it for a while. Don't expect to create something grand right away; if you make the attempt, it will only discourage you when you fail. Start small and build from there.

__________________
And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.
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namvictor

I have another question.
All most my friends have studied PHP programming.
I am beginning with Servlet/JSP now(because I love Java,it's really fun) but I feel that it's too difficult for me.
I can't find anyone of my friends to make a group so I only read ebooks and study with myself.
When I can't understand something , I'll ask someone in this big house.
Is this the right thing to do?
Would you please to give me some advices?
What is the good way to study network programing?
Thank a lot.

Indigno

You may want to make some notes about QBASIC. It's not useful for anything, really, but it's great for learning the basic fundamentals of programming. Especially for Visual Basic (Since it uses mostly the same commands as QBASIC).

Plus, it's free and will give the new programmer an opportunity to experiment with programming without putting a whole lot of money into something he/ she may not even like.

DaWei

For sockets programming, google Beej. You can easily set up a LAMP or WAMP system if you'd like to explore PHP and web design/programming. A number of good C/C++ compilers are available and free, as well as MS Visual Basic and C# compilers. While you can learn the "fundamentals of programming" with QBASIC, the same is true of many languages. I wouldn't recommend moving backward before you get started.

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Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
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glorfindel87

Hi, I will be learning C++ here shortly, and have a question. How long will this language be around? It seems to be a very useful language, and one of the most used, but, you know how technology is.

DaWei

Yes, I know how technology is. It's nothing to worry about.

__________________
Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers