GP2X I Cant Program But Hear Me Out

[yaustar]

hmmm sad is me =P well i gotta start somewhere... my goal is to make a program for the gp2x in half a year. no matter how simple it is. how is that for a realistic goal? would you guys say this is realistic?

Possible? Yes. Just dont set the bar too high though.

 

[BenScar]

You should buy a good book on c/c++ like "C++ for Dummies".

Very good book to start with, I've got a copy myself, you can't really see anything in the first chapters unless you have a serail connection though.
With that and the and the Lazy Foo' Productions, Beginning Game Programming tutorial I managed to put together a skinnable Noughts and Crosses (oxo here).

 

[rei_yano]

thanx alot guys. I think Im gonna get C++ primer. I heard a lot of good things about it.

 

[Alex.]

Start with standard C not with C++!

- Alex

 

[rei_yano]

why is that? I heard learning C++ first then C afterwords is a good thing...

 

[Daid]

why is that? I heard learning C++ first then C afterwords is a good thing...

Some people prefere one, others the other.

C is more low level, you do the stuff, you're in control.
C++ is more organized, some stuff happens without thinking, cleaner structure.

I would start with some basic language, to learn some basic stuff like loops/ifs/functions and then move to C++. Because, well, C++ codes alot cleaner (if you do it right) and you'll end of with lots of more easy-reuseable code in C++.

 

[rei_yano]

why is that? I heard learning C++ first then C afterwords is a good thing...

Some people prefere one, others the other.

C is more low level, you do the stuff, you're in control.
C++ is more organized, some stuff happens without thinking, cleaner structure.

I would start with some basic language, to learn some basic stuff like loops/ifs/functions and then move to C++. Because, well, C++ codes alot cleaner (if you do it right) and you'll end of with lots of more easy-reuseable code in C++.

so whats a good start then? python? basic?

 

[yaustar]

Python is pretty good as it is mentioned that it forces good programming practises as well such as proper code indentation.
http://www.diveintopython.org/toc/index.html

 

[rei_yano]

Python is pretty good as it is mentioned that it forces good programming practises as well such as proper code indentation.
http://www.diveintopython.org/toc/index.html

yeah Im hearing good things about it. Im gonna start with python. plus it has a cool name.... python... yeah

 

[Epicenter]

Overall; you're better off learning C. It's more useful overall, far more popular, and there's a lot more example code to learn from, even just for the GP2X and other SDL applications.

And I don't view learning indent your code well is any benefit of Python's. Anyone looking at example code, or just using an IDE like Dev-C++ will learn this easily or have it done for them automatically. It's extremely simple.

For something to start with, a refresher course with BASIC should take no more than 1 or 2 days.

 

[yaustar]

And I don't view learning indent your code well is any benefit of Python's. Anyone looking at example code, or just using an IDE like Dev-C++ will learn this easily or have it done for them automatically. It's extremely simple.

Oh you will do after shifting through lots of beginners code in other languages such as Lua

 

[rei_yano]

And I don't view learning indent your code well is any benefit of Python's. Anyone looking at example code, or just using an IDE like Dev-C++ will learn this easily or have it done for them automatically. It's extremely simple.

Oh you will do after shifting through lots of beginners code in other languages such as Lua

well Im already enjoying myself with python. so your saying python is just not a very good language? should I avoid it? and Im still confused as to whether I should do c or c++ first. I have read things supporting both directions. kinda confusing.

 

[Yono]

And I don't view learning indent your code well is any benefit of Python's. Anyone looking at example code, or just using an IDE like Dev-C++ will learn this easily or have it done for them automatically. It's extremely simple.

Oh you will do after shifting through lots of beginners code in other languages such as Lua

well Im already enjoying myself with python. so your saying python is just not a very good language? should I avoid it? and Im still confused as to whether I should do c or c++ first. I have read things supporting both directions. kinda confusing.

You can code for the GP2X in Python using Pygame, but it would be beneficial in the future to learn C and C++. Now shut up and get reading.

 

[rei_yano]

You can code for the GP2X in Python using Pygame, but it would be beneficial in the future to learn C and C++. Now shut up and get reading.

I already am!

I will for sure jump to c and c++ in the future.... now back to my python tutorials!

 

[Epicenter]

C/C++ should also be considerably snappier. Last I checked there was no good way to compile python down into an independent binary; you needed to keep other software around to interpret. A statically compiled C/C++ binary with your needed libs, and maybe some integrated ARM9 ASM down the line (if you want to get adventurous) should provide better performance. Compare running a .bas file interpreted vs. compiling it to an EXE ..

 

[rei_yano]

C/C++ should also be considerably snappier. Last I checked there was no good way to compile python down into an independent binary; you needed to keep other software around to interpret. A statically compiled C/C++ binary with your needed libs, and maybe some integrated ARM9 ASM down the line (if you want to get adventurous) should provide better performance. Compare running a .bas file interpreted vs. compiling it to an EXE ..

yeah I figure since it is a high level language it isnt gonna be that fast. if anything this is just helping me get the basics down faster. much easier to read/understand in python than alot of things. I really cant wait to get into c and c++. by the way you said arm9 asm? is that assembly????

 

[Alex.]

Keep in mind that he's at the beginning of the road, and simple programs will run fast enough regardless of whether they are interpreted or not.

- Alex

 

[rei_yano]

Keep in mind that he's at the beginning of the road, and simple programs will run fast enough regardless of whether they are interpreted or not.

- Alex

what does interpreted mean?

 

[BradN]

Keep in mind that he's at the beginning of the road, and simple programs will run fast enough regardless of whether they are interpreted or not.

- Alex

what does interpreted mean?

An interpreted language is where the program you make doesn't end up as actual instructions that run directly on the processor - instead another program (part of the programming language) runs on the processor and then "interprets" your program by performing the actions for it. The advantages of this approach is that the programming language is much easier to create, and it can more easily allow for strange features like a program modifying its own code at runtime, but this is all at the cost (typically) of it being dog slow in comparison to a language which does compile code for the processor itself. You can think of it as being a bit like running your program inside an emulator...

Although, one point to make about speed in this case, is that some operations will often be as fast or faster in an interpreter - for example, if the language has high performance graphics routines, you may find they run faster than if you had written your own routines in a compiled language - simply because lots of things like that are hard to optimize properly, and it's possible the interpreter writer did a better job at it. But expect interpreted languages to be slow at things like doing math, or simple instructions when it has to run a lot of them - the overhead is mostly related to how many actual instructions or steps it has to do, and it can work better when you use complex features that are built into the language when appropriate.

 

[rei_yano]

An interpreted language is where the program you make doesn't end up as actual instructions that run directly on the processor - instead another program (part of the programming language) runs on the processor and then "interprets" your program by performing the actions for it. The advantages of this approach is that the programming language is much easier to create, and it can more easily allow for strange features like a program modifying its own code at runtime, but this is all at the cost (typically) of it being dog slow in comparison to a language which does compile code for the processor itself. You can think of it as being a bit like running your program inside an emulator...

Although, one point to make about speed in this case, is that some operations will often be as fast or faster in an interpreter - for example, if the language has high performance graphics routines, you may find they run faster than if you had written your own routines in a compiled language - simply because lots of things like that are hard to optimize properly, and it's possible the interpreter writer did a better job at it. But expect interpreted languages to be slow at things like doing math, or simple instructions when it has to run a lot of them - the overhead is mostly related to how many actual instructions or steps it has to do, and it can work better when you use complex features that are built into the language when appropriate.

thanx for clearing that up. I like python so far. I really cant wait to get into c and c++.
I feel like Im learning alot faster than I did when I tried c++ head on.