Learning To Program

[gibberish]

since i bought a dingoo it occurred to me that all im doing is waiting for other people to make stuff happen. thats not really very satisfactory, and probably not even sensible since no serious developers have begun work on an improved gba or snes emulator or anything else yet. in order to feel slightly less useless i think i'd like to learn something about programming but i'm not sure where to start.

i have no plans to heroicly release a fully working ps1 emulator, or indeed release anything at all most probably, id just like to learn the very absolute basics of programming and see what happens from there. im not particularly good at mathematics and i have absolutely no experience in even compiling source code, where should i start, or should i just forget it?

 

[benjymous]

where should i start, or should i just forget it?

Microsoft's Small Basic looks like a pretty good place to start (assuming you've got a PC running XP or Vista)

CODE
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx
- download the App and the Getting Started pdf and follow the tutorials - that'll give you an understanding of the core fundamentals of programming.

Once you "get" that, you can progress onto something like C++ which you'll be able to use to code the Dingoo directly

 

[(naw)mcx]

since i bought a dingoo it occurred to me that all im doing is waiting for other people to make stuff happen. thats not really very satisfactory, and probably not even sensible since no serious developers have begun work on an improved gba or snes emulator or anything else yet. in order to feel slightly less useless i think i'd like to learn something about programming but i'm not sure where to start.

i have no plans to heroicly release a fully working ps1 emulator, or indeed release anything at all most probably, id just like to learn the very absolute basics of programming and see what happens from there. im not particularly good at mathematics and i have absolutely no experience in even compiling source code, where should i start, or should i just forget it?

I'm not in any way an expert, I'm very BASIC in my skills. But I recommend Python, some great tutorials out there.

 

[PokeParadox]

Actually programming doesn't require mathematics, so depending on the project, you can get by with only basic algebra... And as long as you can read understand and follow a specific set of rules, then you can use a programming language to make... something.

Compilers is not my favourite part of the process either, IMO they are very flexible but over complicated, but what I'm saying is, if you really want to try and learn to program, then try and do it.

As for how you should go about this, you will get different answers from different people. Fenix seems to be a good choice for a simpler language to learn, I've heard positive things and there are many games in the GP2X archive written in Fenix. TBH I don't know what you're language options are for the dingoo, but that would be your first step, finding out your options, which you appear to be doing now!

Personally I always wish I'd actively dove into C++ much earlier, but it can be quite overwhelming if you are not used to programming languages.

I hope this general rambling offers some help, and good luck! B)

EDIT: I forgot to say start off small in scope for any projects you do, and work up in complexity. A good start would be simple (but not very interesting) console programs, that add a couple of variables together, to get used to how they work. Moving on towards a simple pong type game, and then move on from there.

 

[(naw)mcx]

where should i start, or should i just forget it?

Microsoft's Small Basic looks like a pretty good place to start (assuming you've got a PC running XP or Vista)

CODE
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx
- download the App and the Getting Started pdf and follow the tutorials - that'll give you an understanding of the core fundamentals of programming.

Once you "get" that, you can progress onto something like C++ which you'll be able to use to code the Dingoo directly

That program is beautiful. I've never fallen in love with a GUI before :wub:

 

[benjymous]

[/quote]
That program is beautiful. I've never fallen in love with a GUI before :wub:
[/quote]

Yeah, I'd highly recommend it to anyone trying to learn to program from first principles (or anyone who's got a younger relative that's interested in learning)

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

Hard one. Where to start?

Right now <canvas> looks great to me. If I had to start again Id choose the <canvas> tag but if you want some very quick and impressive results Id go with DarkBasic.

canvas CODE
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Canvas_tutorial

DarkBasic CODE
http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/


But for the Dingoo you have no choice.

C++

 

[gp32rich]

BASIC is good for a programming concepts introduction: how to put statements together to make a program, etc.

But BASIC isn't the best for structure

Ugh! There are goto's in those examples.



There are very good SDL introductions out there that start you off in C/C++.

CODE
http://www.libsdl.org/tutorials.php

http://www.lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/index.php

http://sol.gfxile.net/gp/






Also take search for 'Thinking in C' - a free e-book

 

[gibberish]

thanks for your replies, i guess ill take benjymous recommendation first of all and see where i end up.
ill check the 'thinking in c' book too, cheers gp32rich

 

[fiveseven]

+1 for Python. I've just started it recently, and now wish I'd done so much earlier. Reasonably simple to pick up, but (from what I can tell) can still be used for some reasonably complex programs.

Depending on your experience, another language you might try is Scheme (apparently very similar to LISP). I'd recommend learning at least the basics of it if you're new to programming, as it does introduce a lot of concepts in a fairly simple manner. If you want to dive right into developing games, however, then I guess it might not be the fastest way to start.

 

[GernotFrisch]

If you're new and want it for game programming as a hobby, you might want to look at GLBasic. It safes you from the troubles of learning a complicated language and set up all the libraries just to get started...

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

Fenix is quite a nice language to write in, the dev environment is pretty quick to set up and Fenix is pretty portable. Also a lot of games on the GP2X and some of the pre installed games on the Wizs NAND are written in Fenix. I think all of Ruckage's games are written in Fenix too

 

[HackModford]

How about Multimedia Fusion google click n create

Loved that program It's really easy to understand, and gives you the basics of how programming logic works.