Programming On Pandora

[Awakening]

if you are used to Darkbasic then try Glbasic, the GLBasic author made a cross compiler for the GP2X, I am guessing he will make one for the Pandora since he was showing interest at one point, also Craigx was talking about teaming up with some guy to make an AMOS-alike programming language just for the Pandora (check the "full speed amiga" thread...it`s in there somewhere)

GLBasic is one option but right now I'm only interested in 2D and I don't have a lot of money to spend at the moment. Also I wonder how long I must wait before I can actually code GLBasic on a Pandora, I have a feeling I'll be coding in Python long before that.

 

[Loonie]

GLBasic is one option but right now I'm only interested in 2D and I don't have a lot of money to spend at the moment. Also I wonder how long I must wait before I can actually code GLBasic on a Pandora, I have a feeling I'll be coding in Python long before that.

Another advantage of C++ - it's free.

 

[Exophase]

and - yes like you, after developing a huge repertoire of BASIC programming tricks, I just can`t grock C++ or any OOP languages at all, it all just looks like some messy incoherent muddle to me, procedural code makes perfect sense to me, C family compilers look like something written by some-one obsessed with demonstrating how clever they are....in fact they are so good at it, they lost me completely.

C is a staple procedural programming language, if you don't like OOP then you may want to start with it instead (I do almost all of my programming in raw C and not C++, although this kind of goes with the sort of things I program). The only real obstacles for learning C should be the syntax and all the stuff that goes with understanding pointers and how various basic C features convolve to pointer operations.

 

[PoisonedV]

I know quite a variety of scripting languages and interpreted stuff, like python, lua, php, perl, processing and the like, and I never really used C++ till about 3 or 4 months ago. I say if you want to make a large effort over a large amount of time use c++ but for small games or prototyping just use python

processing? A scripting language/interpreted?
I thought it was just Java with some libraries added... Oh well, I guess you could say Java is interpreted on some machines...

thats basically what it is, i should have specified. it fits in as far as ease of use and applications do, but i guess not in a technical sense

 

[Awakening]

I found LazyFoo's SDL tutorials a nice place to start (just google for them). Sure it's only 2D, but the documentation is pretty good. Programming something simple will get those skills unrusty enough to try something more complex second.

Codeblocks has also been working for me as an IDE, but I started on the console until I got the hang of what libraries were needed to get everything working.

Good luck!

I'm still undecided to be honest. I took a look at Lazy Foo's tutorial. He goes through a lot of interesting topics and I don't think I should have a problem following it, I've coded many of these things in Dark Basic. There are a few things he doesn't mention that I don't understand because I don't know much C++.

Anybody knows where to find some good C++ info for a beginner?

 

[arrrgh]

CODE
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
is pretty good.

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

I don't have the time to look into this right now so I would really like a few pointers

There you answered it, c++ it is

(sorry, could not help it ; )


lol!

and - yes like you, after developing a huge repertoire of BASIC programming tricks, I just can`t grock C++ or any OOP languages at all, it all just looks like some messy incoherent muddle to me, procedural code makes perfect sense to me, C family compilers look like something written by some-one obsessed with demonstrating how clever they are....in fact they are so good at it, they lost me completely.

C is a staple procedural programming language, if you don't like OOP then you may want to start with it instead (I do almost all of my programming in raw C and not C++, although this kind of goes with the sort of things I program). The only real obstacles for learning C should be the syntax and all the stuff that goes with understanding pointers and how various basic C features convolve to pointer operations.


hmm yes... here's an example of a phenomenal coder who uses C instead of C++
I hate when I see people try to look smarter just because they use Object Orientation or some weird unknown language.
most people, even when they start with c++, make little programs with procedural language because it makes complete sense, and not using the object orientation paradigm.
hell, quake 3 is all C!

I have messed around with some OOP (in c++, c#, python, javascript) and while I benefit from some stuff, most of my code still follows a procedural structure. What you use should be really tied to what your problem is.
no reason to use a lot of OO in some simple php pages.
most embedded systems use C (or even c++ in structural!) as the development languages, even in big projects!

All I have to say is that you should really, really try new languages and not be afraid of trying new stuff.
If you code in one language, you have what it takes to code in another, seriously.
Give python + pygame a try, i've done a very funny pong game to give it a try the other day it's a very friendly start, while you will get confident enough to try other stuff and find what you want.
I know I use python when I need some quick app, I'd recommend it for simple 2d games, while I really think you'll end up getting C or C++ and have some open gl coding some day. good luck =`]

 

[Pleng]

if you are used to Darkbasic then try Glbasic, the GLBasic author made a cross compiler for the GP2X, I am guessing he will make one for the Pandora since he was showing interest at one point, also Craigx was talking about teaming up with some guy to make an AMOS-alike programming language just for the Pandora (check the "full speed amiga" thread...it`s in there somewhere)

CODE

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mattathias/



The AMOS-alike Mattahtias BASIC is a long way off, last I heard, though I wish the team every success in their endeavor.

GL Basic looks interesting. Has there been any confirmation that a version for Pandora will be made available? I wouldn't like to start coding something only to find out that it can't ever make its way onto Pandy.

 

[Awakening]

CODE
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
is pretty good.

Thanx

 

[Butterman]

^^ Horrible site.

CODE

http://cprogramming.com/



Is where it's at.

 

[Awakening]

^^ Horrible site.

CODE

http://cprogramming.com/

Is where it's at.


Why is that one better? The one at cplusplus.com seems nice.

 

[WizardStan]

CODE
http://www.cpp-home.com/

has always been useful. The forums are staffed by very knowledgeable robots and aliens that know pretty much everything about C and C++.
CODE
http://www.cpp-home.com/archives/88.htm

is a full list of all the tutorials that have been written over the years.

 

[PoisonedV]

I like accelerated C++. I think buying a book is worth it for that

 

[Awakening]

I like accelerated C++. I think buying a book is worth it for that

While I do like books, I can download and read web content on the Pandora and not having to carry a big book around. I also want to get started on game programming and SDL. Coding a puzzle game would be a nice way to learn C++. Money is also a short supply at the moment.

 

[hlidegp2x]

Since the world hasn`t caught up with hlide`s very advanced level of advancedness, it considers C++ to be a mid level programming language, since it consists of high and low level features.

oh my, you`re quite sarcastic. C++ is probably not the best language, it just happens it could be considered as a "high level" language because it allows abstraction on data and code. But it also has the weird C syntax (typedef and pointer stuff for instance) which may be difficult to understand for someone who doesn`t know how a processor works. That weirdness allow C++ to be used to code hardware drivers as well as high-end applications. When people obviously seem not to know all the subtleness for each language, why do they try to catalog them as "high-level" or "low-level" language ? note that ISO c++ cannot access the registers or insert native instructions directly without using non standard C++ extensions.

QUOTE
The term "high-level language" does not imply that the language is superior to low-level programming languages - in fact, in terms of the depth of knowledge of how computers work required to productively program in a given language, the inverse may be true. Rather, "high-level language" refers to the higher level of abstraction from machine language. Rather than dealing with registers, memory addresses and call stacks, high-level languages deal with usability, threads, locks, objects, variables, arrays and complex arithmetic or boolean expressions. In addition, they have no opcodes that can directly compile the language into machine code, unlike low-level assembly language. Other features such as string handling routines, object-oriented language features and file input/output may also be present.


I don`t like the term of middle-level because it infers the idea that C++ is not a high-level language.

 

[samuraicrow]

CODE

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mattathias/

The AMOS-alike Mattahtias BASIC is a long way off, last I heard, though I wish the team every success in their endeavor.


We're still making progress though. To save time we're using LLVM as our optimizer and code generator and will be using the same engine as sdlBasic (once we get Mattathias to accept language extensions) to save even more time.

Also, we've dropped the idea of making an sdlBasic compatible parser since it is a dynamic language like Python and would be difficult to implement properly using only LLVM.

 

[PoisonedV]

I like accelerated C++. I think buying a book is worth it for that

While I do like books, I can download and read web content on the Pandora and not having to carry a big book around. I also want to get started on game programming and SDL. Coding a puzzle game would be a nice way to learn C++. Money is also a short supply at the moment.

they have an ebook. i feel that while alot of the creators of the online websites certainly have the online, collaborative and indie experience, its still helpful to get something a bit more professional when you need the concepts down. the language itself isnt the hard part, but (in my opinion) the concepts are.

 

[hlidegp2x]

We`re still making progress though. To save time we`re using LLVM as our optimizer and code generator and will be using the same engine as sdlBasic (once we get Mattathias to accept language extensions) to save even more time.

for which targets are you using LLVM ? I mean targets generating correct code.

 

[Loonie]

oh my, you`re quite sarcastic.

No, I am not quite sarcastic, I am extremely sarcastic. I'll thank you to next time grade my snarkiness accordingly.

 

[Awakening]

I like accelerated C++. I think buying a book is worth it for that

While I do like books, I can download and read web content on the Pandora and not having to carry a big book around. I also want to get started on game programming and SDL. Coding a puzzle game would be a nice way to learn C++. Money is also a short supply at the moment.

they have an ebook. i feel that while alot of the creators of the online websites certainly have the online, collaborative and indie experience, its still helpful to get something a bit more professional when you need the concepts down. the language itself isnt the hard part, but (in my opinion) the concepts are.


I took a look at the book on Amazon and in that book they write stuff like "std::cout" instead of adding "using namespace std" at the top. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work to add "std::" all the time.