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| Quick Question |
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Age Man
Member #661
September 2000
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What was your guys C/C++ learning time? After how much time did you guys feel it was easy working with pointers, classes (C++), etc. ? |
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Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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At age 13/14 I was using QuickBASIC with some graphics libraries and was quite content. I got a free C compiler and tried to learn it, but I had no Internet access and hardly any resources (including libraries like Allegro). So I gave it up after a short bit. A year or so later, after I had Internet access I gave it another try. With the help of two good C/C++ books and the Internet, I'd say it took me about a month before I really felt comfortable with what I was doing. The first couple weeks was always looking back at the books for every last detail. In that time I was easily able to "port" one of my graphical QBasic tetris games. |
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james shipman
Member #552
July 2000
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my experience is very similiar to matthews i started programming on a c64, then qbasic then i tried pascal and some assembly and finally found djgpp and allegro , i started using only c but then i bought a programming book on c++ and picked it up very fast althought there are still things i don't know and things i know but don't use so , i think it took me a couple of months to get comfartable with c , i found ever bit of free source code and just learned from that , it took me about a 2 weeks to change to c++, althought i still use some c in my programs |
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StevenVI
Member #562
July 2000
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I got hooked on computers when I was 8 (ha, beat that Matt!) when some guy who worked for my dad gave me some pirated games. If it weren't for software piracy I probably wouldn't be here today It took maybe one week before I thought I could do anything in C (thinking something and actually being able to do something are two very different things On a side note, I bought a C64 a few days ago for $2.04, a steal in my opinion, considering it appears to be in mint condition (well, the unit at least, the box on the other hand...). I've been having trouble with POKEing values to the screen, it only wants to display something if text is already in taht space, but if it isn't it won't display anything. Go figure, either I'm just making a stupid mistake or the thing is messed up. I think the cart slot is dead, too... either that or the cart that I have is. I'm going way off-topic, though... I apologize for making you read all this. __________________________________________________ |
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epiwerks
Member #489
June 2000
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Steven, before I also tell my mife story, I think I can help you with your C64 troubles. You are POKEing to the wrong addresses. There are two sets of addresses for the 40x25 text grid: the character set and the color set. You are probably POKEing to the color set. Addresses 1024 onwards are for putting characters on the screen. POKE 1024 + X + 40*Y, N This will put the character N (I don't think it corresponds to ASCII) at position X, Y. I think you use 53248 (or something like that) for the color offset (ie. instead of 1024). Also, I found out one day that you can get the graphics chip to read from somewhere other than 1024 onwards. Anyway, onto my history.... At age 12, I noticed one of my older brother's schoolbooks had some BASIC code in it. I was at the same school and we had Amstrad CPC 6128 computers. I became really interested in the concept of a computer program and I begged my dad to get my a C64 for my 13th birthday. He did. He bought one off my uncle and it packed up after a few months. Anyway, in that few months, I learnt the basics of BASIC. The year after, I went on to apply my knowledge on those Amstrad computers our school still had. I have to tell you, Amstrad BASIC is probably the best version of BASIC EVER. I didn't do much programming that year, but I did manage to write a program that imitated our school's bell (something I also did on a Roland JP synth in the music room!). The year after that (1992, 3rd year of my programming career), I finally made a game on the Amstrad. It was called Firezone and I lost the disk. So I helped friends who were also writing games. I had great success debugging titles such as "Ally Afro's Quest", "Space Dudes", and "The Adventures of Fat-Head". The next year saw me return to my C64 roots. I learned a lot of machine language, but I got very frustrated because I didn't have the tools to put it all together. The C64 programmers reference guide was way out of my reach. The year after that (1994), I discovered GW-Basic and I thought it was pretty cool. That soon led to QBasic, which I couldn't figure out, because it didn't require line numbers. In 1995, I started my uni course and learned Pascal. This was my first exposure to a non-line-number language. I paid attention and discovered what programming was really about. I went on to learn C and 8086 asm in the second semester. When I got my XT computer that year, it only came with QBasic, so I applied all that knowledge to QBasic. It wasn't until late '96 that I got my first 32-bit computer. I soon discovered DJGPP and then Allegro. I have been using them ever since. Recently, I have learned quite a bit of C++, which I really love so much. I have also moved to mingw32 because windows has good hardware support (and directx). I am still fixing the first game I made with Allegro, so I can't say I've come that far yet. Well, that's my life story. ------ |
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StevenVI
Member #562
July 2000
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Epiwerks: Thanks, but I'm not that stupid... although I wish I were, cause then my problem would be solved now ...see my post in the programming forum for more details on my problem. __________________________________________________ |
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ToNiZ
Member #638
September 2000
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I actually started programming in QBasic, when I was 10... Now I'm 16 and I've been working with allegro about half a year. You may check out my first "game" which is done in C with Allegro, "W.K.F. - Who Kills First"... First I did those simple print things with qbasic and the I just got the idea of programming and learned quite fast doing graphics and things like that... All done with 286 and CGA display... Then I teached myself Pascal when I was 12, but I never found pascal enough useful, qbasic was more easy to do simple games. I wanted to learn C when I was about 13, but when a red some books, I looked really hard... First I did't actually use any C stuff in DJGPP, only allegro commands and the a bit later I started using those libraries which are included in DJGPP, but I'm not any pro in programming, but I think I can make games... |
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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I guess I'm a bit of a latecommer to programming.. I started about 3 years ago with perl and moved on to C about 6 months later. Now that I've been an adult for a while now (well 18 anyway) I can honestly say that Im still learning how to program. -- |
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PrimeSide
Member #687
September 2000
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After reading all the respones, I feel inspired to post my own history... |
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PrimeSide
Member #687
September 2000
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By the way, I noticed that a lot of replies had mentioned that the C64 was a starting point. Feeling sad that I missed out on such in influential computer, I ask if anyone is willing to sell me an old Commodore 64? I just really want to see what I missed out on... NOTE: if you didn't know, I was born in '88, missing the prime time for home computers and garage developers... |
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Daniel_C_McKinnon
Member #685
October 2000
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I have the usual life story. |
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Andy Geers
Member #135
April 2000
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Oh go on then... -- |
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S Thompson
Member #748
November 2000
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Well Hell, why not? |
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. I'd be a star football player or something... but anyways... when I was maybe 12 or so one of my friends told me of this cool program that comes with DOS called 'QBasic' and you can make music with it (I never had any intent or thought that I could make a game with this thing). I started reading over the help documentation that came with it (which was very complete, I thought, and helped a LOT in learning to program). That's pretty much where I learned the basic concepts of HOW things are programmed. Then my dad bought Quick C. I never really got into it, cause there wasn't any big help file that told you exactly how to program in it. Some time probably passed, my dad bought me MSVC4. I didn't really catch onto that, either (what a waste of money 
. I'd say maybe 40 hours or so is what it took me to get things down good enough, and I still learn new things a lot.