Spread the word!
AleX-G Squadron

I have put a project on Indie GoGo to finish the book I have been writting.
What do you think about the idea?
Please share and have a look yourself ;)
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/game-programming-book/x/3080689

Arthur Kalliokoski

I hereby sentence you to writing the word 'writing' 500 times (with pencil and paper) so you'll never misspell it again! >:(

Vanneto

The minimum I can give is $25? Good luck with that brother. :P

MiquelFire

I think the $25 is for perks only. Less then $25, no credit. Might be a tad high though.

Vanneto

Ah, right you are. I'll let myself out. :-X

AleX-G Squadron

Thanks all for your replies!
You will get a free hug in the meanwhile :D
Added a 10$ so you get the idea ;)
BTW, if the project won't get funded, all get their money back!!!
Please share :)

Dizzy Egg

This whole thing would have made a lot more sense 21 days ago... 8-)

AleX-G Squadron

Here it's 23, sorry.... ;D

Paul whoknows

Is there a PDF version available?

AleX-G Squadron

If the project gets finished, there will surely be

gnolam
LennyLen

I have to agree with gnolam, the lack of knowledge evidenced in the book itself and on your forum posts shows you are far from qualified from publishing a book on Allegro 5. Unfortunately your ability to write is even worse.

I know you have good intentions, but I feel your book, if published, would do far more harm to Allegro than good.

pkrcel

I feel like this world hasn't yet finished to astound me.

Talk about overconfidence there, I heartily agree with gnolam...you aren't qualified to write such a book.

Man, how many years on game programming have you on your back? pls share projects of your portfolio...oh wait...

Please seriously reconsider....this seems more and more a joke but I fearit's not given your general attitude.

Johan Halmén

Alex-G, please, don't get discouraged by everyone. But consider getting back to this project after a few years. Instead, use your enthusiasm on creating more games.

pkrcel

Johan, while I heartily agree with your tone, I also think the guy needs a hard reality check on what he is doing.

I mean: he.wants.to.write.a.book on game programming with allegro 5

I may as well write a book on Nuclear Physycs for dummies for that matter: it's a (sad) joke.

Alex-G needs to focus, hone his skills and train hard.

And change, seriously, attitude.

So I strongly hope he gets discouraged in this project by everyone's words.

He's also doing the campaign itself wrong...there's a perk for financing a bulky 83% of the project...to me this does NOT convey a professional & serious image.

Would this really be spread around, he would lose credibility in front of a lot of people.

But of course this is only my opinion and this is a free world after all.

AleX-G Squadron

Thanks for your replies!
I didn't get discouraged than, imagine now!!! :D
Also, I know a lot of people hate sharing, this is why they say bad stuff ;)
We will defeat them all! ;D

None sniffin OpenGL..... :-X

Elias
pkrcel said:

I may as well write a book on Nuclear Physycs for dummies for that matter

Someone did just that [1] and was hugely successful, even spawning off a world religion.

pkrcel

Also, I know a lot of people hate sharing, this is why they say bad stuff

This is how you miss the whole point of discussion, completely.

FAIL.

Elias said:

Someone did just that and was hugely successful, even spawning off a world religion.

Makes my point even more valid, I guess. :P

Let's only hope there won't be the Church of Allegrology in our future.

Specter Phoenix

Also, I know a lot of people hate sharing, this is why they say bad stuff

This shows that you have a lack of understanding. People that hate sharing don't bother posting. I was going to ignore this thread as I feel the same as gnolam, LennyLen, pkrcel, and Johan. Now see, I'm far more blunt about my advice. If you can't even understand what people are telling you then how the hell do you think you are the one to write a book about game programming or allegro5.

I've been here 12 years (on and off) and even I wouldn't presume to think I could write a book about either. The advice I give beginner programmers on cplusplus.com is actually the advice I was given by these guys when learning C++. I've been programming in C++ for a long time and never challenged myself so I don't consider myself an expert, but rather still just a beginner. In all honesty, if I had to chose between your book or another source I would chose the Allegro Wiki and Coding Made Easy's Youtube Tutorials.

Paul whoknows

Some constructive feedback: submit your book to a native English speaker for grammatical correction, after that it won't look as bad as it does now.

In order to get more feedback from us, share a PDF version, this save us time.

Good luck. :)

Johan Halmén

According to this page, he is letting a native English speaker edit the book. Am I right?

AleX-G Squadron

Some chapters of the book have been edited by a very good friend. (native English)

@specter
Even if you have 12 years of programming, you might be in front of the computer 1 hour a day....
Also, when it comes to patterns, mvc, oop, design etc, that is the programmers ability in a way.
There are programmers who never switched to oop.
When I first started oop, procedural programming felt so stupid and that is how I think of it. Others think that procedural is better, so it all depends on which way you go.
Other people have said bad stuff to me because I learn web development and C++ programming in the same time.
I started programming games since I registered on this forums and now I am making my own library of objects.
This basically means that in 1.5 years, creating a library in OOP is tremendous amount of work and still, none told you that the library is 2D or 3D.

Please ask yourself, if you could do so much in 1.5 years of C++ programming.
Remember that the book took a week to finish, but a lot to edit.

Oh, if I had to choose between any source, Mike Geig would be the first.

@paul
Thanks!

LennyLen

Some chapters of the book have been edited by a very good friend. (native English)

Just because somebody is an English speaker does not mean they are any good at writing in English. As an example, the very first paragraph of your book contains either a grammatical error or bizarre choice of words in every single sentence.

If those few pages took "a lot" to edit, then fire your editor, as it looks like they haven't even bothered.

There are a lot of professionally written book already available on Game Development. Nobody is going to pay any attention to yours if it remains so poorly written. It doesn't matter what you are trying to say if you can't actually say it properly.

AleX-G Squadron

Yeah, but the books you are talking about cost money and the editors want money too.
As I said, "some chapters", not everything was edited.

LennyLen

Yeah, but the books you are talking about cost money and the editors want money too.

That still doesn't change the fact that most people will judge your book on first impressions and won't even bother to read beyond a few pages.

There are even more free online sources available on game programming than there are commercial books.

Paul whoknows

I took a look at his book (the on-line version). At first glance it looks like an introductory guide to Allegro5, I think it could be useful for beginners, honestly, I fail to see anything harmful or terrible wrong there.

I'm not blind, the poorly written English can hurt the eyes, some paragraphs makes no sense at all, or are poorly written, but that could be fixed.

Looks like a good start, but still needs a lot of work. It would be nice if an allegroid with some writing skills (and free time) could help, but that's a lot of work for sure :P

pkrcel

This is my last post here, just because I think that all has been done&undone.

While I thikn your intentions are unquestionable, and in good spirit you WANT to freely share knowledge.....

....well, you want to share a knowledge you DO NOT have.

Oh, if I had to choose between any source, Mike Geig would be the first.

Heartily agree, but Mike is a teacher and has been involved in some major projects.
And EVEN then, his tutorials lack formality and contain some errors. And he took MONTHS to prepare his course material.
There is some basic and fundamental point you're missing here, but with all the people pointing at them here, you only look at fingers.

Quote:

Please ask yourself, if you could do so much in 1.5 years of C++ programming.

This is where I stop questioning. Speaks for itself.

Specter Phoenix

Even if you have 12 years of programming, you might be in front of the computer 1 hour a day....

Again you proven you don't read or even bother understanding what is printed. I said I was part of A.cc for 12 years off and on. I've been programming in some form for over 16 years and spend my days online most of the time due to being home from son's health.

Quote:

Other people have said bad stuff to me because I learn web development and C++ programming in the same time.

I find it hard to believe that people were mean for you learning both. Most of the guys here have learned a couple of languages at one time. In fact a lot of web dev languages have a lot of similarities with C++ so they would go fine together, just have to be careful not to confuse the two you are learning.

Quote:

Please ask yourself, if you could do so much in 1.5 years of C++ programming.

Just because you can do that doesn't mean you have what it takes to make a book on game programming nor Allegro 5. Having what it takes to make a library of objects doesn't mean you have what it takes to make a book.

Thomas Fjellstrom

Remember that the book took a week to finish, but a lot to edit.

Good books take months, and some take years. A book that takes a week is not a book. It's a pamphlet.

Arthur Kalliokoski

I think he meant a week for a rough draft, to be edited at length.

Thomas Fjellstrom

It doesn't matter. I could understand if it were a single chapter of a book. But a whole book? Not if its got more than 10 pages.

Trent Gamblin

I was writing an Allegro 5 book for some publisher... I gave up on it for various reasons. Each chapter took 2 weeks roughly for a rough draft.

Thomas Fjellstrom

Aww. I was looking forward to that book :(

Dennis
word
w o r d
w  o  r  d
w   o   r   d

etc.

Arthur Kalliokoski

The word of the day is legs! (of the female persuasion, of course).

AleX-G Squadron

Some guy told me he used google translate to better understand the book.
I didn't see any changes though, can anyone tell me if it works?
(right click and select translate to english)

LennyLen

Maybe he was translating from English.

Specter Phoenix

I thought Google Translate wasn't worth a darn to begin with ???.

Edgar Reynaldo

You are totally right.
I will try to create the game from the start this time to get more knowledge!

EDIT: I am trying to understand your code, but that seems to me a bit strange.
Can you add comments to the code line?

So, you admit your knowledge is lacking, and a more experienced coder's code is strange and you need comments to understand it. All this at the end of a thread that should have been much shorter. You failed to understand basic programming principles like counters and you struggled with timers as well. Well I guess in all fairness that was 8 months ago, but really, how far have you come since then?

When trying to download chapters 5 and 7 and the source code and exes, it says "You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.". Kinda lame I need permission to download something free.

Allegro book page 2 said:

The main function will take nothing when it starts, because there is no logic to take something before even starting the program and that is a rule in programming. The main function is very simple as it starts and ends by adding only these lines

int main(){

// We will put our calculator programming in here!

}

- See more at: http://www.anothergames.com/book/allegro

Emphasis mine. What? Have you ever even heard of argc and argv before?

Your english needs a lot of work as well.

Allegro 5 book page 5 said:

if(!al_init(display))

I assume you meant if (!display) {/*...*/}.

Allegro 5 book page 5 said:

The next parameter of al_load_font is the size, which is evident in the syntax. The name of our variable correlates to that number. Keep in mind that if you use a string instead of numbers, it will not work. This will change the size of the text, which might need some adjustment after some testing. A font size of 32 should be large enough for this example. The last parameter is the sharpness which is identified as a flag. The sharpness flag will accept numbers from 0 to 3. Don’t be afraid to experiment as those are just values I have tested myself, though more than 3 it didn’t work at all.

No. The last parameter is a bitfield containing the flags you wish to pass to the function. Valid bits are :

The f'in manual said:

ALLEGRO_TTF_NO_KERNING - Do not use any kerning even if the font file supports it.
ALLEGRO_TTF_MONOCHROME - Load as a monochrome font (which means no anti-aliasing of the font is done).
ALLEGRO_TTF_NO_AUTOHINT - Disable the Auto Hinter which is enabled by default in newer versions of FreeType. Since: 5.0.6, 5.1.2

The reason the sharpness changed is because you probably turned off anti-aliasing of the font.

Randomly, from page 5, you call quadrants numbered areas. Just tell them what they are, quadrants!

Allegro 5 book page 6 said:

Generally speaking, you cannot add negative numbers to the display as it would not make sense. The program will execute itself infinitely.

I don't believe this is true. And I tested it on windows, the default driver returns a 0x0 window. It is supposed to return NULL on failure.

It goes on like this, you keep saying things you know nothing about. You're just making half of this shit up to fill space in your book as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sure there are more examples later on. I'm sorry, but you are not qualified to write an Allegro 5 book yet. Your book needs serious review and revision.

I appreciate your eagerness and enthusiasm, those are really great, but if you are actually serious about writing a book about game programming with a library you aren't familiar enough with, you've got your work cut out for you.

I also appreciate the format your book is being distributed in. Your web pages look good, but the content needs serious work.

Take a look at the Allegro 5 wiki tutorials. If your book can't / doesn't measure up to at least that standard of coding, then someone else needs to write this book.

If you are interested, seriously interested, in someone to edit your book, I am willing to do it for US $500 dollars deliverable via PayPal. PM if you're serious.

Specter Phoenix

@Edgar While I agree with every point you made, I feel we are wasting our time. This thread and every thread before shows that he only accepts the positive feedback and completely ignores the honest feedback saying he isn't ready. Every post he has made here is filled with the same bullshit he has filled the book with. For example:

Also, I know a lot of people hate sharing, this is why they say bad stuff

Jeff Bernard

*skim a few paragraphs*

Quote:

You can download the dev package for Dev-C++ here

Woah! People still use Dev-C++?

Quote:

#include <iostream>
 using namespace std;
 int main()
 {
 int a, b, c;
 }

Where's the calculator at?? You go on to the next chapter without even finishing the first example. I guess I shouldn't start skimming chapter 1 until the introduction is finished.

Your C++ introduction is already quite bad, that doesn't give me much hope for what should be actual in-depth chapters.

Also, you need some syntax highlighting up in this thing.

Edgar Reynaldo

It gets better, but it needs a lot of work.

Specter Phoenix

Woah! People still use Dev-C++?

Well someone recently just started updating Dev-C++ (well they basically took the code and started updating parts while continuing the version number). They refer to it as Orwell Dev-C++.

It gets better, but it needs a lot of work.

Yeah, but at this rate (last I checked today) he has had $0 donated. I don't see him making the $1,200 wanted to publish before the time limit ends.

Johan Halmén
start_date = date when fund raising began
today = today's date
start_fund = 0 $
today_fund = money raised until today
target_fund = 1200 $
estimate = estimated date when target fund is reached

estimate = target_fund * (today - start_date) / today_fund

LennyLen
start_date = date when fund raising began
today = today's date
start_fund = 0 $
today_fund = money raised until today
target_fund = 1200 $
estimate = estimated date when target fund is reached

estimate = target_fund * (today - start_date) / today_fund

Divide by Zero error

Dizzy Egg

;D

Vanneto

Guys, it has begun. :o

Dizzy Egg

:o now if that just happens 2,499 more times....!

Vanneto

It happened again! :o Guys, this is going to take off!

Schyfis

I can't help but notice that the two donators didn't claim their prize. They didn't want your thanks!

Vanneto

I'm going to be serious for a moment.

Alex, there is a man on these forums... At least, we think he is a man. His real identity is unknown. We know him only by the title King Piccolo. I think you will find his story very inspiring.

He started out with The Game. He had big ambitions like you, and because of that, he attracted much negative feedback. But did he give up? No. He continued developing The Game and today I think it is one of the best pieces of software ever written.

Its not just a game. Its a repository of well documented code that you can grab pieces of code from to create your own game. This is possible because it incorporates all styles of gameplay. From MMORPG all the way to RTS. Beautiful...

Fun Fact said:

Did you know most of the Allegro 5 source code was taken from The Game?

King Piccolo didn't stop there. One day he vowed to put Microsoft / Nintendo / Sony out of business. He envisioned a device so revolutionary that it would change the world forever. People called him crazy. I think they were just envious. He never released the device, as he was paid a hefty amount of money to not release it. He spent that money on his biggest project yet...

One day, the King decided that he would create what is now called the Infinite Energy Device. It is a device that can output more energy than it consumes without ever stopping. As soon as he revealed his plans, the people in this community shot him down. They claimed it was "impossible" and that it violated some crazy law of thermodynamics. Did he get discouraged? No.

He finished the device. And because I dissed him so much over the years, he actually sent me a replica of the device. My energy bill? I don't even know what it looks like anymore.

So I tell you this: no matter what people say, you have to find strength in your heart and continue on no matter what the odds. Keep on going my friend and never give up!

Dizzy Egg

While it lacked precision and structure, I liked it and saw the objective.

I would like to donate £0.2 to your anecdote. ;D

Johan Halmén

;D

FMC

True words Vanneto! :D

gnolam

There's a difference between beating reality into someone and just being mean.

Vanneto

And sometimes, the difference just doesn't exist and beating reality into someone requires you to be mean.

In any case, I think he got the point well before I told the story of our great King.

pkrcel
gnolam said:

There's a difference between beating reality into someone and just being mean

Well, I said I wouldn't post again but I'll do an exception to underline the thread winner.

Also:

Vanneto said:

In any case, I think he got the point well before I told the story of our great King.

No he didn't, he simply ignored the constructive feedback (albeit negative eh).

Thread #612463. Printed from Allegro.cc