Allegro.cc - Online Community

Allegro.cc Forums » Off-Topic Ordeals » Spread the word!

This thread is locked; no one can reply to it. rss feed Print
 1   2   3 
Spread the word!
Paul whoknows
Member #5,081
September 2004
avatar

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

____

"The unlimited potential has been replaced by the concrete reality of what I programmed today." - Jordan Mechner.

pkrcel
Member #14,001
February 2012

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.

It is unlikely that Google shares your distaste for capitalism. - Derezo
If one had the eternity of time, one would do things later. - Johan Halmén

Specter Phoenix
Member #1,425
July 2001
avatar

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
Member #476
June 2000
avatar

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.

--
Thomas Fjellstrom - [website] - [email] - [Allegro Wiki] - [Allegro TODO]
"If you can't think of a better solution, don't try to make a better solution." -- weapon_S
"The less evidence we have for what we believe is certain, the more violently we defend beliefs against those who don't agree" -- https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/592870205409353730

Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
avatar

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

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
avatar

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.

--
Thomas Fjellstrom - [website] - [email] - [Allegro Wiki] - [Allegro TODO]
"If you can't think of a better solution, don't try to make a better solution." -- weapon_S
"The less evidence we have for what we believe is certain, the more violently we defend beliefs against those who don't agree" -- https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/592870205409353730

Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
avatar

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
Member #476
June 2000
avatar

Aww. I was looking forward to that book :(

--
Thomas Fjellstrom - [website] - [email] - [Allegro Wiki] - [Allegro TODO]
"If you can't think of a better solution, don't try to make a better solution." -- weapon_S
"The less evidence we have for what we believe is certain, the more violently we defend beliefs against those who don't agree" -- https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/592870205409353730

Dennis
Member #1,090
July 2003
avatar

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

etc.

Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
avatar

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

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

AleX-G Squadron
Member #13,593
October 2011
avatar

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)

www.anothergames.com

LennyLen
Member #5,313
December 2004
avatar

Maybe he was translating from English.

Specter Phoenix
Member #1,425
July 2001
avatar

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

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

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
Member #1,425
July 2001
avatar

@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
Member #6,698
December 2005
avatar

*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.

--
I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

Specter Phoenix
Member #1,425
July 2001
avatar

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
Member #1,550
September 2001

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Years of thorough research have revealed that the red "x" that closes a window, really isn't red, but white on red background.

Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest.

LennyLen
Member #5,313
December 2004
avatar

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
Member #10,824
March 2009
avatar

;D

----------------------------------------------------
Please check out my songs:
https://soundcloud.com/dont-rob-the-machina

Vanneto
Member #8,643
May 2007

Guys, it has begun. :o

In capitalist America bank robs you.

Dizzy Egg
Member #10,824
March 2009
avatar

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

----------------------------------------------------
Please check out my songs:
https://soundcloud.com/dont-rob-the-machina

Vanneto
Member #8,643
May 2007

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

In capitalist America bank robs you.

Schyfis
Member #9,752
May 2008
avatar

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

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[freedwill.us]
[unTied Games]

 1   2   3 


Go to: