Yeah Thomas, you practically attacked Jim over here. <Grin>
Best Regards,
Hayden

-----Original Message-----
From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On
Behalf Of Jim Kitchen
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:10 PM
To: Thomas Ward
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] programming

Hi Thomas,

Yes, I am sorry, I didn't realize that you were talking programming only in
C++.  I thought that you were talking game programming and DirectX in
general.

Yes, you have explained the win32 api to me before.  It didn't make much
sense to me though and my point was that one does not need to know what it
is or how it works to write games.  however I guess like you said, we are
comparing apples to oranges.

I do not believe though that you should call me a beginner as I have been
programming since before you were born and I have had many many many
finished titles out there for years and years and you have what one finished
title STFC.  Again it is probably apples and oranges or maybe the Titanic
and the ark.  As you are a properly educated expert and I am a self taught
hobbyist.

BFN

----- Original Message -----
Hi Jim,
Sigh...Yes, but you are comparing apples to oranges here. I was
talking about programming a game using the C++ libraries for DirectX,
and you are talking about using DirectX 8 using Visual Basic 6. There
is a huge difference here in what you need to know to program using
DirectX.
The reason you find it so easy to program games using DirectX is
because Microsoft created a handy little wrapper library called
dx8vb.dll which handles all of the low level programming and DirectX
programming for you. All you have to do is setup the proper DirectX 8
objects and functions, and your in business. Microsoft did something
quite similar for Visual Basic .Net and C# .Net by adding
Microsoft.DirectX.dll, Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput.dll, and
Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound.dll for .Net programmers. Again the
actual coding required for DirectX has been simplified for a new
programmer using a less complicated language.
If you were a C++ programmer you would find a huge world of difference
and understand what I'm talking about in my earlier message. For C++
developers there is no handy dx8vb.dll library to handle all of the
low level stuff. That's up to you, the programmer, to write some of
the low level stuff like creating a class to get the format and size
of a wav file so you can then load it into a DirectSound buffer. You
may want to create a sound manager class to wrap the DirectSound
secondary buffer pointers for easier management etc. It is a totally
different ball game than the one you've been playing with Visual Basic
6.
As for the Win32 API I believe I've explained this before. It is quite
simply all of the major headers and libraries required for programming
Windows applications. For example, if you have ever used kernel32.dll
for the GetTickCount function then you have used the Win32 API without
ever knowing it. Visual Basic 6 does use the Win32 API in most of your
day to day programming, but it is often hidden by or wrapped by
something else in Visual Basic 6. The bottom line of what I'm saying
to you is that the reason you and others find Visual Basic 6 so easy
is because Microsoft intentionally simplified everything to a level an
average computer user or new programmer can easily understand without
too much effort. As Philip said before there are levels of programming
ranging from total beginner, where you are, to very advanced where
Philip and I am. One can not simply know only Visual Basic, a beginner
level language, and speak with any authority of how hard or simple say
C++ is or is not with any skill.

HTH


     Jim

Professionals built the Titanic, amateurs built the ark.

j...@kitchensinc.net
http://www.kitchensinc.net
(440) 286-6920
Chardon Ohio USA
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