Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Milos, That's hard to say. Everyone is different when it comes to learning programming. Some people simply don't get it at all, and others like me learned it fairly quickly. It isn't up to me or Philip to say if you can or can't learn a programming language easy enough. As far as learning C++ there are plenty of places to learn it. There are commercial web sites that specialize in this thing like http://safari.oreilly.com which I highly recommend if you are a new programmer. It is the best commercial resource I know of if you want to teach yourself programming. However, there are also free tutorials out there to teach you the basics, but I can't say how good they are as I've fortunately never had to use them to learn from scratch. HTH --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Thomas, Yes, I always clean up after myself also as I find it more comfortable to know exactly when memory is freed and when it is not. I was just considering pros and cons of garbage collection there for a while. I've decided to stick with my current design, however, and not implement a garbage collector at all. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 5:15 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++ Hi Philip, No, I don't generally make use of garbage collection. I took C++ in college in the late 90's long before the .NET Framework came out so I was taught first and foremost to clean up after myself manually. Like a lot of old school developers I feel depending on a garbage collector to clean up after you is somewhat sloppy and lazy coding. However, that isn't to say it doesn't have its advantages. A lot of C++ developers, especially new programmers, have a problem with memory leaks as they often forget to release pointers and objects when they are no longer needed. A garbage collector is helpful in minimizing those memory leaks by working in the background to make sure those pointers and objects properly get released when they are no longer necessary. In that sense a garbage colector comes in handy as it insures you have a safety net to fallback on to make sure you don't have any major memory leaks somewhere. HTH Philip Bennefall wrote: Hi Thomas, Quite so. Not only is memory availability skyrocketing, but programming is becoming more and more abstract so that one soon won't have to worry about these things very much at all. Still, though I have not taken any programming classes myself but have learnt purely from experience I enjoy picking up some of the theory as well as the practical aspects as I find that having knowledge on both fronts has been useful to me more than once. And while we're on the subject of memory management, do you yourself make use of garbage collection? I am considering adding it to my engine but have not yet made up my mind, as everything is allocated and freed manually at this point and it has worked rather well so far. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.427 / Virus Database: 270.14.109/2567 - Release Date: 12/15/09 19:58:00 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Philip, No, I don't generally make use of garbage collection. I took C++ in college in the late 90's long before the .NET Framework came out so I was taught first and foremost to clean up after myself manually. Like a lot of old school developers I feel depending on a garbage collector to clean up after you is somewhat sloppy and lazy coding. However, that isn't to say it doesn't have its advantages. A lot of C++ developers, especially new programmers, have a problem with memory leaks as they often forget to release pointers and objects when they are no longer needed. A garbage collector is helpful in minimizing those memory leaks by working in the background to make sure those pointers and objects properly get released when they are no longer necessary. In that sense a garbage colector comes in handy as it insures you have a safety net to fallback on to make sure you don't have any major memory leaks somewhere. HTH Philip Bennefall wrote: Hi Thomas, Quite so. Not only is memory availability skyrocketing, but programming is becoming more and more abstract so that one soon won't have to worry about these things very much at all. Still, though I have not taken any programming classes myself but have learnt purely from experience I enjoy picking up some of the theory as well as the practical aspects as I find that having knowledge on both fronts has been useful to me more than once. And while we're on the subject of memory management, do you yourself make use of garbage collection? I am considering adding it to my engine but have not yet made up my mind, as everything is allocated and freed manually at this point and it has worked rather well so far. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hello all, Now I have some questions about the programming stuff. For now I know only the inform 7 programming and it wasn't hard to learn, although the a good inform project needs very much time and energy to be completed. Then I tried Python and didn't understand a single thing from the documentation. Having that in mind, what are my possibilities to start learning c++ or C# or VB? Does it mean that I will not be able to understand any of those as Python is considered the easiest? Best regards, Milos Przic msn: milos.pr...@gmail.com skype: Milosh-hs - Original Message - From: "Philip Bennefall" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 6:23 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++ Hi Thomas, Quite so. Not only is memory availability skyrocketing, but programming is becoming more and more abstract so that one soon won't have to worry about these things very much at all. Still, though I have not taken any programming classes myself but have learnt purely from experience I enjoy picking up some of the theory as well as the practical aspects as I find that having knowledge on both fronts has been useful to me more than once. And while we're on the subject of memory management, do you yourself make use of garbage collection? I am considering adding it to my engine but have not yet made up my mind, as everything is allocated and freed manually at this point and it has worked rather well so far. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 5:08 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++ Hi Philip, Thanks for that. It has been years since I took a class on C++ so I don't actually remember all the specifics of how much memory each data type uses, how much memory a pointer uses, etc. I just remember when and where I should use them. Which is really all that is required. These days knowing how many byts you are using really isn't that necessary when we have lots of memory to play with. Still that doesn't mean we should use a long integer when we could get by with a short integer, or use a double variable when all we need is a floating point variable. Philip Bennefall wrote: Hi Thomas, Pointers do use a little bit of memory, the word size of the particular platform to be more precise. So a pointer on a 32 bit platform takes up 32 bits of memory (e.g. 4 bytes), in order to store the memory address of the location which is being pointed to. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.427 / Virus Database: 270.14.109/2567 - Release Date: 12/15/09 19:58:00 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. __ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4692 (20091216) __ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4692 (20091216) __ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Thomas, Quite so. Not only is memory availability skyrocketing, but programming is becoming more and more abstract so that one soon won't have to worry about these things very much at all. Still, though I have not taken any programming classes myself but have learnt purely from experience I enjoy picking up some of the theory as well as the practical aspects as I find that having knowledge on both fronts has been useful to me more than once. And while we're on the subject of memory management, do you yourself make use of garbage collection? I am considering adding it to my engine but have not yet made up my mind, as everything is allocated and freed manually at this point and it has worked rather well so far. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 5:08 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++ Hi Philip, Thanks for that. It has been years since I took a class on C++ so I don't actually remember all the specifics of how much memory each data type uses, how much memory a pointer uses, etc. I just remember when and where I should use them. Which is really all that is required. These days knowing how many byts you are using really isn't that necessary when we have lots of memory to play with. Still that doesn't mean we should use a long integer when we could get by with a short integer, or use a double variable when all we need is a floating point variable. Philip Bennefall wrote: Hi Thomas, Pointers do use a little bit of memory, the word size of the particular platform to be more precise. So a pointer on a 32 bit platform takes up 32 bits of memory (e.g. 4 bytes), in order to store the memory address of the location which is being pointed to. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.427 / Virus Database: 270.14.109/2567 - Release Date: 12/15/09 19:58:00 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Philip, Thanks for that. It has been years since I took a class on C++ so I don't actually remember all the specifics of how much memory each data type uses, how much memory a pointer uses, etc. I just remember when and where I should use them. Which is really all that is required. These days knowing how many byts you are using really isn't that necessary when we have lots of memory to play with. Still that doesn't mean we should use a long integer when we could get by with a short integer, or use a double variable when all we need is a floating point variable. Philip Bennefall wrote: Hi Thomas, Pointers do use a little bit of memory, the word size of the particular platform to be more precise. So a pointer on a 32 bit platform takes up 32 bits of memory (e.g. 4 bytes), in order to store the memory address of the location which is being pointed to. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Thomas, Pointers do use a little bit of memory, the word size of the particular platform to be more precise. So a pointer on a 32 bit platform takes up 32 bits of memory (e.g. 4 bytes), in order to store the memory address of the location which is being pointed to. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 3:12 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++ Hi Damien, I guess some times it is kind of a hard concept to get across once you have been so use to the way Visual Basic does things. However, some things are pretty obvious if you think about it. Like if you wanted to know if you needed to use a short or long integer. Take a game like Troopenum. In the game after 5 ships lands game over. Well, you don't need a lot of memory to store the numbers 0 through 5 so a short integer would be practical here, and you only use something like 2 byts to keep that variable in memory. Now, if you want to keep track of scoring that can be in the hundred thousands you obviously need more memory to store that big a number so a long integer would be used. Instead of 2 byts you now have reserved 4 byts for that variable. That much makes sense to you i'm sure. Pointers are exactly what the name implies. it points to some specific data already in memory. Kind of like a reference card that tells you on what stack, shelf, and isle a book can be located in the public library. Instead of books pointers keep track of certain data on file in your computer's memory, and can reference it for you when you call that pointer. As I recall unlike variables pointers don't actually use memory themselves but references some data already in memory rather than creating a block of memory and storing it there. HTH Damien C. Sadler wrote: Hi Thomas, Memory management is exactly the sort of thing I do find difficult. Like I say. When and how pointers and memory works is a mystery to me, even though people have attempted to explain it to me. Regards, Damien. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.427 / Virus Database: 270.14.108/2565 - Release Date: 12/14/09 19:40:00 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Damien, I guess some times it is kind of a hard concept to get across once you have been so use to the way Visual Basic does things. However, some things are pretty obvious if you think about it. Like if you wanted to know if you needed to use a short or long integer. Take a game like Troopenum. In the game after 5 ships lands game over. Well, you don't need a lot of memory to store the numbers 0 through 5 so a short integer would be practical here, and you only use something like 2 byts to keep that variable in memory. Now, if you want to keep track of scoring that can be in the hundred thousands you obviously need more memory to store that big a number so a long integer would be used. Instead of 2 byts you now have reserved 4 byts for that variable. That much makes sense to you i'm sure. Pointers are exactly what the name implies. it points to some specific data already in memory. Kind of like a reference card that tells you on what stack, shelf, and isle a book can be located in the public library. Instead of books pointers keep track of certain data on file in your computer's memory, and can reference it for you when you call that pointer. As I recall unlike variables pointers don't actually use memory themselves but references some data already in memory rather than creating a block of memory and storing it there. HTH Damien C. Sadler wrote: Hi Thomas, Memory management is exactly the sort of thing I do find difficult. Like I say. When and how pointers and memory works is a mystery to me, even though people have attempted to explain it to me. Regards, Damien. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Thomas, Memory management is exactly the sort of thing I do find difficult. Like I say. When and how pointers and memory works is a mystery to me, even though people have attempted to explain it to me. Regards, Damien. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 12:03 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++ Hi Chastity, Well, the primary difference with the .NET languages and a language like C++ in terms of memory management is that the .NET Framework has what we call a garbage collector. The garbage collector periodically destroyes unused objects etc to free up memory so it lets newer or lazy programmers get away with being a bit sloppy in terms of cleaning up after him or herself when programming. In C++ since it compiles directly to a native binary you don't have that safety net of a built in garbage collector to clean up after you. if you create a pointer or new object on the heap it is up to you to safely release it freeing up memory on your own. It isn't hard to do, but you have to take that extra step of releasing pointers and objects when they are no longer needed else you will have some major memory leaks. As far as writing games in C++. That's no problem. Back in college when I was taking C++ I wrote all kinds of simple text based games like Blackjack, Hangman, Guess the Number, whatever for practice. So you can do that sort of thing for practice before you get into more complicated games. HTH --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] To Philip on C++
Hi Chastity, Well, the primary difference with the .NET languages and a language like C++ in terms of memory management is that the .NET Framework has what we call a garbage collector. The garbage collector periodically destroyes unused objects etc to free up memory so it lets newer or lazy programmers get away with being a bit sloppy in terms of cleaning up after him or herself when programming. In C++ since it compiles directly to a native binary you don't have that safety net of a built in garbage collector to clean up after you. if you create a pointer or new object on the heap it is up to you to safely release it freeing up memory on your own. It isn't hard to do, but you have to take that extra step of releasing pointers and objects when they are no longer needed else you will have some major memory leaks. As far as writing games in C++. That's no problem. Back in college when I was taking C++ I wrote all kinds of simple text based games like Blackjack, Hangman, Guess the Number, whatever for practice. So you can do that sort of thing for practice before you get into more complicated games. HTH --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] To Philip on C++
First, thanks for the links. I'm just wondering on the memory thing. I think I read somewhere that the programmer has to handle all the memory or something and code for that? Sorry, if I got that wrong. Also can I create a simple game with this first before trying more advanced things, just to get the hang of the code? As for Sappy, it does work in some games and I like that feature for some simple games, but I would like to use sound effects and stuff for more advanced games, though I've checked on prices for music and sounds and its really expensive on a fixed income. Thanks again and I'll definitely check out those links. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
