Prefantastic

One good way to outline a program, to determine the basic functions you might need, is to use a hierarchy chart. I can elaborate more if you'd like, but it basically has 4 Main points to the top tiers of the chart. You have the name of the program, basically what your goal is and what you want to output, then you break it into three categories;

Set up, run time, and finish. Under those three tiers, you branch out and consider what you would need, in it's most basic form, under each tier. Such as if you were to make a simple program run and execute "Hello world", you'd have the three main points branched under the "MAIN" function (using C jargon, forgive me if your forte is another language). The first step, you'd just want the simple print function to output the text "Hello world!", then you'd do your basic clean up stuff.

The main printing step would be under the first tier, and the finishing up "return" statement would be under the "finish" tier.

The main reason you'd use something like this is to neatly visualize the basics of how you want your program to function. It's extremely useful in larger projects so you can outline how you want each program to work. From there, you'd usually make a program skeleton then fill out the "meat and potatoes" of the rest of the program once you've decided which parts of the program you'd want to turn into functions, structures, classes, objects, etc, and what else would be just straight up code.

I'll try and add an example of what I mean in another post tomorrow if you would like one. As is, I'm pretty tired and I need to get up early tomorrow and figure out what's wrong with my eye... hopefully nothing bad. I need these eyes to be able to see my code. >;[

Man. I love you guys so much. No matter what questions I throw out there, I always get a mass of intelligent people such as yourselves giving me your two-cents and leading me on to be a better programmer. I can't thank you guys enough for all of the patient guidance you guys have provided me within the last month-or-less of me being a member on this forum. I really hope that I can pay you guys back some how, be it some free-lance programming or even some sensual serenading (I was a music major before i switched to computers ;D).

As it stands now, I do believe I'll pick up Java as I'm learning more of c. I'm gonna continue to study C and maybe mess around and develop a bit of a Interactive Fiction style program game that's easy to go through and run but has some complexities that make the program more efficent.

But a curious question that has been bugging me for the last few months is this;

Is there a way to blend languages together? I had a recent conversation with a new found friend of mine, not a half hour ago (Mind you, I'm sitting in the student center at my local community college enjoying a nice, tachicardia-enducing energy drink) who spoke of ASP.net . He said that in the language they use a lot of C#. I responded "Do I need to learn C# to learn asp?" and he said firmly, "ASP is a language on it's own... It's very hard to explain."

So... yeah. I'm a bit confused as to his response, so I shall ask you, my fellow quick-witted, ingenious, and handsome bretheren...

Is there a way to use one programming language in another programming language? Such as being able to write C in Java... etc. etc.

And please do explain more about what he meant with ASP.

After learning the basics of the C Language, I don't quite know what to do with myself. I mean, I've been craving to start SOMETHING and I've already made myself a basic stat roller for Dungeons and Dragons and the basic programs assigned to me by my professor. But I don't know where to go from here. I've heard many stories that Learning C or C++ as your first language is not exactly the best thing to do since the learning curve can be very steep for some, but I've had no qualms with it. Maybe I'm an exception? Or maybe I don't quite understand it as well as I think. I'm not sure, but I've come to gamedev to ask you masters of the keyboard to guide me in the right direction.

I've been wanting to get into learning Java, I'm going to try and take a class for it next quarter (if I pass this quarter's intro to C [Damn my laziness]) and I'm not sure if that's where I want to go. I would love to take up programming professionally, I just am not sure what exacty I want to do with the knowledge I'm collecting. I know that C, so far, is very memory based and seemingly more intricate than the programming I had invisioned, but I find it extremely fun.

I would like to be able to use C and C++ in some way, shape, or form. I kind of invision myself to be one of those guys that makes game engines like the unreal engine or something. I always thought it would be cool to be the un-sung heroes of the gaming world, making some of the fastest, most powerful gaming tools on the market. But then again, I also want to be a rock star... so you can see my indecisiveness.

Anyway, i'm merely rambling as I always do.

My point is... Where do you guys think I should go next? Do you think that I could take another class of c and c++ and be able to find a programming job this way? Or do I need to learn a lot more languages before I can even consider turning in an application for even the lowest levels of the programming profession.

Hey there, Monkayy, I had the same problem as you when I started looking for a programming language to learn a few months ago. I started with C++ and that seemed to get me along just fine. I spent like thirty dollars on a beginners guide for dummies to c++ and it displayed all of the basics with variables, functions, and some OOP (Object Oriented Programming) that got me started with my current major. I'm studying for a Bachelors (Possibly Masters or Doctorate), depending on my career path in the future, and have taken up classes in basic C. Learning C++ was a great choice since they're the same language, just more advanced features in c++, and am doing fine as is. I would definitely suggest learning something that's most comfortable for you with the syntax. I'd add more but I gotta go to work! I'll add more when I get back home if this post still has a pulse.

- Jarret

It is probably time you step up. Time to write something yourself. Pick a project that is within your limits, or maybe just slightly over it. Get hackin. Ask questions when you get stuck. stackoverflow.com is great for that, as well as various forums including here.

c++ really clicked for me when I realized all data in cpp is a series of bytes. Even an int is a series of (usually 4 )bytes. Every class you ever made is a series of bytes with a known size. If you want or in some cases need to access them byte by byte, you can get the address of something and store it in a pointer.

Yay bytes! I just recently was in an 'Intro to C' class and we were talking about bytes and how a 'char' is only one byte. Then we got into a rant about the pronnunciation of char, whether it should be 'ch-arr' or 'k-air', then some how got into talking about pokemon. That's Community College programming for ya.