Be nice... I know you prob get these kind of questions all the time but I couldn't find the answers in a faq and couldn't figure out how to get a search for the answers that wasn't a zillion pages to look though... .. . Anyway. I am a new programmer. I am starting my classes next year, but i have been jumping ahead in preparation by going though a number of books in my spare time. Anyway. I have read though the books and done the exercises in them and feel pretty confident with what they were trying to teach me. (they are simple books : ) My question is dose anyone know of some places on the net were I can find other exercises to do. What I mean is that I find it a little hard to figure out a exersice to test a certain idea that I have been through taught from the books.. and when I do if I can not make it work I am kinda stuck as to why. I was hoping that some of you may know a site were I could download or read questions/exercises that I can work though to get a better knoladge of what I am doing and preferably have a forum there for Q and A or at least a version of the correct code so I can go though it and see what I have done wrong. Thanks in advance for any help you may give me. Jynks

Well it really depends on what sort of execises you want.

For algorithmic trickery I would suggest an online judge like valladolid but I think a much better way to learn is to start some small project.

Don't you have some task you routinly do that would benefit from automation?

Or why not write a small game?

Hey, you've just opened the door to endless oppurtinities and here you are asking for pre canned questions.

Find your passion.

@DigitalDelusion

Hmm that link looks like that kind of thing I am looking for but way to complicated. Like I said I am just starting and not really ready to make a small game or tackle some kind of logic twist that needs some creative thinking...

I am more interesting in simple problems like (using the game dev theme of this site)

Q - Write a program that asks a user to build a character. Name, Class, Race, random stats and then a incremental stat adjustment from the user.

Things like that. Real simple but not impossible for a beginner like me. It is just when I try to make exercises for myself and I hit a wall I do not know where I can go to ask for help as I am not quite ready for this forum and its very specific area of interest.

how about creating a program that makes a map with one working path by taking a grid such as below (where '>' is the start and '<' is the end) and removing lines between cells to make the maze go from the start to the end.

You must have the path connect to every cell and there must be at least one "dead end" Also, you can not have the map have more than two openings (start and end)


Each cell must have at least one wall touching it.

Bonus points for a recursive algorithm.


an example of a valid solution:

@Grafalgar

I have not covered much only a few "for the beginer" type books. I am trying to learn C++. I only have experience in Visual Basic and PHP. I have been told it is a harder one to learn but it seams to me to be the one that is used the most in the end applications I wish to be involved in. Re,meber this is all a "head start" to proper tuition next year at a school.

I am at a stage where I can do basics. I have yet to make any application that is more complicated that taking imput from user, processing it, and displaying it.

@M2tM

That is exactly the kind of questions I am thinking of.. Much apreciated. I assume you want the map to be created randomly. Not just hard coded in? I will have a serious attempt at this, though I am very new so do not expect me to get it right. :)

Random would be great. Glad you like the problem, it's not terribly original, but it's interesting enough and fun enough and on top of that you can look at it from a game perspective. Plus you can display the maze in plain ascii text which is a big plus because fooling around with graphics stuff is hard when you're starting out.

Here are my tips for starting out (WARNING, they are pretty basic, but if you want to do this all on your own, don't read them. On the other hand, they only talk about the display so it's not a big spoiler or anything and might help you get started since you're new.):







-Get some code that displays a map that can be easily changed wall-by-wall first, then start working on the actual maze solution.

-You might want to consider storing the map in some form of two dimensional array.

-Consider making the walls toggle-able on or off.

That's all I'll give you as a hint, and it's only a hint on how to make the maze display, but I hope it gets you thinking of a solid design.

[Edited by - M2tM on December 5, 2005 8:47:06 PM]

Quote:Original post by jyujinkai
Q - Write a program that asks a user to build a character. Name, Class, Race, random stats and then a incremental stat adjustment from the user.

Well, what's wrong with this little exercise? Indeed, it is an excellent start. And why not build upon that? Once you have your character generator, make a system where two characters can fight, with really simple AI controlling both sides. Then let the player control one character. Then try to build an AI that you can't beat every time. And so on.

i need help in collision detection...im currently using the bounding box in directx9...but what i want to do is.....if they collide..i use a better more accurate collision detection method...any help

generate your own exercises. you'll learn what you want to if you do.
"small games" are a wide range. "guess the number" is a (very) small game. easy to programm, start with it to get the grast of user input and randomization.

then try the mentioned maze-generator.
maybe have your own character-editor.
create some datastructure to let some player move your character through the ramdomly generated maze.
add a better graphical representation, some things to collect.
finally some monster with AI (random-movement would be sufficient for the first try) and the fight-code.

there you got your not-so-small-game. move on from there. you could create a basic rpg-like game even before your course starts.
but this is only an example. if your not interested in an rpg, you could choose a different approach. think of what you want to do and begin with small steps to archieve that. break the big task down far enough and you got some easy exercises that later combined make a game or other app.