Quote:Original post by szecs
the best way is DOING it. Reading books without actually coding is almost a waste of time (IMHO)

Second'd.

Lordy, you've only being doing programming a year and you're already having a bash at Sockets in C?

You've obviously got a healthy interest in programming but I think you already know what's holding you back: You're trying to rush learning C++ to get to the "good bits".

You'll be alright, just get Herbert Schildt's "The Complete Reference C++" and that will fill in the gaps in your knowledge.

Best of luck, buddy! ^_^

Tidy up on your C++, then have a crack at a commandline text game. Try and include a bit of file input/output to save the player's progress...

Once you've done that, I would recommend learning the basics of WindowsAPI.

After that, you can do whatever you set your sights on.

PS: its a shame the OU(Open University) isn't still doing the C++ & WinAPI course MT262. It would have been just right for your situation. I keep badgering them to re-introduce the course because it really did a great job teaching complete beginners and then throwing the student into the WinAPI and even getting to the point where you could do graphics tricks like zooming in an Image program such as MSPaint. Unfortunately, they've replaced it with Java and Visual Basic courses!

Quote:Original post by Anri
Once you've done that, I would recommend learning the basics of WindowsAPI.

In all fairness, why not start with something easier? If the next step is to learn an API, why not SDL or SFML? They handle all the windowing with a much simpler interface, and the LazyFoo tutorials introduce plenty of continuing concepts at a fair pace.

just do it. any obstacle you meet, find the answers. google them, search them here, ask for help or ideas, maybe talk with friends. or take a piece of paper, draw it out.

and instead of "learning stuff that the industry names important (html etc)" learn to solve problems. and that first means, find problems. find smaller or bigger tasks in your surroundings where you could write some app that helps.

my biggest programming steps forward where the moment i met the owner of a club/bar, who inspired me to optimize a lot of his workflows. i developed a member database app (including taking a photo to directly add a new member, quicksearch for any user info to find them again) and tested it out with the ones who had to use the apps.

one idea is try to find a funky old barcode scanner, and then try some inventory style app for your and your cohabitants dvd collections. so they can rent stuff by scanning it in, and quickly write a name to who they rent it to. try to gather the dvd info somehow from the web, if possible.

such little "live saver apps" can really enhance your knowledge on developing towards solutions. and that is when, for me, the key dropped on how to actually use all that fancy stuff i learned for years. the moment where i noticed i could actually use this, or that, or what ever.

and besides that, do the same for games. define small goals, reachable ones, ones that matter to you. try to set up space (black screen). try to set up a space ship in it. try to set up a camera. try to set up a controller (which reacts on keyboard inputs), and find some way to bind it to the space ship. try to create another controller without keyboard input, that just tries to fly the space ship in a circle (your firat a.i.). try to make the camera follow you. fill the space with stars.


in short, you'll never learn to develop by learning languages. you learn it by learning to apply your knowledge to solve problems. and the best way to do that, is to find your own specific problems.
and then blog and brag about each step you do :)

At the point you are, I just started developing my GUI library.
Whenever you work on a project that is intended for public usage, you really (should) get forced to follow the standards / common practises. It really got me into C++.

PS: I'm at Euler 26! :D

Quote:
the best way is DOING it. Reading books without actually coding is almost a waste of time (IMHO)

You know, I think the main cause of all the "I want to learn programming. How do I make a MMORPG?" posts is that the posters grew up during the 3D era. We older people take for granted having encyclopedic knowledge of 2D games. When I got serious about writing a game when I was eighteen the first thing that I did was a cross between the arcade game Pengo and the 8-bit computer game Loderunner. Now some eighteen year-old obviously wouldn't know either; much less have them immediately spring to mind. Everybody always suggests starting small and writing Tetris which is good advice but these posters have never played Tetris. My advice to someone who wants to get into game programming from square one is get an emulator and start out by playing some good 2D single screen games.

[Edited by - jwezorek on July 14, 2010 8:57:10 PM]

Quote:Original post by jwezorek

Quote:
the best way is DOING it. Reading books without actually coding is almost a waste of time (IMHO)

You know, I think the main cause of all the "I want to learn programming. How do I make a MMORPG?" posts is that the posters grew up during the 3D era. We older people take for granted having encyclopedic knowledge of 2D games. When I got serious about writing a game when I was eighteen the first thing that I did was a cross between the arcade game Pengo and the 8-bit computer game Loderunner. Now some eighteen year-old obviously wouldn't know either; much less have them immediately spring to mind. Everybody always suggests starting small and writing Tetris which is good advice but these posters have never played Tetris. My advice to someone who wants to get into game programming from square one is get an emulator and start out by playing some good 2D single screen games.

There's truth in that you write.
But:
My first game was a Scorched Earth demo (To be honest, I don't agree with the usually suggested "learning curve", because it doesn't really matter. code something, even if it's complex. It just has to be small enough to finish in a year). I don't know the programs you mentioned either. Never played Super Mario. Sure, I had a tetris. There are lots of 2D games now too, especially for phones and other small stuff. I guess everybody have seen Windows games.
Sure, there are a lot of MMORPG wannabes, but it's easy to spot them. The OP doesn't seem to be one of them.

But anyways, my DO IT thing still applies, whether they only know 3D top games or not.