>>1782719
Kinda forgot about this thread. And I just went with lwjgl, since it's a bit more no-nonsense.

What would be the best way in Java to push the methods in the ScriptFunction class to a javascript container, while using as little javascript as possible (I want to save all or as much as possible of the javascript stuff for the game itself)

another one of these exists

>>1786143
Yes. Feel free to ask questions, brag about your adventures, etc.

Best languages to learn?
Best online courses to learn from?
Best ways to get some practise on those?
When can you find yourself capable enough to apply for basic/advanced ICT positions?

>>1786557
unfortunately I've been super lazy and have done no coding whatsoever recently

>>1786887
python, c#, java, c++
I use www.lynda.com mostly.
find a problem you have and then think of a solution.
I don't know.

>>1787027
> I use www.lynda.com mostly.
Oh, interesting, this seems like a good-
>Free trial
Oh.

I'm kind of short on cash to be starting to pay for the education.
20 dollars per month certainly is not exactly cheap.

Last edited at Mon, Mar 2nd, 2015 16:10

>>1787189
>pay for the education
Dude, you have the entire internet. I didn't learn a single thing about web design in a classroom, or by paying for anything.

>>1787205
That's why I'm kind of interested at what places serve well to learn stuff.
Because there might be a lot of places to look for things and some are just more comprehensive, others provide more extended coursematerial.

>>1787212
http://www.w3schools.com/
This is a really good one.

>>1786887
>Best languages to learn?
For what purpose?
Programming is a pretty broad field. Are you trying to study web programming specifically, or programming in general? Specific projects you have in mind?

>Best ways to get some practise on those?
Doing a practical project. The details depend on the above, of course.

>>1787214
Neat.
Currently going through those courses.

>>1787218
Well,
I have obtained my math degrees, unfortunately, with such theoretical degrees, it's pretty hard to get in anywhere that is not academics.
Programming seems like an outcome a lot of mathematicians go for, since the solution steps to design program benefit from an abstract-analytic mind set.
But so far I've officilly only had a course in Java in a distant past.
I have applied at banks before and they often require that their employees, even as well mahematical minded individuals, that they're capable of maintaining databases or write apps to provide calculations to deide loans and such.
Basically, even though the sector has a massive appeal, I get stonewalled there and anywhere else I have applied so far, because I have little on hands programming skills, which I currently try to aid.

Overall, i don't think I'd really do well to focus exclusively on webdesign or stuff like video games.
But I think I am interested in either maintaining website stuff, working with databases or just designing hands on apps in firms to provide all sorts of administrative tasks.

Oh, and I do find myself having fun learning about programming languages.

>>1787233
It is pretty fun

But I will say that it's all well and easy to write your own mastermind game, or function that lets you type in stuff in a store and calculates the end bill.
Or have your jscript make a blue object turn orange when you click it.
But to design website features where you get everyone a user page, store passwords and restore last browsing sessions for 1000s of people at once is like an entire different class of programming of which i can't yet fathom how it exactly works.

>>1787189
I actually don't pay for it either, I discovered my college covers it it for me, so it's free. which is why I use it.

>>1787230
>I have obtained my math degrees, unfortunately, with such theoretical degrees, it's pretty hard to get in anywhere that is not academics.
>Programming seems like an outcome a lot of mathematicians go for, since the solution steps to design program benefit from an abstract-analytic mind set.
With that background, you may be interested in Project Euler [projecteuler.net] as a set of exercises of widely varying difficulty. They're all mathy computational challenges where you are tasked to compute some abstract quantity (i.e. "the sum of the first thousand primes which are a square number plus one") in something other than the truly stupid way. This is not a substitute for a real project, but it can be an excellent addition.

>Overall, i don't think I'd really do well to focus exclusively on webdesign or stuff like video games.
>But I think I am interested in either maintaining website stuff, working with databases or just designing hands on apps in firms to provide all sorts of administrative tasks.
>But to design website features where you get everyone a user page, store passwords and restore last browsing sessions for 1000s of people at once is like an entire different class of programming of which i can't yet fathom how it exactly works.
Then I can recommend a project of writing your own imageboard software. It will teach you a lot about these technologies and how they interact.

One thing to note is that web development consists of the combination of a lot of different technologies. Even for a simple imageboard you will need a decent understanding of html, css, javascript, sql (or some other database system), and a web scripting language like php; for a serious project, add another half dozen libraries and frameworks. The upside is that it's easy to get started; the downside is that it's hard to really master anything in this area.

>>1787214
w3schools is terrible. It's decent as a quick reference manual, but useless for teaching you new concepts.

Unfortunately I don't have anything to recommend on the topic of web programming. Introductions to programming that are not complete shit are rare, and I know none for web programming.

>>1787314
> Introductions to programming that are not complete shit are rare
That's kind of depressing

So I'm working on the most important part of the engine, the icon. What do you think?

>>1788136
Obviously it's just a rough idea, so far.

>>1788136
quite retro

>>1788172
So good?

>>1788187
is it an rpg?

>>1788188
It isn't an RPG itself, it's a RPG engine, a java implementation of a game engine. The engine itself is somewhat geared for traditional RPGs, but it's by no means restricted to that.

The game engine's website: http://www.spheredev.org/
And the thread for my engine: http://forums.spheredev.org/index.php/topic,1219.0.html

>>1788195
I think it's a good logo

>>1788214
Thanks. I was thinking of putting the Java logo instead of the J, but that might be a branding issue.

>>1788270
Is the inclusion of the J an important requirement for these logos.

And overall, what exactly is a game engine? It's a term I hear a lot, but what is it supposed to do in very basic terms? I mean, making games, duh.
But is it kind of like RPG maker where the programming defines a fill-in-the blanks template for a game? Or is there much more to that?
Do you attempt to add innovative features in the project?

>>1788372
>But is it kind of like RPG maker where the programming defines a fill-in-the blanks template for a game? Or is there much more to that?
More or less, yes. A game engine is the technological magic behind a game, independent from any game content. For example, Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 are both based on the Source engine. The Source engine is a piece of software that implements 3D worlds with player characters running around through it, seeing the world from the point of view of their characters, and interacting with the environment, computer-controlled characters (i.e. monsters), and other players. This can then be used as a base for many different games sharing the same basic structure.

From a technical point of view, Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 are nearly identical. There are different models, different weapons, different visual styles, and different game mechanics, but they solve all the same technical challenges in the same ways. They have the same technical features and limitations, support the same visual and physical effects, and they even use the same map editor. A game engine is what they have in common.

>>1787314
>>1787773
Can you learn programming from books?

>>1793795
Books plus a lot of practice, yes. That's how many people learn it.

It really helps to have a mentor you can shoot questions at, though. Fortunately, we're right here :)

>>1795325
This may break out of my self-imposed ponychan hiatus... I'll just stick to /oat/ hiatus for this occasion.

It may be helpful, really, like a lot. But I wonder if it will have any use here.

My future in the programming world will hopefully be worked towards soon. I already acquired the old Lewis & Loftus Java 3rd edition software solutions book and 9th edition Kroencke databases.
I should probably work on finishing the basic programming logic course and applying for the course of principles of Object Oriented programming.
Then perhaps picking my poison and go for one of those huge software development courses in a certain language. (picking between Java or the .net framework, the latter mostly appealing to me since I've already practiced some Visual studio)

Clock is ticking, though, since I have only 1 year left to get myself a good job.

>>1795535
Re-reading this thread, it seems your interests are quite diverse (web programming, video games, business applications, ...). I should point out that there are different languages and techniques for all these things, so you will have a lot to learn.

Something I'm not clear about is your background regarding programming. What are your current skills, if any?

>Then perhaps picking my poison and go for one of those huge software development courses in a certain language.
If you want to do serious software development, you'll have to learn a lot of different languages, so it doesn't really matter much in the long run what language you focus on for now.

>>1795562
> If you want to do serious software development, you'll have to learn a lot of different languages, so it doesn't really matter much in the long run what language you focus on for now.
I don't have the time to daddle over several languages, though.

> Something I'm not clear about is your background regarding programming. What are your current skills, if any?
Well, I know the whole principle shebang of object oriented programming and arrays. And that you can use that as a baking form where you just pour in the syntax of most languages you like.
One formal course on Java, of which the details have become vague by now.
Some functional programming in Matlab, since I am a mathematician by trade.


Also, game design is not so much on my agenda, and I think I'd prefer back-end programming over arranging websites.

>>1795580
>I don't have the time to daddle over several languages, though.
If you want to do serious programming, you'll be expected to learn whatever language is necessary for a given project. This may sound like a tough call, but it's much easier than it sounds like if you have some prior exposure to several different languages. You having seen Matlab before will help here.

>>1795535
>It may be helpful, really, like a lot. But I wonder if it will have any use here.
What do you mean?

>I already acquired the old Lewis & Loftus Java 3rd edition software solutions book
This looks like a pretty decent book.

>I should probably work on finishing the basic programming logic course and applying for the course of principles of Object Oriented programming.
>Then perhaps picking my poison and go for one of those huge software development courses in a certain language.
That sounds like a good idea. However, I say again that the key component of learning programming is doing practical programming projects -- go find a program that would be useful for you, or alternatively a program of which you would like to learn more of how they work, and then actually go write it. If possible, pick something near the limit of your current abilities, and watch them improve.

I might do a small post later about the concepts that can help to learn programming faster.

If you have any ideas for it, let me know.

>>1798848
I'd be quite interested if you have a GOOD introduction to web development for complete beginners to programming.

I know that's a tall order; a good introduction to programming in general introduces the basic concepts one at a time. But webdev doesn't have basic concepts, it has large individually complex components of which you need several at the same time just to get even the simplest results. Thus, any introductory text must be a compromise.

Still, if you have one, I'd be interested, because currently I have basically nothing to point interested people to.

>ignore a bit of code to focus on something else
>decide I should come back to that code to improve it
>look at the code and realize I have no idea what's going on
I should really get better at commenting...

>>1798848
My impulse is to break things down and order them in relational tiers. For example, a piece of data is at the simple end of the spectrum, followed by functions/processes, then classes/objects, and then API/libraries. That way you have an idea of what people need to know to better understand different concepts.

>>1798903
>>1808040
I was thinking at starting with the simple concepts and the simple parts of coding, then moving slowly upward, building on itself so that everything makes sense as you go along, instead of having to take a bunch of things, throw them together, and hope that sense comes out.

Something that introduces the concepts of programming that apply to basically every language in a clear, concise, and easy to understand manner.

>>1811087
So, basically, a good introductory programming textbook? I don't think that will fit in a small post in any sense of the word.

>>1811113
Not a text book, no. A small simple explanation of simple concepts, with very simple examples. And along with that, quick comparison to the more complex examples of the same simple concepts, so that the complex looks as simple as it really is.

I've got a plan. Don't worry.

>>1811087
I fundamentally agree with what you're saying. I'm just considering the possibility that those things which are most basic I/O might actually seem the most strange and foreign to new people sometimes. I still ultimately feel the bottom-up direction is the best on the long-term. In a start-to-finish way, it's worth explaining so that everything builds up, as you said. It may be worth having some "appendices" or "perspective entries" since people are constantly interacting with things as objects, and the prevalence of high-level development environments like Unity and UE4, I think sometimes a lot of people have an awareness, but maybe not an understanding, of concepts much more complicated than one would typically use to initiate someone into programming.

If nothing else, that should at least be a point of awareness, because some people will make the weirdest mistakes because they know some fundamentals, and also have exposure to some high level concepts, but struggle to connect them because of other essential concepts in-between.

>>1812170
Makes sense. A lot of the problems come when people have preconceived notions about how certain things work because of some previous encounter with certain kinds of code, and when it's an incorrect understanding, it can get difficult to overcome that without almost wholly reteaching the concepts to them.

But that would essentially be what I'm going to attempt is to give a simple a easy way to understand the concepts that are used that are difficult to understand because they are poorly explained (especially if they don't explain the "why" behind the concepts).


A simple example of what I'm planning on doing can be done with explaining the basics of how OpenGL (or other render engines) works:

OpenGL isn't something where you simply say "draw X", as most programming beginners might assume. It is a state-based render engine, meaning you have to configure it first so that it draws X the way you want it to. It's current settings are what "state" it is in, and if you want it to draw with different settings, you have to change them.

It's like a dishwasher or a washing machine. You have to set the settings first, then you can run it. And when you want to run it again, you can leave the settings how they are, or change them so that it does things differently.

I'll use the washing machine as an example. Here is sudo code that demonstrates what I mean:

//Change settings
TemperatureSetting(HOT_WATER);
CycleTime(30_MIN);
//Run
Wash(White_Clothes);

And when you need to "wash" something else in a different way:

//Change settings
TemperatureSetting(COLD_WATER);
CycleTime(45_MIN);
//Run
Wash(Colored_Clothes);

And if you don't need to change the settings before running it again (in this example, washing more colored clothing), then you don't need to. You just run it again:

Wash(Colored_Clothes);

====================end example======

Then I'd go on to explain buffers and whatnot using simple comparisons so that it makes sense rather than just saying, "Here's some code that does stuff, paste it in your code and run it. POOF! You did an OpenGL!"

So yeah.

Last edited at Wed, Mar 25th, 2015 16:15

Another question:
If I ever feel like buying a laptop to "work":
It runs MS Office programs
It runs an RDBMS thing
I wanna have MS Visual studios on it to fiddle around with dot Net stuff
and other tools for programming things

Do I need something fancy? Or will a very basic one do?

Let's say I don't want to store massive amounts of media/games/... on it.

>>1831531
In general, you don't need any special hardware for programming. Any laptop is fine, really. The only thing to take care of is the keyboard, laptops with punctuation keys in weird places can be a pain.

I don't know if you guys heard, but apparently Visual Studio 2015 will/does support cross compilation to Linux

Last edited at Fri, Apr 3rd, 2015 23:48

Hmm

Are there any catches with the sublime text editor?
cause I know they do ask money for things around it on the website.

>>1838944
http://www.sublimetext.com/buy

>>1838944
The only benefit of buying it is that you avoid getting the "pls buy" message.
And well, you get to feel good about supporting the developer too I guess.

>>1838944
>>1839545
I always just press the escape key as soon as I see it.