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What do I do now?

Posted by Linux_Penguin [send private reply] at June 13, 2001, 11:25:13 PM

I have a basic grounding in programming now. I know a little Python and a little C++ and a little BASH. What do I do now? I have no idea what to apply these new skills to. Please give me an idea here I really want to do something with the knowledge that I have gaind.

Posted by Setherd123 [send private reply] at June 14, 2001, 12:04:27 AM

Make an IRC bot in Python. You don't see those very often.

Posted by gian [send private reply] at June 14, 2001, 03:09:54 AM

Seth, I think you could do that....

Well, here's the top 5 things to do once you have a little knowledge:
5) Become an l33t h4x0r! (did I do that right?) and try and bring down servers! I don't recommend this, because crackers just really aren't cool at all.
4) Make an RPG! It will fail, of course, but it's all for the sake of learning!
3) Become a virus writer, so many people think this destructive behaviour requires talent! It doesn't, because it's not cool!
2) Write an over-simplified version of pacman, or some other classic game, with a cheap knock-off title, like "StoragePerson!" or something.
1) Write your own OS, like so many programmers do! You'll get to the 5th line of code and go... "oh, this is too hard" and give up.

Hope this helps!

Posted by Psion [send private reply] at June 14, 2001, 07:50:42 AM

The crucial thing is to pick something that you enjoy. Ending up with a working product should be enough to motivate you to stick with something long enough to learn a lot. For me, this was starting (emphasis on starting!) a Street Fighter II clone with DJGPP and Allegro. That project taught me what pointers are, one of the most important things to find a way to "get" if you've not done assembly or machine language coding before. :-)

Posted by taubz [send private reply] at June 14, 2001, 09:31:46 AM

Don't forget the 3D photorealitic Quake-based game engine.

- taubz

Posted by Linux_Penguin [send private reply] at June 14, 2001, 09:43:49 AM

Thanks... it was really helpful.

Posted by gian [send private reply] at June 14, 2001, 03:17:48 PM

Whoops

Posted by CHollman82 [send private reply] at October 01, 2001, 09:55:39 PM

Posted by gian [send private reply] at June 15, 2001, 03:53:06 AM

Thank you...

Posted by sphinX [send private reply] at June 15, 2001, 06:31:12 AM

Except that I do believe my OS reached about 60 lines of code before I quit :-)

Posted by gian [send private reply] at June 15, 2001, 05:32:07 PM

Oh, mine got to about 30... I think that was when I started on command parsing...

Posted by CHollman82 [send private reply] at October 01, 2001, 09:55:50 PM

Posted by CHollman82 [send private reply] at October 01, 2001, 09:56:00 PM

Posted by sphinX [send private reply] at June 15, 2001, 10:03:10 PM

I managed to write the Master Boot Record (so it booted), the FAT16 sector (so it had files), and that's about it. Oh well, I still have the code somewhere on my hard-drive...hmm...

Posted by gian [send private reply] at June 19, 2001, 01:43:28 AM

I overwrote the MBR on several computers! I was installing Linux on all of them!

Posted by lcj311 [send private reply] at June 16, 2001, 09:47:17 AM

I have a lot of catching up to do, will brb!!

Posted by CHollman82 [send private reply] at October 01, 2001, 09:56:11 PM

Posted by sphinX [send private reply] at June 17, 2001, 12:45:41 AM

My boot record code actually did a little more than Microsoft's. Instead of blindly booting from drive 0x80, it checked for the 0xAA55 at the end the first sector of each partition, booting from the first. Not that that made much difference though, but it was cool to see my name come up (it had to print a message!!! ;-)) before my operating system booted...

Posted by Linux_Penguin [send private reply] at June 18, 2001, 11:03:37 PM

I think I've got a ways to go before I can do any of this. The only language I can say I have a small grounding in is Python but I still don't think I would even know where to start yet.

Posted by gian [send private reply] at June 19, 2001, 01:43:44 AM

Mr. Hollman: I was referring to the l33t h4x0r thing, and it was a joke.

Posted by Psion [send private reply] at June 19, 2001, 11:31:39 AM

I would advise you to learn C, then. If you have any interest in graphical stuff, Allegro will be your friend!

Posted by Setherd123 [send private reply] at June 19, 2001, 01:49:28 PM

Bad Psion! Pygame will be your friend!

Posted by infryq [send private reply] at June 21, 2001, 12:54:19 PM

penguin, i'd say listen to Psion's earlier comment... pick something you'd actually like to see working, something you'd use, or something that'd be cool ie brag material. the motivation to finish something is that hard part :) a lot of the time. C is good for messing around and doing random stuff with... it's super versatile, and fairly fast to program in, IMHO: you can get little things done quickly. C++ has tended for me to be really slllllooowwwww to try and get anything done in unless i want to do a major project.

Posted by RedX [send private reply] at June 21, 2001, 02:57:31 PM

I use C++ as a better C. Just because I like the new and delete rather than malloc(lots of parameter) and free.

Further: Games are the way to learn programming (As long as you're not the "I-want-to-write-a-quake-clone-this-weekend" type). I wrote a space invader clone in 4 weekends, without to much difficulty. Could have been a nice one if I had organised my code better. (hint) Later I wanted to change the hardcoded delays to timerdriven delays, and fix the problem with the highscore list(users had to enter 8 characters, even if their name was "Tom" or something). But I would have to rewrite most of it. As a result I have a game that run right on my computer and to slow/fast on other ones, nor could I add all those could features I wanted to implement.

Moral or the story: organize your code from the start. It will get bigger than you expect.

RedX

Posted by gian [send private reply] at June 21, 2001, 04:38:40 PM

I write in a bizzare hybrid C/C++, but I only use a C++ compiler. This allows me to use the relatively good things in C++, whilst staying away from it's silly, stupid things!

Posted by Sky36 [send private reply] at August 08, 2001, 03:57:17 PM

Yeah its a good Idea to try to make a simple game or something. Thats what I did of course I never really finished it but that doesnt matter I learned some stuff. Go for more C or C++ because well just because I guess if you like Python go for it I dont know Python so I cant really judge. Read books too lots of books books are good they can teach you. Well I think thats about it.

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