I just dropped by to say how much I love your stuff (the Build Engine, Ken's Labyrinth).
I played Ken's Labyrinth a long time ago, and it inspired me to start taking programming lessons of my own.
I've learned parts of C++, Basic, Java, and a few others, but there are so many different things out there. I just wanted to ask what your preference is when it come's to programming languages...
thanx!
- guy from Pennsylvania
Awesoken at
I use 4 languages currently:
* C (Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6.0)
* Assembler (x86, MMX, SSE, SSE2)
* Basic (Microsoft QuickBasic 4.5)
* Evaldraw
QuickBasic is good for testing new algorithms, although it's slowly getting replaced with Evaldraw. I use C for everything else because it produces fast and compact code. If I'm not satisfied with the speed of a certain routine, I might spend the extra time to convert it to assembler code.
I suggest you choose a language you're comfortable with and stick to it for a while. Once you get the hang of the syntax, you should concentrate your efforts on math and algorithms.
3dEngineProgrammer at
Is there any particular reason why don't you use c++ ?
C seems out of use for game dev means.
Maximus at
Ken, hope you don't mind me stepping in here... but I think what I have to say is quite general and relevant to the question...
Ok! Enough covering my back!
I think when it comes to choosing a programming language it depends upon what you are trying to achieve... For example prototyping for Ken QBasic and EvalDraw is good... However this, I feel, is mostly suited to low level algorithms as QBasic and EvalDraw are procedurally driving. Personally I like to use JAVA as a prototyping tool...
Why?
Cos the stuff I'm mostly concerned with, AI, is mostly conceptual so abstraction into objects works very well.
Again C vs C++ comes down to this kind of choice... what are you doing? Concept based or algorithmic. Anyway... I'm no expert, I know what I like and thats what I use... Why do I like it? Cos it suits my need.
Hope this helps! ;)
Raedwulf at
C has the advantage of a slightly better speed in compiled output than c++
JonoF at
C++ compilers these days produce optimised code pretty much as fast as what a typical C programmer might create anyway. The expense for calling a class function is usually only the cost of a pointer dereference and as long as you don't use the slower features of C++ like runtime type identification, multiple inheritance, and exceptions, the speed difference is not worth worrying about. So, if you're more comfortable with C++, you might as well use it.
Jonathon
Raedwulf at
Compare the speeds of the languages :) And see how memory hogging Java is :P.
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/