What is on Your Mind?

Hello all.

Im a young lad with very limited experience with computers, even though I have been playing with them the past 5 years. I have the experience of the random World of Warcraft player that plays games all day.

I have a huge interest in learning everything about computers and I was wondering if any experts could take the time to answers that I have.

First of all, I do like gaming quite a bit but my main interest is in building my own game from scratch. Im going to be going to school to learn everything from Basic Website Building (HTML CSS), Basic Programming (C C++), and I also want to learn Software Engineering and Graphyx Design..

So I was wondering if I start messing arround with UNIX or Linux, if it might help me in some way.

So I was wondering if you could run games on a UNIX or Linux OS..?

And if its the right path to take using a UNIX or Linux OS when you want to learn about programming?

I also do have a PASCAL book that I was given and I know its an Old Programming Language, but would it be any use learning that before I start learning C ?

Thank you for taking your time reading this.

Sincerely
-Vallzi

Hi Vallzi,

I'm no Unix/Linux expert but I did learn C in school, C is supposed to be procedural programming language and it has been superceded with C++ which is object oriented.

C and C++ were invented a very long time ago. From what I hear, they still use C++ to write games. Since both C and C++ are pre-compiled they are much faster when they execute as compared to an interpreted language like Java.

From a programming point of view, Java supercedes C++, I've seen a few small games written in Java as well.

I recently installed Linux and it has a few small games, I haven't tried them yet.

Personaly I think Unix/Linux are more suitable as robust and secure web servers, and less likely would be a platform to write games (but I could be wrong)

It is difficult if not impossible to build websites with C and C++. If you are interested in building sites then I recommend HTML, CSS, JSP, Java (or PHP, ColdFusion, ASP,.Net)for the middle layer and some database software.

Just my thoughts...

Linux is just as capable an OS as any, if not more, for running any type of software that Windows can. That said, the fact is that the majority of users use some version of Microsoft Windows. Because of that, most video game companies don't offer Linux/UNIX versions of games - they're only written/compiled for Windows.


It depends on what you want to do. If you just want to write games/applications for Windows, then no. But just in general, then I'd say yes. Linux by default comes with several scripting languages installed, as well as C, C++ and I believe FORTRAN compilers. ( Never used FORTRAN ). I don't think Windows comes with any type of programming environment by default.


If you don't already know PASCAL, then I would just skip it and try and learn C. From my own experience, I haven't seen PASCAL used anywhere ( it is very old, older than C at least ) and by the time I went to college, the "initial programming language" that we were taught as students had moved from PASCAL to C.


C++ is a superset of C, meaning it can do everything C can and more, but I wouldn't say it has been replaced, if that's what you meant here. I write C programs all the time at work & at home. I have C++ compilers at both places, but it's just not necessary for the things I do.


I believe this is completely subjective. Software can be designed (as well as programmed) in the same manner using either language.

Programming languages have evolved into different versions, I think Visual C++ allows one to build a website, but I don't think it was possible to build websites from the original C++ language.

However both C and C++ are good for building games and desktop applications since their execution speed is fast.

Java was built on top of C++, to improve upon C++ originally. I think this site details the similarities and differences between the two languages:
http://www.dickbaldwin.com/java/Java008.htm - last revised 1999.

But all programming languages have evolved now, there's .Net which includes VC++ I think. So, yeah whatever you can do with one language can also be done with another. But no two languages are exactly similar, depending on what one wants to implement on a large scale they can make a choice on which programming language to persue.

Some languages are more suitable for certain tasks than others. For example it is more straighforward to process XML files with XSLT than it is with Java, although it is possible to do it with Java.

Sometimes, when 2 languages or platforms are similar for example .Net is similar to Java, it just boils down to what platform you are more familiar with.

I learned C for 4 years in school, but when I graduated Java was being developed - but the job world didn't allow me to work on either language. I had to learn other languages like ColdFusion etc.

So pick whatever languages fascinate you and what you want to accomplish with them and learn them.

This chart lists a high level comparison between languages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...ming_languages

It is also beneficial to study the job industry and see what languages are more in demand. Some languages get discontinued or very few companies use them.

This thread fits best in the 'What's on Your Mind?' forum.

Sorry if I digressed too much. I always make mistakes when I join a new forum, because each forum's rules are different.

Sometimes it's good to master a few languages and advance in their path, but sometimes the job world makes it a little difficult to stick with one language.

I don't mean to put down C or C++, both of them have their merits but just wanted to bring the OP up to speed with the recent happenings in the programming world, so he knows about all options available to him.