Starting programming simple simulators

[LightFang]

You are interested in game developing? Okay. Drop Excel, like everybody's been telling you to. It's time to learn Python!

http://inventwithpython.com/chapters/

Invent with Python takes you through the paces. You'll get the source code to a bunch of games and see how to program. All at the same time!

 

[mdwh]

Personally I tend to just use C++ for everything except GUIs since that's what I know best. C# really is much easier for GUI stuff, MFC sucks.

MFC indeed sucked, but there's far more choice for C++. Even regarding the official Microsoft APIs, MFC is old news now - you can use the same .NET GUI stuff with C++, that you'd use with C# (not to mention other GUI toolkits that are available).

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Managed C++ is not very good though for performance.

We have a lightweight wrapper for a basic windows app anyway that was developed in house, the tools chain uses this. Most of the tools just output errors and warnings though (and loads of data of course).

We also have a PC animation viewer that has the GUI done in C# with the rendering done via a COM control (using the MFC COM wrapper), since it's easy to call a COM object from C#. And it uses OpenGL rather than DirectX Cos the guy who started writing it knew the OpenGL API.

 

[PeteAtoms]

You are interested in game developing? Okay. Drop Excel, like everybody's been telling you to. It's time to learn Python!

http://inventwithpython.com/chapters/

Invent with Python takes you through the paces. You'll get the source code to a bunch of games and see how to program. All at the same time!

I think that's a great book. I got it a while ago and every once in a while I'll go over it.
I've only been able to get through a couple chapters though, because every time I come back to it I have to review what I've already read

But that just goes to show that what you get out of something, depends on how much time/effort you put in.

I also recommend this youtube series about Python (not the latest 3.x though, it uses the 2.whatever version).

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Here's a link to an ancient book (back when BASIC had line numbers LOL) about simulation games too

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=2001152

 

[civ_king]

You are interested in game developing? Okay. Drop Excel, like everybody's been telling you to. It's time to learn Python!

http://inventwithpython.com/chapters/

Invent with Python takes you through the paces. You'll get the source code to a bunch of games and see how to program. All at the same time!

Actually for game developing Lua is better (also Civ V is going to have this not python)

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Lua's just a scripting language though I thought - whereas Python is a full featured language that can create stand-alone apps.

Not looked at it much though. I know a bit of python.

 

[PeteAtoms]

Actually for game developing Lua is better (also Civ V is going to have this not python)

In what way is it better?
(Don't take my question as a challenge to your post, as a non-programmer I have no idea just curious).

It seems like there are going to be a lot of options for him to pick from.
It doesn't seem like he's looking to make the next big civilization/strategy game, just to run some simulations (probably doesn't need to worry about a pretty GUI or anything).

Did some searching and came across a couple of resources for Visual Basic that I've never sen before:

Small Basic
VB for Very Bright Kids

Don't know whether these help any, but they look appealing enough for me to give them a try.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

If he goes Basic he should just get VB.NET Express, it's free. I'd choose C# Express instead though.

Python is an excellent language though.

 

[civ_king]

Lua's just a scripting language though I thought - whereas Python is a full featured language that can create stand-alone apps.

Not looked at it much though. I know a bit of python.

In what way is it better?
(Don't take my question as a challenge to your post, as a non-programmer I have no idea just curious).

It seems like there are going to be a lot of options for him to pick from.
It doesn't seem like he's looking to make the next big civilization/strategy game, just to run some simulations (probably doesn't need to worry about a pretty GUI or anything).

Did some searching and came across a couple of resources for Visual Basic that I've never sen before:

Small Basic
VB for Very Bright Kids

Don't know whether these help any, but they look appealing enough for me to give them a try.

As time goes on Lua is becoming much more important than Python in the field of video game programming, so knowing Lua for Video game programming is much more important

OTOH in general computing Python is much more important because of it's versatility

 

[Genocidicbunny]

As time goes on Lua is becoming much more important than Python in the field of video game programming, so knowing Lua for Video game programming is much more important

OTOH in general computing Python is much more important because of it's versatility

Lua is more important in game scripting, not programming. Its meant to run on top of another application to provide some sort of scripting interface rather than do all the work by itself. The heavyweight stuff is still done by C, Cpp, Python, C# or Java.

 

[civ_king]

Well naturally you need C to work with Lua

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I work as a games programmer, I'd recommend Python or C# or Java to start with (unless the OP is hardcore, go straight to C++ then).

Lua looks to me like it is for heavily moddable games or games with a load of complicated agents that need scripting. Which doesn't seem to be what the OP wants to do.

 

[ArmOrAttAk]

Excel is a database with a nice GUI. You can build one yourself with MySQL and C++. The thing with VB and C# is that microsoft changes things arbitrarily, and without warning. What you write today will not work with the next version. Also I have read countless stories of missing documentation, wrong documentation, and unpredictable behavior. Which is totally unacceptable in programming.

I recommend you read something about assembly just to learn how memory and cpu's work.

Then you should read "The C Programming Language". This is the greatest little programming book. Many other languages are written in C. Java, Perl, Python, probably those microsoft languages, PHP, etc. You can compile C code which stands on its own. Unlike interpreted languages which need to have the interpreter installed on the system. For instance to print hello world in Java you need to load the 300 mb JVM into memory first. Not everyone has it or can be bothered to download/install. Same with Python, and Perl (although less memorywise).

I'm pretty sure all the console games and such are written in C++, which is object oriented C. You shouldn't begin learning with object oriented languages. Do that after you are comfortable with functional programming.

So anyway if you want to put a nice GUI on your game you'll definitely want C++ or Java. If you just want to crunch some numbers use Perl. You'll be up and running in no time. I Specifically recommend the book "Programming Perl" which teaches you how to program, not just the language syntax like most other books.

 

[Bratmon]

Excel is a database with a nice GUI.

http://newsletter.alphasoftware.com/0030602.htm