Beating a Dead Donkey: Which Language II

[Captain Tangent]

I'm about to start making a 2d freeware RPG and I wondered which language
would best suit my needs. As an arts grad, my strengths really lie on the
creative side but I have a basic knowledge of Pascal and C (when I say basic,
I mean I can do all the if/while/storing local variables type stuff, but when
it comes to messing with memory locations and parsing strings I get a bit
lost). I guess the best option for me would be to utilise the windows GUI
instead of having to build one from scratch. Is that possible with, say, C#?

[clintonG]

Yes. Learn and use C#. The .NET Framework does most of the memory management
now so that concern will be the least of your worries. What you have to
learn is Object Oriented Design and Programming.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee (sm) "A Regional Information Service"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://metromilwaukee.com/
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/


"Captain Tangent" <Captain Ta*****@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:21**********************************@microsof t.com...

I'm about to start making a 2d freeware RPG and I wondered which language
would best suit my needs. As an arts grad, my strengths really lie on the
creative side but I have a basic knowledge of Pascal and C (when I say
basic,
I mean I can do all the if/while/storing local variables type stuff, but
when
it comes to messing with memory locations and parsing strings I get a bit
lost). I guess the best option for me would be to utilise the windows GUI
instead of having to build one from scratch. Is that possible with, say,
C#?

[Michael S]

"Captain Tangent" <Captain Ta*****@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:21**********************************@microsof t.com...

I'm about to start making a 2d freeware RPG and I wondered which language
would best suit my needs. As an arts grad, my strengths really lie on the
creative side but I have a basic knowledge of Pascal and C (when I say
basic,
I mean I can do all the if/while/storing local variables type stuff, but
when
it comes to messing with memory locations and parsing strings I get a bit
lost). I guess the best option for me would be to utilise the windows GUI
instead of having to build one from scratch. Is that possible with, say,
C#?

Hi Tangent.

If you come from structured languages like Pascal and C (and perhaps asm?)
you got knowledge that will speed up your learning-curve.

But you got some learning to do.

0. Learn OOP (Object-Oriented-Programming).
1. Embrace OO-principles, but know when to walk off the path. Don't become a
OO-Purist.
2. The FCL (Framework Class Library) do have plenty of stuff you can re-use.
And enhance. Use it!
3. For games, it is sometimes necessary to drop the managed code and data
and go unsafe with pointers.
4. C# would be an excellent language for going unsafe.With your skill in C,
unsafe C# would be confortable for you. Pointer-operations have the same
syntax.

However, if your game want to be fast and heavy on graphics I suggest you
skip .NET and do it in pure msC++.
..NET is still too slow for doing stuff like that. But there will be a time
when the JITter can do better compiling than the best of asm-coders.

Happy Coding
- Michael S

[Captain Tangent]

> Hi Tangent.

If you come from structured languages like Pascal and C (and perhaps asm?)
you got knowledge that will speed up your learning-curve.

But you got some learning to do.

0. Learn OOP (Object-Oriented-Programming).
1. Embrace OO-principles, but know when to walk off the path. Don't become a
OO-Purist.
2. The FCL (Framework Class Library) do have plenty of stuff you can re-use.
And enhance. Use it!
3. For games, it is sometimes necessary to drop the managed code and data
and go unsafe with pointers.
4. C# would be an excellent language for going unsafe.With your skill in C,
unsafe C# would be confortable for you. Pointer-operations have the same
syntax.

However, if your game want to be fast and heavy on graphics I suggest you
skip .NET and do it in pure msC++.
..NET is still too slow for doing stuff like that. But there will be a time
when the JITter can do better compiling than the best of asm-coders.

Happy Coding

Much by way of helpfulness there, mucho thanks to you and clintonG -- I
shall store your advice and make sure I follow it. Also, if you ever see a
freeware RPG called The Simulacrum around in a couple of years time, please
take the time to download it, I guarantee it'll be worth the effort :).

Peter