Finished a "teach yourself" book, what next?

[Jacob Oost]

Should I get some more general books, like "advanced self-teaching," or
can I start on specialized books like "Linux game programming?"

Any book recommendations ?
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[Malcolm]

"Jacob Oost" <zo**@columbus. rr.com> wrote

Should I get some more general books, like "advanced self-teaching," or
can I start on specialized books like "Linux game programming?"

Any book recommendations ?

C Unleashed, by Richard Heathfield and others, fills a gap between "C for
beginners" and specialised works like "3D graphics in C".

Try writing a few simple 2d games to get into the swing of games
programming. You might find that something like draughts is a bit harder to
write than it looks.

[Jacob Oost]

Malcolm wrote:

C Unleashed, by Richard Heathfield and others, fills a gap between "C for
beginners" and specialised works like "3D graphics in C".

Try writing a few simple 2d games to get into the swing of games
programming. You might find that something like draughts is a bit harder to
write than it looks.

Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking of writing a program to
decode the cryptoquip (by counting the occurences of numbers and
comparing them to a table of the most commonly-used letters in English),
and then a text adventure engine (I have never seen the source code for
a text adventure yet, I'm curious how they do it, I imagine some kind of
multi-branching linked list).

I'm a little worried that I might need to go take a calculus class when
I eventually get into 3D! I want to make my own raytracer.

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[Chris Williams]

Don't know what other programming history you have (just that you're a
geek =) ), so assuming that this is your first language--or at least
first language where the intent is to do more than 50 line
scripts--would be to get some algorithm books and to get a "Programmin g
for your OS" book. Just getting a hand on creating a window and
plotting pixels or moving a box shape around the window without flicker
can be tough enough when just beginning, without even getting into
complicated math.

Another fun one is a recursive function that will search through all
directories on your computer for a certain file.

-Chris

[Jacob Oost]

Chris Williams wrote:

Don't know what other programming history you have (just that you're a
geek =) ),
A few C++ and Java classes, that's it. I'm on C now and I've forgotten
most of what I learned about C++ and Java anyway (except that I hated Java).

Once I get comfortable with C I intend to learn assembly. Programming
is a hobby for me, not a job.
so assuming that this is your first language--or at least
first language where the intent is to do more than 50 line
scripts--would be to get some algorithm books and to get a "Programmin g
for your OS" book. Just getting a hand on creating a window and
plotting pixels or moving a box shape around the window without flicker
can be tough enough when just beginning, without even getting into
complicated math.

I have a book laying around, "Linux Programming," and it's thicker than
my wrist. Not sure I really want to go through all of that, especially
since I'm really only interested in graphics.

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[jiggly]

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 02:57:33 GMT, Jacob Oost <zo**@columbus. rr.com>
wrote:

Chris Williams wrote:

Don't know what other programming history you have (just that you're a
geek =) ),

A few C++ and Java classes, that's it. I'm on C now and I've forgotten
most of what I learned about C++ and Java anyway (except that I hated Java).

Once I get comfortable with C I intend to learn assembly. Programming
is a hobby for me, not a job.

so assuming that this is your first language--or at least
first language where the intent is to do more than 50 line
scripts--would be to get some algorithm books and to get a "Programmin g
for your OS" book. Just getting a hand on creating a window and
plotting pixels or moving a box shape around the window without flicker
can be tough enough when just beginning, without even getting into
complicated math.

I have a book laying around, "Linux Programming," and it's thicker than
my wrist. Not sure I really want to go through all of that, especially
since I'm really only interested in graphics.

How broader the base of the pyramid, how higher it can become.

Make sure you keep your base as wide as possible when you start.
Focussing only on one topic right from the beginning will make you a
very narrow minded programmer. There are just to many fields,topics
that intermix...

g00dlUck..

Jig.

[Jacob Oost]

jiggly wrote:

How broader the base of the pyramid, how higher it can become.

Make sure you keep your base as wide as possible when you start.
Focussing only on one topic right from the beginning will make you a
very narrow minded programmer. There are just to many fields,topics
that intermix...

g00dlUck..

Jig.

Seriously, I could beat somebody to death with this book. But I suppose
I'll give it a try. If I get bored after the first one hundred pages
I'll switch to something else.

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[Jason Wells]

Jacob Oost wrote:

I'm a little worried that I might need to go take a calculus class when
I eventually get into 3D! I want to make my own raytracer.

Make that Linear Algebra(Which requires at least 1 calculus as a
prerequisite).

You will really benefit from a structured CS program if you want to do 3D
programming. You can look at my WWW to see the project I just did for my
OpenGL class.
--
WWW: http://haywire.csuhayward.edu/~jwells2
spinmaster .______________ _______________ _______________ ___________.
@ |When you are right you cannot be too radical; |
gmail.com |when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. MLK|

[Mike Wahler]

"Jacob Oost" <zo**@columbus. rr.com> wrote in message
news:XS******** ***********@fe2 .columbus.rr.co m...

jiggly wrote:

How broader the base of the pyramid, how higher it can become.

Make sure you keep your base as wide as possible when you start.
Focussing only on one topic right from the beginning will make you a
very narrow minded programmer. There are just to many fields,topics
that intermix...

g00dlUck..

Jig.

Seriously, I could beat somebody to death with this book. But I suppose
I'll give it a try. If I get bored after the first one hundred pages
I'll switch to something else.

No offense intended, but that attitude makes me
question whether you have sufficient motivation
to learn to become a good programmer. A mere
hundred pages of a single book about a single
topic is an extremely small fraction of what you'd
need study. Especially if one of your goals is
something as complex as 3D graphics.

$.02,
-Mike

[Richard Bos]

Jacob Oost <zo**@columbus. rr.com> wrote:

Chris Williams wrote:

Don't know what other programming history you have (just that you're a
geek =) ),

A few C++ and Java classes, that's it. I'm on C now and I've forgotten
most of what I learned about C++ and Java anyway (except that I hated Java).

Have you read "The C Programming Language", 2nd edition, by Brian
Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie? It's _the_ book on C.

Richard