In other news, I am wanting to learn C programming, for the purpose of making a game in SDL, not to mention that I just like programming. As a bit of background I have been programming and using computers since 3rd grade, but for some reason I have never learned C. The reason is probably because it wasn't until many years later did I even have a computer I could program C on. I cut my teeth on Tandy Basic with my Dad's Tandy PC2 in third grade, and then got into Applesoft Basic and Apple Integer Basic when I got an Apple IIe, which was my first desktop computer. I went through several Apple IIe's, a IIc, and a IIgs. The IIe's got fried from constant use, and the power supplies just gave up. The Apples were already pretty old when I got them, and my school also happened to use Apple IIs still as well, and they only had about 50 extra units, plus spare parts, because they had phased the IIe's out for IIgs units, which again were considered ancient even at the time. (this was 1998, when I was in 6th or 7th grade)
My computer teacher was a big inspiration for me. She was a big Apple fanatic, and especially loved Macs. She wanted me to get into Macs too. I, on the other hand, really didn't care for Macs at all, I liked the old stuff. I don't know quite why it appealed to me, although looking back I think it was because I could work with the low level, and all my code banged directly on the hardware, so to speak. Later in 1998 we got a PC. I think it was the games that got me hooked on PC's from there. I played Quake for how many years then? Probably all the way through highschool. I have never looked back, and sorry to say for all you Mac lovers out there, I have never used or even liked Macs.
Well, now I'm in Linux, because it's free, like all my previous computer stuff, and appeals to my geek side that wants to have closer workings with the hardware. I used to write games for Apple II, sadly with the demise of my Apple hardware my games also went. Now I want to try some game code again, but Basic doesn't really have the power on Linux as it did on an Apple. See, on the Apple II, Basic was THE language to code in. Sure, you could do machine code, but the only reason for doing that was because it would mostly hide your source from people or do really complex things with the inner quirks of the machine. The Basic was pretty much just as efficient as the Assembler, because the Basic was integrated with the hardware.
Nowadays Basic is not really respected, and doing games is quite resource hungry with only
EDIT: Nix that last line: FreeBASIC is now my next exploration. MS QBasic compatibility (I already know QBasic) and C library integration, including SDL, with only %25 percent less performance than regular GCC. Since my game's won't be 3d I don't need to worry. And it's cross platform, perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment