[NTLUG:Discuss] Wanting to speak the language

[Steve Baker]

Ed Leach wrote:
> I'd appreciate it if an enthusiast of a particular language (my
> interests: C, C++, Perl, Python) could point to 2-3 relatively simple
> open source projects that could be examined after finishing some intro
> book. There are so many it's difficult to know where to look for good
> samples.

So once you have the basics of a programming language, turning that into
something you can apply to a problem generally entails some more learning.

For example (and taking my personal area of interest), if you had learned
C or C++ and wanted to get into writing games, you'd next have to learn
some interface API's (application program interfaces) to drive the graphics,
read the keyboard, mouse and maybe joystick, generate sounds, etc.

Getting your head around all of those things at once is hard work (especially
since you'll still be battling with your small - but growing - knowledge of
your chosen programming language.   Hence, you'd probably want to focus on
some aspect of game programming (or some small *aspect* of whatever application
area you are interested in).

You could (perhaps) get good at playing sound and music - learn how to do
that using (say) OpenAL - the sound API - then you'd look for a game that
seems interesting and which is 'going somewhere' - but which has no sound
effect yet.  Head off to that mailing list and present your sound software
and the odds are good that the owner will be interested in your offer of
help.  Once you are working on the game, you can pick up knowledge about
the other areas of expertise...pretty soon, you'll be itching to start up
your own project.

Now, that's just an example - you may not be into games - and sound may
not be your 'thing', but you see where I'm going?  Find a niche.  Wiggle
into it.  Expand to fill the space available - then break out!

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>    WorkEmail: <sjbaker at link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net    http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
            http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
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