The Mystic
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Posts posted by The Mystic
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Halley's comet comes around about every 75-76 years, so it's possible to see it twice in your lifetime. If you saw it as a youngster in 1986, there's a good chance you can see it again next time around.
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I've seen code written by professionals that was so bad that I nearly gagged.Originally Posted By: HarehunterI have seen code written by people who had not had any training, and their code is inefficient, slow and almost impossible to understand or maintain. There are, of course, exceptional people who just "get it" without a lot of formal training, but these are rare eggs.
I guess I was just lucky to have had a good teacher back in the late 90's. He taught the COBOL class I was taking, and was slightly fanatical about writing good documentation and efficient, reusable code. -
What a coincidence, I recently bought The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Strousrtup, though I'm not so much reading as perusing it.Originally Posted By: AʀᴀɴThe C Programming Language by Kernighan and Ritchie
I'm also reading the textbook for my class, Starting Out With Programming Logic & Design by Tony Gaddis. Since I've already had a class in programming logic, I'm not really learning anything new. -
Congrats, Rowen!
Now, thanks to you, I'm just that much closer to my next milestone.
*grins evilly at the thought*
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Let's see, I've been here for...
*quickly checks profile*
Wow, almost six years now. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun.
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I tried this method with C++, but it didn't work out too well. You'd think I'd have an easy time, thanks to previous classes in other programming languages....Originally Posted By: LilithYeah, he pretty much bought a bunch of books and taught himself to program. It's not exactly a method I'd recommendDoing that now. Or more accurately, taking a refresher (and prerequisite) programming logic course. Then I'll start with C++ in the fall.Originally Posted By: Lilithif you want to be a programmer and you've got the time and the money to take a computer science course, it's worth doing.I also have Practical C++ Programming, and I find it does a much better job as a handy reference than a teaching tool. For me, C++ Without Fear is a bit better teacher.Originally Posted By: Miramor^^^ Amen. I've learned more in the past week from the C programming course I'm taking, than from reading Practical C++ Programming cover to cover.
One book I was told to avoid was C++ For Dummies. After flipping though it once, I can see why; it's horrible.That's why I decided to go back to college; apparently I don't have the self-discipline to do it on my own.Originally Posted By: MiramorThe homework and lectures help. OTOH, so does having the right book (in this case the second edition K&R text). But I find I'm bad at setting my own pace; YMMV. -
One of my favorite illusions is the Devil's Tuning Fork, because it's one of the few I can draw. I also like several of Escher's drawings, especially Drawing Hands and several of the building illusions.
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I use AVG free and Norton 360. Yes, I know you're not really supposed to use more than one antivirus program, but they work pretty good together for me. The only trouble I've ever had was when I installed Norton 360; I installed it first, then had to disable it temporarily so it wouldn't prevent me from installing AVG.
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I just checked out the links, and I'm torn between being highly impressed and totally creeped out. On the one hand, as has been pointed out, that's one great work of taxidermy. On the other hand, the concept of a cat-copter makes something in the back of my mind say "No. Just no," and make me shudder a bit.
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That's fine, one can't know every pun out there. I, on the other hand, would never have guessed "OptiMystic" (although you did make me think of a (bad) pun combining my PDN with Optimus Prime), so I guess it's a fair exchange. And, as I sort-of implied, I'm more than patient to wait until the next time around.
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*does as ordered, for once*Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba
Awesome, and leaving me wanting more. Great work, Diki!
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You should hear Yoko Ono sing.Originally Posted By: Jewels in BlackWoot! Though I can't say I'm a fan of Lennon. He kinda creeps me out really.
In the meantime, I guess I'll have to wait until Nikki does this again. I could be The Magical Mystic-y Tour! ("The Magical Mystery Tour" by The Beatles)
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I had a nuclear plant meltdown the day I built it. Of course, that's in the original Sim City; I've never played any of the others.Originally Posted By: Y? Bcaus, IDK he's on 3rd & IDCREhashing an old subject: Am I the only one here who had his nuclear plant meltdown a month after I built it in simcity?Consider this a good thing, because the way I understand it, those cards were a pain.Originally Posted By: HomageIt's probably best that this specific gem is before my time, because all I would be thinking is make it rain.Originally Posted By: The Mystica series of punched cards
And here's another little jewel from the early days: At one time, programs generated only one error message: "ERROR." Be thankful those days are long gone. -
That's how I pronounce it. My father, who has never played any game in the series, pronounces it "Jen-forge."Originally Posted By: TriumphTwo syllables. "Jean-forge," with "jean" like blue jeans, not the French "Jean" as in Jean-luc Picard.
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You don't have to join any faction unless you want to. And, as Dikiyoba pointed out, there is no "best" faction.Originally Posted By: CmillerI want to know the best of the three sects to join: The Awakened, Obeyers, or Takers.
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Until, of course, the next one comes out.Originally Posted By: Enraged SlithThen come play THE LAST BLADES OF AVERNUM SCENARIO EVER MADE!
Seriously, though, congrats on the scenario.
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Yeah I agree, VoDT kind of sucks compared to several other scenarios; I played both versions more than enough to know this. However, it actually shines when compared to the tutorial scenario.
As far as screen resolution goes, I agree it's very annoying to be asked every time I play. Since I play most of Spiderweb's games in Scale Mode in VirtualBox, I just set them all to either "always" or "never," just to avoid making a decision.
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@Soul of Wit & Tyranicus: The reason I didn't include the Mac is I've never used one. And yes, I had (vaguely) heard of them at that point.
If you really want to go old-school computing, my father used to be a COBOL programmer before he retired. The first computer he used was the size of several filing cabinets and had approximately 19.6K of memory. He also remembers the days of inputting programs via a series of punched cards (I think we still have a handful of them somewhere in the basement).
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It is. I've seen it happen.Originally Posted By: !TrEnToN, CaPtAiN oF RoYaL GuArDOr freight trains move with the speed of continents.
That sounded more possible in my head...Well, I know for a fact that the roads there are better than here in Michigan, so it can't be all that bad.Originally Posted By: TyranicusIt's true that all of Ohio is in the eastern time zone, but all of Ohio also sucks.
And I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I'm in the Eastern time zone. -
The scripting system works best for me when I treat it like an actual programming language, not like creating a scenario. having a programming background helps, but probably isn't necessary. And as far as pointer arithmetic goes, you don't have to worry about it.Originally Posted By: MiramorFirst off: I've heard some not-nice things said about BoA's scripting system. How does it compare to to BoE nodework for debugging? How about transparency - if I create a scenario and comment the scripts well, will I be able to come back to it a month later and understand what they do?
(Noting that my most familiar languages are Java, which I'm rather terrible at, and Perl, which I can write passable scripts in... I also hack around with roguelikes in C, but pointer arithmetic gives me the heebie-jeebies.)
As for documentation, a well-commented script should be easy to return to. Rule of thumb: When in doubt, document it.I've heard it does, though I've never tested this myself. This is only because I'm pretty much a total noob when it comes to Linux, including how to download. (I'm using Ubuntu 11.10.)Originally Posted By: MiramorSecond: does anyone here run BoA under Wine? If so, what version and how well does it work? -
Thanks, bit I'll pass. I have yet to complete my entry for the random 1/10 contest back in 2010.
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That sucks. And I was starting to enjoy them, too.Originally Posted By: MusNIK Box (Bonus Track)aside from a few B-Sides, my well of names has run dry
Anyway, congrats, Nikki!
The state of game design today
in General
Posted
I have to agree with you. But there are many "professional" programmers who have not had any training. And just because someone has had formal training in programming, it does not guarantee that their code would be much better than that written by a thousand monkeys.
We used to have one of those professional programmers who would use a GOTO statement from some unrelated section of code into the ELSE clause of an IF-THEN-ELSE construct, just to save a single WRITE statement. It was enough to drive any spaghetti sorter straight into the asylum.
Want to know the scary part of that? That kind of coding technique, if you could call it that, runs rampantly into our application security subroutine.
The professionals I'm referring to had been writing programs for decades, and some of them learned FORTRAN and COBOL shortly after languages' beginnings. Needless to say, these guys should've long since known better. But when you're looking through some code, and one line is documented with, "Only I know what this line does," you know you've found some scary stuff--especially after the original programmer has long since retired.