Develop. How?

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Skills I posses.

Well, I'm very competent with a computer. I find solutions any way I can and have.

In terms of programming or code, none. I mentioned something in my first post but that was looking for a particular line of code and modifying a value.

I don't even know if I'm using the "code" correctly.

In terms of what I want to accomplish.

I don't know "how far the rabbit hole goes". I mean what branches are there? Literally I know nothing.

I know there is probably a million different languages and each takes you down a different route and I'm probably being the vaguest possible. I don't even know what language takes you where.

It's like do I want to take the blue pill and play dolphin. Or do I want to take the red pill and see how dolphin is made. That kind of thing. :-)

If I may ask a personal question, how old are you? I only ask because it could effect what resources you have at your disposal.

We do need to have SOME idea of what you want to do before we can help you.

I would recommend asking more specific questions.

As far as contributing to dolphin goes nearly anything you learn should be applicable. Dolphin is an open source project and as such you're free to make any changes to anything that you see fit (it doesn't mean that they'll be comitted to the official branch though), even something as simple as redesigning the GUI. You don't have to be one of the crazy guys working on the core to make changes to dolphin.

Quote:edit.I'll just pick up a book from the local library and see where that takes me. Thanks

Why even bother with that? The internet is flooded with programming tutorials, forums, code examples, videos, etc. It's like having a 5 million page interactive programming book that covers every nuance of every language for free.

You might want to check out this thread while you're hunting for programming languages to learn: http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=20468

Quote:If your brand new to programming, a good BASIC or Java book can do you well.

I think you'll agree that BASIC is pretty useless in this day and age. It's like learning ancient greek, it was probably a useful language 2,500 years ago, but nobody uses it anymore. While it is extremely easy to learn/use there are other easy alternatives these days that are far more useful like python, VB .NET, javascript, etc.

Quote:and Java isn't really much more challenging.

lolwut? You think java isn't much harder to learn than basic? A language who's entire purpose was to be as easy to learn and use as possible!

Quote:Sounds like the OP wants to be a hacker, and I mean that in the old MIT sense of the word, someone who "tinkers" with something to learn more about it. I consider myself a hacker whenever I mess around with the source code of emulators to get the desired effects I want (e.g. adding scaling filters to Desmume on Linux, nearest-neighbor sucks). Where is your interest the greatest? Emulators? Games? Data processing? Encryption? Networking? Graphics? Sound? You get the idea. Once you narrow it down and after getting grounded in some general computer science, you should have a better idea of what you should study next.

Wouldn't every single opensource programmer on the planet be considered a "hacker" by that definition? I never really liked that word, it's one of those buzz words that everyone uses yet nobody knows what it means.

Edit: I don't really feel qualified to offer any advice beyond getting started with programming (which I think is what he's really asking for). For anything related to developing something specific like dolphin I would want developers to offer advice instead. So I would love it if some developers who are reading this would add their 2 cents so I don't have to keep pretending that I'm the man with all of the answers (although I have gotten pretty good at that these last two years).

[Garteal]

For both Dolphin and Unreal Engine 3, you'll have to understand the basics and concepts of programming.
Since both extensively use C++, it would do you good to get familiar with the language.

I agree with NV, you don't need a book, especially nowadays since there's a dozen of tutorials available on the internet.
If you're more comfortable with a book, by all means, get one.

Learning C++ requires a combination of patience and determination.
A great place to start learning C++ is CPlusPlus.com. Or, if you prefer video's, follow Bucky's C++ Tutorials.
But most important of all is to do and try things yourself. I cannot stress this any harder.
Experiment and see what happens when you change the order of your program for example.
Make up fun little projects to code.

If you find C++ too intimidating, or hard to grasp, I'd highly suggest starting with C# over things like Python since you'll be able to carry pretty much everything (except for language specifics ofcourse) over to C++.

Quote:Or even giving the newish turok game hi res textures. :-)

Retexturing games is generally easy. It depends on what you're going for.
In general, you -just- need an image editing/manipulation software besides Dolphin itself. Search the internet for resources, resize it, save it and load it in the game.

[Shonumi]

NaturalViolence Wrote:Wouldn't every single opensource programmer on the planet be considered a "hacker" by that definition? I never really liked that word, it's one of those buzz words that everyone uses yet nobody knows what it means.

Many open-source programmers probably just refer to themselves as programmers. The term "hacker" has long been subverted by the media to imply criminal masterminds who desire to sow havoc and chaos among digital denizens. They're after our Facebook passwords and our bank accounts. They can be anybody too, from Chinese cyberspies to Russian organized online gangs. Even Anonymous are hackers, apparently. I only mentioned hackers "in the old MIT" sense to distinguish between the malicious definition and the original meaning which has largely been lost on most people.

Being a hacker is more than just programming something in a clever or interesting way, as such, not every OSS programmer falls into that category. Granted, the original MIT hacker community's ethics went on to influence many of the values shared by the OSS movement, I really could not care less about a person's ethics if I had to determine if they were a hacker or not. In my opinion, it's about a mentality focused on discovery, to better understand the way things work, and not letting anyone say "you shouldn't know that". In a broader sense, this isn't even necessarily restricted to computers or machines of any kind. There are actually too many views of what it means to be a hacker that I've heard over the years to limit it down to an all-encompassing universal "this is what it is" definition. It's going to be different for everyone. But I wouldn't say no one knows what it is or what it means to them, not after having read a few years worth of 2600.

[Axxer]

Java wasn't much harder for me than basic. Maybe that's just me.

Basic is pretty useless, but it can be a nice place to start. I just named to languages I know to be pretty simple and easy to learn.

Java is a pretty simple language when you get down to it. Generally, tutorials start off with basic math stuff and move on to functions and methods. After that it gets slightly mire complicated with classes and objects, but I didn't think those were hard at all.

[Zee530]

What are your thoughts on learning PHP as a 1st language for site design?

[Shonumi]

(09-29-2012, 12:43 AM)Zee530 Wrote: What are your thoughts on learning PHP as a 1st language for site design?

You better know some HTML (or plan to learn it) :3

[daaceking]

At some point you guys were in the same position as me.how did you guys decide what path to go down? I want to be able to make video games and emulators. I also do a bit of market trading and making a few algorithms would be useful.bear in mind i have done a good chunk of mathematics and statistics to degree level.by that i don't mean i am a mathematician or statistician. In terms of Web sites,i have made a couple of sites years ago, which no longer exist, but were very basic.copy and paste jobs and i managed to get a few flash, Shockwave games on it.so i know how to make basic websites but with no knowledge of html.i suppose a decent starting point would be dolphin.how all the tough programming is done

from what i'm hearing,c is the language to learn.albeit rather difficult.i'm sure if i find a good source which breaks it down really well,i could grasp it.the thing is, which c? also, what doors does it open? Thanks

[Axxer]

Here is what I learned:

When I was about 7, I learned binary (this can help set the scene for how computers work).
Later on in secondary school, I started by learning how to make basic java code. This is stuff like int x = 5;
As I kept taking classes for java, I learned about methods, then classes and objects, then pass-by-reference vs value, then recursion, then polymorphism. And then you keep going from there.

At least that is how the courses I took are supposed to be structured. I decided it was going to slow though so I'm waaaay ahead of most of this.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:I agree with NV, you don't need a book, especially nowadays since there are thousands of tutorials available on the internet.

Fixed that for you. It's mind boggling the resources you find from any google search about any language, API, etc.

Quote:The term "hacker" has long been subverted by the media to imply criminal masterminds who desire to sow havoc and chaos among digital denizens. They're after our Facebook passwords and our bank accounts. They can be anybody too, from Chinese cyberspies to Russian organized online gangs. Even Anonymous are hackers, apparently.

Quote: it's about a mentality focused on discovery, to better understand the way things work, and not letting anyone say "you shouldn't know that". In a broader sense, this isn't even necessarily restricted to computers or machines of any kind.

How does anyone become a programmer without doing that?

Quote:There are actually too many views of what it means to be a hacker that I've heard over the years to limit it down to an all-encompassing universal "this is what it is" definition. It's going to be different for everyone.

A word with no universal formal definition...... As an English major how does this not drive you batshit insane? Because it certainly drives me insane. So much disorder......

Quote: not after having read a few years worth of 2600.

???????

Quote:At some point you guys were in the same position as me.how did you guys decide what path to go down?

We didn't. Most of us were just as clueless as you. We tried different things before "deciding what path to go down".

Quote: I want to be able to make video games and emulators.

Well those are two very different types of applications. Which would you prefer to make out of the two?

Quote: I also do a bit of market trading and making a few algorithms would be useful.bear in mind i have done a good chunk of mathematics and statistics to degree level.by that i don't mean i am a mathematician or statistician.

Good. Programming is basically just math + some additional logic. If you have degree level training I'm guessing you're at least in your 20s, am I right?

Quote:so i know how to make basic websites but with no knowledge of html.i suppose a decent starting point would be dolphin.how all the tough programming is done

Could you rewrite those last two sentences? Those sentences don't really fit together and I have no idea what you're trying to say here.

Quote:from what i'm hearing,c is the language to learn.albeit rather difficult.i'm sure if i find a good source which breaks it down really well,i could grasp it.the thing is, which c? also, what doors does it open? Thanks

I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for saying this from the developers but I (along with many others) don't really see the point in learning C instead of C++ (assuming of course that the platform you're developing for has a C++ compiler available, which all of them should these days). C++ is basically just a newer version of C with more built in features if you really think about it.

Garteal listed some advantages to knowing C++ above. The biggest advantage though is the simple fact that most popular modern programming languages were derived from C++, so if you know C++ learning most of the other useful languages tends to be quite easy.

[Shonumi]

(09-29-2012, 04:02 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: How does anyone become a programmer without doing that?

Easily. You don't have to want to know everything or desire to expand your knowledge in order to be a programmer. Granted, those attributes help in making you a good programmer, but a number of people get by without ever experiencing a need to poke and prod out of curiosity. There were quite a few of them in the C++ class I took (mostly Engineering majors who couldn't care less about programming). They learned as much as they needed to, and nothing more. Given human nature, I'm sure there are quite a few programmers out there (with jobs too) who only know what they need to know to satisfy their employers. Curiosity isn't a requirement to learn and practice anything.

(09-29-2012, 04:02 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: A word with no universal formal definition...... As an English major how does this not drive you batshit insane? Because it certainly drives me insane. So much disorder......

I said "universal" not "formal" Any dictionary can formally define any word it wants to. Will it be universal, covering everyone's conception of what the word should mean? Not a chance. This is the case with words like "soul", "elegance", or just about any word that has any sort of abstract ideas attached to it. To different people, you'll get different meanings. I put "hacker" in the same vein because I've read about many self-proclaimed hackers from wildly different backgrounds and experiences who have very disparate ideas of what it means to be a hacker. The one common theme I see though, is the constant sense of wanting to further one's knowledge of any kind.

(09-29-2012, 04:02 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: ???????

Are you questioning what 2600 - The Hacker Quarterly is, are you surprised they have a magazine, or are you asking what 2600 has to do with what I said?