I was wondering how you guys all have gotten involved with programming this emulator(sorry if this is the wrong place to put this thread). What colleges and majors did you choose/ what classes helped you with this stuff? What languages do you guys use (assembly, java, c++, or mixtures of each)? What compilers do you use(visual studio, eclipse/netbeans, dev c++, etc.)? Where and how did you learn about how to program a wii emulator, and what would you recommend others do to get started if they want to learn? P.S. you guys are my hero's and role models, I want to help when I am finished with my computer science major in college (i probably wont be nearly as talented as you when I am out of college).
Just start to use your tools. It doesn't matter which compiler you use, neither which language. The hard part of learning programming is to get the "iterative" way. There are no really good books, you just need to try it. There will be plenty of issues and errors, but that's the common way to learn it. So you "just" need any project you want to work on yourself. Try to start with very simple ones, *very* simple and basic. eg if you like math:
https://projecteuler.net/
If you're looking for an easy to learn language, I'd recormend python. C++ is a lot harder, and I don't like java... Feel free to try assembly, but intel assembly is not a good one to start
Thanks Degasus. I know a little about each of those languages, and python is one of the ones I wanted to learn next (I think Fortran and cobol sounds pretty cool as well). Does that mean dolphin isn't just written in one language? Also, how did you guys reverse engineer the wii, does it use a common language like assembly?
Python is very good.
I always spam C# whenever possible.
If you actually want to work on Dolphin, you'll need to know C++. I got into it by learning C#, then repeatedly made Visual Studio fail to compile my changes to dolphin over and over until I got it right.
Thanks Helios, C++ makes a lot of sense for dolphin. I figured it could have been C++, C# or Java but then I remembered Java cant use pointers and the code I've seen from git-hub uses many of them.
(02-27-2016, 11:04 AM)MonadoBoy Wrote: [ -> ]I think Fortran and cobol sounds pretty cool as well
Sounds like you haven't looked at those languages at all.... In my opinion, only VBScript is worse
Dolphin is mostly written in C++ and some intrinsics (high level assembly). But for the Jit, you need to know almost everything about the available instruction set. Not exactly the same as assembly, but similiar requirements.
The point about java or C# is not about pointers, is about being able to emit native code. You can't write a JIT in those languages, at least not without ugly hacks.
But all of this doesn't matter. Dolphin is likely to hard to start as a beginner. So you first have to learn how to program. Learning a programming language is by far more easier than learning programming itself. So just start with anything.
Thank you all four your responses. I didn't expect to be treated so kindly by you guys, other places aren't as helpful or nice usually.
@Degasus: I didn't think it would be easy, I also know Fortran and Cobol are hard languages, but I like a challege (I have to learn all of those in order to graduate, including VB). I'm going to try my best so that in the future I can contribute and be useful for something here. Its like I said before you guys are my role models. You guys do excellent work!
Algorithmic is the big challege. Stupid languages are just pain