Briant Member Posts: 742 From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada Registered: 01-20-2001 |
Hi all, I'm putting together some programming (C/C++) articles/code for the article section of this site. I have several areas I'd like to cover, but I thought I would ask for preferences of what you'd find more useful, so I know where to focus my energies first. Here's some ideas I have, what would you prefer first? - a series on making screen savers using MFC (or would more people prefer without MFC?) - C/C++ - general purpose algorithms and datafiles - Windows programming in C/C++ - expanding on Johnny Watson's existing Win32 DirectDraw and/or OpenGL articles: - special effects - Debugging techniques - developing/marketing software on the internet - something else? Anyways, those are just some ideas. I've already started the MFC screen saver series, but I can easily put that aside if something else is going to be more beneficial for lots of people. Let me know. Brian
[This message has been edited by BrianT (edited May 06, 2003).] |
ArchAngel Member Posts: 3450 From: SV, CA, USA Registered: 01-29-2002 |
cool ------------------ |
Klumsy Administrator Posts: 1061 From: Port Angeles, WA, USA Registered: 10-25-2001 |
put them all together and you will have enough material to write a book. ------------------ |
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Briant Member Posts: 742 From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada Registered: 01-20-2001 |
quote: Now THERE'S an idea! Most of the articles wouldn't be too long, and wouldn't be done too quickly either. ------------------ |
CobraA1 Member Posts: 926 From: MN Registered: 02-19-2001 |
I would like to see some articles in your "developing/marketing software on the internet" topic - that'll be my biggest obstacle once I've written a decent program. ------------------ |
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nfektious Member Posts: 408 From: Registered: 10-25-2002 |
D. All of the above. |
AmazingJas Member Posts: 437 From: Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA Registered: 04-03-2003 |
You know, I've not seen a book at my bookstore on "Creating a Windows Screensaver with <insert free C++ compiler name here>", if I had, I'd certainly have given it a look! Bundle the compiler with it, and voila!When you're all done, I would love to edit it for you and seek publication? Aside from that, I think a good article on setting up Directx with various compilers would be a good idea, and an excellent starting point because if people can't get this sorted, the rest would be meaningless. The novice (self included) takes an age to work out how to install directx SDK's. Just a thought. |
Krylar Administrator Posts: 502 From: MD, USA Registered: 03-05-2001 |
BrianT: Wow! That's quite a list...erm...queue...erm, no, uh...stack! dang. :P Not to sway you from doing it, but think it through on the publication angle because I've been down that road already. If you want to publish it into a book, you may not want to publish it all for free here. A potential publisher would see that as diminished value for your book. Of course, if the series is popular enough, we may be able to do a "collection of CCN articles" on book. I *may* be able to help get publication for that, if there's enough interest in it. All: I'm planning on doing stuff on WinSock for multiplayer and such (using C/C++). I don't much like DirectPlay, personally, but I may hop into that as well if the promoised new rev is as good as they say. -Krylar ------------------ |
BKewl Member Posts: 144 From: St. Charles, MO, USA Registered: 07-10-2002 |
Add my vote for the debugging stuff. Sounds like some advanced stuff that would really be useful for DX/OGL programming where you have no clue why it's crashing... |
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Briant Member Posts: 742 From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada Registered: 01-20-2001 |
Great, thanks for the feedback.  For now I'll continue with the screen saver stuff (and I'll try to provide what would change to do with with free compilers like gcc or Borland's), and then deal with debugging and marketing - those two topics would be logical next-steps anyways, because debugging screen savers can be difficult (because they run full screen, so you can't easily step through your code) and because once you have one finished, you'll want to sell it and make some cash! (Yes, shareware screen savers actually CAN MAKE MONEY, I'm not joking).I'm really not interested in going the publication route. But I don't mind writing articles here and there. A CCN collection may be a good idea eventually, even without a formal book publication. If there was enough articles and code, even just organizing it and putting it all on a CD for $10 or whatever would be awesome. And yes Krylar, a Winsock article would be awesome. I did some low-level TCP/IP programming several years ago (Unix, DOS and Windows 3.1(!)), and I'd like to get back into it, and see how much easier it is these days. Brian ------------------ |
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Krylar Administrator Posts: 502 From: MD, USA Registered: 03-05-2001 |
quote: I'd agree with that. However, word on the street is that there's a new rev that supports MMPOG architecture. It'll probably stink for the first few revs, but it may eventually prove interesting. I think the primary problem with all DirectX libs, though, is that they're not exactly developer friendly...to convoluted for my taste. I know they're not way difficult to figure out, but why do you gotta "figure them out" at all? Make them EASY and people will gravitate. That's why there are so many wrapper programs out there to interface for you. Silly, if ya ask me. Okay, done ranting :P -Krylar ------------------ |
Wacko4X Member Posts: 92 From: Bellvue, WA, USA Registered: 08-21-2002 |
Personally I would like any sort of "basic" walkthrough, such as just giving you the layout of C++ and so that people (like me) can eisily begin to understand C++. I have heard it is simmilar to Java. So yah.... Make a begginners thing.... just for all the begginners who dont necesarilly know nothing about programming but for people who just dont know the commands and junk... just some thoughts WaCkO |
GUMP Member Posts: 1335 From: Melbourne, FL USA Registered: 11-09-2002 |
DX9 HLSL and Cg I'm sure many would appreciate that. |
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Briant Member Posts: 742 From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada Registered: 01-20-2001 |
quote: I'm not so sure. I think there's not many here that know what HLSL and Cg are, let alone are at a place where they would use them. ------------------ |
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nfektious Member Posts: 408 From: Registered: 10-25-2002 |
On Cg: How is this used? That is, can it be included in C++ code? I'm curious about the advantages of Cg even if it is restricted to nvidia stuff. Optimised graphics code is a plus - if it can be used the way I hope it can. On HLSL: ~n |
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Briant Member Posts: 742 From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada Registered: 01-20-2001 |
quote: I don't know much. Although it's totally amazing, I haven't bothered looking in to it in detail because I'm nowhere near the place where I could begin to take advantage of it. Check out http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=cg and http://developer.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=cg_main if you're interested.
quote: Close. ------------------ |
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GUMP Member Posts: 1335 From: Melbourne, FL USA Registered: 11-09-2002 |
Cg and HLSL are syntax compatible since Nvidia and Microsoft worked together to produce the two; they may diverage in the future. Cg will output stuff that runs faster on Nvidia cards and will use certain features not supported by DX when compiled for OpenGL. There are more differences but I can't remember much about them at the moment. One huge difference is that Cg can compile to OpenGL 1.4 while HLSL is limited to DX only. GLSlang will come out with OpenGL 2.0. |
