Thread: Where do I start? Learning computer language

Originally Posted by ninja9578

[good] assembly is always the fastest

Yes, and the best assembly is written by GCC et al.

I've done a course on compiler optimization and some of the techniques are astounding. Much of the code now generated by compilers is fantastic in its efficiency.

Assembly is one of the best languages you can learn. Even if you dont program in it, you learn more from assembly than any other language.

i'm not bashing assembly, in fact it's my favorite language. i'm just saying it's not too useful today and if you want to get a programming job most companies won't ask you if you know assembly.

Well you shouldn't do something just so it looks good on your resume. Even if companies don't want it, hell, even if it's not useful at all, learning assembly will help you with in a lot of other aspects of computer science.

As a follow-up, I'm now taking a course in Java, and what I've learned in C is helping. I like this stuff. Anyone know where to get me started on making shweet pixel graphics? Once we get to loops and what I like to call "getkey," I want to make me a simple game of some sort.

SDL is a pretty easy way to go: http://libsdl.org

Cross-platform, too!

I still recommend OpenGL, I know there is an API for Java. Pixel graphics means that you are directly manipulating the buffer instead of using OpenGL's primitives.

Forget getkey, use a listener instead. GLUT has a listener built in called GlutKeyFunc(void keys())

Again, OpenGL is best for C and other procedural oriented languages. For OOP most would use Allegro or DirectX. I've never used either, I've heard bad things about DirectX, but I've heard that Allegro was easy to use.

EDIT: Oh, SDL uses OpenGL I guess it's a library for buffer manipulation?

SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) is an API container
Very similar to what DirectX is

DirectX is a container,
comprising Microsoft's Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectInput, DirectSound, Etc. Etc.

SDL is the same, except you can switch & swap between different "inner API's"
A program using SDL will use Direct3D when run on Windows, and OpenGL when run of *nix, for example

Same program, same code
translating to different API calls depending on platform