My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman • Hacker News Board

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#11

Post by artmageddon » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 3:44 PM UTC

I had a lot of fun reading through and seeing the progression of the games. I hope to start something like this someday. Keep it up!!

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#12

Post by sledmonkey » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 4:05 PM UTC

This is great. I'm working on learning objective-c in pursuit of making ios stuff as well and i can relate to many of the hurdles you've faced since I'm going through them now. It's frustrating but it's good to see someone come out the other side.

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#13

Post by bgraves » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 4:09 PM UTC

This is a great write up on the experience! Truly inspirational.

I especially like the following quote:

It truly is amazing how much practice helps. Every time I write a new program, I run into a ton of unforeseen problems and bugs. While frustrating at the time, I usually plan around them the next time I program. This makes me feel like I’m in my very own while loop:

  while (stillPrettyBadAtProgramming) {
  programmingPracticeTime++;
  Program *newProgram = [Program programWithType:ProgramTypeGame];
  if (
    newProgram.isReallyGood == YES && programmingPracticeTime >= A_HUGE_AMOUNT
    ){
      stillPrettyBadAtProgramming = NO;
     }
  }

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#14

Post by xentronium » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 5:03 PM UTC

wblackall wrote: post #9

eru wrote: post #2

The games are still quite rudimentary, but it's nice to see him coming along. I wonder how far he will have come another six months down the line.

Yup, I'm hoping to get into more complex stuff the more I learn.

Great writeup. Looks like you've got some predisposition to programming since you've already learned a whole lot in a short timespan. Hopefully, we'll see some original indie hits from you in another six months or so.

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#15

Post by aaronmarks » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 5:16 PM UTC

This is a great article to show business cofounders who might be reluctant to learn how to code. Wonderful evidence that even folks with 0 experience can increase their coding knowledge (and thus ability to work effectively w/ hackers) by great strides in a short 6 months.

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#16

Post by wblackall » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 5:31 PM UTC

bgraves wrote: post #13

This is a great write up on the experience! Truly inspirational. I especially like the following quote: It truly is amazing how much practice helps. Every time I write a new program, I run into a ton of unforeseen problems and bugs. While frustrating at the time, I usually plan around them the next time I program. This makes me feel like I’m in my very own while loop: while (stillPrettyBadAtProgramming) { programming…

Glad you liked that. It was fun to write.

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#17

Post by Entaroadun » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 5:48 PM UTC

How did you decide what type of projects to work on (ie how did you come up with your man-rodent game / what was the inspiration)? How much time did you spend every day programming?

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#18

Post by tudorizer » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 5:49 PM UTC

Seems like you had a lot of fun and good progress. Keep it up!

Did you submit any game to the app store, yet?

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#19

Post by dy » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 5:53 PM UTC

Yes, this is truly inspirational (and a kick in the pants for me as well). Would love to see your progress in another six months.

Re: My first six months of programming: from man-rodent to partyman

#20

Post by rkarthik » Wed, Apr 13, 2011, 6:26 PM UTC

I'm a mechanical engineer and don't know anything about coding except basics of C. This has inspired me to learn programming. I just downloaded Python and that free ebook mentioned in the post. I've finished the 'guess the number' program and 'dragon realm' program. Interesting stuff.