Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fuze for Nintendo Switch: An easy-to-learn text-based programming language

fuze.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–106 of 106 posts

Re: Fuze for Nintendo Switch: An easy-to-learn text-based programming language

#101

Post by toxican »

rocky1138 wrote: post #53
fsloth wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, what. You can connect any modern device to a tv through hdmi and hdmi convertor. Pc:s, phones, pads...

I think maybe I'm explaining it wrong. I'm sorry. What I mean to say is that there was a certain wonder and a strange form of legitimacy that writing software on a "real" computer that kids got when they were able to type something into the same device that ran their favourite games/software from "real" developers and see it show up on the screen just like the big boys. There was a sense of "Wow, anything is possible…

When I was in middle school, there was this free web host I found[1] that gave you a small amount of storage and allowed you to load in templates and build your site with a WYSIWYG editor. Anyway, the homepage features a single text field where you type in what your website's subdomain would be (eg, website.20megsfree.com). For years that lone little text field was really exciting to me. With a few key presses and a click of the mouse I could create _anything_ on the internet (as far as 13yo me thought anyway!). And it was up to me to decide what went on the internet.

Mine's a different example, but I know exactly what you mean. It was my first opportunity to make a place of my own on a website and almost 20 years later I'm a web developer and the feeling that website gave me had a lot to do with me getting where I am.

I missed the generation of computers where writing BASIC was just a part of owning one. I think it's a shame that writing code isn't a more integral part of life, but I understand why it isn't anymore.

[1] - http://20megsfree.com/

Re: Fuze for Nintendo Switch: An easy-to-learn text-based programming language

#102

Post by j2bax »

kbenson wrote: post #69
j2bax wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't checked in on it recently, but last I did inquire, they were being very selective with developers that they approved for development on the platform. I think they decided to go with a highly selective quality over quantity approach unlike what they did on the Wii U which was pretty easy for just about anyone to get a development kit for.

The original Wii was very selective when I looked into what it took when it first came out. Do you know whether the Wii U was fairly open initially , or just towards the end? I'm wondering if they just always start off being selective to ensure the quality is there initially, and open up more later? That would make sense, as I think there's plenty of cases where a device hasn't been selective enough with the marketpl…

It was probably 1/2 way through the lifespan of the Wii U that our team was approved to develop for the platform. Not sure how restrictive they were before that.

Everything I've heard is that Nintendo is really trying to keep the quality bar high on the Switch e-shop though, which I can definitely appreciate. Sucks for really small shops that don't have the ability to jump through all the hoops and get approved, but its nice as a player to know the games probably aren't going to just be gimmicks. That said, the initial release of NBA Playgrounds on Switch was pretty abysmal... Fortunately they've been working to clean it up. I guess Nintendo probably just didn't want to be left out on their initial release and felt like an arcadey basketball game would be a perfect fit for the Switch demographic.

Re: Fuze for Nintendo Switch: An easy-to-learn text-based programming language

#103

Post by makz »

seabird wrote: post #65
fsloth wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, what. You can connect any modern device to a tv through hdmi and hdmi convertor. Pc:s, phones, pads...

Yes, you can hook up a laptop to a TV. Then you'll sit down your eight year old and explain all of the messy tooling and errata of :insertlanguagehere:, and after multiple hours of stumbling through an IDE with too many features for them to comprehend (or a CLI environment that simply frustrates them), they'll say "damn, this sucks." It was without a doubt significantly easier to start programming when the process co…

Check out pico-8

Re: Fuze for Nintendo Switch: An easy-to-learn text-based programming language

#104

Post by rocky1138 »

Will_Parker wrote: post #63
rocky1138 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think maybe I'm explaining it wrong. I'm sorry. What I mean to say is that there was a certain wonder and a strange form of legitimacy that writing software on a "real" computer that kids got when they were able to type something into the same device that ran their favourite games/software from "real" developers and see it show up on the screen just like the big boys. There was a sense of "Wow, anything is possible…

I would suggest that maybe this says something more about you and your natural passion, than whether your first intellectual doodles were on a TV or a monitor.

I didn't downvote you, but I am confused by what you mean. Can you elaborate?

Re: Fuze for Nintendo Switch: An easy-to-learn text-based programming language

#105

Post by komali2 »

fsloth wrote: post #97
komali2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this kind of response before - recall that when Dropbox was first shown to HN, one of the responses was something along the lines of "This is trivial to set up with a linux box and (esoteric techno-babble follows)." Not wrong, per se, but a super-technical HN reader was not the target of Dropbox, and I feel like it's the same situation here. While you could, I guess, plug your HDMI cable from your comput…

I know you meant intellectual empowerment but in the current employment market "YOU can become a video game developer" sounds like "YOU too can be a slave and work the salt mines". Where my kids passions take them, I let them happily choose it but it's unlikely I'm going to encourage them to pick one of the most precarious, underpaid shitjobs available to keen minds. I'd rather have them being the capitalist rather t…

Woah, it seems like you feel very strongly about this subject, is that interpretation correct? Why is that?

I feel like statements such as

>games are not important

are very unfair. Same with your assumption that a game developer will be I guess a capitalist slave? What about indie developers? Crowdfunded developers? Dwarf Fortress?

Some indie games that have exploded, off the top of my head:

* Flappy Bird

* Shovel Knight (crowdfunded)

* Divinity and Divinity 2 (crowdfunded)

* Stardew Valley (single developer)

* Minecraft (was a one man passion project)

* Terraria

> I know we all here love code, but objectively speaking, it's not the best thing in the world

What gives you this perspective? Speaking as someone who has tried art/literature, I think it's a false narrative that the "starving artist" is happier because their work is more "fulfilling" or something. I tried that, and yea I loved my art and I loved pursuing it, but it didn't pay the bills, and I still had to have just a regular job to keep it up. A sales job, keeping me at a healthy but relatively insignificant 40k/year, limiting my travel options and forcing most of my time to be spent sustaining my ability to eat and pay rent.

Then I discovered programming - still a creative endeavor! I can work for a company, freelance, work from home, work much better hours, and at that paygrade I could afford to get solid savings that grants me the confidence that I can retire at some point to pursue my writing full time, if I want.

As for medicine, my conversations with friends who have to put up with 10+ years of medical schooling at massive costs only to suffer through 60-80hr workweeks and claw their way up the medical ladder have convinced me that that path is not something I would like to entertain.

Re: Fuze for Nintendo Switch: An easy-to-learn text-based programming language

#106

Post by romaniv »

hasanas wrote: post #77
romaniv wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, we teach people variables, loops and conditions. Then we teach them procedures. Then we are horrified that newly minted "programmers" write code that is a giant mess of nested loops and conditionals, split across arbitrarily created procedures that manage bloated and fully mutable program state. Mental models are important. Life would be better for everyone if people started learning programming with LISP, Sma…

Could you recommend a remedy for someone who's spent a great chunk of their programming experience in misdirection? I have only recently realised that my terrible misunderstanding of programming is slowing me a lot.

Depends on what you want.

If you want to learn about functional programming, something like this could give you fun and relatively painless head start: http://www.4clojure.com/ . Also, you could try to download LINQPad and look at code examples.

If you want to learn about real OOP, I would recommend looking into Smalltalk, learning about design principles behind Xerox Alto/Star and listening to some OOP seminars from mid-80s.

If you want to learn about high-level system design, here are some intelligent people I would listen to: Alan Kay, Rich Hickey, Peter Norvig, Salvatore Sanfilippo.

I would also recommend every programmer to watch through at least one introductory AI class. Not because they necessarily need to work with AI algorithms, but because those classes teach to solve programming problems in a better way than just "write more logic and abstractions".

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkBM4jvrhzk&list=PLAwxTw4SYa...

Hope this helps.

Post reply on HN