OS X includes Perl, Python, Ruby and AppleScript. More tools are available when Xcode (free) is installed.
The Little Coder's Predicament
101–107 of 107 posts
Re: The Little Coder's Predicament
#102I learned on a TI99-4a, too.
My wife got me another on off Ebay a few years ago.
Re: The Little Coder's Predicament
#103What _why describes is half the problem. (Maybe a bit more than half.) In the Good Old Days, you could take your Spectrum/Amiga/BBCmicro/C64/whatever, and (1) write a program that (2) did something comparable to the games you could buy. (Less polished, sure, but not a million miles off.) Nowadays, #1 is harder because there's no programming language bundled with the system, because it doesn't drop you into a REPL whe…
Exactly, lack of motivation is a big deal. Games these days have crazy production values (GTA IV took 3.5 years, 1000 people and $100 million budget). I know, there are also some very good indie games, but you have to be very creative to be able to compensate for a lack of production values. Not everybody is so multitalented. One possible solution is to get into programming by modding existing games (instead of start…
I know one of the developers on GTA IV. He says it cost $5 million.
Re: The Little Coder's Predicament
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone at MS cares: MS Small Basic http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx
We care on the XNA team as well! It's not bundled, but you can develop for your Xbox 360! http://creators.xna.com/ C# Express, Game Studio, and XNA Framework are free for personal and commercial use on Windows. Deploying to your Xbox 360 costs $99/year which includes the rights to sell your games on Xbox Live. The download includes a simple Platformer game "starter kit" (written by yours truly) which is perfect for g…
awesome. can I use F# too?
Re: The Little Coder's Predicament
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly, lack of motivation is a big deal. Games these days have crazy production values (GTA IV took 3.5 years, 1000 people and $100 million budget). I know, there are also some very good indie games, but you have to be very creative to be able to compensate for a lack of production values. Not everybody is so multitalented. One possible solution is to get into programming by modding existing games (instead of start…
I know one of the developers on GTA IV. He says it cost $5 million.
Leslie Benzies, producer of GTA IV estimated costs to be $100 million.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article382...
Maybe your friend was doing just a port on one of the platforms? That could be in the ballpark.
Re: The Little Coder's Predicament
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know you're being flippant, but there really is a critical underlying problem with making everyday technology intentionally arcane. If people are unable to easily learn how something works, they will, for all intents and purposes, treat things as black boxes or "magic" and learn to distrust them (and those who do understand them) when things go wrong. This problem isn't unique to computing. My father grew up in an…
It has been well articulated (with some of the consequences) in James Burkes' Connection series during the "good old days" of the beeb. Would people know why is it cold inside the fridge, while it is hot outside? Or what makes the cold stay inside the box? Nevertheless, almost everybody relies on a fridge ...and almost nobody knows what actually it is. Tricky situation indeed on the long run... Somebody has made the…
Late response, but...
I really enjoyed the Connections2 series that was available on American cable TV a few years back, but I know of few people who have. I think my country has developed a real hostility to learning the history of anything, technologically or otherwise. I've never watched it, but I've had similarly minded co-worker point out how much the movie Idiocracy rang true as a premise. I weep for the future...
Re: The Little Coder's Predicament
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, _maybe_ Javascript. You really need to be able to jump in and see results - visual results. The visual feedback of Logo was definitely instrumental in getting me into programming.
Like maybe a tutorial that helps you build a breakout clone, where all the code is live and interactive in an editor in your browser? http://billmill.org/static/canvastutorial/
Very cool.