Suggestions for this forum

[José Roca]

 
Stay tuned. I will post the SDL header and some examples in about an hour. One of the examples is based in this one: http://sol.gfxile.net/gp/ch02.html

[Kent Sarikaya]

Thanks for the link too, looks like a really nice site to learn SDL. Thanks!

[Charles Pegge]

I think the BYVAL ... PTR syntax is fine if it give a more consistent set of calls. It seems to have more clarity.

Nothing wrong with a few VARPTRs. (I have found they mix in with assembler well,
the result is returned in the EAX register, and does not seem to alter any other registers.)

On the SDL DLLS, I found I had to use Google to get them. They seem to be buried in various locations but Google gets them first time.

I got 14 DLLs and they came in 5 zips needed to run all the Freeebasic SDL examples.

These are:
SDL-1.2.12-win32
and
SDL_image-1.2.6-win32
SDL_mixer-1.2.8-win32
SDL_net-1.2.7-win32
SDL_ttf-2.0.9-win32

A number of the DLLS included will be 3rd party such as zlibVorbis & libpng.

[José Roca]

 
In Windows, we can use GDI+ to load images, as we did with OPENGL.

SDL-1.2.12-win32? Damn. It has changed since I downloaded it.

[Kent Sarikaya]

Being a new user to PowerBasic, I think a neat new addition to the forum would be to have guides for study paths.
These would be recommendations on what to read and in what order and with later additions of tutorials and articles.
This would be better done in a wiki format then a forum application, but it would be great to have something like this
along with the forums of course for questions and discussions.

Right now I don't know if I should just try to do something as a project to learn, finish going through the help files, then maybe
do winapi study and then move into my area of interests.

But with a wiki, I could read and learn in an organized way the steps recommended from experienced users. I find sites that have wiki's to be really valuable and great for learning in a more focused way and in a more pleasant manner. You can really see what a language or application can do and being updated constantly it is great for reference.

I can see by the posts here many of you could have so much to offer to help us noobs and even other coders looking to learn more. There is a vast pool of knowledge in you guys and it would be neat to see it not only in this forum in dialog, but in organized articles and tutorials in a wiki.

But someone interested in Database programming could go quickly to see recommendations of what to read first, examples that will help him learn how to do that kind of programming.

For someone into 2D games a section geared for that. Another for 3D games, well you guys get the idea. Hope it is doable, would love to read and use it when it was here.

[Kent Sarikaya]

I thought I would post this again but shorter. I can see that very valuable reference material is coming to this site. I think all of the articles, how to's, tips and reference examples would be better in a wiki program. Then for each page of the wiki to have a link to the forum thread for discussion and questions about that article. This way it will be nice to have an organized index up front that links and makes it very easy to look for things when they need to be referenced. It will be a lot harder to put this in later as daily I can see the volume of very useful posts increase dramatically. Thanks.

[Donald Darden]

A lot of what is going on here is a surge into new categories from a basis of using PowerBasic as a primary development tool.  Those that want to focus on FreeBasic or Assembler are also making a home here.

Because of the level of involvement, this is rather like graduate studies rather than undergraduate courses.  I mean there is no reason that people just learning PowerBasic can't be involved and learn as they go, but in general we suggest that you take a good look at what is already available from the PowerBasic web site and elsewhere for learning some of the fundamentals.  You are probably going to have to crack some books on different aspects of programming and using the Windows APIs as well, otherwise you are likely be just looking around for code solutions and samples that someone else took the time to develop.

The idea of a Wiki format is that somebody has to become the subject matter expert and commit a huge amount of time and effort into creating and maintaining an encyclopeia-type presentation of the subject.  We aren't teaching basic programming techniques, here, we are teaching the tricks or the art of programming, and ways to extend the limits of the languages and tools available to us.  We also share ideas and tools, because that is the mind set we belong to.

Sometimes you see someone make a request that someone else write a program for them.  We aren't here to do somelthing you should be willing to try and do for yourself.  You have questions or problems, people will try and help and give some answers.  But we aren't interested in dealing with everything on our plate, then having to spoonfeed anyone or wipe their chin or clean their plate as well.

The PowerBasic compilers comes with extensive Help files, clear explanation and examples, some sample files, the entire PPB/CC manual online, a download section, some tutorials, and everything that has been posted to the forums for ages.  In additon, they provide technical support, links to third party sites, and  a bunch of additional material, including their own conversion of the Windows API calls and structures as spelled out in a number of INC files.

PowerBasic has done a reasonable job in getting the job done.  We are not here to repeat everything they've done, attempt to fill in all the blanks, or revamp the whole process of helping everyone to try and get up to speed with PowerBasic.   If we managed to do it, then what's available must be good enough.

How many degrees are there in a circle?  We generally agree that there are just 360, but in fact, the circle could be divided up any number of ways.  How many degrees are in there in a 3D sphere?  That's a much harder question.  The suggestion that we could map out ways in which people could use PowerBasic is like trying to describe every vector that could be drawn to pass through a sphere. The possibilities are endless.  Once you study the language a bit and work with the examples or play with the samples, then the question of how to exploit that knowledge and understanding become something that the student has to exhibit.  That's not something you can get completely out of books or any other form of reference.

In exxense, your question (or suggestion) boils down to this:  "How can we make it all easier?".  There is no easy answer to that, and there is no certain way that would work for everyone equally well.  By the time you get to the point where you understand enough to keep on going, you might be in a position to try and answer that question, but by then you will be torn like the rest of us:  Do you now try to simplify it for others, continue to press ahead to learn ever more, or devote your time and effort to using what you now comprehend in some project related to your other interests?  There is no easy answer to that question either.       

[Theo Gottwald]

I can see that very valuable reference material is coming to this site.

Stay tuned, my impression is, that Jose has just started to get warm.

He'll be the secret weapon of PB, to make us use all the API,".NET" and COM Technologies
without having to use the normally used bloatware compilers.

And besides that, I think his really amazing knowledge - free for everyone in this forum -
brings a fresh wind into the whole PB-Community.

Yesterday I had again one of these expereinces which show me how good PB is in its strong side.

I made a somehow really complicated sub-program, which is several levels deep. Then I pressed "compile" and thought "this time i should get an error message because this was really complicated!".
Nothing happened.
It just said "Compile succeeded at ..". No chance to get this compiler "out of sync".
Anyway I know there will be something new one day, then I'll try again ... :-)