Programming Projects

We are working on a couple of Programming Projects here at brainycode.

2011 - nyguerrillagirl

I am working on completing the Stanford online Machine Learning course. I am way behind but I find the instructor engaging and highly knowledgeable. I also am working on learning the Unity game development tool. I have managed to go through free online video courses from 3DBuzz. I am know a member and hope to get started on the MMO they are building but first I want to go through one or more books from Safari online. I also am looking at the book Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX, 2nd edition by Jim Adams. This edition is not as highly rated as the 1st edition but the negative reviews appear to have the same theme "not for beginners!" I can certainly agree. The book is bit a bit dated using the old style -
// Entry point
int PASCAL WinMain(HINSTANCE hInst, HINSTANCE hPrev, LPSTR szCmdLine, int nCmdShow);
rather than the more modern
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInst, HINSTANCE hPrev, LPSTR szCmdLine, int nCmdShow);
In addition, the code does not follow the typical programming conventions one gets used to seeing and using - but the author knows how to code! I will create a page with notes on how I created projects under DirectX10 rather than DirecX9. The author makes use of some dated DirectX modules ...but I will work out the changes and differences on my "Role Playing Notes" page.
Lastly, I am also learning how to program in Adobe Flex.

2010

The goody bag page has two documents that are works in progress. The first one Learning SDL describes how to program using C++ and the SDL graphics library. I started using and learning SDL in order to understand how the libraries were used in the Clone Keen project I as trying to get to compile. The biggest problem with the Clone Keen source on SourceForge was that it did not have all the libaries and header files. It took sometime to figure it all out and collect all the "missing" files. The compiled file starts but I can't play from my own compiled version.

The other document on the downloads page are my notes on Retro-programming. This too is a work in progress that requires a bit of time to get right. The goal is to teach programmers how to write games for the Atari 2600, the Apple computer and the NES machine. All three machines require that you first learn 6502 programming - the microprocessor used in all three machines. An alternative title could be - 8-bit programming.

The other big programming project is learning enough RubyOnRails and mysql to get the login working for the website. Check this site later for more information on how that progresses.