Community Project

[Spamburglar]

I used METAL Basic in the past. What should I move to next?

[Joseph Duchesne]

Well, I would suggest C, using SDL and OpenGL. I could help you directly on AIM or MSN, and there are probably 5-10 people here doing exactly that.

From my experiance OOP is overrated, C++ is badly layed out, ObjC is not cross platform. I know this is a mac centric forum, so I'll probably get some "window's sucks" etc. but I like knowing that my code from game XYZ can (and was) ported to Windows and Linux in 3 hours. I also like being able to program for consols and calculators even if I never actually need to.
Besides that learning C first leads to a better understanding of how to use it's varients (C++, ObjC, C#, etc.)

Sidenote: other MetaL programmers have jumped right in to ObjC from Metal and done fairly well (Jake Leveto for one example).

I'm just speaking from my experiance, and it's gone unbelievable well (much thanks to OSC, Skyhawk and the iDG community of course)

One thing you might find shocking is that once you use C you will never want to attempt another project in Metal. I now use it every few days for testing concepts quickly but not much else.

[Spamburglar]

ermmmm excuse my ignorance but after going to sdl and opengl sites i am in a state of bewilderment. Expecting to find 1 thing I could download then start coding away (like with metal) I was shocked by finding a bunch of source codes and runtime/development libraries.

Don't suppose it would be too much to ask for abit of guidance as to how to actually get started? All the sites where of little.. actually no help.

Damn i feel noobish

[Skorche]

First to answer the question at hand:
1) You'll need to get Apple's development tools. That should have come with your computer or boxed copy of OSX.

2) Go to SDL download (http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php) and get the development library. Install that

3) There should be a new set of project templates to use for SDL programs now. Use one of those to get you started.

It's perfectly normal to feel intimidated. There's a huge learning curve for all of this. Stick with it though, because once you learn were to find the information you need and what questions to ask, it all falls together.

To skyhawk's response:
Exactly, C is still plenty good for very simple things that need to be optimized to the balls, but other than that avoid it if you can. The best thing I've learned about programming is that OOP isn't scary, a nuisance, or to be avoided. It makes most tasks so much easier. While you can use OOP ideas in C code, it's way easier to write OOP programs in a language built around OOP ideas.

[Spamburglar]

alright.I installed the developers tools (aka xcode?) and then downloaded and installed the development library. Up pops this text file:

How to create a new SDL project:

1. Open Project Builder
2. Select File->New Project
3. Select SDL Application
4. Save, and Finish
5. Add your sources.
6. That's it!


After searching project builder up came a couple of things which left me... Once again confused.

hmmm overwhelmed indeed.

[sealfin]

Project Builder == Xcode.
Apple randomly altering product names == annoying.

[DoG]

Project Builder is not the same as Xcode. Project Builder is the predecessor to Xcode.