How did you learn how to code in Blitz

I'm just wondering, How did everyone else learn to code so efficiently with Blitz Basic?

I started coding in other languages several years ago, QuickBASIC at first, then I moved on to C++, Java, and Delphi, and dabbled a bit in assembly. My main reason for moving into Blitz3D was its 3D handling. I had hated darkBAISC and was almost on the verge of buying 3D Gamestudio, until I saw the maplet tool that came with Blitz. that made me look into Blitz to see if it was capable of handling my 3D problems.

i started with amiga basic years ago... then i used gfa basic, then amos basic (great!), switched to assembly (68k) and then came the pc and bang no coding anymore... then i started again, using html/javascript/php/mysql. since this was application development only i was searching for something different. something cool and easy. and then blitz3d crossed my way. and i am still using it and will continue using it. thanks to the latest addons from different people (mark, tom, "the devils brothers" ;) )

I started programming many years ago when the Amstrad CPC 464 and Sinclair Spectrum were still about, then I dabbled in a bit of assembly language with DevPac on the Amiga.

I left computers alone for quite a few years until the day I was given a load of spare parts, this is what was my first PC. One day when I was browsing through a PC Format magazine, I came across a demo version of DarkBasic. When I bought my first copy of PC Plus I came across a full free version of BlitzBasic, this is the point when I got back into programming.

Recently I have purchased Blitz3D, DarkBasic, DarkBasic Pro, Visual Basic, and Visual C++. My primary programming language still remains as Blitz, although I may get around to learning the other languages some day in the future.

I just took the examples that came with it plus some experience I'd already had from blitz2d and just modified things until I realised how they all worked.

Then I made some simple programs/games with the things I'd learned, all the time referring back to see how other people had done it.

Then, after a few attempts you remember how to do things. I suppose it's like life, you get stumped, ask a question or figure it out then after that you just know how to do things you want.

I am from the QBasic generation. It was on all the computers in high school! So me and my friends learned that. Later I found darkbasic then blitz.

Game Programming for Teens, by Maneesh Sethi

QBasic forever.

I used the tutorials that came with the package. I also searched online for tutorials by others to help me get a feel for programming in this language. If you are new to programming, start with the simple stuff or it will become so overwhelming that you might give up and never develop your programming skills. You can get a few tutorials under Downloads/Publications at:

www.2cwp.com

Enjoy,
rolow

<-- As well - Game Programming for Teens, by Maneesh Sethi

You mean to say I can code efficiently??????

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Actually, I used to be pretty good with spectrum basic, squeezing all sorts of stuff into 32kB, so with Blitz' functions and Select/Case and Types etc. It means everything is so much easier! Since then, its been a case of learning as I go.

Recently I have been using VisualBasic at work, where they expect it to be super-efficient and readily available to be edited etc by others, so this helps me maintain standard variable names, code formats and structures, which is all good!

Hmm, well HTML kinda got me into problem solving then i was looking into real programming i got a book called

3D game programing for teens

after that i bought blitz3d, and have been learning.

And hopefuly when and if max3d comes out i'll learn that too, but for now blitz3d fits my 2D and 3D needs.

Game Programming for teens - Enough Said

I'm supprised that there's not a "Blitz3D For Dummies" Book yet. ;)

You learn to code by coding, just like learning anything else. :)

An old game making program called Klik and Play. You used an interface to create your code instead of typing it yourself and this introduced me to the concept of conditions and a basic program structure.

While it didn't really require an ability to code, it certainly made the concepts of logic more apparent than looking at lines and lines of code and once I was able to visualise the logic behind a problem it pretty much made it possible to represent it in any language.

Yoshi,

TWO very important things to know.

(1) You are NEVER too old to start learning
(2) You NEVER stop learning

This applies to everything in life, especially programming games. and Blitz is no exception

:) I learn something new on most every project I do and I love it, especially when I am working in Flash or Director, just because they are so vast.

IPete2.

No formal trainng, mostly self taught and rely on example code.
Started dabbling in programming on a Commodore Vic 20 and C64 using basic, assembler and Forth in I think was about 1983 or 84?. Then I bought an Amiga 500, used a Version of basic which I believe was developed by Microsoft for the Amiga platform. Started to delve into C when I came across AMOS (still use it on my Amiga 200). Bought Jamgic from ClickTeam around August 2004, I put it aside since they no longer support it. Only been using Blist3D for about 9 months

Yoshi.
All the awnsers i saw was about how the are staret programming. But not why they are programming so neet.
Only Ipete2 did make a good awnser.
The reason why they program so good is simple by looking to other people coding. Learning how they did do it. And then do it by them self. Try to use the example they got to intergrated in there program. (P.S. Sorry for my bad english.)
The way i do it is the same way. Looking and study other programs. Seek out why they do it on ther way. And if i need it try to use it in my programs. If i think i had something and i think everybody can use it. i post it. and wait for the response. You will always get response. Somethime bad, but a lot of times good constuctive response. there is alway somebody who wil give you the tip of make some part better. That give you the handle to make your programs better and more structured.

Just start coding if you have a idea. And see where you wil come. But stick by your idea. And do not add things in it because you like it. Keep you idea on that program and if you get more ideas keep them for the next program.

If you get stuck post your question and you source code. There is alway a solution.

Good programming Bart....

i simply played with code snippets and modified them, wrote my own stuff and learned how the engine works..

I started with Visual Basic, Then I used Game Programming for teens Second Edition and 3D Game Programming for teens.


Maneesh Sethi is awesome!!!

If this forum still applies, and anybody cares;
I found out about it in 3d game programming for teens too.

by reading a few tutorials..

I just ordered that Blitz3d Book.. I'm going to check that out as well..

my math text book of all things. it had a blurb every chapter or so that talked about coding in some language (not sure which) and that got me interested and I found blitz

Game Programming for Teens.

Great book, uses Blitz3D, shows how to design a game, make models textures etc. and program it.

Very great.

I'm still learning and reading it, I'm about 2/3 done.

I used html, then Visual Basic 6.0 where I found a book on it at www.jharbour.com . Then I saw his book on DarkBasic Pro and on a web site I saw where people said Blitz Basic3D ran not as buggy. And believe me it is buggy a few years ago I went to C++ using Dev-C++ on some of jonathans books on it and others.

I found out my going to Blitz Basic3D was really not needed since I know a lot due to my Visual Basic 6.0 experience in collage. But it still is fun to mess around on I do it at times this is the first time I’ve been on the site in a long time really. That is due to using C++ these days a lot more work in it believe me you have to program the window first before anything else you do.

Here are some books to get one called Game Programming for Teens by Maneesh Sethi. The next one is 3D Game Programming for Teens by Eric D. Grebler. I have used those in the past they are good for beginners in the program check them out. That or get the one from the web site here.

Im no way efficient in blitz programming, im trying tho. Im sort of hands on using sources and learning how it works and read when im not at the home in front of my pc. Im 37 by the way, and have some VB coding and very little C++.
I can work with assembly and scripting language writing macros. My goal is to make a game on my own, just like every one else here.
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LiamShearer, That book uses BlitzPlus mate. Altho thats just like 2D code of Blitz3D anyway. I own all 3 of these books, and just ordered the Blitz3D manual advertised on this site.
http://www.lulu.com/content/388950

Al you need is Game programming for Teens Second Edition really, they are basically the same thing in each book. But the Blitz3D book is very nice. Even goes through using 3dsmax to make a mesh and load it into blitz3D.

Game Programming for Teens - BlitzPlus
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Teens-Second-Maneesh-Sethi/dp/1592008348/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206759609&sr=1-1
Game Programming for Teens Second Edition - BlitzPlus
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Teens-Second-Maneesh-Sethi/dp/1592008348/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206759609&sr=1-1
3D Game Programming for Teens - Blitz3D
http://www.amazon.com/3D-Game-Programming-Teens/dp/159200900X

Once again, Game Programming for Teens.

awwww you guys are so nice, thanks :)

-Maneesh

wow this thread is old. Anyway, I learnt on the Amiga. Then 4 years ago learn on BPlus by looking at the examples, experimenting, checking the docs and of course using the forum, yay! Then I had to do it all over again when I got BMax.

Yay for old threads! I started on the Amiga like so many. BlitzBasic 2 was so awesome compared to AMOS which I had been using but was not up to par with my A4000's abilities by that time. Then DarkBasic PRO on PC, some VB 6 and JAVA during my first try at community college, some other random languages here and there. Then BlitzMax.

For the last two quarters though I took the C# classes offered at my community college for my transfer program. C# is a nice language thanks to not having to spend so much time dealing with setting things up like C/C++. It just lets you get to work on learning the concepts without so many strict requirements in the relative safety of managed code.

I'd like to use C# for more but Mono's support on my Mac is crummy and I would rather play in the Mac side of the pool than Windows if I can. The focus of the classes was not C# specifically, but good programming habits and design. So I am applying the good OOP techniques and knowledge of data structures I have gained as I come back to BMax and the change is amazing.

-JetFire

I started with Basic on my MSX with help from some books with nice examples.

After that I played a bit with a MS-Dos Basic on an old 286, but I'm not sure which basic that was. I also had an Amiga 500 at that time, but I actually started using Blitzbasic 2 on my Amiga CD32 with SX-1 and learned that from the big book which was included in the box.
The reason I bought BlitzBasic at that time is because some of the greatest titles on Amiga where made in it and that the language was Basic.
I loved that language because I never knew programming games could be that easy.

After I went fully to PC I went back to Qbasic a bit for small stuff, but I never knew Blitz went to PC also at that time. At the time I found out I bought BlitzMax directly, it just remembered me too good old times with BlitzBasic 2. I learned Blitzmax from this great forum.

I learned BlitzBasic (my first programming language) back in the days with Krylar's BlitzCoder site.
(was quite a few helpful coders over there that led me in the right direction)

Started with AMOS Basic on the Amiga and did lots of experiments there, just finding out about programming and basic techniques. Fun times. Then sort of moved onto Blitz Basic 2 on the Amiga, but I did not use the language itself so much since I mainly focussed on making an extension library for it, but I did convert one AMOS project to it and started workign on a game. It wasn't too hard to learn the new syntax at the time. Then I didn't do any programming whatsoever for 5 years until I had transitioned to the Mac and BlitzMax was released. Again it was just a matter of becoming familiar with it again and doing research and experiments to see what things do.

heh, theres me talking about html a year ago, dang time flies.

with any language I tend to pick a book up read, look at documentation, experiment by changing examples.... Rinse and repeat.

I started with BlitzBasic, then BlitzPlus, Trial and Error.

Pretty awesome though, once you learn a programming language you can easily catch on to others.. its simply a matter of learning the syntax.

I started with C64 BASIC, and then proceeded onto 6510 machine code.
After that, I tried Blitz Basic for the Amiga, but that was was too buggy. Left that and went to the lovely BBC Basic on an A3010 and later a RiscPC, during which I also did a bit in ARM Assembly.

After selling my RiscPC I then brought a PC, and started with C, followed by a quick use of DarkBasic and after that DBPro followed by DarkGDK.

As I then brought a Mac (several actually), I had to leave DBPro and brought BlitzMax - I did have a bit of trepidation after the awful time I had with the Amiga version of Blitz Basic, so I certainly tried the demo out.

MSX-BASIC -> QBasic -> B3d, B+, BMax/GUI

Learning programming means making large programs at some point. At the moment you're facing a giant mess beyond control, then you automatically start thinking about how to make a program more structured. By doing so, you go from messy to procedural, from procedural to procedural/fake-OO (Do thing, instead of thing.Do) and eventually you end up in OO when using Max. One step further and you'll be using events as main means of communication.

Played a game written in it about a year ago. Downloaded it, gave it a try and bought it.

Then, to learn it, I did what I always do when learning a new language... I wrote an Asteroids clone.

Started with Amstrad Locomotive BASIC in 1986, dabbled with C64 BASIC but hated it, AMOS, AMOS Pro, Blitz Basic 2 (but didn't really get along with it), then Blitzbasic PC. Currently using Blitzmax.

Probably forgotten all about 80% of the stuff I've ever written.

Started with Visual Basic 6 then C++ 6 then Blitz3D. Never used a book.

Hi

"Game Programming for Teens" is usefull for BlitzMax?

Thanks

Luis

its written for blitz3d so without alot of rewrites im not too sure

with books the 'core aspects' should be universal eg heres how we made pong
the game mechanics are the same regardless the lingo, so if its explained well in psudo code or well commented in the books lingo of choice then what is on the page 'should' transfer

but this isnt the case in all books and samples

i bought it (not that im a teen) to see how much cop it was for a newbie to blitz regardless of age
i dont think ive actually read it, might have installed the cd though

which blitzer wrote the 3D one? (got that too for same reasons)

what i really need is "blitz programming for someone who works 12 hours a day, 7 days in a row and is too brain dead from being in a fridge for all that time"

if only my apprentice didnt quit (even if he was a t****r) i would be working 'normal' hours

I've always wanted to make games ever since I was little, and then
one day, at the book store, I saw the 'Game Programming For Teens'
book complete with a CD with the Blitz Basic Demo on it.

I Immediatly bought it, and have been happily programming ever since.
(Although I wouldn't say I've been doing so efficiently, some of my
code is pretty sloppy.Although its getting better.)

Good luck to everyone with their own programming interests,

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

C64 Basic -> C64 Assembly -> Amiga Assembly -> Pc Delphi -> Pc BlitzPlus -> Pc Blitz3D -> Pc BlitzMax

Back in 1982/83 the choice was C64 or Spectrum, and I went with the C64. Basic on the C64 was, well too basic :), so I quickly turned to ASM, which allowed me to do all the cool stuff. When the Amiga came along, I switched to that. Somewhere around 1990 I decided to take a break from computers and programming and ended up having a huge break lasting several years, but I did manage to dabble a little bit with Delphi on the pc, but it just couldn't keep my interest. When I found BlitzPlus. shortly after it was released, thats when I got back into it. And now I am enjoying using BlitzMax, when I have the time.

Bliztcoder.whateveritwas and all the good people who went there.

Omitting minor experiences: TRS-80 Color BASIC -> Deft Pascal -> 6809 Assembly -> IBM PC BASIC(A) -> 8086 Assembly -> MS QuickBASIC -> ANSI/Power C -> MS Visual Basic -> Blitz3D -> BlitzMax

I learned how to code in blitz3d from all the great example code that's around. When I started writing Blitz3d, I didn't know anything about 3d, a part from some buzzwords and some xyz geometry. It's when I started to code in Blitz3d that I got to know how to use a camera, how to make my own FPS 6DOF code, how to do collision, place objects in 3d space, how to play with textures, UV coordinates, etc etc. Without Blitz3d, I don't think I'd know as much about making the stuff I care about as I do now.

Hopefully Max3d will have the same effect on me one more time (if ever).

EDIT: I forgot, I also coded on the following languages; Basic XE, CoCo2 Basic, BASICA / GW-BASIC, Quick Basic 4.5, GFA Basic, Pascal, Turbo C, Dbase3+ (scripting), CICS-Cobol, Cobol-2, 8086 Assembler, IBM 370 Assembler (24bit and 31 bit), Action!, RPG 2, Modula 2, and a bunch of others (mostly 4GL languages and APIs) that I can't think of right now. BTW, I tried C++ and object oriented programming, but I just can't deal with the concept of Objects yet, my brain creates a barrage. Another one I didn't quite get was 6502 machine language on the Atari 8-bit, Delphi, Visual Basic and it's horrid bloated interface, and some others (Visual Studio!)...

High Five!



Yeah, so much for Basic being only for those who "don't know any better"... :) A lot of us have seen alternatives and just prefer the more-capable dialects of Basic for their power and simplicity.

Well the language is Blitz3D, and the 3D really stands out of it! In all honesty, I think BlitzMax would suit me better, but only if it had the 3D.

Same here. I was impressed back when I first saw DarkBASIC, but then I saw Blitz3D and how much better it was for 3D stuff. DarkBASIC was a huge step ahead of raw Direct3D stuff, but Blitz3D was even better than that and won me over right away due to its great design.



I played around with the Irrlicht modules back when the future of Max3D was up in the air, but I was pleased to see the unofficial Mini3D solidify as well as it has: it gives almost all of Blitz3D's capability to the current BlitzMax. I'm looking forward to Mark's Max3D whenever it might appear (now that Mini3D is available as a fill-in to bridge the gap as well as it does). And BlitzMax (purely as a language) is indeed a very enjoyable advance beyond Blitz3D - if you liked B3D (especially for its reasonable object-orientation), then you'll like BMax even more.

I started playing around with GW-Basic 20 (wow...) years ago... Later I really got into programming in AMOS and AMOS Professional on the Amiga. After moving back to the PC platform I used PowerBASIC for some time, before finally switching to BlitzBasic, and currently just use BlitzMax.

The main thing is that although the various languages are different, many of the basic principles are still the same and build on one another. Just by playing around over time you pick up some tricks, some algorithms, some ways of doing certain things. In the end it's more a matter of figuring out the actual syntax of a specific language.

Inspect other source snippets for guidance, browse the command set, etc, and you kind of pick it up on the go, bit by bit. Mind you, in my case that's just pertaining to the 2D stuff -- my brain is not compatible with 3D programming. ;-)

My parents bought an Amstrad 464 CPC in the 80s and my Dad was messing with the 10 liners in Amstrad Action. He showed me what he was doing and my programming career started from there...

After learning the Amstrad's Locomotive BASIC and getting an Amiga 600, I learnt AMOS Pro, then got into Blitz Basic 2.

When we moved from the Amiga to the PC, I kind of stopped programming at home. Went to college and learnt Pascal. Then on one of the cover disc they had Blitz Basic for the PC!!! So started using that.

Went to Uni, learnt C++, Java, HTML/Javascript, Perl etc. Moved to Australia (from the UK), and now Ive got a job programming Java (J2EE at the mo) and PL/SQL.

Bought Blitzmax a few months ago and its great for games!

Seeing as people are listing everything BEFORE Blitz too I'd better add:

Spectrum BASIC/BBC Basic -> C64 BASIC -> C64 Assembly -> Amiga BASIC (yuk) -> Amiga Assembler -> Blitz Basic 2 -> QuickBasic/Director -> C++/X86 ASM -> Delphi/VB -> BlitzPlus -> BlitzMax (and a few other bits 'n' bobs in between)

therevills: Looks like you took the exact same path that I did, except my stint at college only lasted for 3 hours - not enough time to learn Pascal ;)

Coming to computing via electronics, I kinda started backwards with programming...

Machine Code (6800/6809/6502) > (BBC) Assembler > BBC Basic > ...Massive Gap... > Vague dabblings with Amiga E and Blitz Basic 2 (Demo) > ...Massive Gap MKII... > B2D > B3D > BMax

ZX81 Basic. Beeb Basic (at School) Speccy Basic. Speccy Assembler. Got a job making Speccy games. Learned 6800 on QL. Moved to Amiga. Some Gameboy. Back to Speccy for one. Moved to Snes. Had a break for a few years (from coding). Discovered Blitz. Used it to prototype stuff for console games and Sticky Balls. Went Indie. Naked War in Blitz. New game in Bmax.

Everyone here learned to code efficiently by looking at my examples.

/bow

Wow, Amiga Basic was horrible, I couldn't believe how slow it was.

I think my first programming was playing on a Spectrum16 doing some very basic basic. Borrrowed my uncle's CPC464 Amstrad numerous times, maybe some minor dabbling there, nothing major. Bought an Amiga500 in 1989 just before starting programming at college. Wrote shell scripts first, then got into Amos and Amos Pro, and was learning Pascal at college. Later got into BlitzBasic2 on Amiga and learning 68k assembly at college and home. Amiga magazines were great back then and had lots of tips and tutorials and game developers talking about how games work etc. I still fondly remember reading about how the engine in First Samurai worked in Amiga Format magazine. I had huge piles (lol) ... of Amiga mags over time. Focussed on A68k asm more than Blitz but then using it more in Blitz. Then immigrated from the UK to the USA in 2000 and left everything Amiga behind. Had to use Mac's because that's what my wife owned, and gave up on programming because I didn't want to learn the Mac OS API. Then one day I discovered BlitzMax for Mac being released, HAD to get it. Took off from there.

Books are helpful, also research on the internet, plus stuff I learned in college, but most useful is probably just writing experiments and seeing how things work.

a friends zx81, a speccy, BBasic then to BBasic 2.1 on the Miggy1200 (verry accomplished piece of compileration there), bit of a gap discovering females and children. I still have piles of miggy mags in the loft. Anyways, VB6 came next, stumbled across B3D as a demo on the cover of a magazine, was blown away, next Grey ALien's framework led me to buy BMax, then VB.net with college. Oh, and some C and scripting blah thrown in for good measure with work - much less fun though.

I reckon the code archives are a brilliant place to dig around in and mess about with the code to learn from. Cheers.

Very similar... and you were just up the road a bit too (Im from Sheffield and I believe your a Barnsley Lad).

It's easy: use an old and slow computer. You'll learn to code efficiently or you'll spend all your time waiting for code to run :)

Well I bunked off college with the blitz 2 amiga manual in mcdonalds..

Ah, not a native Aussie then? ;)

Agreed. I stuck with it for a bit as I was desperate to program, but in the end I just had to ditch it, got Devpac2 and never looked back.

Started with Sinclair Basic on a ZX81 back in '81. Went on to Vic-20 basic, then C64 basic. Back to Sinclair basic on a 128+2. From there on to the Amiga Basic by Microsoft (it was crap TBH) then Amiga BlitzBasic.

After that I did Pascal and C++ at college, then some ASM, FORTRAN and COBOL. Then I did LOADS of C++.

Later I discovered DarkBasic made a game in that called Star Flight 2000, that got me on the BlitzBasic beta team. Im now coding on PureBasic (mainly because I need threading and a few other bits that it offers).

There was an Amiga BASIC? I don't remember that...

It was written by *cough* Microsoft, if I remember rightly...

It came with Amiga OS 1.3, had a really `basic` text editor, ran in an interpreter and was incredibly slow - talking about a few instructions per second if I recall. Or seemed like it anyway. It was not very nice to use at all. I couldn't make much sense of it, actually.

That's probably why I can't remember it, then.

AMOS/AMOSPro had a decent user base at the time. Although we didn't have internets then so we used to have to post letters to each other. o.O

Amiga Basic was a stinker, everything about it was slow and crappy looking. I made a 3D cube and it was practically slower than on a BBC micro. Made a little RPG using rogue-like chars and a few other things but they were all painful. Devpac2 (68000 ASM) was a revelation by comparison, although at first I did assembly by entering the machine codes (in Hex) with something call MonAm (I think), but that was painful too, so a proper assembler was much better, but it was still too long-winded to make stuff (and it crashed a lot), so when I saw BBasic 2, which compiled to code + you could inline assembly, it was a no brainer to buy it - best language I'd ever used at that point in time.