Cower's Topic Thoughts

-=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- (c) WidthPadding Industries 1987 0\|613\|0 -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=- -=+=-
Socoder -> Off Topic -> Cower's Topic Thoughts
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 08:23
Cower	Should I do an article on multithreading and, if so, what the hell would I write about?
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 08:23
9572AD	Well, obviously you should cover a couple different topics simultaneously. -=-=- All the raw, animal magnetism of a rutabaga.
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 08:29
Afr0	No need, I already made one!
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 08:58
Jayenkai	There's always a need for more.. The end result might be different, but the way we achieve those tasks is wildly different depending on which coder you ask! Noel's method might be something you hadn't even considered. Post away. That's what this site's here for! ( as long as your post has a purpose, and exists within the realms of common decency) -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 12:23
waroffice	This got me thinking, would anyone like anything on networking? Any subject from sub-netting to spanning tree
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 12:41
caligula	Write away, as long as it's something that's relevant to us. There's plenty of articles on both multithreading and networking out there, but having this stuff on SoCoder makes it easier discuss. Most people here have been programming for a while, so if you decide to write articles just don't dumb it down too much. Pick some aspect of your topic and write about it as it relates to what we do, which mostly is casual games, I guess, and write something that we probably don't already know. For multithreading, maybe something about what parts of a game would benefit from multithreading, how to communicate without headaches between, say, a rendering thread and a game logic thread, what the drawbacks might be, what issues might occur when deploying on a phone, or perhaps an overview of how different languages/libraries tackle the problem of concurrency. These are things that I think many of us would like to read more about.
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 16:52
rockford	I haven't got a clue about networking. I really want to learn how to at least connect two machines to talk to each other or even how to create an online high-score table. I've been coding for over twenty years in multiple languages, but always managed to avoid doing that. It's probably a piece of piss too... I disagree with the don't dumb it down approach - Please make any guide idiot proof and then make them even easier for me to understand.
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 17:06
Jayenkai	A good chunk of readable code is 100 times more readable than a twelve page explanation of that exact same code!!! (Or at least, it is to me, anyway!) -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 18:10
Dabz	or even how to create an online high-score table. GLBasic, PHP and mySQL... Sorted! Granted, you need to implement a bit of security, but, overall, I did a high score table in BambooBasic:- '------------------------ 'Project: HighscoreTable 'File: HighscoreTable.bam 'Company: Dabz 'Created: 11 Mar 2013 Include bam.string Include bam.filesystem Include bam.html Include bam.http Include bam.core Local hiscorefile = CurrentDirectory() & "/hiscore.dat" Local scores[] Const HISCORE_AMOUNT = 5 Type TScores Field name Field score EndType Function FillUpNewFile() Global hiscorefile Local file = WriteFile(hiscorefile) WriteLine(file,"Dabz") WriteLine(file,"500") WriteLine(file,"Laura") WriteLine(file,"400") WriteLine(file,"Chris") WriteLine(file,"300") WriteLine(file,"Stella") WriteLine(file,"200") WriteLine(file,"Basil") WriteLine(file,"100") CloseFile(file) EndFunction 'if hiscore file is not there, create it, then fill it up If FileType(hiscorefile) == 0 FillUpNewFile() EndIf 'Open the highscore file and read it in Local filein = ReadFile(hiscorefile) For Local loop = 0 To HISCORE_AMOUNT-1 scores[loop] As TScores scores[loop]\name = ReadLine(filein) scores[loop]\score = (Integer)ReadLine(filein) Next CloseFile(filein) 'Pick up any values from POST, and if needed, store 'in the highscore table, then, rejig it all! If PostGlobal("new_name") && PostGlobal("new_score") Local newName = PostGlobal("new_name") Local newScore = (Integer) PostGlobal("new_score") 'If the new score is higher then the last one on the table 'process it, otherwise, nothing will change, so move on If newScore > scores[HISCORE_AMOUNT-1]\score Local placement = HISCORE_AMOUNT For Local checkScore = 0 To HISCORE_AMOUNT-1 If newScore > scores[checkScore]\score placement = placement - 1 EndIf Next For Local rejig = HISCORE_AMOUNT-1 To placement step -1 If rejig != 0 scores[rejig]\score = scores[rejig-1]\score scores[rejig]\name = scores[rejig-1]\name EndIf Next scores[placement]\score = newScore scores[placement]\name = newName 'All done, so lets save the hiscore table for next time Local fileout = WriteFile(hiscorefile) For loop = 0 To HISCORE_AMOUNT-1 WriteLine(fileout,scores[loop]\name) WriteLine(fileout,scores[loop]\score) Next CloseFile(fileout) EndIf EndIf 'Header HTMLHeading(1) ; Print "Highscore example" ; HTMLEndHeading(1) 'Show highscores in a table HTMLTable(1) HTMLTableHead() HTMLTableRow() HTMLTableHeaderCell() Print "Position" HTMLEndTableHeaderCell() HTMLTableHeaderCell() Print "Name" HTMLEndTableHeaderCell() HTMLTableHeaderCell() Print "Score" HTMLEndTableHeaderCell() HTMLEndTableRow() HTMLEndTableHead() 'Output highscore file into table HTMLTableBody() For Local outputScores = 0 To HISCORE_AMOUNT-1 HTMLTableRow() HTMLTableCell() Print (outputScores+1) HTMLEndTableCell() HTMLTableCell() Print scores[outputScores]\name HTMLEndTableCell() HTMLTableCell() Print scores[outputScores]\score HTMLEndTableCell() HTMLEndTableRow() Next HTMLEndTableBody() HTMLEndTable() 'Show a form for new scores HTMLHeading(3) ; Print "Enter new score:-" ; HTMLEndHeading(3) HTMLForm("myform",ServerGlobal("PHP_SELF")) Print "Name: " HTMLInput("new_name","","text") Print "~b" Print "Score: " HTMLInput("new_score","","text") Print "~b" HTMLInput("","Submit","submit") HTMLEndForm() --v Wouldnt take too much to rejig it to receive value using GET (The above uses Post), implement mySQL, add a bit of security... Jobs a good'un! Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 18:16
Dabz	If I was to call that webpage using GLBasic, I would use something like:- server$ = "www.mysite.com" str$ = "/index.php" str$ = str$ + "?new_name="+player_name$ str$ = str$ + "&new_score="+player_score% result$ = NETWEBGET$(server$,str$,80,2048) NETSHUTDOWN --v Something like that, but, it obviously would be encrypted, and I would get of the manual input bit at the bottom Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 19:09
dna	I'm sort of in the same boat with Rockford. Networking or even getting BB to display a website inside of a program has escaped me. -=-=- DNA
Fri, 15 Mar 2013, 23:02
Cower	I frankly don't trust Afr0 to explain anything related to threading well. Anyhow, I haven't got a clue about networking. While that's technically sort of doing things asynchronously, it's not what I'm asking about in the post head. If you need a simple way to do networking, use enet. If you need to do web coding, I can only really offer you a shovel to the head because web stuff is annoying and boring, especially given the prevalence of such ass-backwards languages like PHP. Write away, as long as it's something that's relevant to us. Most anything I do would not be highly relevant because most of the folks here use stuff like Blitz and Monkey and other oddities, whereas I use C and C++11. So, relevance isn't important. The point is more to make sure something is there in the event that anyone leaves their comfort zone. just don't dumb it down too much Barring painfully overused car analogies, traffic analogies, and so on, which I hate and avoid like the plague, there's not much you can dumb down in programming. Anything I wrote would assume some amount of competence since I don't have the patience to start at the beginning and tell people what multithreading is or what it's for. I'm more concerned with just showing some ways to use it, though like you said, it's been done a number of times (though there's actually an odd scarcity of game dev-related threading articles, mostly because it's really hard to do stuff asynchronously in an engine). exists within the realms of common decency Note to self: remove dirty jokes from all articles I write. Also, a fun factâ€” one of the plugins I wrote for Sublime Text 2, a tool to filter apropos results and open up manpages in a new buffer began as a penis joke. The joke is still in the plugin as a string scoring function.
Sat, 16 Mar 2013, 06:17
rockford	Networking or even getting BB to display a website inside of a program has escaped me. I can call a website (I do with my webOS apps), but beyond that it's over my head. Maybe it's because it's never been important to me. These days things like that are becoming increasingly important. Time for me to fish or cut bait.
Sat, 16 Mar 2013, 06:38
Jayenkai	Sometimes it amazes me that I managed to mangle together a networked multiplayer Tron/Light-Cycles game, in college, using a language I was barely familiar with (QBasic!), 16 years ago.. Given that I actually achieved a fantastically playable game, it's a wonder that I haven't really done anything else networked/online since. . bugger it... As long as I can keep myself occupied, that's all that matters! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''