learning ASSS coding

[Arry]

Ok, for a while now I've considered C++ a little too... hard to learn.

 

But I've never had more time than now. And I have some ideas I'd like to see materialize, plus I'd like to help revitalize hyperspace in any way I can.

 

I am 30 years old and I've been coding since 9th grade, just never got in deep with C++. I'm a jack of many languages but a master of none. I haven't coded anything in a couple years now though.

 

I'm looking for tips/pointers/suggestions on getting started with these items:

 

1) A book on C++, currently looking at this on amazon.com: C++ Primer Plus (5th Edition) by Stephen Prata

2) A website where people are patient enough to answer coding questions when I run into trouble with C++

3) Where the ASSS community is, learn how to setup my own ASSS server, and post questions about coding ASSS modules

4) Also I've been playing in hyperspace and I know I saw HSCore was released at some point, I would like to work with HSCore to get started since that is the zone I'm used to and know.

5) Recommend an IDE for programming ASSS modules

 

Also General suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

EDIT: Added #5

Edited May 23, 2011 by Arry

[🜲 Samapico]

1) If you're a good programmer in other languages, it might not even be worth it to buy a book... http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/ can get you started on the basics

2) Google for non-specific questions, MGB forums for the rest

3) http://forums.minegoboom.com/index.php

4) Unless you plan making a zone with similar features (items, etc.), I don't recommend getting started with that... You'll want to make simple stand-alone modules to learn the ASSS basics (interfaces, callbacks, commands...). HScore is made of several modules that interact with each other, which doesn't make it any easy for a newbie to learn. I never worked with it, so I could be wrong, but I'd just start from simple modules like elim or whatever, and see how they're made.

 

Also, ASSS is in C, not C++, so you can ignore stuff about classes. However, pointers are used massively in ASSS, and you need a particularly good understanding of them.

 

Other links:

http://wiki.minegoboom.com/index.php/Writing_Modules_In_C

http://wiki.minegoboom.com/index.php/Writing_Advanced_Modules_In_C

 

 

Edit: And I suggest using Eclipse as IDE... There are topics around about how to set it up correctly I think... Probably on mgb's wiki

[Cheese]

hold off with hscore until u have a good foundation with asss

also, you will be coding in C, not C++

i suggest you use Dev-C++ to compile, and use Notepad++ to edit your files

 

if u have any specific questions, pm me in game

u know where to find me

[JoWie]

A good book is http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306148571&sr=8-1 (written by the guy that developed the language). Just keep the points from https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/C99 in mind while reading it.

If you are going to do a lot of work in C instead of python, I suggest you run ASSS on linux for a few reasons:

• You automatically get a backtrace if ASSS crashes
  
• GDB on windows often ends up with a corrupt stack
  
• Valgrind
  
• Compiling a module is slightly easier
  
• Recompiling ASSS entirely is a LOT easier (there are a few reasons for compiling more then your own module such as interfacing with python or adding a line to ?quickfix)
  
• Installing all the required libraries and tools is a single command: "sudo apt-get install build-essential python python-dev mercurial libdb4.8-dev mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev gdb" (ubuntu)
  

The coding itself could be on windows / mac os x ofcourse. I use a VM or a VPS for compiling and testing.

 

Some useful resources about ASSS:

https://bitbucket.org/grelminar/asss

https://bitbucket.org/grelminar/asss/wiki/Home

https://bitbucket.org/grelminar/asss/wiki/Development_Reference

http://wiki.minegoboom.com/index.php/Writing_Modules_In_C

http://wiki.minegoboom.com/index.php/Callbacks

Edited May 23, 2011 by JoWie

[Arry]

...

If you are going to do a lot of work in C instead of python, I suggest you run ASSS on linux for a few reasons:

...

Yes linux was the plan. It's been a while since I used a **n*x... is ubuntu still a good choice? I have a pretty decent machine (i5 quad core, 4MB of ram) so running linux shouldn't be a problem.

 

I'm going to need to refamiliarize myself with linux. My history is that I was tech support for a small ISP back around the turn of the century. They used FreeBSD. I wrote shell scripts and awk scripts stuff and had to manage basics like cleaning up users email boxes when they got too big. But I never did any compiling.

 

Since then I've found little need to run my own linux machine. So I've fallen out of familiarity with it. I'm going to have to relearn working with linux too... that could be 6) in the opening post.

 

I'd like to finally learn how to compile stuff on linux and go with the most flexible language. I don't really want to learn python if I'm just going to run into a need to use C later on. I'd rather just stick with one language.

 

One of my ideas I want to get off the ground is found here: FF7 Materia Battle Arena (hasn't been updated in a few years)

 

I have another project... it's an idea that's hidden in all my video spam, riddles, and nonsense I posted while less than sane. I love a good puzzle

 

And I love being inspired by fiction!

 

While I'm at, why not a little video spam....

Azula belongs in section-8 I think (I think only PsyOps will get this) Edited May 23, 2011 by Arry

[🜲 Samapico]

Compiling is pretty easy... here are 2 simple scripts I use to compile my zone:

 

 

#!/bin/bash

# completely rebuild the zone from scratch

 

cd asss/zone/src

make clean 1>/dev/null

make deps 1>/dev/null

make 1>/dev/null

 

--------------------------------

 

#!/bin/bash

# build the zone

 

cd asss/zone/src

make deps 1>/dev/null

make 1>/dev/null