pouët.net

Hello!

I make mostly games, but although I program better than anyone I know in person, I know that I suck, I REALLY suck, I would NEVER code stuff like kkrunchy, or 32k turrican, or..

I think that this is because I jumped from text-based programming, that I did for sevreal years, to API-based graphics programming (using Allegro, for example).

I was wondering: If I did some stuff for DOS, or Linux Framebuffer, or Amiga (using an emulator... I never saw a real-world Amiga), would my general programming skills improve (no matter the language) ?

Or it would be some just silly retro waste of time?

Programming new things I don't ever thing is a silly wast of time

if you actually understood what you were doing this question would never have been asked in the first place

I am asking just out of curiosity in fact... To think what other people think.

There was once a story of an elite ZX Spectrum coder... he tried a PC, he failed. He went back to ZX Spectrum, where he belongs.
True story. :D

ffs. practise makes perfect. if you want to be better at dos coding - then yes grab a dosbox and knock yourself out.

if you want to be better at optimizing .net applications interface mssql databases - then no, don't grab a dosbox but please knock yourself out.

In general, knowing how stuff works helps. The best way to learn is IMO by doing, repeatedy. You won't, however, by coding for "retro" platforms, gain any particular knowledge you couldn't learn elsewhere save for, bluntly, how to code for "retro" platforms. While you may be forced to write code at a lower level, there's not much stopping you from learning that on a modern platform either.

well i guess if you go a bit low-level in programming (tech. wise) will sure improve your skills and sush programming all the time in new fancy environments APIs or w/e (e.g. .NET and others) will make you a bit less productive and vise versus.

e.g. for me i started programming from ASM,C/C++ then went up to high fancy languages (in work of course) and things were so smooth no big problems and i always find a way to solve problems.

so yeah if you want to be skilled then taste the sore of low level things

Word.

Retro coding would improve unreadable code SKILLZ atleast

hihi, speeder thinks that programming skill is a one-dimensional thing.

i know a latvian programmer who is a genius, but his personality is such an extreme mixture of arrogance and nonexistent communication skills, that all his genius is effectively wasted.

What I really wonder is: if a musician start making chiptunes, will he improve on dubstep?

To be a code jedi you must
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_pattern
... and do not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipattern

knl: subbass, how low can you go? ^_^

speeder: usual answer applies, aim for attainable challenges first, and code whatever you're most interested in.

You'll get really shit music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjKJqR2iREM :(:(:(:(

quarta330 is marvellous

ah filipe, the question is "do we need to get that low?" :)

I don't get how learning the obscurities of some ancient system would help with modern stuff either. But I guess the real question might be 'is it better to start low level and work up or start high level and work down?'. I'd say the 2nd personally.

I'm not sure. Personally, I was raised on an up&down curve - first started with basic (a long time ago that was :) ), then pascal, followed by assembler, and then c/c++. It was all about DOS back then, so when I hit Windows, it lasted some time till I finally got a grip of how its internals actually work. Recently, I started working with mobile platforms and I must admit I found some nice ideas in Symbian or iphone apis - it's kind of oldschool, but it was a pleasure to work with something different. And it taught me a couple of things about efficient heap usage too.
So, my opinion is that working with "ancient", as someone here had put it, platforms does give you a fresh look on things and can result in some nice ideas breaking out in your head. If you've got time/environment/resources to do so, carry on.

to quote vice city:

learn - start - doing

knl: YES WE DO!!

ps, you dirty jazz musician.

i think you should start by putting some superfluous dots behind your sentences (three will do, generally speaking) :P

@Birkin

This time I was only in mood for making 2 dots.

@krabob
That does not make a programmer Jedi, that makes a Java zombie :P



My idea, is that when you work within some strict constraints, you have to learn new stuff.
Example, palete-based animation: A person that is working on today PC, would never use that, even if there are some advantage in doing, because he can do easier with more standard techniques...

actually, palette rotation is trivial in indexed mode while a bit harder in 32 bit.

if you look at awesome scene coders - pc, amiga, whatever platform. i am pretty sure that their awesomeness or substantial mad skills doesn't originate from coding on old platforms. it's all about your brain capacity and utilization.

if anything, i'd go for really old school stuff like linear algebra, calculus, computational geometry, etc. that's where you will learn mad skills.