Since I am getting into game programming with school, I have decided to start with some simple games. I looked into making a Tic Tac Toe game and was planning on doing that until yesterday. I was helping a buddy on one of his class projects and he told me that their next project was a VB.NET version of Yahtzee. This got me thinking on what I could do with it.
My plan is to make a good Game Engine that can then be used to make a standalone game, be part of a set of dice games, or be a web based game all depending on what is desired and all using the same engine. The main reason for doing this is to see how much I really understand from what I have been learning and from what I have learned in the past.
I plan on posting all questions I come across here and plan to write up an article on what it took to come up with the game engine and then the seperate GUIs to use the game engine. Most of all, I plan on having fun doing something that I can show off as my own work from scratch.
I am in a dilema. I have an instructor that has given us information (and sample quiz answers) that is completely incorrect. A friend of mine that has his 4 year degree has recommended that I not correct the teacher and just let it go. Other students have pleaded with me to post my thoughts on the correct answers and hope the teacher let's us know which answer is correct. I do not want the teacher to dock me for correcting him but at the same time I do not want to hit a question in an actual quiz or test and choose the correct answer and then be marked incorrect as the teacher is using his answer instead of the correct one.
Now let me clarify here. Here are the 3 (of 21 total questions) in the latest sample quiz that are suspect (VB.NET class).
A(n)_____________ indicates that the remainder of the line is a comment.
a) double-quote character b) single-quote character c) underscore d) newline character e)None of the above
The answers given say it is D yet the book (and actual product) show it to be B.
A flaw in a program is often referred to as a(n) __________________
a) bug b) worm c) virus d) easter egg e) None of the above
The answers given say it is E yet the book and all that I have ever learned point to A.
To insert a breakpoint, _______________ the line of code at which you wish to insert the breakpoint.
a) double click b) right click and choose Insert Breakpoint c) click the margin indicator bar next to d) highlight e) Both b. and c.
The answers given say it is B yet C works also in the product so I chose E.
Should I just let this go or should I post on our forums (online class) asking the teacher to explain the answers given? I am able to ask politely and, hopefully, without hurting feelings.
One of my “Optional, Extra Credit” goals for a project is to print the finished Invoice after creating it. I can pring everything EXCEPT what I need which is the ListBox that contains all of the Final calculations. Of course this is the most important part.
I have the code listed below currently, what do I need to get the current info out of a ListBox for printing?
Private Sub objPrintDocument_PrintPage(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As PrintPageEventArgs)
Dim sngYPosition As Single
Dim sngXPosition As Single
'represents left margin of the page
Dim sngLeftMargin As Single = e.MarginBounds.Left
' represents top margin of page
Dim sngTopMargin As Single = e.MarginBounds.Top
Dim strLine As String = Nothing
Dim objControl As Control
' iterate over the form, printing each control
For Each objControl In Me.Controls
If objControl.GetType.Name <> "Button" Then
strLine = objControl.Text
' set string positions relative to page margins
sngXPosition = sngLeftMargin + objControl.Location.X
sngYPosition = sngTopMargin + objControl.Location.Y
' draw text in graphics object
e.Graphics.DrawString(strLine, m_objFont, Brushes.Black, sngXPosition, sngYPosition)
End If
Next ' control
' Draw box around Invoice
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, sngLeftMargin, sngTopMargin,
Me.Width, Me.Height - 60)
' indicate that there are no more pages to print
e.HasMorePages =
False
End Sub
When I first decided to go back to school for programming I thought I would be a little behind even though I have had some experience with multiple languages. I have never written my own fully implented program but have enough knowledge to look over other poeple's code then find and fix problems as well as add new functionality. Because of this I figured I might be in the middle group in the class. Not the best, but not one of the people struggling to keep up. Boy was I wrong.
So far I am the only one in the class that has been able to answer the other student's questions. Because of this, I have started looking at the welcome messages from the students, the textbook, and the assignments and have found out why. Most of the students are in the class to help them with a transfer to a 4 year or because it is a pre-req for some other course (non-programming) that they want to take. One of the students even though the class would teach him how to use a computer. He posted one day that he was expecting to be taught “what each key on the keyboard is for.”
The first week we had a Lab that was purely a step-by-step, copy this to your computer, type lab so nobody was worried. The second week though we actually had to come up with the code on our own for most of the lab. The problem for most of the class was that we had not learned any coding yet. We were still on Chapter 5 in the text book where Chapter 7 was on the definition of variables and constants.
We are now on the second Project and still hitting the same type of issues. Project 2 is due on May 6th and we will be working on Chapter 10 then. The problem is that a lot of the stuff that we are supposed to do in Project 2 is not even taught until Chapter 14. By the time we are into Chapter 14 Project 3 will be due. I cannot wait to see what that will call for.
I was just curious though as to what others thought should be taught and how fast in an Intro to Programming course.
I have a project for my VB.NET class that actually has me stumped for now. I have been looking around and have not found an easy way to do this yet even though I am sure that there is an easy way.
I need to make a label that will constantly display the current time. I know how to set it at load but then it does not update itself every second like I need. I know there has to be a simple way to do this and I must just be missing it somehow. Any ideas?
And before you say it, our teacher said we can use any resource including asking others outside the class on anything other than the quizes and tests so I am covered.
I usually only get sick once a year but I really hate it when I get sick during a week that we have 80 degree weather. Nothing is worse than having to be in the house laying down when all you see outside is sun and all you hear are others playing in the sun. Oh well, maybe I will feel better tomorrow as the weather is supposed to get even warmer then.
Well, I have moved here now so I guess I should post a link to my old blog where I have a few posts at. From now on though I will just post here and I will make it great.
Old Blog
Go ahead and post any comments to my old posts here as I probably will not be checking the old one anymore.
Well, it looks like I now have a real Blog to manage. I am really excited about this as I am getting more and more into coding as I continue to take my classes. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention what I am up to real quick.
After over 6 years as a software tester (with times as a test lead), I have decided it is high time that I start using the coding that I started learning when I was working in the .NET group and first met Justin Rogers. I am now going back to school to get a certificate in Computer Game Development. After that, I plan on taking night courses to get my Associates and eventually go for my Bachelor degree. For now though I will concentrate on the classes that I am taking for game development.
Last quarter I took all my pre-reqs and all but one of my non-coding classes. I ended up with a 4.0 in both Math and Graphic Design and a 3.9 in English (not bad after 10 years of being out of school). This quarter I have Intro to Programming with VB.NET (required), Game Mathematics, and C++ Programming for Games. I am taking all the classes online and am already just about done with all the reading and example labs in Game Mathematics and C++ Programming for Games. I am already posting the answers to every question the other students have in my VB.NET class. At this point I am just expanding on the labs and projects given to us so I have something to do. Hopefully I will be finding things to research and will be posting a lot of good information that others will find useful here.
At first I plan on posting a lot of information about what I am learning in my classes and any questions that I get stumped on. Please bear with me though as I am still relatively new to a lot of the coding practices that most of you take for granted. I am a quick learner though and am anxious to learn all I can so I can get out and into a great position somewhere.
John Winkle
wow, guess that wasn't that quick, oh well.