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AudioGames.net Forum → Developers room → Starting out with BGT
Hi guys,
So I'm considering learning BGT, and I had one question in particular. Would BGT serve as a stepping stone to Mac/IOS developing? I've got some ideas in my head, and as far as I'm aware, we really don't have much in the way of multi-platform audio games.
I guess a minor question would be, would it be worth it to learn BGT vs all-purpose programming languages? Especially given the fact that it's now freeware?
Thanks,
James
Almost nothing will serve as a stepping stone to iOS development because the iOS development tools manage to technically be accessible while highlighting every single issue with Voiceover. If you want to do iOS development, you probably can by purchasing Ruby Motion, but that's going to cost several hundred dollars and if you don't know programming you're very, very far away from being concerned about iOS. There's possibly another way around the problems, but it involves a windows VM, SSH, and a bunch of esoteric knowledge of which I only have a small piece at the moment. Mac development can be done via the command line, but I'm not sure quite why you would and it's almost certainly going to involve Objective-c. If you want to target the Mac, you can. But it's only got 20-30% of blind people, many of whom have windows installed to get around VO shortcomings. To that end, you probably want to consider stepping stones to cross platform development instead. I'm not sure what to point you at in that area: I personally know Python, but there's also C#, javascript, and a bunch of other options that'd do it depending on what you're trying for.
BGT will teach you programming in general. Many of the concepts transfer. If your goal is not games, you almost certainly want something else. In the long run you will probably leave it. But it will work as a first language if you want games. It supports classes, something I consider very important if you're planning to move to something more mainstream; everyone uses classes these days. If you have a specific project in mind and it's not a game, some of us might be able to point you at something more appropriate.
Yeah, bgt is only for games, being as it's blastbay game toolkit. If you don't want games, you've got a few things you can make, but it's gonna suck, being as that's very basic stuff we're talking about.
Bgt is based on angel-script, which in turn is based on C++, so if you learn BGT you've got it coming for C++, just gotta learn about maybe a third or two of the language after that. But I hear pure basic is good, it's a programming language, it makes many things, but people are using it for games. But pure basic is it's own thing, so if you wanna develop for mac you're kinda stuck on C++, or XCode, which is only for mac. But now XCode is dead, you gotta use swift. Swift will develop for both IOS and mac, but it's a full fledged programming language, so yeah. I personally say script first, then program. Scripting is bgt, python, and javascript. Programming is anything C, java, pure basic, XCode, swift, all of that.
Yeah, bgt is only for games, being as it's blastbay game toolkit. If you don't want games, you've got a few things you can make, but it's gonna suck, being as that's very basic stuff we're talking about.
Bgt is based on angel-script, which in turn is based on C++, so if you learn BGT you've got it coming for C++, just gotta learn about maybe a third or two of the language after that. But I hear pure basic is good, it's a programming language, it makes many things, but people are using it for games. But pure basic is it's own thing, so if you wanna develop for mac you're kinda stuck on C++, or XCode, which is only for mac. But now XCode is dead, you gotta use swift. Swift will develop for both IOS and mac, but it's a full fledged programming language, so yeah. I personally say script first, then program. Scripting is bgt, python, and javascript. Programming is anything C, java, pure basic, XCode, swift, all of that.
Xcode is an IDE, not a programming language. You program in Swift by using Xcode. If you wish to use the Apple technologies to develop for an iPhone, then Xcode is directly involved. If you use something like Ruby Motion, Xcode is still involved, but Ruby Motion hides it from you. Xcode is absolutely required if you wish to sign your app. If you don't sign it and don't have a jailbroken device, you're limited to the iOS simulator, and maybe not even that. Also, objective-c is not dead and won't be for at least 10 years-all of iOS and Mac OS are written in it, as well as maybe 20 years of libraries and components and stuff along those lines.
Purebasic is not something I particularly like. Purebasic is basically C but with a nicer syntax and some built-in stuff you usually have to get elsewhere. Modern programming practices which are considered industry standard with good reason are impossible in Purebasic without being a very advanced programmer and knowing how to implement your own object orientation with function pointer tricks and casting. At the point wherein you can use these practices in a language like Purebasic, you can also figure out how to install a library and most of the benefit is gone. Purebasic is also decidedly not free, though I will say that I think it can actually target Mac. If you were to consider Bgt versus Purebasic, it would be easier to jump from BGT. The idea that a language or technology is good because someone has made something good with it is a logical error: good programmers can make good things in just about anything. As a case and point, mainstream video games used to be programmed in assembly-the earliest Zeldas almost certainly have at least a large amount of it.
BGT does not prepare you for C++ in any way. Bgt and most other languages (not including Purebasic) hide the fact that memory is being allocated and freed as much as possible. They just "do the right thing" in 90% of cases. C++, C, and many other "native" programming languages don't. In the specific case of Angelscript versus C++, however, C++ has a lot more than an additional two thirds. Try an additional nine tenths. If you want to go there, you can, but Angelscript is not really going to prepare you for it, nor is anything else for that matter. perhaps, ironically and judging from my personal experience reading real code written in it, not even C.
I have produced things in BGT that it's certainly not designed for: A text file merger and at once searcher, a shutdown assistant program to help schedule the shutdown or restart and possibly change or cancel it, an OCR corrector (it has a smart punctuation remover and evaluator, the ability to join or split lines intelligently, a batch mistake corrector based on a dictionary file and many others), and some include classes, among them a bunch of scripts called l10n_utils that can retrieve information about a user's locale directly through the Windows API dll's. All this stuff is certainly going to be released at some point.
I think an utility with a systray icon is next on the to do list.
The only thing I see as a problem about this approach is that there is no real visual GUI, only the simulated auditory one. :-)
Just to let you know that this can be done if needed.
Lukas
AudioGames.net Forum → Developers room → Starting out with BGT
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