2019-04-27 19:43:32

Hi,

Back in the 90s, I had fun writing some programs in GWBasic for DOS. These included a program that would play Christmas songs using the PC speaker (my school computer didn't have a sound card), and a small trivia game.
For various reasons, I haven't done programming like that for years, but I've frequently thought about getting back into it, whether to make a game or something else. The problem is I don't know what language is best to use on Windows. I tried Visual Studio Express a few years ago, for instance, but gave up soon after as I couldn't figure out what to do.
Which language would you recommend for someone like me? Also, are there any good resources for teaching blind people how to program? I know there was a site years ago called BlindProgramming.com, but that seems to have shut down.

Thanks.

Yours Sincerely,
Kelly Sapergia

2019-04-27 21:00:20

It really depends. No person will be totally truthful. Take me, for example. I'll tell you to use python and give you 100 reasons why, but someone else, say, Ethan, would tell you that you shouldn't use Python because C++ is better. Each thing you learn has it's own flaws and advantages. Look around, type your question into google, do some research, and then choose for yourself.

2019-04-28 01:44:03

Everyone has their own opinions as to which language they prefer, though all have their particular uses and certain similarities. I generally recommend python because its powerful, has lots of documentation and libraries, and has a strong community of people to help out if needed. Given your previous experience with GWBasic, you'll probably find some elements familiar, such as variables, loops, if statements, etc.

You can get started by grabbing python [here], once thats done you can check out a number of free books such as [Dive Into Python], [How To Think Like A Computer Scientist], or the [Python Practice Book].

Once you have a handle on the core language, you can move on to things like Pyglet or Pygame for basic audio, window, and input handling. For more advanced audio you can check out my OpenAL examples [here], for screen reader output you could use Tolk, though its repo is experiencing some issues lately, you can grab an example set [here] that has the files you'd need.

If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask.

-BrushTone v1.3.3: Accessible Paint Tool
-AudiMesh3D v1.0.0: Accessible 3D Model Viewer

2019-04-28 02:02:48

Thanks for the comments and resources for Python. I'm going to give it a try.

Yours Sincerely,
Kelly Sapergia

2019-04-28 13:56:34 (edited by microsoftsam203 2020-10-28 12:14:14)

I would also recommend python because the sintax is really easy and it gives you an idea as a beginning programmer on how to program without focusing on the sintax too much.
But that's just my opinion.

I'm just a random blind guy who trys to learn to code.

2019-04-28 16:01:18

if you want to make games or other programs for blind people, i can only recomend bgt. It's a scripting language specialy made for that. You can find it at www.blastbay.com and it's really easy. Also, there is a lot of open source resurce for bgt to learn from.

Lamas with hats, but with sponge bob as carl Stay tuned.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvAUQt … subscriber

2019-04-28 17:08:36

While I'm not one of the people who will tell you not to use BGT for anything if you already know it, I don't recommend learning it, especially if you're looking to develop more than just games.

2019-04-28 20:58:25

I wouldn't recommend learning it simply because the developer of BGT expressly told people not to continue using it because it would most likely never be updated.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2019-04-29 03:26:57 (edited by defender 2019-04-29 04:09:30)

Dude I'm sorry to derail your topic, but I just wanted to say how much of an impact your music had for me growing up.  You worked on some of the most iconic projects of the era, and your music will always be associated with that time in my life and with those games for me, to the point that I can recognize most of your tracks just by hearing the first few seconds.
Your compositions, for me, elicit the same feeling of nostalgia that tracks from Mario, sonic, or Pokimon would for someone who grew up with those games.
Plus, they were just awesome at conveying the mood, from heart pumping action to calm, reflective  cutscene to sneaking around stealthily waiting for the next conflict.
I know from personal interactions with people that your work has helped to inspire some blind kids to become keyboardists or take up electronic composing as a hobby.


Do you happen to have any sort of archive of those songs?  I'd happily buy it on bandcamp or something, and also direct friends who grew up with the same games to it.  I can understand if some of the music you worked on can't be released do to featuring work from other composers, or the commercial rites still remaining with the game's developer, but what ever you can offer would be appreciated.


Some of my favorites are the background music from treasure hunt Area 2, dark destroyer menu music, the second dark destroyer background level track, the calm background/cutscene track from treasure hunt, the battle music from treasure hunt, and the track named ms4-1.ogg from TDV2, as well as the track named background6.wav from Tarzan Junior.
And those are just from the games I know you worked on...

2019-04-29 06:56:53

100-percent agreed with #9. Your music was fantastic at conveying mood and urgency when the time called for it.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2019-04-29 13:39:00

hay. Where did he ever say that? On the agnet forum? Never saw that lol

Lamas with hats, but with sponge bob as carl Stay tuned.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvAUQt … subscriber

2019-04-29 15:14:11 (edited by Saman 2019-04-29 15:15:12)

At 11, Mr. Bennefall has said this on a post long back ago.

Philip Bennefall wrote:

As for the future of the project, I don't honestly know. I don't really have a lot of interest in it anymore and have mainly been doing work on it in response to small freelance contracts for specific features, hence the special versions as I mentioned above. I could technically make a public release, but I'm not really that interested in spending the time required to do so at the moment. Especially because I am in agreement with most of you here that it is far better to use something mainstream if you want to push the boundaries of what can be done with audio games. BGT was good for what it was intended to do when I began writing it 11 years ago. Nowadays there are many more resources available and I would advise people to move away from it at the earliest opportunity. By all means use it if you know that you will only target Windows, but make sure you are aware of its strengths and limitations before you decide.

However though, there is no obligations what so ever on you sir not to use it. But chances that you get a sheer little part of community playing your product is less. I'm sure you by now have read about the windows defender flagging BGT games.
You can, instead go learn some other language. Python eg. Believe me, you'd be learning a lot if you step away from BGT.
Regards

2019-04-29 23:35:37

@9 and @10, thanks for the comments about my music. I'm glad you enjoy those tracks as much as I had fun writing them. While I haven't produced any game music for a few years now, I'm still available to work on this type of project. See my business site, KJS Productions, for more information.

Thanks again.

Yours Sincerely,
Kelly Sapergia

2019-04-30 09:23:16

simter wrote:

if you want to make games or other programs for blind people, i can only recomend bgt. It's a scripting language specialy made for that. You can find it at www.blastbay.com and it's really easy. Also, there is a lot of open source resurce for bgt to learn from.

Wel, I don't recommend it, if 32 bit wil be discontinued, and yes, that moment wil come about some years, you are loosing all your bgt projects, if you spandet months at making a game and it has to die because of 32 bit dying, I think its a better idea to focus on Python.

Awesome, you made it to the end!
Hit h to go to the next post.

2019-04-30 11:11:09

NO BGT, ever!
As much as I don';t like Python personally, it can be good for a beginner.
I personally use C#, a language by Microsoft.

If you want to contact me, do not use the forum PM. I respond once a year or two, when I need to write a PM myself. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Telegram: Nuno69a
E-Mail: nuno69a (at) gmail (dot) com

2019-04-30 14:15:05

@post 13: ah you are the kjs-productions doode. cool. @14: Microsoft won't let 32 bit die so fast. On apple it was already fatal enough but on windows it's not possible because most tablet pcs are 32 bit and even some parts of windows it self are 32 bit. So this is going to take a long while.

Lamas with hats, but with sponge bob as carl Stay tuned.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvAUQt … subscriber

2019-04-30 14:16:50

@simter, ok, wel than for games I should say go ahead, but kno that Python is newer than BGT and BGT is limited to games oanly.

Awesome, you made it to the end!
Hit h to go to the next post.

2019-04-30 14:41:26 (edited by pauliyobo 2019-04-30 14:43:46)

@17 no. Python is not newer, it's actually older
but python is
1. mainstream
2. stable
3. continuously updated
4. well documented
Honestly sinter you seem to me a dude who's lazy to move on because he has a tool which is easy to use and gives results quickly even if it's extremely broken and limited and does not want to figure out or try new things. Which is fine, I don't have nothing against it. But if you wish to be a successful developer you probably should change mindset.
If instead you lack of learning resources, feel free to tell and you will have surely someone helping out.

Paul

2019-04-30 15:08:16

@16, uh, dude, since MS is the dev of Windows, they can very easily remove all of those 32-bit components. But why would you want to make a game that's 32-bit when you might need to load 4-5 GB of sounds? (And yes, this does happen in the mainstream community, where games will load or stream enormous assets into RAm and before you know it, that game is suing  6GB of RAM.)

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2019-04-30 17:43:36

but this is not mainstream. And also no, python is not well documented. The manual is a mess.

Lamas with hats, but with sponge bob as carl Stay tuned.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvAUQt … subscriber

2019-04-30 17:51:11

So use a different tutorial. They are a dime a dozen, so not really an excuse.

2019-04-30 17:58:11

@20, don't know where you ever came up with the foolish notion that 'Python isn't well documented'. Its documentation is excellent. Granted, the standard library does need some reorganization, but its one of the best-documented projects I've ever seen.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2019-04-30 21:47:21

the documentation is a mess? Fine, there are thousands of other tutorials on internet. Why don't you try using your friend google to find out the best that fits your requirements?

Paul

2019-05-02 20:19:29

OK, answering the question from our friend @ksapergia:

Really man, you have a lot of interesting options to take, you have to check witch language fits better for you, and your projects.

In my case, mi favorite Language for various kind of projects is c#, but python is after that, and is a very well and powerful option.

In the other hand, you have a javascript; that is a good language, let you easily make web content and package your result for various platforms using packagers like electron.

Maybe visual basic.net can be a good option for you, specially that you have previous experience with other basic language smile


But well, you have a lot of good options; check the basics of these that attracts you, and finally chose one.

smile

2019-05-02 22:33:18

@20, why you say it's not well documented? No code to still and take as yours?
Sorry not sorry.

If you want to contact me, do not use the forum PM. I respond once a year or two, when I need to write a PM myself. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Telegram: Nuno69a
E-Mail: nuno69a (at) gmail (dot) com