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programming & scripting

The mighty Boosh

Well-Known Member
I've been learning to write script programs (if you're techy or art'sy learn to script, lota fun :D)

Novice computing

I've used Windows, a few Linux disc's. So lernt how to write Batch scripts.
Can I ask a few things from the tec side of the forum ?

Is Bash a scriptting program like Batch or are they only side tools of the OS ?

Scrippting has been alot of fun messing with makeing little tools & programs but where do you go from there ? I like programs from the Terminal and how they made text sprites for older games
Would something like Python be a good stepping stone ?
 
It's been a few decades since I worked with Unix, but as I understand it, Bash lets you script anything you could type on the command line. It also adds a few scripting constructs, like saving variables, flow control (if-then-else, loops, etc.). But basically, it's still just an ultra fancy way of doing something on the command line.

Python is a good start. There are lots of tutorials, and it has an easy learning curve and you can do some pretty deep programming stuff when you get familiar with it.
 
May have confused myself but have been watching alot of youtube on how old computers worked using Basic.
Can you create sound\music in things like Python & other languages or would that all be done in software ?
What are Pythons strengths and weaknesses ?

Sorry if the questions are going all over the place, it was just intresting how much control you had\have over the hardware.

I thought C++ was a mid lvl language (maybe not good for begginers ?)
 
I'm not sure about graphics and sounds in Python. The only work I've done in Python is to edit scripts others at my work have written to automate tasks. Perhaps start by googling "simple python games" or "python starter projects."

Yes, C and C++ are professional programming languages and they have a decent learning curve. Unity has a pretty steep learning curve, but it actually uses C# for its scripts, which fixes a lot of the pitfalls of C and C++.
 
I've been learning to write script programs (if you're techy or art'sy learn to script, lota fun :D)

Novice computing

I've used Windows, a few Linux disc's. So lernt how to write Batch scripts.
Can I ask a few things from the tec side of the forum ?

Is Bash a scriptting program like Batch or are they only side tools of the OS ?

Scrippting has been alot of fun messing with makeing little tools & programs but where do you go from there ? I like programs from the Terminal and how they made text sprites for older games
Would something like Python be a good stepping stone ?

Bash is a form shell scripting in a Unix-like environment. If you're looking to get started, learning Bash (or even just basic shell scripting), PERL, and Python are both good ways to begin. If you're a BSD and Linux user, you'll definitely want to know a smattering of C and C++. C and C++ will pretty much always be around, unlike some of the fad languages that pop up here and there. To satisfy my lab science requirement, I took C and C++ courses and enjoyed them very much.
 
Can I ask what languages you started with and what you ended up using, why and what you like using it for ? just curious to know what you like to do. sound,games,UI, tools ect...

Also after writting a few things I've noticed my programs seems fatter (memory wise) then an old computer running Basic.
How did old OS write something a few Kbs large, do script programs piggy back on other codes and seem bloated (if that makes sense) or is it me being lazy & not knowing how to structure commands ?
 
Can I ask what languages you started with and what you ended up using, why and what you like using it for ? just curious to know what you like to do. sound,games,UI, tools ect...

Also after writting a few things I've noticed my programs seems fatter (memory wise) then an old computer running Basic.
How did old OS write something a few Kbs large, do script programs piggy back on other codes and seem bloated (if that makes sense) or is it me being lazy & not knowing how to structure commands ?

I started out programming in BASIC on the ZX Spectrum back in the early 80's.

Kind of taught myself really, same when I taught myself a bit of MS Visual Basic 4 about 14 years ago and then took a 1 night a week course at Sheffield Hallam Uni, which I passed by creating an app to randomly predict National Lottery numbers.

A bit before that I taught myself HTML from books and created a few of my own web pages, unfortunately I don't have any links to my work to show off.
 
Sorry for late reply.

Do you find it's still a useful skill (work\life) or has it become more of a hobby as time goes on ?
You mention starting with Basic, I can imagine it gets annoying or fustrating keeping up with new languages - or is it more like learning a new language (French,German) You find similarities and pivit points (IF,ELSE,GOTO)

Would anyone mind me messaging them if I have questions, need examples or unsure of what syntax to use ?
 
Sorry for late reply.

Do you find it's still a useful skill (work\life) or has it become more of a hobby as time goes on ?
You mention starting with Basic, I can imagine it gets annoying or fustrating keeping up with new languages - or is it more like learning a new language (French,German) You find similarities and pivit points (IF,ELSE,GOTO)

Would anyone mind me messaging them if I have questions, need examples or unsure of what syntax to use ?

Once you learn 2 or 3 languages, they get easier and easier to pick up. They all have flow control (if-then-else), loops of some sort, functions, etc. You just write them differently. Higher level languages add more complicated models or ways of thinking.
 
While I'm logged on just going to say thank you guys for the help. Didn't understand all the jargon but this is just for fun and will get there slowly.

Picked up a few things talking.
 
Hey don't worry, most of my code is monkey see monkey do at this point and held together with duct tape :rolleyes:

What sort of things do you create or was you tinkering around ?
 
Ok I've hit a wall. Trying to build a small text based game to learn.

I've managed to make a small battle with player and monster having one attack (it's not pretty)

############################################################

:FIGHT

cls

echo Enamy HP %monsterHP%
echo Player HP %playerHP%
echo.
echo 1 attack
echo.
echo 2 run
echo.

set /p input=Enter Command -

if %input%==1 (
goto ATTACK
) else if %input%==2 (
goto RUN
) else goto FIGHT

:ATTACK

set /a playerHP-=%monsterDMG%
set /a monsterHP-=%playerDMG%

if %monsterHP% LEQ 0 goto WIN
if %playerHP% LEQ 0 goto DEATH
goto FIGHT

#################################################################

The problem is trying to give eatch the player and monster say... two attacks = 4 outcomes
Can you set up one place where this happens or shoul I just create four different paths ?

#################################################################

:FIGHT

cls

echo Enamy HP %monsterHP%
echo Player HP %playerHP%
echo.
echo.
echo (1) Light Attck
echo (2) Heavy attack
echo.

set /p input=Enter Choise -

if %input%==1 (
goto "?"
) else if %input%==2 (
goto "?"
) else goto FIGHT

#################################################################
 
Hey don't worry, most of my code is monkey see monkey do at this point and held together with duct tape :rolleyes:

What sort of things do you create or was you tinkering around ?
Tinkering with websites, it was one of those projects I was really invested in for a few weeks, but then I had to drop it because I was too busy with my work. Should really pick back up :)
 
Is Bash a scriptting program like Batch or are they only side tools of the OS ?

Bash is a very basic scripting language, it's not as powerful or flexible as perl or python, it's more like a dos prompt with set commands. It's used in unix/linux at the command prompt (called the unix shell) and the commands (such as "ls", list files) can be used sequentially (in batch). This is very similar to windows batch files, commands run in sequence.

Ksh is a more flexible version, I use this in conjunction with vi (editor) or perl (like python)


Scrippting has been alot of fun messing with makeing little tools & programs but where do you go from there ? I like programs from the Terminal and how they made text sprites for older games
Would something like Python be a good stepping stone ?

Scripting has 1 "p", scripting and makeing doesn't have an "e", making.

The terminal is a very good place to start and becoming a lost art. All the fancy java libraries are written on top of basic run commands and so I would strongly recommend starting here. A lot of computer science graduates nowadays have lost basic abilities like grepping (search for a string) through multiple files or killing processes on a machine.

Python is an excellent stepping stone, I prefer perl but python is more popular. Vintage games like space invaders are becoming more popular now since p2w, play-to-win is getting a bit old.
 
If you want an extremely simple scripting language, and are interested in making games but don't have a powerful enough rig to run Unity, have a look at Scratch, there's a myriad of tutorials for it on YouTibe for making a variety of games and stuff.

It's basically "drag and drop" scripting, the scripts themselves are already prepared, you just have to drag and drop them into what you want it to do.

It's all explained on the site anyway.
 
Sorry been AFK for a few days

@Bolletje
you should definitely think of a small project and start messing again. Any ideas on what you'd try and do ?

@Bella Pines
I'll get to Bash & Python when I'm ready....
Na just me being lazy and scared of all the different and strange commands. That and I'm stuck in a loop with Batch at the moment, know more Windows commands so feels warm and safe :) it's the little diffrences that trip me up, cls - clear, traceroute - tracert, ipconfig - ifconfig.

I keep going back to Batch and saying I'll learn Bash later, Would ask for someone to translate a few commands for me but afraid the bigger nerds might bully and make fun of me :laughing:

@Mr Allen
I thought unity was more like blender (3d modling) but will have alook when I get back tonight. What I'm intrested in is picking up an old 8-16 bit computer and learning how they made games with just a few Kbs.

the other thing would be how they used the sound chip, watched this guy on youtube use Basic to make a tune and another use the C64 as a musical keyboard (pure awesomeness:cool:)
 
Bash is a very basic scripting language, it's not as powerful or flexible as perl or python, it's more like a dos prompt with set commands. It's used in unix/linux at the command prompt (called the unix shell) and the commands (such as "ls", list files) can be used sequentially (in batch). This is very similar to windows batch files, commands run in sequence.

Ksh is a more flexible version, I use this in conjunction with vi (editor) or perl (like python)

Though Python and Bash do overlap, I prefer to think of Bash as a scalpel and Python as a cleaver: A scalpel may take longer for larger tasks, but its about precision and works better with smaller tasks, but if I need to cut through a lot and in little time I'll use Python.

I'm more focused on systems/hardware than apps so I'll naturally favor the scalpel (Assembly, C, and Bash) over the cleaver. Python is extremely useful, especially in Data Science and machine learning.
I especially love Vi :).

Boosh, if you want to learn Python there are two free books you can pick up online: Think Python (2nd edition for 3.x I think), and Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. If you need Bash, Lex, Yacc, Sed, Awk books let me know.
 
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I'd also add that python is a more transferable skill. Python is quite popular at the moment and can even be used in conjunction with some of the newer tech that is surfacing such as angular and so called "machine learning". So if you ever want to turn it into a job I'd try and get comfortable with python.
 

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