CockroachMan said:
Learn the basics of programming first.. then learn C and C++.. then you start learning DS programming..
Be patient..
I started last night by looking at the following tutorial -
http://www.double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/
It applies to a previous (deprecated) version of devkitPro, but it's still a good start to understanding DS programming. C/C++ programming is needed, particularly to understand some of the bitshifting examples the author uses.
I remember reading threads about devkitPro vs PAlib a while back -- can anyone point me to those? can't quite seem to google up the forums that I saw them on.
I'm going to take a running leap at doing FreeCiv on the DS, but I've done very little GUI-programming before (done mostly cmd-line apps on UNIX in the past, coding in C/Java, some C++); I imagine there will be a bit of a learning curve there.
Thoughts/Opinions/Heckles anyone?
As I understand it, FreeCiv runs as Client-Server; each human player runs as a client, the Server manages world information as well as the AI. Even with a single-player instance, it initiates a local server, then the client connects. Any thoughts on how best to approach this as a single executable on the DS?
Also, does anyone know the fellow that worked on porting OpenTTD to the DS? or at least know what kind of architecture OpenTT ran (client-server vs standalone)?
edit: It also just occured to me that both OpenTTD and FreeCiv have been coded on SDL; what impacts (positive or negative) would this have on a port to DS? do either the devkitPro or PAlib libraries lend themselves to SDL interfacing?
edit2: It has come to my attention that the Server component requires 15M ram, Client component requires 25M ram. that does not make me happy (with the 4M DS limit). I can't say what those 40M entail. Personally, my aim is to have a fun/entertaining single player campaign, as I don't see many people playing multiplayer over the course of 5-6 hours non-stop, but I may be wrong.