Hacking So now that the DSTWO SDK is released....

[Thesolcity]

I want to start developing BUT I need to learn how to code/develop for it. Anyone got any tips on tutorials/learning items that would help me? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Rydian]

Do you know ANY programming at all?

If so, name the languages.

 

[Thesolcity]

Nope, but why not learn now? I thought I'd have to learn C# first, so any other suggestions?

 

[Another World]

my best advice is to wait until just after xmas when the books for the spring semester go on sale. drive up to your local college (that doesn't check IDs to buy books =P) and pick up a CS/CIS book that covers "C/C++". those books are structured to help you learn, usually have good examples, and come with a cd (with examples and a compiler).

once you know what you are going, even if its the basics, you can get a wealth of information on the internet. there are some great coding groups on usenet. gbadev.org has a ds coding section and a C/ASM help section. not to mention irc and other coding forums.

good luck and let us know if you ever make anything for the scds2.

-another world

 

[Terminator02]

im personally interested in this, are there any good online resources for learning something basic like C/C++ as a replacement for college books (im in high school)

Edit: also interesting in learning how to code web pages (html5, javascript, css)

 

[BassAceGold]

Coding on the Supercard DSTwo is very easy if you know C or C++. Everything is done via software so there is not much to learn about the hardware thus you can quickly get started on coding. The only difficult part is that the SDK is fairly bare-bones so you will need to write all your graphics and audio routines for what ever you decide to make.

 

[Rydian]

[*]Get a text editor with syntax highlighting. Notepad++ is recommended, but there's tons more. You WILL want (and learn to love and rely on) syntax highlighting. As a friend of mine says...

(KirinDave): To be honest, I'm kinda terrified of people who use just plain Notepad to code. It's like meeting someone who refuses to wear anything but furs they've caught themselves, despite living in the first world. You know something is wrong, but you're afraid to tell them because they may hurt you.http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download

[*]You need to have a good grasp of the concept of syntax. A markup language, like HTML will do that. You'll find it's basics are similar to bbcode (as bbcode is designed to give a forum user some capability of text formatting without giving them all the control of HTML). Understanding why the order of things matters and the differences between single-instance tags and tags that open and close (as well as proper closing order) makes later things easier.
http://www.tizag.com/htmlT/

[*]CSS is what's applied to the raw HTML to make it pretty. This type of relationship is important to understand, so I recommend some basic CSS afterwards. Don't spend too much time on this, just enough to understand the relationship between the two.
http://www.tizag.com/cssT/

[*]After that you should work on a little javascript (as unlike HTML it's an actual programming language), as it'll introduce you to program flow in an HTML environment (so you'll be a bit more comfortable with it).
http://www.tizag.com/javascriptT/

[*]Once you're fluent in javascript I suggest moving to another language, Python is really recommended for beginner programmers.

[*]After you've learned enough Javascript and Python to make a few useful programs/tools (or games that work differently from each other), feel free to try moving onto C/C++.No, you're not going to be programming C++ in a week. Programming is a lifetime thing, and it's a hell of a lot more complex than people think it is.

For example, my signature looks pretty damn simple, right? How long can the code be? 5, maybe 10 lines?

Spoiler

CODE

Spoiler

Minus the comments, of course.

 

[Thesolcity]

Thanks for the suggestions people, and I assume you know quite a bit about programming Rydian

. I found a book entitled "C/C++ For Complete Beginners" my relative had. Should I start there, or work my way down your list?

 

[Rydian]

I suggest what I said, as learning the basics is heavily needed.

 

[Thesolcity]

Will do, thank you. I wonder if I'll be able to compile some decent DS homebrew before the DS scene dies...