Blitz Plead

[gooner]

After doing a bit of freebasics i'm now gunner start learning blitz.
So any help on where to get started ie which version and anything i need to download to get me on my way would be greatly appreciated.
 

[Clyde]

May I ask why you want to start learning Blitz, is it because it's slightly easier than FB, for a beginners point of view, as it has commands you can use that make life easier ( not to appear patronizing or anything dude )?

Here you can find a list of products by Blitz Research: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Products/_index_.php

I'd recommend you try out the demo version of Blitz3D that is there. The current language they've done is Blitz Max but I wouldnt venture with that, as it is a tad difficult to get to grips with, especially if you are relatively new to basic programming.

Even though Blitz3D is the 3D version. with it you can use all the 2D commands with it; as it replaced Blitz Basic 2D ( which is no longer available ) And only If you are happy with it, you may want to buy it. As with the demo versions you are restricted to source code sizes and will not be able to create executables with it.

But personally, I would stick to FB. what you can do is do some stuff in B3D, and then translate them into FreeBASIC. Also in FB the executables are lot less in filesize.

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Products/_index_.php

[gooner]

Alright Clyde hope your keeping well.

The reason i'm going for Blitz is mainly on Shockwaves recomendation to try another
language as i wanted something that might be easier to use images and music in.I haven't given up on FB but i just want to try something different so i can get up to
speed on it ready for any future challenges.Thanks for the link mate start saving your pennies for Sundown 2009.
Cheers Dude

 

[Clyde]

Yeah will save my pennies. And Im not so bad thanks Gooner dude.

Blitz is actually quite a good starting language if you've not done a busting lot of programming before hand and gives you more experience, and as you quite rightly say image loading is alot easier, as it's got ready made commands for that, and you can use lots of formats, ( i think this is limited in the demo versions ), btw png images are alot smaller use those if you can. Blitz is what alot of us used before making the switch to FreeBASIC.

Keep up the learning as im sure you will do, your doing great guns.

Cheers and all the very best,
Clyde.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Yeah I use Blitzmax mostly now.

Still trucking away with C++ but I'm having to re-write the wheel every 2 seconds.

Basically their TImage type and TPixmap are how they store image data.

You load a new TImage with a simple command loadimage(url,flags). There is also a function to load animated images. Loading images becomes a one line affair. Same with loading other types of data like sounds and such. It is based on loosely BASIC so it won't be a complete shock when you learn the syntax. They do support OpenGL 1.1 so you have some early 3D support should you choose to learn OpenGL. One of the best things about this language is that the programs created are cross-platform.

I would recommend Blitzmax to anyone wanting to spend more time making a game than trying to glue other bits of code together.

I'm certainly no expert I would be pretty happy to just know Blitzmax and not C++, but for future jobs I will need to know a real programming language.

[gooner]

Thanks P/O i've downloaded the trial version and going to have a play with it before i decide whether its worth shelling out the $100 for the full version but it looks pretty promising so far.Cheers mate

[Clyde]

I would highly recommend Blitz 3D, and not Blitz Max for starting out with.

[Hotshot]

Blitz 3D is for Beginner

BlitzMax is for intermedia/Advance (it can be also for beginner too)

both are good and it depend what you trying to make. 

 

[gooner]

Thanks Clyde and Hotshot for your thoughts.
I've already downloaded the trial version of Blitz 3d on Clydes earlier recommendation so i'm gunner stick with that for the time being to see how i get on.Any basic example to get me going would be greatly recieved.I would really like to learn how to work with images and music to see if its worth actually going for the full version.At this stage i want to use it to make demos and not games.Thanks againK+ to both of you.

[Jim]

I think in terms of progressing in computer programming, going from Freebasic to Blitz is a backwards step.  However you will definitely be able to do more things more easily with Blitz, in which case it might be a quicker way of learning more techniques.  Depends on your aim.

Jim

[Clyde]

If you type in a command and then move the cursor to the start of it (it'll be blue in colour if its a command ) and press F1 twice you'll get some example code on the useage of it ( not all commands have this ), press F1 once to see the calls it uses at the bottom left of the IDE.

Start new topics if you want to ask questions on different aspects too, doesnt matter how stupid you may think asking them will be, as im sure other beginners ( and ones that are lurking ) will benefit from it too dude.

With the demo version which is a pitty, I believe you are limited to what sounds / music formats you can load, as well as what types of images.

Cheers,
Clyde.

[Hotshot]

I know u want to code demo but here the Blitz 3D Tutorial link that are worth learning.

http://jnoodle.com/Blitz3D/

[zawran]

going from Freebasic to Blitz is a backwards step

I would tend to disagree when it comes to BlitzMax, but could agree if talking about Blitz3D or BlitzPlus. BlitzMax has a lot of advanced features and its the most open basic type language I have ever used (I did dabble with FreeBasic at some point). Just the OOP features alone is worth the learning curve compaired to what it gives you in return. The documentation on the other hand could be a lot better, but fortunately there is a tutorial forum on the official site which has plenty of tutorials for doing all kinds of things and the response time on most questions on the forum is fairly good. Its also a tried and tested language as far as published products goes. A bunch of the top selling casual shareware games on the market today was done using BlitzMax.

[gooner]

Right just an update on this topic chaps.

I've settled on learning Blitz 3D and have started going through the tuturiol

hotshot kindly provided.

Start new topics if you want to ask questions on different aspects too, doesnt matter how stupid you may think asking them will be, as im sure other beginners ( and ones that are lurking ) will benefit from it too dude.

I will definitely be doing that Clyde this is something that i didn't do enough of

when i first started programming.This led to me becoming more frustrated with it.

But now i know you lot don't bite I will definitely be blitzing the blitz board

Thanks for all your advice guys

[zawran]

I have used Blitz3D in the past, so I might be able to pitch in with answers here and there. Good luck with it.

[gooner]

Thanks a lot Zarwan
 

[JL235]

An old topic, but I feel I must put my opinion on this because I disagree in so many places. This is more aimed as a discussion and at anyone reading back at this thread rather then at gooner (since he has said he has made his choice).

My main point is that beginners should start with an object-oriented programming language and not a procedural one. Procedural programmers code like procedural programmers. For this reason it's typically harder for people who started with a procedural language (like Blitz Basic) to learn how to structure programs in a proper object-oriented way. Sure they typically use classes and methods and also pick up some of the concepts. But still structure their program in the same procedural way.

Any modern game that is not built in an object-oriented langauge is either very small or that one exception to the rule. There is a reason why this is true. OOP helps with componetising and decoupling different sections of the game. This in turn helps in the long term with scaling and refactoring.

Second I don't consider Blitz Basic to be that much of a leap from FreeBasic, at least not when compared to other choices. If you want to try a different language I'd recommend trying something more mainstream.

Finally I recently made a short list of all the langauges I have used for projects. I consider myself to be an expert in Java, Ruby, VBScript and Blitz Basic. I have also written extensive amounts of TCL, Haskell, C#, PHP, JavaScript, C and VBA. To a lesser extent I have also written code in C++, Blitz Max and in various UNIX shells. Of them I easily consider Blitz Basix to be the worst language (yes, even worse then VBScript).

[Shockwave]

Gooner was sadly having trouble with learning Freebasic and he wanted to see some immediate results for his work I think which is why Blitz Basic appealed to him.

Gooners' motivation for learning to program was just to understand it a little, and not to write some ground breaking game. Gooner gave up before he tried Blitz, if he'd seen some more immediate results maybe he wouldn't have.

Anyway he deleted his own account and I don't stay in touch with him any more and as far as I know I don't think anyone else here is eiteher.

We cater for a large number of programming languages here and whenever someone comes along and wants to learn programming there is always a big discussion with lots of people saying "use this language because it will teach you the following skills... and it's really good at doing .... ".

The person can then make a decision for themselves from their own research and by considering the opinions of the programmers who answered their question.

The choice of programming language has to be an individual thing and nobody should say that it's wrong as long as it's what the person who's learning wants to learn it. It's thier own choice, luckilly we have enough experts with enough experience in enough languages to make sure that less than a fraction of a percent of programming questions asked here slip though the net unanswered.