are they beginner friendly? probably going to order the ios one!
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Programming |OT| C is better than C++! No, C++ is better than C
- Thread starter Kikarian
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are they beginner friendly? probably going to order the ios one!
BroDudeGuy
Member
Yeah, they're pretty beginner friendly. While not as dense with material as some other programming books I've read, they do a fantastic job of picking worthy topics and explaining them well.
I'd also recommend this book too, as it's become one of the standards for learning Objective C. http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-Edition-Developers-ebook/dp/B009YLIMCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358194934&sr=8-1&keywords=programming+objective+c
This book is twice as long and (at least the 4th edition which I own) walks you through designing an app in the end. I still refer to it occasionally. Download a sample of each book and see which caters to you more, can't go wrong with either one.
lorebringer
Member
I'm not a Haskell expert by any stretch of the imagination although I have some familiarity with the language. I'm not 100% certain on how you have your functions written but if g is extracting f(x) at some point then under the hood what should be happening is memoisation of results, which is a strength of functional languages in general. What you're describing sounds either like:
a) You call f before g in your test so g can access memoised results from f
b) The implementation of f is doing something weird that calling it via g is not triggering
c) Haskell is doing some sorcery under the hood related to tail recursion and/or lazy evaluation
Without seeing code I can't really offer any actual insight unfortunately!
thanks! i'll order that one as well.
Thanks for your answer. f(n,m) generates a list, I calculated it's order of growth and is about o((2^2^n)(m^2^n)) (yes, small 'o'). So, f isn't doing something that weird. I'm just amazed about the power of lazy evaluation. Sadly, I can't share the code.
And 100% sure it isn't memoisation.lorebringer
Member
Thanks for your answer. f(n,m) generates a list, I calculated it's order of growth and is about o((2^2^n)(m^2^n)) (yes, small 'o'). So, f isn't doing something that weird. I'm just amazed about the power of lazy evaluation. Sadly, I can't share the code.
Are you sure? A big part of the appeal of referential transparency in general is that the compiler knows that your code is able to be memoised automatically. But yeah lazy evaluation in general is an awesome property. So many problems can be expressed so cleanly when you can just define a list of things as an infinite series. Haskell is one of those languages that I'd love to see start making some inroads into the mainstream but a lot of programmers are scared off by the differences without really giving it a chance.
Yes, the system crashes for f (4, 2), yet g (k, 4, 2) works great. I also tried for values of n, m for which I never tried f(n,m) before and g worked fine, while f had no chance of running in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, I would the amount of memory needed to store f anywhere
.lorebringer
Member
And does g just straight up call f(x, y)? If so that does seem very odd.
Mr_Appleby
Member
lol, harsh man, harsh. I've noticed lately (at least on my PC) the eclipse self-extractor doesn't even work as some filenames are too long for the extracting tool- you need to use the jar extractor from the command line. it was raised as a bug and the comment was basically "it's not eclipse's fault"
i mean seriously.
BroDudeGuy
Member
Great! If you have any questions about iOS/Obj-C message me, I'll be happy to help.
Fantastical
Death Prophet
Okay this is kind of lame, but can I ask someone who has some kind of computer science / programming related job a few questions about written communication in the workplace? I just realized I had to do this for homework for a technical writing class, and I don't know anyone I can easily contact. They are lame/easy questions.
ComputerMKII
Banned
(nevermind)
You can PM me, if you still need someone.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
One of the better books I've used.. Especially good since the kindle version is cheaper.
On that note I really need to get used to the flow of using [object action] instead of object.action or object = action() (or whatever) in Objective-C. My typing flow does not like to accommodate the brackets like that. Bleh.
I keep running into this problem and I never seem to be able to figure it out, so I'm hoping Programming GAF can give me some much needed insight.
I'm aiming to become a game programmer and, one way or another, I've developed a focus in UI programming. One particular aspect of it that keeps cropping up is the problem of scope.
For example, a typical game will need a visual overlay that displays information about the game while it's running, as well as numerous menus that deal with level loading, item management, saved game files, options, etc. Frequently, these GUI elements will have to "talk" to each other as well, to determine who is open and who is closed, who should be hidden and who should be visible. The easy way to do this would be to make every collection of GUI elements a Singleton, and just give the rest of the game global access to all their relevant functions and members. Everything I've learned about programming tells me this is a bad idea.
The other option I've found is to have a centralized manager, something I typically name "GUIManager". The GUIManager handles all ordering and drawing of the menus and overlays, how they're nested, etc, and the GUI classes can stay blissfully ignorant of each other. The GUIManager also communicates with the rest of the game to determine what to draw and when, updating scores and hp bars and whatnot, all the while passing states to and from the GUI elements and the rest of the game. It's a solution, sure, but it's still messy and oftentimes I get the urge to say "fuck it" and just give LevelSelectGUIClass direct access to LevelLoaderClass.
What is the "proper" way to do this? By "proper" I mean "If I show it to a prospective employer he won't show me out the door".
I'm aiming to become a game programmer and, one way or another, I've developed a focus in UI programming. One particular aspect of it that keeps cropping up is the problem of scope.
For example, a typical game will need a visual overlay that displays information about the game while it's running, as well as numerous menus that deal with level loading, item management, saved game files, options, etc. Frequently, these GUI elements will have to "talk" to each other as well, to determine who is open and who is closed, who should be hidden and who should be visible. The easy way to do this would be to make every collection of GUI elements a Singleton, and just give the rest of the game global access to all their relevant functions and members. Everything I've learned about programming tells me this is a bad idea.
The other option I've found is to have a centralized manager, something I typically name "GUIManager". The GUIManager handles all ordering and drawing of the menus and overlays, how they're nested, etc, and the GUI classes can stay blissfully ignorant of each other. The GUIManager also communicates with the rest of the game to determine what to draw and when, updating scores and hp bars and whatnot, all the while passing states to and from the GUI elements and the rest of the game. It's a solution, sure, but it's still messy and oftentimes I get the urge to say "fuck it" and just give LevelSelectGUIClass direct access to LevelLoaderClass.
What is the "proper" way to do this? By "proper" I mean "If I show it to a prospective employer he won't show me out the door".
I'm definitely not a game programmer by any means, so take this with a grain of salt. A GUI Manager class isn't a terrible approach. Most of the game projects I've done have definitely had a large share of "Manager" classes that control all the large subsystems. However, you still run into the problem of how to tell parts of the GUI (health bars is a good example) that something needs changing. So your collision system detected that mario ran into a goomba. How does the drop in mario's health get communicated to the health meter?
Often times this is solved with an event system that uses a publish/subscribe model or something. So the GUI manager or some component of it can subscribe to the player health lost event, and when that event occurs it can update the health bar. And when the player loses health, a message is sent about it, but it doesn't know or care who is listening to that information. That's a common technique for keeping those components separate.
These days though, I think games are moving toward an entity/component architecture. I don't know enough about it, but there are a bunch of articles on it you can read (on gamedev.net and gamasutra)
Often times this is solved with an event system that uses a publish/subscribe model or something. So the GUI manager or some component of it can subscribe to the player health lost event, and when that event occurs it can update the health bar. And when the player loses health, a message is sent about it, but it doesn't know or care who is listening to that information. That's a common technique for keeping those components separate.
These days though, I think games are moving toward an entity/component architecture. I don't know enough about it, but there are a bunch of articles on it you can read (on gamedev.net and gamasutra)
UncleSporky
Member
Looking to get into "real" game making for the first time, i.e. producing a product that works on most people's systems and could potentially be sold through Steam. (Not that I expect it, of course.) I've done smaller hobbyist stuff for a long time though I'm rusty.
Should I dive into MonoGame, or is that a bad idea?
I like everything about Unity except it is not built for 2D games at all. XNA is dead (though tutorials and help for it would apply to MonoGame). DirectX by itself looks like a nightmare. SDL seems like it'd be a lot of work by comparison to most other things, but I haven't looked into it much.
EDIT: On further review, MonoGame appears to have some dependency on XNA 4 (.xnb files), so does it stand to reason that I might as well learn that for the time being? Is that wise at this point?
I'm just concerned that it takes me ages to accomplish anything and I don't want to be stuck using libraries that are 10 years out of date...unless that's actually acceptable and normal.
Should I dive into MonoGame, or is that a bad idea?
I like everything about Unity except it is not built for 2D games at all. XNA is dead (though tutorials and help for it would apply to MonoGame). DirectX by itself looks like a nightmare. SDL seems like it'd be a lot of work by comparison to most other things, but I haven't looked into it much.
EDIT: On further review, MonoGame appears to have some dependency on XNA 4 (.xnb files), so does it stand to reason that I might as well learn that for the time being? Is that wise at this point?
I'm just concerned that it takes me ages to accomplish anything and I don't want to be stuck using libraries that are 10 years out of date...unless that's actually acceptable and normal.
"These days though, I think games are moving toward an entity/component architecture. I don't know enough about it, but there are a bunch of articles on it you can read (on gamedev.net and gamasutra)"
I've never heard of this, thanks for the heads up.
EDIT: Ah, it seems to be the same structure used in Unity, I always liked it.
I've never heard of this, thanks for the heads up.
EDIT: Ah, it seems to be the same structure used in Unity, I always liked it.
Isn't GameMaker a good option? Pretty sure Hotline Miami was made with it and I think a lot of Vlambeer's games are made with it too (don't quote me on that)...
UncleSporky
Member
Oh man, Game Maker. I last looked into that so long ago, back when it was essentially a teaching tool and not really a viable platform. The only music you could use was MIDI and the entire engine froze for a split second every time the MIDI needed to loop. That kind of killed it for me back then. I'm sure it's better now.
But actually I found a book called XNA 4.0 Game Development By Example and I did the first exercise and it is extremely easy. I think I'll try this and MonoGame will be there for when it becomes too outdated, and the work in C# will be valuable if I move to Unity someday.
But actually I found a book called XNA 4.0 Game Development By Example and I did the first exercise and it is extremely easy. I think I'll try this and MonoGame will be there for when it becomes too outdated, and the work in C# will be valuable if I move to Unity someday.
Labombadog
Member
I want to create a program that counts how many digits are in an integer. For example, I enter: 256420
Output: 6 digits.
How would I do this?
I first converted the String into an Integer but don't know what to do next? Any help would be appreciated.
Output: 6 digits.
How would I do this?
I first converted the String into an Integer but don't know what to do next? Any help would be appreciated.
Code:
Scanner barCode = new Scanner(System.in);
String mCode = barCode.nextLine();
int decodeBarCode = Integer.parseInt(mCode);I want to create a program that counts how many digits are in an integer. For example, I enter: 256420
Output: 6 digits.
How would I do this?
I first converted the String into an Integer but don't know what to do next? Any help would be appreciated.
Code:Scanner barCode = new Scanner(System.in); String mCode = barCode.nextLine(); int decodeBarCode = Integer.parseInt(mCode);
You can just iterate through a string in a while loop with a counter.
Code:
while (i < s.length()) {
i++;
etc.
..
digits = i;Well the easiest way would be to count the length of the integer as a string.I want to create a program that counts how many digits are in an integer. For example, I enter: 256420
Output: 6 digits.
How would I do this?
I first converted the String into an Integer but don't know what to do next? Any help would be appreciated.
Code:Scanner barCode = new Scanner(System.in); String mCode = barCode.nextLine(); int decodeBarCode = Integer.parseInt(mCode);
Code:
public int GetLength(int number) {
return number.toString().length();
}Now if this is for a class, that might not be the intended solution. If you want a more mathematical approach, I would repeatedly divide the number by 10 (which chops off a digit) until there are no digits left, and return the number of times it took before that happened.
Code:
public int GetLength(int number) {
int result = 0;
while(number > 0) {
number = number / 10;
result = result + 1;
}
}Note the above code doesn't include reading in the string and converting it to an integer, like you've already done. And it doesn't include printing out the result.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
Why not:
Code:
public int GetLength(int number) {
int result = 0;
while(number > 0) {
number /= 10;
result++;
}
}Looks and reads neater.
Zoe
Member
Close.
Code:
public int GetLength(int number) {
int result = 0;
while(number > 0) {
number /= 10;
++result;
}
}(also forgot to return result)
I'm writing a java program that converts bases and I'm having trouble getting user input from the command line. I'm supposed to take a line such as
with the output being 1100100
Basically the first value is a given number(100), the second is the base of that number(10), and the third is the base of the value that I want it converted to(2). Specifically I'm having problems with the first value, because I have no idea how to pass it's conditions in the if statement (must be greater than 0 and less than 2^31 - 1 inclusive) given that the value is a string, and the conditions I'm trying to set on it are integers. (also unlike the two bases, parseInt is not allowed on the given number / value)
Code:
100 10 2with the output being 1100100
Basically the first value is a given number(100), the second is the base of that number(10), and the third is the base of the value that I want it converted to(2). Specifically I'm having problems with the first value, because I have no idea how to pass it's conditions in the if statement (must be greater than 0 and less than 2^31 - 1 inclusive) given that the value is a string, and the conditions I'm trying to set on it are integers. (also unlike the two bases, parseInt is not allowed on the given number / value)
Code:
public void input(String[] args) {
if(args[0] >= 0 && args[0] <= 2147483647){ // This right here is the problem
value = args[0];
}else{
System.out.println("Invalid input for the number you wish to convert.");
System.exit(0);
}
//do this for all 3 valuesI wanted to be clear because I wasn't sure how much Labombadog knows about programming. I probably shouldn't have even used a method.
lorebringer
Member
The reason this is failing is because you can't compare Strings to ints directly. The common way to do this in Java is to use exceptions:
Code:
public static void main(String[] args)
{
int value = 0;
try
{
value = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
}
catch(NumberFormatException e)
{
System.out.println("Invalid input for the number you wish to convert.");
System.exit(0);
}
//rest of numbers here, and then code to convert base
}This also has the benefit of handling inputs that aren't numbers at all as well as anything else weird that comes up.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
Close.
Code:public int GetLength(int number) { int result = 0; while(number > 0) { number /= 10; ++result; } }
(also forgot to return result)
Poop. Always somehow mix ++variable and variable++ when needed.
Good point. Though it doesn't hurt to learn the shorthand. *shrug*
theshizzle
Member
What's the difference?
BomberMouse
Member
One does the addition before returning and the other does the addition after returning.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
Code:
int x;
int y;
x = 1;
y = ++x; // x = 2, y = 2
y = x++; // x = 3, y = 2For practical purposes.
E̶d̶i̶t̶:̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶e̶l̶u̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶e̶.̶ ̶A̶n̶y̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶I̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶r̶e̶t̶u̶r̶n̶ ̶3̶ ̶c̶+̶+̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶l̶a̶s̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶n̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶n̶e̶a̶t̶l̶y̶?̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶m̶ ̶I̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶r̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶u̶n̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶?̶
Unless I return it as one string... Hmm....
Edit 2: duh return as a single string since it doesn't do much besides let you know what a current class name, number, and key are.
On third thought maybe it's best if I just return them separately..
theshizzle
Member
Thank you, this explains a lot, but in the context of result++ vs ++result, is one way better than the other?
Why don't you just call the function 3 times with the 3 different strings?
Anyone here neck deep in Scala?
If so, any tips/resources? I'm aware anything with Odersky's name attached is practically the gold standard, but anything else?
I'd be more specific, but we're only just getting rolling with it at my job, and most of us are still in the initial stages of picking up the language.
If so, any tips/resources? I'm aware anything with Odersky's name attached is practically the gold standard, but anything else?
I'd be more specific, but we're only just getting rolling with it at my job, and most of us are still in the initial stages of picking up the language.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
In the example posted with result, if result++ would be used, then the number of digits would be one off since it's already entering the while loop (since the digit length is > 0). ++result rectifies that.
theshizzle
Member
What? result++ and ++result would return the same number...wouldn't it?
++result increments then returns the new value.
result++ increments then returns the old value.
Zoe
Member
In other words, post-fix has to make a copy of x, so it is slightly costlier.
rooflapimp
Banned
Working on a program in Scheme that takes in a list of structures and then using that list of structures produces a function that processes a list of symbols into a number. Each structure is made up of a symbol, that will be in the second list consumed, and a number. This function produced has to turn the list of symbols into a number by assigning each symbol a value based on the previous structures. Using abstract list functions btw.
Example: ((function (list (make-value 'value1 10) (make-value 'value2 20)))
(list 'value1 'value2 'nothing 'value1)) would produce 40.
I have code that works for a list that is made up of only two structures originally but I'm not sure how to make that work for lists that go past 3 structures without cheesing it.
Example: ((function (list (make-value 'value1 10) (make-value 'value2 20)))
(list 'value1 'value2 'nothing 'value1)) would produce 40.
I have code that works for a list that is made up of only two structures originally but I'm not sure how to make that work for lists that go past 3 structures without cheesing it.
Thank you!
I'm taking a data structures class this semester, and I want to try and fully understand it beyond what they teach me. Can anyone recommend me some good data structure books/links. Also, if you could recommend me three programming books what would they be?I have heard great things about Code Complete 2 so I am purchasing that. I'm very excited because this is my last semester at my local community college. I will be transferring to a state school that has a solid reputation for computer science. I took a look at the classes I have to take and they all sound really awesome. I'm just trying to make sure that I am the best programmer I could be before transferring.
Introduction to Algorithms/Cormen etc. seems to be the standard since it introduces you to the basic data structures of various topics and algorithms to work on them.
Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al. is definitely the best book for data structures and algorithms imo. Also check out wikipedia, most of what I learned I got from there. Their articles on the subject are pretty good.
mugurumakensei
Member
If you really want a challenge, there is the Art of Computer Programming.
OK still working on my base conversion program and I have to figure out how to convert to and from up to base 35. I have the program running for when decimals are used and it works fine, but now I have to figure out how to both convert from and to special characters. (a through z)
For example, converting 42 base 10 to base 16 should return 2a and not 210.
Would anyone know how to do this without using of the likes of parseInt? (isn't allowed)
My best bet when pulling the numbers out of a string (such as "4deadc0d") is to use a scanner or loop to pull out the characters individually and find their given values. (haven't implemented it yet) But on the flipside, I'm not sure how to then convert back into the characters after getting the values out of them. Basically if think my idea might be able to convert from base 16 to base 10, but I'm unaware of how to convert from base 10 back into base 16. (basically get the values back into their letter form)
For example, converting 42 base 10 to base 16 should return 2a and not 210.
Would anyone know how to do this without using of the likes of parseInt? (isn't allowed)
My best bet when pulling the numbers out of a string (such as "4deadc0d") is to use a scanner or loop to pull out the characters individually and find their given values. (haven't implemented it yet) But on the flipside, I'm not sure how to then convert back into the characters after getting the values out of them. Basically if think my idea might be able to convert from base 16 to base 10, but I'm unaware of how to convert from base 10 back into base 16. (basically get the values back into their letter form)
Mitochondrion
Member
I'm going to be learning C#. Biggest annoyance is that C# is not cross-platform unlike Java. I'm a Mac user. There's no C# IDE for Mac users. So I have two options. 1. Install boot camp to run Windows. 2. Run virtualisation software. I'm more interested in option 2. Any recommendation for virtualisation apps? I've heard of Parallel, VMWare and Virtual Box. I'm don't know too much about these things. Which are the best, most reliable, run smoothly, etc etc?
Randolph Freelander
Member
I'm a Windows user so I haven't tried it, but you might want to try MonoDevelop. Might not get you completely where you need to be for your classwork, but I imagine it will get you far enough.
I haven't used it personally, but you may want to check the following out: http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page