E-Newsletter?

[eatcomics]

Moosader said yes on my article, although the competition has been pushed back 2 weeks so it will be a while until I finish it... And yes I'm interested in OOP and Time vs. Frame based events

[aamesxdavid]

Moosader said yes on my article, although the competition has been pushed back 2 weeks so it will be a while until I finish it... And yes I'm interested in OOP and Time vs. Frame based events

Awesome, I don't think the wait will be a problem, as writing interest is still pretty minimal. I'm sure after the first issue is out more people will jump on, but for now it's just you, Falco, and myself with a confirmed article.

So come on guys, even if it's just a review of a game, or a noob tutorial, you know you want to be in the first issue.

[Ginto8]

If I can find the time, I'll try to do an article about go and concurrent programming. IDK how good it will be and if I'll have enough time to really make it though.

[cndr]

I'm still debating with myself whether or not to write an article, I started one that basically describes how my chess game works, but the program is not that complicated so I don't know how many people would learn anything from it.

[XianForce]

I'm still debating with myself whether or not to write an article, I started one that basically describes how my chess game works, but the program is not that complicated so I don't know how many people would learn anything from it.

Honestly, I'd say do it. The people here have a wide variety of experience, so I'm sure someone will get something out of your article.

Oh, and due to the recent E3, someone could write on that =D.

EDIT:
I also have a some C++ and some SDL (text) tutorials, so I could beef them up and throw them in if you'd like. Just let me know, and I'll prepare one...

Not sure if I should go with the C++ (considering it seems most people around here are pretty adept with it), or the SDL (which most people seem to shun, in favor of SFML...)

[ismetteren]

When is it appropriate to make a class member public vs. when should they be private? When is privatizing class members just completely unnecessary?

I know this is offtopic, but i wanted to answer your question.

There might be different opinions on this, but i say use getters and setters all the time. The reason is that you should program to an interface, not an implementation. When you get a value by accessing a member in a class, you are assuming that the class actaully stores that member, when you use a function, the class could get the value in anyway it wanted: Read from a file, get from a network, compute it etc. It makes it easier to change the implementation of a module, without having to rewrite everything. Also if you actually use interfaces(like in Java) you cant use members and you have to use functions.

Maybe this should be moved to a new topic?

[XianForce]

Oh just as a suggestion for articles for the more seasoned developers here, here's two things I know I'd enjoy:


*Controlling States of a Program - I mean, I've made simple state machines and what not, but I end up having trouble when I start surpassing it's power, so I'd very much enjoy to see an article on this.

and

*Something about how libGyro keeps everything cross platform =D

[Ginto8]

*Controlling States of a Program - I mean, I've made simple state machines and what not, but I end up having trouble when I start surpassing it's power, so I'd very much enjoy to see an article on this.

What exactly do you mean? I'm asking because state machines for large programs tend to be very use-specific, though there is the general pattern of a globally accessible var to get/set the state.

[XianForce]

*Controlling States of a Program - I mean, I've made simple state machines and what not, but I end up having trouble when I start surpassing it's power, so I'd very much enjoy to see an article on this.

What exactly do you mean? I'm asking because state machines for large programs tend to be very use-specific, though there is the general pattern of a globally accessible var to get/set the state.

Well, all the different things that go into like:

Singleton States vs Non-Singleton States

Handling the Deallocation of States (Like if you wanted to switch to the PreviousState, you'd better hope the memory wasn't deallocated)

Since you'll likely have a base state class, what about passing parameters into the state? Like if you had a Single Player and Versus Mode, you'll probably have all the same pieces, with just a player added to whatever handles the players, you probably don't want two separate states, instead you'd just want to pass a parameter... But since you'd want to use virtual functions, how would fair?


Just different general issues haha.

[Arce]

Anybody have their articles drafted yet? Any submissions?

To my experience, you've gotta get on people's asses to get anything done. But in this case, it'll be worth it. ;p

[Moosader]

I just now noticed this thread :P
So how do we sign up for the newsletter?

[eatcomics]

I have a rough outline in my head, been meaning to get started, just haven't :P the competition is still going on so I couldn't finish it.... actually isn't sunday the deadline moosie?

[aamesxdavid]

To my experience, you've gotta get on people's asses to get anything done. But in this case, it'll be worth it. ;p

I'm all about pushing to get things done, but we need people to push first. (AKA people to confirm that they'll write something)

I believe Falco is working on an article, as per his last post, eatcomics is writing about the competition, which simply isn't over yet. And I'll certainly write something, if only to get more content into the first issue. It would be awesome to feature a community project, but someone would need to volunteer here, as I don't find it prudent to spam the respective threads recruiting (though I am sometimes tempted).

So how do we sign up for the newsletter?

Good question. That kind of depends on how everyone would like to be informed. For now, all content related to the newsletter can go to aamesxdavid@gmail.com. I can certainly send them from there for anyone who wants to be updated by e-mail. Or I could host them, and we could just have a thread linking to the issues? We'll probably want to do that either way, just so people have access to previous issues.

And once again, not everything has to be code-related. We want this to be at least somewhat representative of the entire community, which includes all aspects of development, and even just general game discussion. You could write a review on a game if you'd like.

Do it.

[Moosader]

I have a rough outline in my head, been meaning to get started, just haven't :P the competition is still going on so I couldn't finish it.... actually isn't sunday the deadline moosie?

Aye, the compo is now done! I need to post a video...

I'd like emails to go to RachelJMorris@gmail.com :P

[Arce]

I am still undecided on what my topic shall be. But expect my article sometime next week (in the aftermath of the weekend's dev-a-thon. ;p)