Thread: My Story

Greetings to anyone reading this, and thanks for taking the time to look at the story of a new member!

My interest in joining this community has arisen from a recent learning curve in the direction of Java. Being fluent in C++, and BASIC based languages has led me to feel like there has been a gap in my knowledge. Due to this, around 2 months ago I set out on my journey to conquer the structure and feel of Java, and having done some research and experimentation, have found Eclipse IDE to suit me the best.

My fuel for programming knowledge is fed by my need to create something people will enjoy to play - and play is exactly that, I enjoy programs with purpose, goals, stories. In other words, my drive is the gaming world.

I delved into this side of programming initially with a BASIC based program called DarkBASIC. This was a good start, as the high level commands made it far easier to not get stuck in the nitty-gritty details associated with efficiency and threading. However, getting the hang of that nature left me stuck after a while - higher level commands made coding simpler and faster, but left the depth of the program out of my control. I sought after another path at this point.

Everyone knows or knows of C, even outside of the programming world, puns and hatred towards the geeky society all contain twists and insults based on this language. It seemed inevitable that it be the next language I learn in order to achieve a higher level of control over what I write. Learning the basics of C soon led me onto the more familiar object orientated structure of C++, and after a lot of time and effort (and missed coursework assignments for my A levels) spent learning this I discovered a handy little (exaggeration) package called SDL. Simple Direct Media gave me the tools to draw what I wanted on the screen, and control 2D movements along with events handling, and audio. I never quite advanced onto OpenGL, since I can honestly say I've never gone as advanced as to try a 3D project. My 3-dimensional maths (vectors no less) is fine due to the A levels I took, but it's something I'm yet to try, I don't doubt that I will though!

That brings me to the '2 months ago' mentioned in my first paragraph. Having heard of Java and knowing of it (while never delving into its contents), I decided to do the latter. Here I am, 2 months later, juggling my time spent on my personal projects with my Chemical Engineering degree, trying to make my sprite handling class as efficient as possible!

This community seems like a friendly place to talk about things I am currently doing, and may be doing in the future, while communicating different ideas and absorbing other people's opinions. That's my story, and that's why I will probably be here for a very long time.

Nice meeting you all, I look forward to reading any replies or comments anyone might have, as you might imagine my time spent active is quite a big proportion of the day

Happy coding everyone

M3ss1ah (M3ssy)