Warts and All

The Jargon File's definition of the term "wart" is:

"A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an otherwise clean design. Something conspicuous for localized ugliness, especially a special-case exception to a general rule."

Object-Oriented

Object-Oriented design and programming stands at times as confusing and\ or theoretical at best. Even greatly-experienced coders find themselves muttering "What the *$%& ?" occasionally, lost in a self-created world of classes, objects, and callbacks. The below paragraphs were taken from a programming forum and briefly explain a simple manner in which to view some of these areas of contention:

Originally Posted by Poisos (unedited)

Think of classes as your BLUEPRINTS for later manufactured objects! In your class definition you describe how you would build i.e. a car ... but since then there is no real car, right(only the pice of paper with your blueprint on it)? So you have to build a car according to this BP. This is done by making an instance of it.In Python: myCar = blueprint_of_a_car()

Now the little "data elves" in your computer actually build a car named "myCar". Now you would be able to drive that car or accellerate it and so an (ever drove a blueprint !?). This brings us to inheritance and polymorphism. If you would like to build a new car with special tires, seats or a different motor you wouldn't design a whole new car, now would you? Instead you would just change your motor or your tires and leave the rest as it is.

This is done by creating a new class (or blueprint) which inherits all the attributes and methods from your original car class (copy all information of your original blueprint to another) and then overrides the information i. e. of the type of motor what should be in the car (erase the data of your motor on
your copied blueprint and specify another one).

The Unexpected

Today I thought I would have a lazy Saturday of fooling around with more graphics work with Photoshop, perhaps. I actually ended up working on a RNG and test statements to check loading elements of the game, and considered error-checking code for future use. I wrote psuedo-code outlining logic areas for the RNG and loading elements. By doing this, I possibly answered some questions posed in development so far such as how to load randomly-called images (RNG) into prepositioned widgets upon the screen.

Progress

Made some decent progress today in the Python project: much research led to some simple yet important steps which has taken the GUI from rough to less rough, which at this point is acceptable and quite exciting. Most of the work today consisted of graphical work for the GUI, images edited and built in Photoshop. This topped off a week of chipping away
here and there-- and more to come.

A GUI Direction

My initial challenge of the Python GUI interface has been solved! Thanks to help from a group of DaniWeb (** see link bar) coders, I have been able to create the initial background and 1st-layer image inlay. The code is working and will serve as a fine template for what I need to continue with. Thank-you DaniWeb!

Py for Today

Python is a vast language. This is not generally portrayed as such even in many coding communities, but none-the-less, this language is deep. Some consider it almost too "simple" to be of much use, but the more I dig the more I find.

In regards to this current project, a game using a GUI interface, the logic of the game itself is not of any concern yet, but the understanding and control of the visual representation of the game is a whole other story. It is challenging in a fun way, actually, and there is much to play with. "Much" being many modules from different sources that do similar and at times very different things in the handling of graphics to the screen. "What are you trying to do?" asks Python: view images, animation, file manipulation, enhancement... Python and its libraries will be able to do it for you. The key is taking the time to research and experiment with these modules in order to find exactly what you are seeking.

I have been trying alot of things today in Python (while I listen to hours of Iron Maiden) in order to get the system to respond to code, hence, rendering to the screen my visual image for this 2D game. I have had some very interesting results which excites me, but... I have not figured it out yet. I cannot wait to begin writing the logic code and working on the NPC A.I..

Neu News

Two new projects (one major, one minor) have begun:

I have been hired as a programmer with a video game company located in the Western United States; development has just started and no code has yet been written. The company is still obtaining the engine for this project and we do not yet know the language and specs of the project. The game will be made for the Nintendo Wii and should be released within two-years.

I have also started a small project written in Python. This is simply meant as an extended exercise in OOP, honing skills and syntax in order to be even more prepared when the professional job officially begins and the code starts being compiled.

-NueDev is a technical log of current programming projects focusing on the languages of C++ and Python-