[Coco] Programming advice (might be a can of worms...)

[Brian Blake]

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated.

The good news is, today I found out I don't need surgery, but, I'm still
looking at into the fall before my hand will be fully healed.

Steve; you're quite correct - I haven't done much actual computer
programming. My crowned jewels to date are: a program to test bluetooth
speed and reliability on a CoCoNet Serial pak and a lottery number
generator. Neither of which use graphics.

So, I guess I'm going to do the following; I had wanted to add a 'ball
machine' to my lotto number program to make it look like the machines on TV,
so I'm going to try to tackle that. I still have toms to learn before I get
to that point, but, at least it's a set goal now...


Brian


On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 12:32 AM, Steve Bjork <6809er at srbsoftware.com>wrote:

> We need to know your level of programming skills.  But from the sound of
> it, you have not  done much,  if any.
>
> In that case BASIC is a good starting point.  Aaron already pointed out,
> BASIC does not teach you bad programing.  It's very limited on what it can
> do.  That's what good about BASIC, there is not a lot to learn.  (This is
> the reason why it was on almost every computer back in the 80's.)
>
> As for coding in Assembly, it takes a lot of code to do very little.  You
> are working at the base level of the computer and really need to know just
> how everything works.  To put graphics on the screen you need to know how
> the memory, CPU, I/O Ports and graphics systems work on the hardware level.
>  That's why there are so few Assembly programmers out there for the CoCo.
>  If it was easy, everyone would do it.
>
> Once you learn BASIC then other programming system are much easier to
> understand.  You just need to start somewhere.
>
> Steve Bjork
>
>
> On 4/26/2011 7:01 PM, Brian Blake wrote:
>
>> Good evening everybody,
>>
>> Looking for a little advice. Since my soldering hand is out of commission
>> for the foreseeable future, and pending a possible surgery, I'm looking to
>> spend some time taking on a long overdue (for me) CoCo subject -
>> programming.
>>
>> I can write a little in basic; might even be able to create a small game
>> if
>> I spent enough time. However, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just jump head
>> first into ML? I've heard BASIC tends to teach bad habits, and I have
>> enough
>> of them ;-)...
>>
>> Thoughts or opinions from the coding gurus would be much appreciated. My
>> coding background consists of the following: AutoLISP for AutoCAD,
>> tinkered
>> with Python and been heavy into HTML for the last two years or so.
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>
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