Off-Topic Discussion > Programming

Choosing a programming project

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Fury:
What kind of process do you go through when you choose your next programming project and how do existing similar projects factor in to that process? If you have figured out anything that has made the process easier for you, it'd be nice if you could share your thoughts. :)

Flipside:
Heh, if I knew the answer to this one, I might actually get a project started ;)

Seriously though, the first thing I tend to do is just write down what I want it to do, I've had some ideas that are great in theory, but when it comes to writing down how things would work in practice, I suddenly find brick walls that I never knew were there.

With regards to similar projects, it's that thin line between inspiration and emulation, as it were, some methodologies in games make so much sense in certain circumstances that it is almost impossible not to use something similar, the hard part is implementing it in a way that enhances or expands on the original implementation.

Also, personal competence comes into it in my case. I'd love to write a computer game, but if I did, it would be 2D Top-Down (or possibly isometric) graphics, because (a) I lack the mathematical and technical knowledge to go 3D and (b) I personally would rather concentrate my energies on coding a game engine than a graphics one, so the less effort I need to put into one thing, the more I have spare to put into another.

The hard part is always trying to find a compromise between my vision and my ability ;)

emkay:
Although being C/C++ software developer in work, I never did a programming project in my freetime so far (apart from some few code line tryouts).

That is mainly because for every little task for which I thought "hey, I could try that on my own", someone had already done that in some more or less fancy open source (or other type of freeware) project.

Sometimes, however, I think it would be great to get involved in some open source project, but then again the big question is: IN WHICH ONE?

For now, I decided to gently start setting small footsteps into the Freespace SCP. But then again, it comes down to having time and leisure and getting to know the code - and the SCP has quite some code lines... :nervous:


To give this post some reason (or not): If anyone has some recommendations on what I could try out (whether in the SCP or not), go ahead. My only personal constraint is: It should not be too time-consuming or urgent, as I really don't have as much time as I'd like to...

Goober5000:

--- Quote from: emkay on January 20, 2015, 03:14:43 pm ---To give this post some reason (or not): If anyone has some recommendations on what I could try out (whether in the SCP or not), go ahead. My only personal constraint is: It should not be too time-consuming or urgent, as I really don't have as much time as I'd like to...
--- End quote ---

Glad you asked. :)  You should check out this thread, in particular this post.  And don't worry that FSO has such a large codebase.  It is divided up into sections, and most of the sections can be understood on their own without needing to know about other sections.

emkay:
Thanks for the hint, Goober5000, already been there before.

Though that is really a thoroughly detailed description on where and how to start with Mantis and SVN, I still have the feeling that most bugs reported are either very exotic and hard to reproduce (isn't it always...?) or you need extensive knowledge of the code to fix them properly. (But to be honest, I didn't actually check that many bugs recently.)

So, my problem is really, that some SCP expert would need to give me some guidance like "you may try fixing this bug here...".
But of course, I'm well aware that if others would ask the same, no one would actually get any work done.

So in the end, I just need to convince myself of doing what many others have obviously done before: Getting to know the code on my own.

I should note that my work experience is mostly in the area of embedded programming. Hence, I never dealt with shaders, game engines or anything the like. But if you like to get FS running on a 125 MHz microcontroller without graphics or command bash, then I'm your guy.  :pimp:

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