Yes, Vriginia, there is an art to coding. Yes, it is possible to produce beautiful code under Windows (Quake 3 anyone?), but the crucial difference, I think, lies in the availability of the IDE, language, and supporting bells and whistles used to develop programs.
Windows Programming It is pretty easy to write a program. You can attach bits of code to shiny little buttons that say "Hello World!" a thousand different ways. However, Microsoft's desire to generate computers that trained monkeys can operate means that their development tools, regrettably best-suited to working on the Win32 platform, are similarly dumbed-down. This doesn't mean that one has to create sloppy code or bug-filled programs, but Visual Studio and its ilk just make it easier to do so.
Linux For the programming novice, Linux is a nightmare. There's no real way to read the "user's manual" and jump right into coding. Yes, the manuals are all there, and there's plenty of reference information, but for the trained-monkey set, they are too difficult to find. Coding in Linux conforms to standards (such as they are) and forces that programmers learn to effectively use those standards in writing their programs. The lazy programmer cannot function in the same way in a Linux environment without being forced to evolve and learn how to code like a real programmer.
In short... Windows caters to lazy programmers and psuedo-programmers who wish to learn as they go, while Linux requires that one learn how to do things by the book. I'll take Linux any day. AfroNinja
I haven't read all of the posts on here (because I'm a lazy ninja), but I feel compelled to stuff my opinion down everyone's throats.
I have always been of the opinion that programming is the newest form of sorcery around. With a computer, you can emulate states of mind, create personages and automatons, and change the very nature of reality. There is nothing quite as magical as a piece of code written by a caring and careful programmer.
Right now, I'm barely an apprentice. Hell, my web site is but a skeleton of what it could (at some point) be. I'm trying to learn Perl so that I can create things of value, maybe learn PHP and a half-a-dozen other things, but my main goal is to be able to make my visions come to life.
Any programming language, be it POV-Ray's scripting "language" to the highest orders of C++, can be a way to make magic happen. It's just a matter of knowing the proper chants and incantations to get there.
I just want to be a magician of the first order. I want to have a vision and be able to bring it to a loving existance with a minimum of headaches. There's where the magic lies. AfroNinja
It seems to me that if you want to be assured of your privacy, then your best bet is to unplug your phone line, draw the blinds over your windows, don't purchase anything (because they can track what you buy with those insidious cash registers), and go live in a cabin in the mountains.
The fact that you connect to the internet at all is a statement to the rest of the world that you wish to be a part of the interconnected network that the internet is, and by doing so, be it with a web browser, ftp client, or multiplayer game, you are giving implicit consent for those providers of internet services to make sure that what they provide is of value to you.
Don't get me wrong. I'm no fan of the "information collectors" who use every means possible to determine just how they can intrude on your life to get you to buy stupid stuff like groceries and viagra. However, I also know that it's unreasonable to expect that I can maintain anonymity on the internet.
You speak of loss of trust, and yet it seems that you never had that trust in the first place. As the writers of software, I would imagine that it is in the best interests of not only Id software but the gaming community at large for some information to be collected about just how functional the game is proving to be. If they realize, for instance, that the 3dfx drivers are giving problems, then they can opt to release a patch that addresses that problem. This makes it much easier for the gaming community to benefit from the attention to detail for which Id is known.
In short, if you have problems with "privacy violations" on the internet, then don't go online and your privacy is assured.
I think that you are both right and wrong. There are a number of useful tools out there that could be used to produce very viable games for Linux, but the problem is not in the possibilities for creating games. The problem lies in the simplicity of doing so.
There are coders out there who will create programs simply for the challenge of doing so, but by and large, there are far more programmers out there who would rather have a comprehensive set of development tools that allow their creativity to be what runs the show, and not their need to constantly dicker with the "quirks" of a given tool or operating system.
I have recently been experimenting with programming on different platforms, and I have discovered that no matter how you feel about Microsoft, there are far too many useful tools written for Win32 that just don't exist for other operating systems. Yes, those tools are no doubt on the horizion, but they don't exist right now, and that's what stands in the way of a real explosion of real focused game programming on Linux and other operating systems.
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Yes, Vriginia, there is an art to coding. Yes, it is possible to produce beautiful code under Windows (Quake 3 anyone?), but the crucial difference, I think, lies in the availability of the IDE, language, and supporting bells and whistles used to develop programs.
... Windows caters to lazy programmers and psuedo-programmers who wish to learn as they go, while Linux requires that one learn how to do things by the book.
Windows Programming
It is pretty easy to write a program. You can attach bits of code to shiny little buttons that say "Hello World!" a thousand different ways. However, Microsoft's desire to generate computers that trained monkeys can operate means that their development tools, regrettably best-suited to working on the Win32 platform, are similarly dumbed-down.
This doesn't mean that one has to create sloppy code or bug-filled programs, but Visual Studio and its ilk just make it easier to do so.
Linux
For the programming novice, Linux is a nightmare. There's no real way to read the "user's manual" and jump right into coding. Yes, the manuals are all there, and there's plenty of reference information, but for the trained-monkey set, they are too difficult to find. Coding in Linux conforms to standards (such as they are) and forces that programmers learn to effectively use those standards in writing their programs. The lazy programmer cannot function in the same way in a Linux environment without being forced to evolve and learn how to code like a real programmer.
In short
I'll take Linux any day.
AfroNinja
I haven't read all of the posts on here (because I'm a lazy ninja), but I feel compelled to stuff my opinion down everyone's throats.
I have always been of the opinion that programming is the newest form of sorcery around. With a computer, you can emulate states of mind, create personages and automatons, and change the very nature of reality. There is nothing quite as magical as a piece of code written by a caring and careful programmer.
Right now, I'm barely an apprentice. Hell, my web site is but a skeleton of what it could (at some point) be. I'm trying to learn Perl so that I can create things of value, maybe learn PHP and a half-a-dozen other things, but my main goal is to be able to make my visions come to life.
Any programming language, be it POV-Ray's scripting "language" to the highest orders of C++, can be a way to make magic happen. It's just a matter of knowing the proper chants and incantations to get there.
I just want to be a magician of the first order. I want to have a vision and be able to bring it to a loving existance with a minimum of headaches. There's where the magic lies.
AfroNinja
It seems to me that if you want to be assured of your privacy, then your best bet is to unplug your phone line, draw the blinds over your windows, don't purchase anything (because they can track what you buy with those insidious cash registers), and go live in a cabin in the mountains.
The fact that you connect to the internet at all is a statement to the rest of the world that you wish to be a part of the interconnected network that the internet is, and by doing so, be it with a web browser, ftp client, or multiplayer game, you are giving implicit consent for those providers of internet services to make sure that what they provide is of value to you.
Don't get me wrong. I'm no fan of the "information collectors" who use every means possible to determine just how they can intrude on your life to get you to buy stupid stuff like groceries and viagra. However, I also know that it's unreasonable to expect that I can maintain anonymity on the internet.
You speak of loss of trust, and yet it seems that you never had that trust in the first place. As the writers of software, I would imagine that it is in the best interests of not only Id software but the gaming community at large for some information to be collected about just how functional the game is proving to be. If they realize, for instance, that the 3dfx drivers are giving problems, then they can opt to release a patch that addresses that problem. This makes it much easier for the gaming community to benefit from the attention to detail for which Id is known.
In short, if you have problems with "privacy violations" on the internet, then don't go online and your privacy is assured.
I think that you are both right and wrong. There are a number of useful tools out there that could be used to produce very viable games for Linux, but the problem is not in the possibilities for creating games. The problem lies in the simplicity of doing so.
There are coders out there who will create programs simply for the challenge of doing so, but by and large, there are far more programmers out there who would rather have a comprehensive set of development tools that allow their creativity to be what runs the show, and not their need to constantly dicker with the "quirks" of a given tool or operating system.
I have recently been experimenting with programming on different platforms, and I have discovered that no matter how you feel about Microsoft, there are far too many useful tools written for Win32 that just don't exist for other operating systems. Yes, those tools are no doubt on the horizion, but they don't exist right now, and that's what stands in the way of a real explosion of real focused game programming on Linux and other operating systems.