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Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 16:53:22 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
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Subject: Re: programming
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I apologize for the rather massive delay.  My various internet providers
were all physically routed through World Trade Seven, which thankfully was
the worst of my directly-life-affecting problems in that event (I know a
couple of people who were inside, but they made it out).  I'll spare
everyone a rehash of what has already been said on that topic.

Magnus Olsson wrote:

> In article <3B9CF68B.A71B94C1@csi.com>,
> John Colagioia  <JColagioia@csi.com> wrote:
> >What you're going to find (as many before you have found)
> >is that IF is not a good example to learn programming in languages not
> >designed to support such work
> I don't really agree with that. If your objective is to learn to
> program in language X, an IF project may very well be a good idea,
> since it will involve lots of different problem areas: text
> processing, output formatting, parsing, simulation (when building the
> world model), perhaps encryption (if you want to deter cheaters),
> complex data structures, and other things.

I don't disagree with what you're saying.  However, if you're "just"
learning a language (that is, you have recently started delving in, with
little to know base programming experience), then the "deep end of the
pool" approach might be more discouraging than anything else.


> What's generally agreed on, however, is that if your goal is to write
> an IF game, you're better off with a language like TADS or Inform
> where others have already done a lot of the dirty work.

This is very true.  Well, unless you're interested in the dirty work.  But
that was sort of your point in the previous bit.


