ID:808851
 
Hello BYOND Community, I was just wondering how did y'all learn to program? The way I learned was looking at ripped naruto source trying to edit them lol. I remember when I use to go on YouTube / Google and search how to code for BYOND. I was self taught, and over the years I got better. I'm actually still learning new things and how to code things an easier way. So back to the original question, how did you learn?
I used resources and F1. I used ripped sources at first, but in the end they only taught me bad habits that I had to get rid of. Shove those habits now, you'll practically have to re-learn DM anyways.
The reference, from friends, that's pretty much it. When I started with BYOND I didn't have regular internet access, so the only resource I had at the time was the built in help file. From that, I used the examples to learn the basic structure of the language and to start putting together simple games. After about a year of that, my family got AOL and I started browsing the forums and made a couple friends who were good programmers. They ended up teaching me a lot by including me in their projects and letting me bug them about things I didn't understand.
Before I came to BYOND, I had prior experience with programming, so it was quite easy for me to adapt to the language. All I ever used was F1.
I used F1, but didn't really understand it at all due to the fact of me being 11 lol. I used to copy and paste the example from F1 and tried to figure it out. But now, its really easy to understand anything DM related, read threw it like a book.
I'm going to assume you mean programming in DM, because I basically learned to program before I came to BYOND. With DM, I mostly learned on my own, but I met someone here who helped me a lot. (Kaioken is his key, and he's all but disappeared.) After I understood most of the language, I used that guy for help a lot. I had all sorts of bad habits, because I taught myself, and I was pointed to the DM Reference (which is a quick read, really) and other guides that helped me out, like the Green Programming article and others by Lummox JR. IainPreregrine also had a webpage on his member page that introduced the parent_type to me, which I found mighty useful.

The funniest thing, which now seems to me as ridiculously obvious, is I didn't know the difference between:
if (X)
//stuff1
else
if (Y)
//stuff2

and
if (X)
//stuff1
else if (Y)
//stuff2

It's an important distinction to make for certain programming schemes, but I didn't know the difference starting out. Haha.

EDIT: Also, yes, I taught myself off of ripped sources originally. Like the Dragonball Zeta source, for example. It's really not a good idea to learn from. (And Kaioken couldn't stress that to me enough.)
Zilal tutorials and then a bunch of demos/sources. I learned how to do AI from one of Falacy's demos, missile() from DivineTraveller's demo, Calus CoRPS taught me some stuff over the pager or in one of those chatrooms ( the one before the Saloon, I can't remember the name ), and the rest I learned how to do was from the Dragon Ball Elysium source.

I saw the DM guide, it was tl;dr ( I didn't even make it past chapter 1 of that thing ), so I found every other way possible to figure out how to do stuff.
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.
In response to Stephen001
Stephen001 wrote:
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.

Don't think you can program. Know you can program.
In response to Stephen001
Stephen001 wrote:
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.

Win ^^ Lol .
In response to EmpirezTeam
EmpirezTeam wrote:
Stephen001 wrote:
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.

Don't think you can program. Know you can program.

I know I can't icon :C
Well, for me it started during late 2008. At first I went to the DM Guide, read the first few chapters, but soon became too perplexing for my thirteen year old mind. So I went on Youtube and found an interesting playlist of tutorials from someone named Theriddler. After that I read Zilal's tutorials, browsed through a few great demos & libraries, abused the F1 function, and that's basically the gist.
It was my first time programming, and it has really helped me pick up languages like Python, Java, and C++ easily. It's too bad I've never shown what I could do with DM. Oh well, hopefully one day.
Vermilion taught me some basics, gave up on me, then I used the DM guide.
I started learning using Zilals tutorials and reading the DM guide. Then, figuring that I learned better by reading Zilals I got into using sources to learn. That is how I learned all the basics anyway. After I learned all I could from ripped sources, I went through the BYOND forums, and the DM guide, and the DM reference, and learned things as I needed them. Doing this took a long time to undo most of the damage that the ripped sources caused on my learning though. Some of it still sticks every now and then.
What is Zilal's tutorials?
In response to Flysbad
Flysbad wrote:
What is Zilal's tutorials?

Look here: http://zilal.byondhome.com/tutorials/zbt.html
Its very basic, just trying to get you introduced into the basics of the DM language.
OH YEAH! I remember looking at that too .
I started to learn from an RPG demo that I think Kunark made, and then used the F1 reference/forums to learn the rest.

It looks like he took it down, which I guess is good because I don't think it was particularly high-quality code. Now I'm curious if I have a copy in one of my archives.
I learned by trial and error, when I came across something I couldn't quite get I'd search the forums and ask a question if I couldn't find something helpful.

As for other languages, if I needed to know how to do something I'd Google it and usually find a good answer -- if not I'd figure it out on my own.
I didn't.
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