OCUK programming project?

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Hello All,

Just wondered if anyone is up for working on a project on here? Would be a bit of fun and help us all sharpen up our skills? Perhaps as a mini "intro" to programming for the younger members?

Perhaps people could post up suggestions and we could have a think about which one to run with?

Would be cool if it was forum related (E.g. we could write something that generates usage statistics for the different sub-boards?)

Just a suggestion.

Cheers

D A N G E R S T A T

 

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Thanks for the responses guys. I think it'd be a good idea to start off with something pretty trivial and high level to see how it goes - and with a language (perhaps Perl?) which anyone can pick up in no time - and see how it goes.

I'd be happy to act as a co-coordinator with someone else?

My areas are C/C++ & Java & Perl primarily - but working knowledge of all sorts of other bits and bobs.

 

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I nominate a game.


Air, land and sea combat. Like Battlefield / Operation Flashpoint but with every unit modelled to study sim level. Infantry, helicopters, jets, subs e.t.c.

A game would be pretty harsh, lots of the guys / gals on here are still at college so it'd be nice to keep it accessible IMO.

The reason I suggested something OCUK forum related is that we know we all have that in common.

 

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I imagine usage statistics would already be available from within VB (if not hidden away for the admins only).

Depending on what project people want to make I might be able to lend a hand. My experience is mainly in PHP, C# and SQL (mainly MSSQL nowadays, but MySQL as well).

I think a game might be quite hard going. I've been trying to get my head around XNA recently and it's not an easy task (despite the framework being very good).

I think they aren't included on vB but if they are then we can still do other cool stuff with the forums I think. A bit of PhP skill would be very useful, not bad at it here but no where near able to say I have significant experience with it

 

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So that's only*

C++
C#
VB.Net
J#
COBOL
lolcode
Pascal
APL
Oz
Perl
Python
Scheme
Small Talk
Eiffel
Forth
Fortran
Haskell

Wow, pretty limited then!



*I'm sure I've missed out a load...

Pfft if you're IDE isn't Emacs it's all fail :/

 

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What about a programming workshop, the idea is you make poll and people vote on a language they want to learn, then recommend a book and everyone works thought it, 1 or 2 chapters a week and if they get stuck they can ask for help for a particular chapter and the wise owls make up exercises to.

Heres a c++ that was done - http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/forum.asp?forum_id=76

Just an idea..

Nice idea Choas, I think the problem is (as happens in this thread a bit) that people dont know where to start, they get scared when you mention c++. But I think thats a top idea. I think I'd like to start with knowing what people want to do, that's how I started. Once you know what it is you want, it makes everything else seem easy

 

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Good to see you in here apeZ! Getting more in there to learn is the key bit, thanks for coming along.

 

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What about team based competitions? We pair together experienced coders with newbies, and have the experienced coders sort of mentor the newbie coders, then everybody has a good laugh when their programs fall over when being judged?

Good idea mate, the problem is that we differ so much,what I know isn't what others know. But if we keep it simple then we all learn. Cool idea though mate

 

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Ok, to make it accessible I would go for Java. As it's got a use in the real world, the SDK & IDE support is very good in Eclipse - along with it being available for virtually every platform you can point at.
Java has all the standard things - hash maps, threads, concurrency, sockets etc. Plus there's a wealth of bits and bobs people can use.

Next I would start with a set of steps rather than just jumping in at the deep end with a large collaborative project. Don't forget that many people will not have worked on a large project, so keep it simple and something that they can do themselves in their own time to start with.
Suggestions:
1. Hello world using standard command line output.
2. Use some libraries..
...
N. Colaborative program..

Everything is irrelevant but for two things: Communcation & Effort

Damn right mate, I think getting everyone up to running their own code (which is fits with hello world) is a sound starting point. I'd like to stay clear of libraries at this point as I think it makes lazy programmers. Communication is critical hence why I need a "wingman" on this.

 

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I would be interested in this.
I mainly know Java and C++ with a little J#

edit: maybe it would be a good idea to start with something very new. Maybe XNA or making some app for iphone/G1 (i know these arnt all that new, but you get the idea). Then 90% of the people here would all be newbies and we can learn together.

The problem is accessibility - how many people have smart phones they can use for testing their code? I like the idea but unless everyone has the same phone it's going to get complicated quickly.

Perhaps in the end we can make a game of Pong on the iPhone.. lol.

We start simple fella. Keeping it simple is key. We need the likes of you to help out me. It'd be great if you could.

Would be very interested in this as well. I have had a bit of experience with Java and Matlab as well as some object orientated programs.

Will be available from the 23rd onwards and willing to do anything.

Time scales are fine. But be ready to contribute

 

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I'm in, XHTML, css, Ajax, php, XML, flash, mysql

Also got a bit of experience on different platforms (code igniter, cms systems like typo3 drupal etc etc)

But what you thinking of doing? Seems like a tut site

I was hoping to avoid Java...

I wouldn't mind getting involved in the organisation/management side of this project, i've already created a google code group http://code.google.com/p/ocuk-dev/ - it's free, gives wiki, bug management, mailing list and change management (SVN).

At the very least people should get used to project management methods - through change management, documentation, tickets etc.

On a side note, there's a lot of young people in here...i feel old and i'm only 22!

Thanks for stepping up guys. That's really useful setting that Google code group, helps massively with code management (which I hadn't thought of at all). So lets say provisionally me (Dave M), dave-lew99 (Dave L - have you got IM mate?) and Codec (Luke) will manage the project.

First things we need to figure out are:
[A] What is it that we want to produce (project ideas)
What level do we aim it at (Beginners / Intermediate / Advanced)
[C] What language are we using (probably linked to )

 

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Instead of defining which language to write the program in, could one or two people (the organisers of the whole thing) decide upon a particular app to make (try and think of something that isn't restricted to a small number of languages) and define a simple specification for it. Then the rest of us could team up and chose a language to make it in. That way we would end up with the same app written in different languages, giving everyone the opportunity to see alternate ways of making it. Maybe it could be a competition.

Good to see this is getting a bit of interest now.

From a personal point of view I would like to do something using XNA, been meaning to learn it for a while but never got round to it.
Obviously it would limit it to Windows (I know there is mono.XNA, but not sure how well it works at present) but all the tools are available freely.

To make it work I reckon you'd need a few C# tutorials first of all to get people up to speed, anyone experienced in C#/.NET could help out with these.
If going down the XNA route these could be directed towards building a very simple game using straight C# first, such as noughts and crosses or connect 4.

Then we could start building some things in XNA.
The first project would have to be something simple, like a tetris or arkanoid clone.
You would start off very simply, e.g. implement a ball bouncing around the screen area.
Then introduce a user controlled paddle
Then collision detection between the paddle and ball.
Blocks at the top with collision detection
Point scoring etc.

If we could get that far I reckon we'd have a good chance at being able to attempt something a bit more complicated and getting some graphics guys in to help out.

geuben that's a good idea - I think the choice of language is very much related to the choice of project. I'm slightly leaning towards Java, mainly because it seems to the the programing language of choice for most undergraduate courses around the country. But at the same time it can be a bit unwieldy sometimes.

I don't think we running it should choose the project I'd like to see people suggest some

 

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To expand on my idea a little. If the more experienced programmers in a specific language (provided they wish to use that language) declare that their going to make the program in said language then other less experienced users who want to learn that particular language can opt to join that group.

OR

If the more experienced programmers don't feel like teaching anyone directly, they could make the app themselves (or in teams) whilst someone (or a few people) create tutorials of how to make the app in other languages. that way the beginners (to programming in general or just a specific language) can follow the tutorial through and then at the end of the allotted project time will have access to a variety of source code for the same app (given that they've just worked through and built the same app they should have a better understanding of the other language sources when they read through).

I guess the submitted apps could be judged on things like:

Meeting application specification
niceness of code
level of code commenting for beginners
etc

We have to be careful because we don't seem to have too many experienced developers so allowing people to essentially use a language of their choice and letting beginners follow that "thread" is not really the way to go IMHO (it'd be different if we had far more developers on here. Also I don't think we should be judging anyone on their code rather we should just be encouraging good practice. In reality something like "niceness of code" could be anything.

 

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Just my opinion but I think a decent game might be a little too much for a first attempt at an OCUK project. But if you're all wanting to go ahead with it why not? I'm just sorting a github repo

 

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Okay guys here goes my view of an outline on what we'll do

I think we should have three strands with the general objective of putting a game together. I say we have three "projects" one for the more advanced programmers using 3D engines and one of either C++ or Java. An intermediate project for those "new" to programming (or those used to web stuff) using Python or Java (I say Python as it's powerful but simple at the same time). The last one I think would be a cool short term project to do a strategy game in either PhP or JSP like Cybernations (should be fun for all of us that! issue about hosting though?).

C++/Java/C <---> Python/Java <----> PhP/JSP

Subject to everyone being happy with that, I'd like two "lead developers" for each project, preferably with a working knowledge of the lead programming languages. Co-ordination will be handled by me (and the other two guys who have volunteered to help out on this - and anyone else who would like to help on this)? It'd be very cool (and pretty unique) if all strands where connected some how (so the PhP strategy game could be like a high level version of the C++/Java 3D game!)

Sound okay with everyone?

 

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Good idea, but I think three might be pushing it in terms of organisation, momentum and interest. How about just two? I'd suggest PHP for the smaller project just for its ease of use and setup over JSP.

arty

I was thinking the same. I guess my issue is that it seems we have a lot of people that know stuff like JSP and PhP but have no real programming background and it'd be nice to have an intermediate level where people can practice some graphics development in a simple way. Perhaps the Python strand can just be a training thing?

 

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so these 3 groups? do they actually combine their work at all? I mean I do php but what if I wanted to do python? I think we need to draft up our end result before we can start planning who goes where, and when it comes to making a game there's a lot more involved that just coding. need to draft up what we're going to do before we actually do anything

With respect to who goes where, I'm talking here about people that lead these stands not people that are involved in them, to manage a group of developers effectively you need a working knowledge of the language.

With the greatest of respect, IMHO projects like this never get off the ground because people start bickering and not doing. I think the end result is pretty straight forward we want two or three games, one quite low level with 3D graphics, possibly a python one with basic graphics and a strategy game in PhP / JSP this spans all the areas of interest by those who have posted thus far IMO

I said at the bottom of my post, people shouldn't just do what they know, they should do what ever they want to and expand their knowledge.

Absolutely - but at the same time we do need experienced guys to help out with the languages they know too. what we don't want is 40 guys who haven't touched C++ before starting out with the objective of making a 3D game with nobody with any experience on their stand.

 

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I predict it will either not get off the ground or fail part way in. Start with something simple so you can at least see who is *really* up for this or those that are just throwing their hat in the ring because they are bored at that moment in time.

Imo a game is too much for a starter project and you will find one or two people will end up with too much work.

Start simple and with java or c# - loads of example projects everywhere, decent ides for free and seriously easy to get to grips with.

Just my opinion gl!

It's a good argument - I think (well hope) that the strategy game in PhP/JSP will actually get a lot of interest and time from us (as it's easy peasy). But at the same time there's a clear desire to develop a game, and it seams those though do have some experience want a project that'll push them a little

 

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Thats why I suggested something like a CS for linux, trying to come up with a game with a plot and things is difficult but a multi player game doesn't need this, but are more complex because of the networking
Depends on your focus, programming or general game making lol

Seth get on messenger I've added you

 

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I am online, whats your msn address lol

<forum name>@googlemail.com