At 03:41 PM 10/23/2001 +0200, you wrote:
Forget it.
Why not let this guy decide if he can cut it or not? We have no idea what
his aptitude is. And I don't think it would necessarily take 1-3 years of
external study to be "ready" for the VCS. It all depends on the
individual's aptitude.
The VCS is an unforgiving programming environment, but it is also a very
simple one, not unlike the limited entities in HTML. The 6502 has very few
instructions to memorize. The 2600 has very few registers. The Atari
400/800 OS is far more daunting in comparison. A VCS program typically has
very few lines of sourcecode. A stable display (i.e. template) is already
available with How to Draw a Playfield and variants. That should all be
taken into account.
To me, VCS programming is far easier to grasp than, let's say, full-blown
C++ or Java where you have to know all the preexisting libraries to prevent
yourself from constantly reinventing the wheel. There is a LOT of rote
memorization there. Of course, once you do that, you spare yourself a lot
of manual coding [i.e. DrawCircle()) which is what Chris worries about as
the death of real-man coding] but to get there it's a long path--at least
to me it is. Everybody's aptitude is different.
Glenn Saunders - Producer - Cyberpunks Entertainment
Personal homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698
Cyberpunks Entertainment: http://cyberpunks.uni.cc
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