There. Thats the dictionary definition. Now for the rant.
On the Smiley Productions
message-board, a rather idiotic Visual Basic programmer turned up,
and started telling us all that we "were not real programmers,
as we only use programs which let us say what we want games to do,
not let us program them".
Which is a pretty stupid thing to say, as that is precisely what
programming is: Telling a computer what to do, and how to do it.
The Click Programs help a lot with this, as they come with many
pre-built functions & movements for characters in games, and make
game-writing very simple. However, you still have to think about
how you want the game to work, and you still have to set up event-loops,
variables, etc.
I got a bit annoyed at this "Tru Programmer", as he called himself,
and told him he was an idiot, and to go away. He did, but I think
that he did do some good... he gave me an idea on a new article
to write! Yippie!
Many people seem to share this view of his, that anyone who doesnt
use a "Real Programming Language" isnt a "Real Programmer".
The term "Real Programing Language" changes depending apon which
language that person happens to know... most often its Visual Basic,
or C++. The VB programmers seem to think that because VB has "Real
Code", it makes it a "Real Language". The C programmers think
that anything less than C is not a "Real Language", as C is the
ultimate language, to which all programmers aspire, and all fall
before.
Programming itself is telling a computer to do things. Weather you
do this by typing hundreds of lines of obfusticated unintelageble
mumbo-jumbo in VI down a 2800 Baud connection to your local university,
or if you drag and drop objects about your screen, and select options
from drop-down menus, it still ammounts to the same thing in the
end... Telling your computer what or how to do something.
If you like spending time spamming people with pointless messages
telling them how thick they are not to use &etsqi;insert programming
language of your choice&etsqo; but use &etsqi;program used only
by imberceles&etsqo;... then you shouldn't call yourself a programmer.
You should try and learn something yourself, that it doesn't matter
*how* you tell a computer to do somthing, just that you do.
You can contact me here:
You have to type it in yourself, sorry for the inconveniance,
but I'm trying to stop SPAM.
