Subj : Re: C Programming HELP... To : borland.public.cpp.borlandcpp From : Andrew Fenton Date : Thu Jun 24 2004 03:38 pm Jeremy, "Jeremy Pham" wrote in message news:40dacead$1@newsgroups.borland.com... > > So, if I was aiming to create and enhance games/graphics, C++ Builder 6 Personal would be a good option later. Yes. Builder 6 would more particularly allow you to take the basics of what you are learning now and easily integrate that in a 32-bit Windows environment. Builder 6 provides prefabricated components designed to work well with Microsoft's most current OS, XP, as well as Win98 and 2000. > I know the other Builder editions (Professional, Enterprise, etc.), are really expensive. For a Personal Developer, are those kinds of software even realistic? It really depends on what kind of development you wish to do. The professional and enterprise editions give you alot of options for business development -- database, servers, web stuff, XML, etc. -- but this doesn't seem exactly the field of interest that you have expressed. If your really curious as to the features offered by the more expensive releases of Builder, click the Feature Matrix link at http://www.borland.com/cbuilder/enterprise/index.html. The several-page PDF file that appears should provide you a good idea of how each product level compares. > Borland also has the BuilderX series...Now would that be of any good to me? To be fair and honest, I have not yet used BuilderX. That said, pay attention to others who apparently have. John Blackburn has already commented about the GUI. I would add that the apparent purpose of BuilderX is cross-platform development. In other words, a compiler for Linux differs from one for Windows. BuilderX bridges the gap between OSs. Again, we are back to the question about the OS to which you want to market your product. This may be a bit further down the road for you. > The Borland site also sells this Borland 6 Personal CD for 10 dollars: > Is that some sort of mistake? Apart from the trial version discs, I only see a BuilderX Personal CD at this price. With this in mind, if you spent the money for this, you would only be out by $10 US if this turned out not to be very helpful. > Thanks for your opinion so far guys. You're welcome. Just so you have a sense of direction for game/graphic development, I would encourage you to do a bit of research on DirectX, OpenGL, and OpenAL. DirectX is Microsoft's preeminent solution for gaming applications. It is an API dedicated to the categories of graphics, sound, and game controller interface devices (joysticks, etc.). Chances are that if you are programming games in a Windows environment, you will use DirectX for at least one of the mentioned categories. OpenGL is a Graphics Library API. One of the concepts behind OpenGL is portability to other platforms (Mac, Linux, Unix, etc.) so this one should be considered if you eventually want to port a game, say, with a really cool 3-D engine from Windows to Linux. Then again, even if you are not looking for portability, OpenGL is pretty powerful when it comes to graphics apps just within Windows. One resource to get a general feel for OpenGL and DirectX is http://members.cox.net/scottheiman/ and http://members.cox.net/scottheiman/dxvsogl.htm. Scott provides details both on how to get and set up DX and OGL on Builder and his impression of how the two compare. OpenAL is similar in concept to open GL except that its focus of its API is Audio. To my knowledge, it has not been around as long as OpenGL, so it does not yet enjoy as much popularity. In each case, you are dealing with an API, and Application Programming Interface. What this means to you is that in addition to the standard C and C++ language you are learning now, you will eventually need to learn the DirectX, OpenGL, and/or OpenAL functions which tie into C and C++. Mind you, you may not necessarily need all of them. Keep in mind, too, that there are other APIs out there as well... Don't let this scare you. Just have a realistic view going into your interest that there is alot to learn. Regards, Andrew Fenton .