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#1 SushiKitten

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Posted 09 October 2012 - 02:31 PM

So, in the attempt to have a good (and inexpensive) technical hobby for my resume, as well as to further enjoy the career path that I am choosing, I really wanted to get into some open source projects to learn different coding languages and see some applications to the stuff I'm learning in my courses.

But, uh, where would I look? I only really frequent tumblr, and I'm not experienced enough to just go up to some giant project and be like, "I wanna help!". Anything I can think of (osu! or Pokemon World Online) is too big for me to fit myself into as a beginner.

Is there like a place where they all sort of mingle and talk or something? How would I go about finding a project that's just starting and doesn't have high standards for programmers?

#2 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 09 October 2012 - 02:54 PM

Most of them vary fairly widely between projects. The problem is just about any open source software is gonna be highly abstracted and very beginner unfriendly.

Why not come up with some projects for yourself? They don't need to be practical, just something you can enjoy doing. Did you have a specific language in mind?

#3 SushiKitten

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Posted 09 October 2012 - 03:12 PM

I'm in the middle of a course that's teaching me the ins and outs of object oriented programming, mainly C++ so I was hoping to use that. I've been applying for work term jobs for the winter and I've found that a lot of employers ask for experience in Java as well, I wanted to learn that to add to my skill set.

I'll take your advice and start a couple of my own projects first. I can't see a text based RPG being too difficult, just long.

#4 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 09 October 2012 - 03:16 PM

Java/C#/Python are some pretty hot languages at the moment (for jobs). If nothing else, you could make an open source engine for text based RPGs. Having ownership of a large product like that looks fantastic on a resume; they're usually concerned that you understand basic principles and have experienced the full life cycle of a large project.

#5 SushiKitten

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Posted 09 October 2012 - 03:35 PM

Creating an engine would definitely be very cool, though if I were to make one, I probably would not use the idea of text based RPGs and perhaps find something a little more practical.

#6 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 09 October 2012 - 03:42 PM

As long as it's something you can keep yourself interested in. ;p

#7 K_N

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Posted 10 October 2012 - 02:14 AM

If you're interested in (eventually) contributing to OSS, make sure you familiarize yourself with git and other version control systems. Every major organization uses something like it to keep track of changes.

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#8 Dasherman

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Posted 14 October 2012 - 01:37 AM

If you'd start an open source project yourself be sure to tell me, I'd like to try and help.
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#9 SushiKitten

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Posted 14 October 2012 - 09:13 AM

I've decided to build on stuff I've learned in class to first program with Windows. I made my first window with a menu yesterday, so I've got a while to go before I can be of any use to a project.

#10 Dasherman

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Posted 14 October 2012 - 12:20 PM

What language?
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#11 SushiKitten

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Posted 14 October 2012 - 01:14 PM

For now, I'm just using C/C++.

#12 Dasherman

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Posted 14 October 2012 - 01:49 PM

GUIs in C/C++ are soooo tedious...

EDIT: Or they are just extremely easy in C#.... or both.... probably both...
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#13 SushiKitten

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Posted 14 October 2012 - 04:04 PM

I s C# very different from C++?

Also, what IDE would you recommend. I've been using Eclipse for my courses, but I ran into a wall trying to make a resource file. I started using Visual Studio, but I'm lost as to how to use it.

#14 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 14 October 2012 - 07:02 PM

C# has the very basic C structure (or curly brace language, whatever you want to call it).

For C# you want to use Visual Studio - anything else is just an injustice to yourself. :P
If you're actually interested in picking it up I can do a short tutorial series and post it here.

#15 Dasherman

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Posted 15 October 2012 - 08:51 AM

C# is really just C++ supersimplified.
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#16 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 15 October 2012 - 09:11 AM

I suppose that's a fair statement from a top down view. Behind the scenes they are very, very different (C# compiles to IL code that requires further interpretation) but syntax-wise they're fairly close.

Outdated but still fairly relevant article on C++->C# (http://msdn.microsof...e/cc301520.aspx)

#17 Dasherman

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Posted 15 October 2012 - 09:24 AM

I think it's the syntax that matters most though. I believe what happens behind the scenes is quite trivial, tbh.
Altough I guess the behind-the-scenes part does give C# its greatest disadvantage: no true cross-platform support.
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#18 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 15 October 2012 - 09:30 AM

Well, there's Mono that mimics the .NET CLR for linux. (or at least attempts to) If we're talking about performance, behind the scenes really matters. In C++ resizing arrays is a fairly common task, in C# if you have an array being resized you're doing it wrong. The syntax looks alike, but best practices vary quite a bit. Another good example being the encapsulation methods of C++, whereas C# has true properties.

#19 Dasherman

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Posted 15 October 2012 - 10:05 AM

Yeah, mono seems to work, but I have never tried it, so I can't tell whether it actually works.
What I'm quite sure of however, is that WPF isn't supported, which is a shame.

And about the performance: yes, C++'s performance speed seems to be faster generally, but I think the difference is negligible in today's applications ran on modern hardware.
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#20 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 15 October 2012 - 10:16 AM

I've never used mono myself, either. (if I was worried about cross platform I would probably go with Java or Python to begin with)

I tend to agree with your second point somewhat; I'll take a performance hit for readability (which isn't too often a case in C# because of the way it compiles) but if there's absolutely no advantage to doing something a slower/less efficient way that's just a programming sin. :P