@nbro Searching for the user's name "Carrier Battles" and the word game leads me to this: toucharcade.com/community/threads/… and this: videogamegeek.com/videogame/264522/… and this: patreon.com/CB4G

Maybe you're interested in this topic.

@Tyyppi_77 I gave up after 30 seconds, but please comment for me that if they are using new in C++ they are doing it wrong.

@Tyyppi_77 vote-to-close ;)

Attempted to answer in comments. Diamond removed. Go in the shame corner.

@nwp yep, the site demanded it :D

Wow. First time I see encouragement of answering in comments.

I always hated not being allowed to do so. It's a major contributor to me no longer answering questions on SO.

Yes, I see why there is this rule. People can't vote and can't edit the comment to improve it.

The best part is when a 100k+ user comes along and copy/pastes your comment into the answer box and gets upvotes.

Which is encouraged.

In this particular case, though, the "programming questions" that we get here would likely be downvoted a lot if they were asked on SO. Answering them here makes it so that they don't need to suffer SO's down arrow.

@nwp This fits with the argument.

I mean, with the "don't answer in comments" rule.

Sure. And yet it's infuriating.

Oh, yes, it is :)

At some point though you realize there is nothing you can do. The rules are not meant for people like me, so the only winning move is not to play. It still feels bad.

I almost want to suggest them the C++ Q&A room, but we would do a poor job of teaching C++.

And I don't know how to say "Learn C++ first" without it sounding offensive.

@Vaillancourt I think the real issue is that answering duplicates is highly encouraged while closing them is not.

@nwp by "encouraged" here you mean because of the rep that is given?

Mostly. Maybe I just care too much about rep despite thinking otherwise.

A part of it is also the community saying "Your copy/paste job is good and should be rewarded", independent of the rep gain.

It just reveals either a deep misunderstanding or difference of opinion between me and the community.

Yeah, I think SO is a bit toxic. A monster too big to handle. It's probably why I hang on gamedev instead of there?!

Hmm, I don't think there is ill-will in that scenario, so I wouldn't call that toxic.

It feels more like I'm trying to play Rummy at the Poker table and they keep yelling at me for doing it wrong.

The thing is that I refuse to play correctly.

I was actually told the rules. You camp the front page with your tags, open a question, if you can answer it within 30 seconds you drop an answer, otherwise move on. Easy 200 rep per day, doesn't take long either. Unfortunately I hate that game.

Okay, maybe not "toxic" but "jungle-ish"?

I've asked a couple questions there. I also got low effort one line answers that did not fully address the issue in the question.

As you say, it appears to be quantity over quality.

Perhaps the rep should be hidden from the questions/answers pages.

"Jungle-ish" sounds like "confusing" to me. It's not confusing, the rules are clear. I just disagree with them. "Poorly designed" or "bad mechanics" would fit in my opinion, but I don't think that is what you mean.

No, I mean that the strongest/fastest gets the check mark.

Eh, I don't feel like that is a huge problem. You answered the fastest and OP had their problem solved? You deserve the checkmark and the rep that comes with it.

I don't know how to fix it either. Giving rep for closing questions as duplicates and removing rep gained through answering duplicates is the obvious answer, but the details are complicated. Answering a question to then not get the rep because 5 years ago the question was already asked feels bad. Also disagreement on if similar questions count as dupes which would get worse than it is now.

Yes, the issue is that there is no incentive to make sure it is not a dupe.

The original idea was to create a compendium of questions and answers that would be of high quality. SO seems to have given up on that idea. Just answer the same questions by new students every year and call that engagement aka money.

@Vaillancourt one of the biggest faults in the SE system

The reward to answer something as fast as possible is greater than the reward of making sure the site "stays clean".

Yep (to both of you)

I wonder what would happen if they replaced the display of the rep with the amount of review queues items handled.

I bet the site would die

Because people would spend more time handling the queues than answering the questions?

I think people wouldn't find handling the queues as much fun as answering questions, and the answers would dry up and the queues empty

To be fair the ideal of having every question asked and answered once doesn't work for things like "This segfaults, why?" anyways.

Unless they require segfault questions to be compileable and run it through ASAN :P

Hey @Brug - haven't seen you in a while, Happy New Year!

SO would become the most used online compiler.

@nwp Yes & no. It might not cover all segfaults, but the reasons for segfaults tend to boil down to a handful of constantly re-discovered mistakes.

But searching is harder than posting. More so when the curation process is a low priority. And often times the poster is rewarded either way.

okay, so who wants to fix SO? :P 🔧

Wanting sure. Being able to? I don't think so. There is a chance you can't make it better without it becoming much different

@Pikalek Happy New Year

Hi everyone, saw that you were discussing the question that I posted. Sorry if it wasn't appropriate to post it here. @Vaillancourt thank you anyway for helping me out :)

@Gian No worries, the line is something blurry between "game" and "programming, should be asked on SO". We try to answer in comments in cases like this :)

@nwp Yes, and un/fortunately, SO is still the best Q&A site I've seen around.

@Vaillancourt if I gotta be honest, I admit that I preferred posting it here instead of SO because I've got a couple of bad experiences asking newbie questions on there lol

@Gian And if you're relatively new to both game dev & a language, it's extra hard to know where the problem comes from. It was an honest mistake & you weren't a jerk about it, so no worries in my opinion.

@Pikalek I'm glad that it wasn't a big deal

@Gian And you're not the only one ;)

Might be better to post there instead of on gamedev sometimes.

Yes, for c++ specific stuff you'll find more people who lurk there. Those people like to help :)

Yeah, I'll keep it in mind, makes sense

In many ways, I wonder if SO is a victim of its own success / popularity. The volume is just so high & constant that it's less people oriented & more of a system than a community.

Honestly, I might be better off reading a book or something on C++ first lol

I'm fairly fluent in C and I thought switching to C++ would be pretty straightforward, but it actually isn't that smooth

at least to me

Lesson 1: Don't use new.

Also check out The Tour.

@Gian FWIW, I was fluent in C++, but move to other than languages & didn't keep tabs on its evolution & I'm not sure how modern C++ works these days. Case in point, I was brought up using new.

Also avoid YouTube tutorials.

I dug up Python yesterday to make a simple file parser. oh SHIT python is easy. I love it

import random

InputFile = open("CrawlerSource.txt", 'r')
OutputFile = open("Crawler.txt", 'w')

Lines = InputFile.readlines()
random.shuffle(Lines)
for line in Lines:
    OutputFile.write(line.strip())
    OutputFile.write("...                                                  ...")

InputFile.close()
OutputFile.close()

@nwp thank you, i'll check it out

@Almo You're supposed to use with open() as file: smh

Not that it really matters in short scripts.

and pylint would complain ;P But yeah, python is nice :)

Python lost a lot of appeal to me after I noticed I cannot write a function that takes a number.

When scripts get to over 1000 lines they tend to become unwieldy.

@nwp having learned OOP with Java, I didn't even questioned the use of that keyword lol I actually didn't even know until today that you can instantiate objects on the stack.

@Gian Also, chat isn't always this populated - but don't let that stop you from dropping in & saying something. It seems like a number of us (myself included) sort of keep tabs on it but don't necessarily hang out. If you have something to say/share/ask, just post.

@Gian If you are going to do some reading, I recommend this: isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines

@Pikalek got it, this seems like a nice place to hang out

@brug thank you, i'll read this as well

@Gian Coming from Java to C++ tends to be especially tricky. Most of the keywords and concepts are the same, however, the keywords mean different things and you favor different concepts. Arguably having Java experience makes it more difficult to learn C++.

Naturally Java and C++ programmers don't get along well :D

Python lost a lot of appeal to me when I traced an error to the fact that my script had a mix of tabs & spaces & said code seemed like it was vertically aligned correctly.

btw I got into this game development stuff again because I was reading an interesting book about game programming design patterns written by Robert Nystrom and wanted to try out what I was reading about. Do any of you know about that book? What do you think about it?

@nwp I actually new about this rivalry lol

I was never particularly fond of Java, but I just assumed that all OOP programming was more or less like that

@Pikalek agreed, that is one problem with it.

@Gian That guy?

@nwp and what's up with with open() as file? Not something I've seen.

@Gian I like the game patterns book. Personally I find it more more approachable than the original "gang of four" patterns book. The author occasionally posts here.

but i knew that it isn't very well seen by many. For example, I know that most C++ programmer don't like to hide class attributes and the use of getters and setters. I actually don't know which side to take on this issue

@Pikalek @Vaillancourt oh, that's really cool

@Gian Yeah, he was contributing here in the past but moved on years ago, apparently.

@Gian Generally, read up on the issue, and make a decision based on what will help with the project you're working on

taking firm sides on programming fights is seldom the right approach. :)

but tabs. fuck spaces.

@Gian Yeah, I read that. It is a pretty good read. I still use some of the concepts I read about. I would also recommend: schellgames.com/art-of-game-design

oooh ok :)

@brug I read several years ago, actually, I've got the second edition I think. It was a really interesting read. I read a couple of books like that one, but that's the best one I know about

@Almo I agree

My copy is Second Edition as well.

@Almo Hmm. No.

:P

I never saw the deck of cards until I just pulled that link up to share. Seems like a fun way to cycle through the lenses while working on a project.

I might get a set.

@Gian Another common suggestion for Java-programmers dipping into C++ is to not use non-private inheritance unless you really really have to. It turns out that you generally don't need it and save yourself a lot of headaches.

@brug I liked the book. Still refer back to it from time to time. I don't have the cards, but the app (which I think is free) works as an an okay stand in for the cards. Personally I think I would like physical cards more, but I have too much physical stuff.

Yeah. I am sitting here thinking about it. I feel like I would lose the cards. But I would also be more likely to use them, especially in fun and creative ways.

@Vaillancourt reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/kztus5/…

:P

That is funny

I am sharing it all over now.

OMG that's evil

I've used it very rarely too. It's just that private inheritance is not evil, unlike public and protected (which is also rarely used).

Once could also say "Don't use inheritance", but there are situations like in std::function where it's completely fine.

: private boost::noncopyable

I don't remember the difference between all of those, though.

I live.

Hola

Hello there.

I started making a game today with my son. He sat with me completely fascinated as I set up the project and built the basic architecture of the app. I am really looking forward to making it with him.

@brug That’s cool! What’s the game about?

@Vaillancourt I'm still struggling to figure out how to fix GDSE. 😉

It is a clone of Idle Mine Crusher.

@brug that’s cool man.

Should be simple. Though I'm not sure how we are going to implement some of it. I might have to learn a thing or two.

@Gian Got it on my shelf! I like to cite it in answers. Very accessible examples, does a good job of motivating the considerations and problems each pattern addresses.

@DMGregory what

is a GDSE?

GameDev.StackExchange.

Oh ok 👌

I finally got my game to save the inventory.

@brug That sounds amazing! 😁

@DMGregory

Are you a mod now?

I think I voted for you ages ago lol.

Not sure if you remember me.

@DMGregory The logistics of it are going to be challenging. But as long as he remains this interested it should be easy to overcome.

I am! Thank you for the vote! I hope I've been living up to it!

It sounds like a super cool project! Let us know if we can help with the "thing or two" 😉

Will do. I bet he would get a kick out of me telling him we are asking for help on the internet.

What do you guys think would work better?

@al

@Almo Howit's going old timer?

@KernelPanic I don’t think he’s online.

rip

Haven't heard that ping effect in forever lol.