As the end of the year comes closer, and we reflect on what has happened on /prog/ this last year, we have to admit that we did not accomplish very much. Perhaps in our private lives, yes, but here on /prog/ we have spent the majority of the year trolling, meta-trolling, complaining about it and going nowhere in particular. If we look at our community I'm going to say we have very little to be proud of: /prog/ kinda sucks.
I say we change all that. I say in 2012 we band together and prove that /prog/ is better than it has ever been before just by making it so. That we can come to /prog/ with an expectation of lulz and wisdom. I'm willing to make the effort, who's with me?
ITT post your new years resolutions for /prog/, I'll start:
* If I have nothing substantial to say I will sage it.
I don't know about the rest of you, but as an inexperienced programmer the few times I asked questions /prog/ always provided detailed answers. Sure, I had to get through some unreadable troll garbage, but the quality of the material was excellent when it was actually there.
I feel that its not that /prog/ is not a good board - its that unless specifically asked something everyone do not bother to initiate a proper discussion.
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Anonymous2011-12-27 8:40
• I will have sex with a Touhou
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Anonymous2011-12-27 10:43
We should create a fork of MINIX called MANIX which will be a far manlier version.
Oh, something people will use... uhhh... how about a true multimedia player? On Linux I use banshee but the Windows version doesn't work (even though it's written in C# for Mono :/). Also, banshee only really works with music; it can play videos but IIRC you can't seek or anything. You also can't really view images with it. It'd be great if there was a portable multimedia player that could play music, videos and browse images. It'd also be nice if it zoomed on images like a Firefox or Chrome (and presumably other browsers) do, rather than how most image viewers do it (open up a large image in your browser, and then open up the same image in an image viewer to see what I mean). We could then add features from other media players -- offer information like the Wikipedia page; for music, you would also offer an artist bio, song lyrics, a video on Youtube, suggestions from Last.fm, Last.fm page; for videos you could offer an IMDb page if one exists; for photos you could search TinEye. You would have a pane at the bottom of the screen that displays that information. Look at banshee for what I mean.
it can be hard to think of things to say. But I know what you mean about prog. Of all the internet programming discussion places or mediums, this is the most fanboy free place to talk about programming I've found. If a feature in language X sucks, we'll come to a unanimous conclusion that is sucks. We don't have a mob of people trying to justify it and attacking people criticizing it.
The things you want likely already exist. Have you tried any other media players? I prefer mplayer on linux for the keyboard controls, although it can be a bit buggy at times.
/a/ has their cripple dating sim that's taken years... to avoid that quagmire, we just make a side-scrolling, smash-em-up engine and a few sample levels then let the autists on the other boards provide their own art/sound assets and basic scripts to make a near-infinite number of levels. ZOMG Original Content!
It could be a non-trivial project worthy of some collaboration, and most importantly NOT yet another distro/BBS/chat. Call it AssaultAnons or Fighting``Faggot''s or what have you.
I was thinking /prog/ could make a game too. It's something that most people will just get but there's plenty of other things we could make too.
Hmm, is there a website where people can contribute ideas for programming projects?
/prog/ could also write a book or two on programming. It could cover philosophy of programming, life style of the typical programmer, what makes an expert programmer, learning how to program, learning to speak multiple languages, picking up languages fast, etc. There's a lot of people here who have deep knowledge so that could also work.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that /prog/ isn't built around a platform with a lot of services, so it's up to us to set them up and create them. On that note, I have a spare dedicated server so I can host if anyone actually wants to be creative in 2012.
/prague/ can't keep one thread on-topic, let alone a fucking book on programming. Here's how the collaboration would begin: ''OK guize, what language do we use to teach?"
Incidentally, this is also where the collaboration breaks down and it devolves into just another flamefest. Perhaps I'm being too judgmental and people "serious" enough to get coordinated for a collab project wouldn't let it derail so easily. The book seems like it would suffer from the "bikeshed" problem, where every asshole on here has an uninformed opinion about what belongs in it. It'd really require a benevolent dictator/cabal to run well.
I'm more keen on the game idea, especially as a vehicle for original content. I don't know how many chantards would want to install something from a chan on their computers, so I guess it'd have to be web-based, which might turn a lot of [spoiler]/prog/[spoiler]riders off. Not sure, other thoughts besides me and David here?
the flame fest is the book, and a new chapter is written ery day.
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Anonymous2011-12-27 22:55
>>54
>one thread
>which touhou would you niggersex
>25 blank posts
>next thread
>What are the kinds of computation models of "infinity bottles of beer on the wall" and what are the implications of various definitions of infinity to our approach to numbering and valuing?
>5-10 posts of PhD quality set theory explanations and shit
anyways, /3/ does communal projects every now and then. Someone sets up a ftp server, starts the thread with the ip address, and people make make updates, and post screen shots in the thread. It's a lot of fun to see. I'm not sure if programming would have the same type of feeling though. It seems less creative somehow, and may disorganized contributions might not work out as well as 3d modeling a scene.
Replace "set up FTP server" with "set up version control." Wouldn't a merge request be nearly the same if we were doing collaborative coding? Raptor knows /prog/riders would love to "code review" the everloving shit out of each other's contributions (good thread-fodder), and if it's a graphical project/game, linked screenshots.
sure it could be fun. programming takes so much time though. I'm not saying that 3D modeling is easy, but you can usually crank out something for fun in a couple hours or so. Programming takes days, although it can depend on what you are doing and what language you are using.
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Anonymous2011-12-28 9:23
>>59
I THINK WE SHOULD USE C BECAUSE IT'S A VERY COMMON LANGUAGE
Im not sure how a this thread has evolved into a discussion about a game collaboration. Anyway, why not use what already is there, there are tons of engines for whatever one would need.
Instead of wasting time reinventing the wheel, why not get right to it?
I can't take someone who uses the word 'lulz' seriously. Sorry. Also I don't care because I'm not part of this wretched board anymore! You new /prog/riders need to figure this out on your own! Too bad all the competent people left and the only language you fuckers know is motherfucking bbcode.
>>49 /prog/ could also write a book or two on programming. I'm secretely writing a compsci book.
>>50 Here's how the collaboration would begin: ''OK guize, what language do we use to teach?"
Lambda calculus and Scheme, of course.
A book would be a better /prog/ project than a game, because of SICP.
>>65
I tried many times to leave, but I keep coming back, and hate myself for that.
>>67 But... SICP already exists.
SICP has its scope: being an introductory CS book. I was thinking of something more general and in-depth, ranging from lambda calculus and type theory to CPU design and DEPLOYING SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISE JAVA APPLICATIONS (just kidding on the last one) But seriously, have you looked at this shit? http://wla.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/fa11/lectures/functions.html
Wait, that's FIOCP? It's worse than I thought. I mean, introducing assignment in the second example of the fourth subsection of the first section of the first chapter? They've already got SICP wrong.
What about this: every month, we have a competition for an implementation of McEliece and similar quantum cryptanalysis resistant cryptosystems. We all participate, write our own, and the winner gets nothing, but the world gets a fuckton of broken goppa code ciphers to work with.
>>62
Games are much more accessible than books, and cause much more reactivity in the person than movies.
On a side note, anyone like how in the SICP VN they null terminate your choices so you know to stop searching?
P.s. if you're willing to make an ogz importer for Irrlicht, or a good gpu accelerated camera system for Cube2 (theirs is shit), as well as a secondary weapons fire, bullet physics integration, and terraforming tools for the map editor, I would love you.
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Anonymous2011-12-28 14:18
>>71
You can learn. Too much math never killed anyone.
If the goal is education, combining the two to make a game/book would be better than yet-another-programming-book. Don't deride it as "edutainment" - there's a lot to be said for the value of interactivity in learning something (eg. a language's REPL).
>>78 good idea, what open source engines should we use, or what open source games should we modify?
For one there is ID tech 4 that one could set up to function for most purposes and otherwise there shouldnt be any problems finding engines for other kinds of games.
The only question being what we really want to do.
I suggested a game earlier ITT mainly because I like the idea of other boards being able to make some OC out of it. If they can easily make customize it, they'll come up with fun/emergent shit we never dreamed of. Beyond that idea, I'm not married to any particular concept/genre/engine.
I think I chose to use a Battletoads/TMNT arcade/beat-em-up as the simplest example possible of customization. A user adds his own sprites to the game by throwing them in a directory, edits an ini-style text file to customize the item/enemy's stats and AI behavior (choosing from pre-defined ones). Levels could work similarly, with basic triggers.
Other styles of games I see working well for the OC crowd would be anything that lends itself to a simple level-editor, like platformers. Something like Super Mario Bros. has near-universal appeal and pretty simple mechanics - it's really about the variety of level designs. I'm sure they'd have tons of fun with that.