What is you programing / Technical experience ?

nitrogenfingers, on 14 August 2012 - 12:05 PM said:

Fantastic spread so far! Awesome to hear all the different programming stories…
– snip –
Right now I've started my PhD in advanced gesture interfaces, and I think my passion lies somewhere between HCI and Pedagogy- certainly the way people interact with computers, and I find teaching and helping people understand the concepts that underlie programming to be immensely satisfying work. But as I say because I'm quite late to the profession I have to work very hard to keep up, both at uni and here with some of the other fantastically talented people on the CC forums.

Really excellent to see a lot of people so passionate about programming.

Human0303, on 14 August 2012 - 11:28 AM said:

I always liked programming but never really got into it until a few weeks ago. I always put off learning to program but I felt like coming back with CC.
I used CC months ago but could barely make a password lock. Come back a few weeks ago and now I can make pretty advanced programs.
I plan on mastering Lua then moving on to C++ and going to start dev games. I know a lot about how computers function but not really programming I hope to learn a lot more advanced stuff then I already do.
That is basically what I know.

nitrogenfingers, on 14 August 2012 - 12:05 PM said:

I only started really programming when I reached university, completely by accident- before that I was on track to become a microbiologist but I took a semester in CS, loved it and never looked back. I've always struggled a bit, I often joke I'm "classically trained" as opposed to many of my peers who started when they were very young and are much more accomplished than I am.

At my uni, like many, Java is the language of choice and it's the one I'm the most fluent in. Though the course I also covered C as part of Systems and OS, Prolog, AIML and LISP as part of artificial intelligence, C++, Matlab and Fortran 77 as part of mathematical computing and a whopping list I love to recite when I remember for theory and practice of computation- Haskill, C++, Ada, COBOL, and a whole pile of others. The theory is exposure to lots of different paradigms makes other languages faster to pick up, though logic programming still gives me a headache.

My honours year I researched the use of Java with pedagogy, which gave me a bit of a passion for teaching; ended up creating a visualization of the JVM during runtime to help "dispel" the magic of IDE's fixing and inserting code, and helping students move from introductory to full-scale IDE's like Netbeans or Borland.

Once I graduated I stayed on at the uni as a teacher- mostly tutoring and demonstrating Java and C++ to students and even giving a few lectures which was really exciting. I worked a freelance job with some other academics, developing games in XNA for kids with cerebral palsy and later (and still) working with the devil of all programming languages, AS3, in developing some flash games for English as a second language students studying medicine. Pharap you mentioned you're an XNA dev? I think we're a dying breed- we should compare notes sometime :D/>/>

Right now I've started my PhD in advanced gesture interfaces, and I think my passion lies somewhere between HCI and Pedagogy- certainly the way people interact with computers, and I find teaching and helping people understand the concepts that underlie programming to be immensely satisfying work. But as I say because I'm quite late to the profession I have to work very hard to keep up, both at uni and here with some of the other fantastically talented people on the CC forums.

Really excellent to see a lot of people so passionate about programming.

BigSHinyToys, on 14 August 2012 - 12:21 PM said:

I have to second the "Fantastic spread so far! Awesome to hear all the different programming stories… " and "Really excellent to see a lot of people so passionate about programming."

I'm guessing you are talking about microsoft kinect or Leap Motion when you mentioned gesture computer control Like in the movie GAMER (< really awesome movie btw). It would be awesome to combine gesture controll with a mobile device like a smart phone so you could use a virtual key Bord to type Having applications in web browsing , software development ect.

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 01:18 PM said:

I wish I had someone to teach me Java. I haven't found a resource as good as VB/C#'s MSDN for Java, but I hope to talk one of my teachers into teaching me some Java, and since he's doing a refresher on VB and teaching us Object Orientation when we go back, I might see if he'll do a trade: I take over a bit of teaching so he can have a break from his busy schedule, then in exchange he teaches me enough Java for me to start using it more comfortably and hopefully I'll then be making my own peripherals and then my own mods. I already know I'm capable of teaching VB since I've taught it to three people and the two who were actually in my class said I did better than the teacher who was supposed to be teaching us at the time, so if 2 of the class agree, hopefully the rest will follow. (If I'm lucky, and actually as good as these people claim I am, though I do have my doubts, I might be able to get a job teaching programming. Either that or I have to be a shopworker, so let's hope a programming teacher position is available lol)

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 01:18 PM said:

Speaking of HCI, one idea I've always had regarding interacting with a computer regards chromakeying technology. If chromakeying is good enough to track an actor's exact movements across a 3D plain and animate over the points, why don't they adapt that technology to interface with computers? Eg: have a green/blue glove with those white bits on as the hardware for interface, and have the computer track the white points using the standard Chroma-tech, then you can program it to respond to certain changes in the positioning of the points. If you have two gloves, you can have it so one is more of a current action glove (eg movement, selecting) and the other is more of an options glove(swapping what the other glove does basically) and then work the technology up until the point tracking is sophisticated enough to respond to more complicated things. It could even be used to allow the computer to interpret sign language eventually. As someone who knows about HCI, what do you think of this idea? So barmy it might just work, or just plain doo-lally?

nitrogenfingers, on 14 August 2012 - 02:07 PM said:

I have so much to say in answer to that question but rather than hijacking BigShiny's thread (apologies for that by the way!) you'll have to catch up with me on the IRC or grab me on Skype.

Oh and on people disliking C++ I completely understand and sometimes it is the royalest of pains, but when you get into it you realize why it's the way it is- there are some things you can do with it that other programming languages just can't rival, even it it does them in kind of a strange way. Worth sticking with, even just to know enough to get by.

nitrogenfingers, on 14 August 2012 - 02:07 PM said:

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 01:18 PM said:

I wish I had someone to teach me Java. I haven't found a resource as good as VB/C#'s MSDN for Java, but I hope to talk one of my teachers into teaching me some Java, and since he's doing a refresher on VB and teaching us Object Orientation when we go back, I might see if he'll do a trade: I take over a bit of teaching so he can have a break from his busy schedule, then in exchange he teaches me enough Java for me to start using it more comfortably and hopefully I'll then be making my own peripherals and then my own mods. I already know I'm capable of teaching VB since I've taught it to three people and the two who were actually in my class said I did better than the teacher who was supposed to be teaching us at the time, so if 2 of the class agree, hopefully the rest will follow. (If I'm lucky, and actually as good as these people claim I am, though I do have my doubts, I might be able to get a job teaching programming. Either that or I have to be a shopworker, so let's hope a programming teacher position is available lol)

It's interesting to hear that- lecture one of computer programming one was "Objects and Classes"- the OO paradigm has sort of been hammered into me from day 1. Universities tend to shift their feet about what to teach first- some say the OO abstraction gives us bad basics, others say it prepares us for later dev, I can't see any agreement in the literature. And after programming functional or procedural I can see picking up Java to be a little tricky at first but it begins to feel natural over time. I think game dev's history with OO has been a troubled one though- a lot of my friends are abandoning or limiting the use of OO in favour of a component based design. I can't decide which I prefer. But it's great to see it done both ways.

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 01:18 PM said:

Speaking of HCI, one idea I've always had regarding interacting with a computer regards chromakeying technology. If chromakeying is good enough to track an actor's exact movements across a 3D plain and animate over the points, why don't they adapt that technology to interface with computers? Eg: have a green/blue glove with those white bits on as the hardware for interface, and have the computer track the white points using the standard Chroma-tech, then you can program it to respond to certain changes in the positioning of the points. If you have two gloves, you can have it so one is more of a current action glove (eg movement, selecting) and the other is more of an options glove(swapping what the other glove does basically) and then work the technology up until the point tracking is sophisticated enough to respond to more complicated things. It could even be used to allow the computer to interpret sign language eventually. As someone who knows about HCI, what do you think of this idea? So barmy it might just work, or just plain doo-lally?

I have so much to say in answer to that question but rather than hijacking BigShiny's thread (apologies for that by the way!) you'll have to catch up with me on the IRC or grab me on Skype.

Oh and on people disliking C++ I completely understand and sometimes it is the royalest of pains, but when you get into it you realize why it's the way it is- there are some things you can do with it that other programming languages just can't rival, even it it does them in kind of a strange way. Worth sticking with, even just to know enough to get by.

D3matt, on 14 August 2012 - 06:43 PM said:

I agree Pharap, I've been using Microsoft Visual Studio for most of my programming experience outside of writing lua scripts for games, and intellisense is a huge life-sacer (Or rather, a google-saver :P/>/> ). Whether use of it gimps me when it comes to learning more advanced programming, perhaps. It does seem like the designer is a bit of a crutch. But in programming, and computers in general, if it works, it works!

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 02:39 PM said:

I started "coding" with html at 5 years

ardera, on 14 August 2012 - 07:50 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 02:39 PM said:

I started "coding" with html at 5 years

XDDDDDDDD

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 08:59 PM said:

ardera, on 14 August 2012 - 07:50 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 02:39 PM said:

I started "coding" with html at 5 years

XDDDDDDDD

Why you find it so funny?
Its easy to code 0.0
Learned it at 5 years old?

Lyqyd, on 15 August 2012 - 01:52 AM said:

self-evaluating scripts

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 09:17 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 08:59 PM said:

ardera, on 14 August 2012 - 07:50 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 02:39 PM said:

I started "coding" with html at 5 years

XDDDDDDDD

Why you find it so funny?
Its easy to code 0.0
Learned it at 5 years old?

Perhaps it's because html is declarative, not imperative.

immibis, on 15 August 2012 - 04:00 AM said:

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 09:17 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 08:59 PM said:

ardera, on 14 August 2012 - 07:50 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 02:39 PM said:

I started "coding" with html at 5 years

XDDDDDDDD

Why you find it so funny?
Its easy to code 0.0
Learned it at 5 years old?

Perhaps it's because html is declarative, not imperative.

Perhaps it's because HTML is not programming, any more than I'm programming in English or BBcode by saying this.

Sxw1212, on 15 August 2012 - 04:33 AM said:

Oh god, noodles online xD

Noodle, on 15 August 2012 - 04:27 AM said:

immibis, on 15 August 2012 - 04:00 AM said:

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 09:17 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 08:59 PM said:

ardera, on 14 August 2012 - 07:50 PM said:

Noodle, on 14 August 2012 - 02:39 PM said:

I started "coding" with html at 5 years

XDDDDDDDD

Why you find it so funny?
Its easy to code 0.0
Learned it at 5 years old?

Perhaps it's because html is declarative, not imperative.

Perhaps it's because HTML is not programming, any more than I'm programming in English or BBcode by saying this.

Yes but its still a language, a markup language if you will. Its not too advanced but what do you expect for a 5 year-old?

Pharap, on 14 August 2012 - 01:18 PM said:

I've only started using XNA recently, but I must admit, the logic is far easier to understand than GameMaker (from a programming point of view), and I've got drawing sprites and spritefonts to screen sorted, as well as keydowns and making my own 'overworld' object (at the moment a sprite with bounds, x, y, height, width draw() and soon PredictiveCollision()). Then I just need to get game timers and sound sorted and I'll make a little sprite-based game. Then I'll worry about 3D and more advanced stuff. Generally though, the sprite drawing and movement is very smooth (and after working with VB for so long it's nice to have some true transparency :P/>/>) and I think our class should have been taught to use XNA/C# instead of game-maker since it's clearer to see what's going on and in my opinion it's more adaptable, or possibly they should have just taught us C# instead of VB in the first place. Not sure what it would have done for our confidence though. Maybe they should have just taught us both and got a better teacher lol

Speaking of HCI, one idea I've always had regarding interacting with a computer regards chromakeying technology. If chromakeying is good enough to track an actor's exact movements across a 3D plain and animate over the points, why don't they adapt that technology to interface with computers? Eg: have a green/blue glove with those white bits on as the hardware for interface, and have the computer track the white points using the standard Chroma-tech, then you can program it to respond to certain changes in the positioning of the points. If you have two gloves, you can have it so one is more of a current action glove (eg movement, selecting) and the other is more of an options glove(swapping what the other glove does basically) and then work the technology up until the point tracking is sophisticated enough to respond to more complicated things. It could even be used to allow the computer to interpret sign language eventually. As someone who knows about HCI, what do you think of this idea? So barmy it might just work, or just plain doo-lally?

D3matt, on 15 August 2012 - 03:57 AM said:

Lyqyd, on 15 August 2012 - 01:52 AM said:

self-evaluating scripts

Can you elaborate on what this means? Google is returning absolutely nothing amid the piles of self-evaluation crap.

KFAFSP, on 15 August 2012 - 05:25 PM said:

It seems that I share a common fate with you guys. I started imperative programming with 9, first mostly Delphi. I was selected for a special training program at university then, and attended a special Informatics course for 5 years. I went through almost all popular programming languages ranging from Pascal to C#, but also SCHEME and PROLOG and other unusal paradigms. Now i have been granted a special opportunity of an early study at a university itself, during my normal school-life in class 10.

Learning at the university also gave me the Chance to work for companies too, so I already did some volunteer-work for some participating companies. Of course, although I learned a lot of languages, I mostly Stick to C and Delphi. The new Embarcadero XE2 is awesome. I'm a big ComputerCraft fan, because I started gaming before programming, and also work on Integrated Microcontrollers with great interest.

D3matt, on 15 August 2012 - 04:40 AM said:

I honestly don't believe you that a 5-year-old could comprehend even HTML. Dreamweaver doesn't count.

Noodle, on 15 August 2012 - 07:04 PM said:

D3matt, on 15 August 2012 - 04:40 AM said:

I honestly don't believe you that a 5-year-old could comprehend even HTML. Dreamweaver doesn't count.

I know dreamweaver doesn't count. How could you not comprehend the basic tags of html? <html> </html> its nothing hard. I read a book, can't you read?

D3matt, on 15 August 2012 - 09:16 PM said:

It just wasn't the kind of thing I was thinking about at 5, honestly…

Lettuce, on 16 August 2012 - 12:36 AM said:

None. None at all. The only ones I've used are HTML (a markup language, barely counts) and self-taught Lua exclusively for ComputerCraft. I don't even know what Lua is usually used for.

nitrogenfingers, on 15 August 2012 - 09:14 AM said:

XNA is taught as a matter of form at my old uni as part of game dev (it's only a semester topic), and before that I'd made games in Java and since have tried a few other engines. I've not tried GameMaker, a friend of mine equivilates it Flash in 3D which scares the hell out of me. Unity is much the same, never really took to that- feels more designed for artists than for programmers. I enjoy XNA mostly because it abstracts or automatically handles a lot of low level stuff that someone interested in making games probably doesn't care about- it's nice I can create and draw primitives in just a few lines, lets you focus on logic and interactivity. Graphics and engine programmers may disagree though, I guess it depends. Sorry, kind of a tangent.

In response to the chrome keying idea the technology certainly is there but I don't know that approach will take off outside of animation, simply because it doesn't adhere to the principle of interface ubiquity. In fact the industry in general is moving away from peripherals in deviceless interfaces for gesture manipulation- this is because gesturing is theorized to be more "natural" than using an abstracted peripheral like a mouse. Image processing and gesture recognition is reaching a point now where scientists are imagining that principle of ubiquitous computing permeating at all levels of our personal and professional lives without interfering with the way we naturally work- as the guys from Project Glass put it "It's there when you need it and it gets out of the way when you don't". For that reason, strapping on a gloves with white balls on it and standing in front of a green screen kind of violates that principle. Not to say there's not a place for it, or it's not possible, by all means no- but if going down the road of positional information about joints in the hands and arms, things like the kinect can already fairly accurately determine joint positions even with occlusion and other devices like data gloves (what I'm using at the moment) can get extremely accurate readings on finger and even phalangeal flexion to a level that cameras just can't and may never achieve.

I apologise, it's all a bit rambly but it's such a huge area, I've spent the past month alone scratching the surface of the literature. It's wildly exciting though, and while I won't go into too many details of my own project I'm hoping to make a real impact in the way we think about 3D interfaces and how to best decide on gestural semantics as well. A good article by Donald Norman on the subject was written a little while ago- http://www.jnd.org/d...er_interfa.html

D3matt, on 16 August 2012 - 09:47 AM said:

As a wise man once said… The only thing separating man from beast is his tools. I'm all for gesture input in the right applications. but I'll always prefer a good old mouse and keyboard (Or some futuristic spinoff) to gesturing.

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 10:16 AM said:

but have learned vbs and html and used them to make programs in the .hta format, learned DOS through and through (to the point where I made an adventure/rpg entirely ASCII lol, ridiculously difficult but that was the only language I knew back then), I started learning javascript so I could move from hta to htm but never really learned much and then I met CC and have been learning lua since then

Although now that I think about it at least I have always been brilliant at math, one advantage on those intimidating pros :)/>/>

mad-murdock, on 16 August 2012 - 10:40 AM said:

also, you can reach really fast input with keyboard… i hit about 350 chars per minute on average…

BigSHinyToys, on 16 August 2012 - 11:06 AM said:

I play a lot of FPS and for me I prefer a PS3 controller over every other type of control system so far invented. it just fuses to your hands allowing for quick accurate interpretation of My instructions by the machine. The only thing that would beet that is a machine that could read my mind.

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 11:11 AM said:

NEVER!!! lol it's impossible to aim with those things, they are goo for 3rd person but not 1st, I know you can practise and get good at it but you can practise with a mouse and get better (unless you're a COD knifer of course in which case you're awesome :)/>/> )

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 11:11 AM said:

NEVER!!! lol it's impossible to aim with those things, they are goo for 3rd person but not 1st, I know you can practise and get good at it but you can practise with a mouse and get better (unless you're a COD knifer of course in which case you're awesome :(/>/> )

BigSHinyToys, on 16 August 2012 - 11:24 AM said:

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 11:11 AM said:

NEVER!!! lol it's impossible to aim with those things, they are goo for 3rd person but not 1st, I know you can practise and get good at it but you can practise with a mouse and get better (unless you're a COD knifer of course in which case you're awesome :)/>/> )

Two head shots one bulled nuff said…

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 11:25 AM said:

yeah I know, it was quite limited but all I knew in the beginning was HTML and had to adapt that, I have one relative that does programming and I've seen him about 4 times in my life, no personal contacts etc, I really didn't know what was out there and even though I do now I still can't do much about it, trying to learn and will get there but it will take a while

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 11:51 AM said:

SQL is awesome, all sorts of sneaky things to get up to, I have seen some basic uses for it at work

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 12:00 PM said:

for me I am great at anything theoretical and am very good with co-ordinate systems or databases but when it comes to actually moving a turtle around in a changing/adapting path etc (as in practical application) it takes a lot longer, one issue I have always had is my perfectionism when it comes to coding, when I make a program I want it to be totally hack and idiot proof, it must be able to cater for any eventuality and be easy to adapt to a different purpose, I swear I must have OCD cos I just can't leave it when it merely 'works'

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 12:16 PM said:

already did, just hiacked part of the GPS api, I made a private satellite that gathers information and sends it to the host computer which adds that info to a table (organised by computer ids) and recognises when it has enough info to get their position, it then calculates it and adds it to a separate table which is a list of he last known locations of any broadcasted message, what the message was and who sent it

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 02:07 PM said:

I only go on these forums at work, none of my serious coding attempts are here as I do not have internet at home and so transfer is not easy, everything here is either invented or retyped from memory

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 02:31 PM said:

Ok, client side

Spoiler

mypos={["x"]=varx,["y"]=vary,["z"]=varz}
while true do
local received={rednet.receive()}
rednet.send(1,textutils.serialize({"radar",received,mypos}))
end

please note that you must replace varx, y and z with the client's co-ordinates

and the main computer of ID: 1

Spoiler

local function countvals(input)
if type(input)~="table" then
print("incorrect input")
return nil
end
local count=0
for _,q in pairs(input) do
count=count+1
end
return count
end

record={}
while true do
local received={rednet.receive()}
local received[2]=textutils.unserialize(received[2])
if type(received[2])=="table" and received[2][1]=="radar" then
if type(record[received[2][2][1]])~="table" then
record[received[2][2][1]]={}
end
record[received[2][2][1]][received[1]]={["message"]=received[2][2][2], ["distance"]=received[2][2][3], ["receiverloc"]=received[2][3]}

if count(record[received[2][2][1]])>=4 then
print("We have enough information on ID: "..received[2][2][1].."and it can be triangulated")
local currentinfo={}
for one,two in pairs(record[received[2][2][1]]) do --one will be the ID of the computer that detected it, two will be the table of info about it, this is entirely unneccesary but is an example of how to recall the info to put it into the triangulation function
currentinfo[two["receiverloc"]]=two["distance"]
end
--call triangulation program with info
end
end
end

I will try bring the original, not sure if I still have it but will try, I'll PM what I have to you

Ponder, on 16 August 2012 - 03:56 PM said:

I started off with Python around nine months ago, toyed a little bit with C and a micro controller couple months later. And when I discovered this mod, well, I had to start with Lua. But I actually don't like Lua that much, rather the opposite, but it's just awesome to do this kind of stuff inside Minecraft with CC, but as a question, why do you like Lua the way you do?

craniumkid22, on 16 August 2012 - 04:03 PM said:

I like lua, only because I haven't had anything to compare it to. I might go into some other sort of coding. Anytone got suggestions as to which one I would try next as a beginner? Some tools to help learn would be nice too, like an emulator.

Pharap, on 16 August 2012 - 10:15 PM said:

If you go for VB or C#, you can download visual studio free from microsoft (you get a 30 day free trial, but you can either sign up to get the full version for free with some of them, – snip –

Pharap, on 16 August 2012 - 10:15 PM said:

Ponder, on 16 August 2012 - 03:56 PM said:

I started off with Python around nine months ago, toyed a little bit with C and a micro controller couple months later. And when I discovered this mod, well, I had to start with Lua. But I actually don't like Lua that much, rather the opposite, but it's just awesome to do this kind of stuff inside Minecraft with CC, but as a question, why do you like Lua the way you do?

I don't get why you like python and not lua.
They aren't all that different from what I can see.
Python has a few built in functions lua doesn't, but you can simply program those functions into an API for you to use.

foo = "bar"
t = {foo = foo}   -- first thought here is, "wait, I am assigning the value of foo to the value of foo?", where you actually assign the value of foo the the string "foo", ambiguous
t.foo == t ['foo'] -- same thing, if you are coming from Python this is something completely different, but Lua treats them the same.

Pharap, on 16 August 2012 - 10:15 PM said:

craniumkid22, on 16 August 2012 - 04:03 PM said:

I like lua, only because I haven't had anything to compare it to. I might go into some other sort of coding. Anytone got suggestions as to which one I would try next as a beginner? Some tools to help learn would be nice too, like an emulator.

You mean an IDE, not an emulator.
I recommend C# if you are confident or VB if you are less confident.
Don't jump straight to C++ though, it's not really a beginner's language and it's likely to frustrate you easily.
If you go for VB or C#, you can download visual studio free from microsoft

BigSHinyToys, on 16 August 2012 - 11:06 AM said:

I play a lot of FPS and for me I prefer a PS3 controller over every other type of control system so far invented. it just fuses to your hands allowing for quick accurate interpretation of My instructions by the machine. The only thing that would beet that is a machine that could read my mind.

KaoS, on 16 August 2012 - 11:11 AM said:

NEVER!!! lol it's impossible to aim with those things, they are goo for 3rd person but not 1st, I know you can practise and get good at it but you can practise with a mouse and get better (unless you're a COD knifer of course in which case you're awesome :(/>/> )

nitrogenfingers, on 17 August 2012 - 12:28 AM said:

These are all excellent points, and for the large part I (and a good deal of the literature) agrees with you. My one big research "belief" is that the most dexterous and precise part of the human body are fingers, rather than hands and arms used more traditionally in hands-free interfaces. The old adage "the only thing separating a man from a beast is his tools" is excellent- human beings over centuries of selection and practice have refined themselves to master tools. To then take them away and say "work only in the air in front of cameras" is something most people will not immediately be able to do, if at all. Which is why gesture interfaces have consistently done poorly in the gaming realm. I've yet to find a Kinect game that I felt is served by the device over a standard controller and looking further back to say the "Sega Activator" we can see for a lot of applications it just doesn't seem to work. I'm imagining using a Kinect-like device to play an RTS- it's a hysterical picture. Fact of the matter is, we are no more precise than when we work with our fingers, especially when holding a device that has some sort of feedback like a controller with physical buttons or a keyboard and mouse- so it's likely even in the latest of futures these devices will still, in some form or another, exist.

So that sounds like a bit of a grim indictment for gesture interfaces- if we can't be precise with them then why on earth should the exist? It's all to do with application and measure. Striking an non-existent button by holding your hand in the position where the interfaces says there's a button and pushing or something, that's not very intuitive and a bad application of the technology. What we can do with our arms that our hands can't do quite so well is regulation of speed over a surface- one of the only things I like about the Kinect's XBox interface is the ability to swipe from one screen to another by stretching to grab the edge and sweeping it to one side. I still have a lot more research, designing and experimentation to give any conclusive or meaningful argument for the use of such interfaces and I refuse to provide any provide any statement of fact without research to back it up, but I've got a good belief that applied in the right applications, replacing or used in conjunction with other physical interfaces, it can surpass using physical interfaces alone. I have seen some research that suggest users prefer it in terms of intuition and flexibility when operating in virtual 3D environments, especially with panoramic or "cave" displays, and that's something I'm looking at with a lot of interest.

But this is all, academic. Bottom line, without going into too much detail, I don't think my work will influence the average gamer much, or even the average office worker much. It may be a dead end altogether as well, at this point I have no idea. But I'm really excited to find out.

Oh and apologies BigShinyToys, really didn't mean to hijack the thread- but in spite of that it's fantastic to see so many people taking an interest. Thanks all :(/>/>

Ponder, on 16 August 2012 - 11:12 PM said:

Pharap, on 16 August 2012 - 10:15 PM said:

Ponder, on 16 August 2012 - 03:56 PM said:

I started off with Python around nine months ago, toyed a little bit with C and a micro controller couple months later. And when I discovered this mod, well, I had to start with Lua. But I actually don't like Lua that much, rather the opposite, but it's just awesome to do this kind of stuff inside Minecraft with CC, but as a question, why do you like Lua the way you do?

I don't get why you like python and not lua.
They aren't all that different from what I can see.
Python has a few built in functions lua doesn't, but you can simply program those functions into an API for you to use.

Actually the Python standard lib is a little bit more than "a few builtins". :roll:

What annoys me most about Lua are tables. I mean, usually languages have different, encapsulated container types, but Lua puts a lot of stuff into tables which are lists, tuples, dicts/hash tables and classes in Python. That makes Lua tables broad and ambiguous, imo. e.g. I find the following outright confusing on first look:

foo = "bar"
t = {foo = foo}   -- first thought here is, "wait, I am assigning the value of foo to the value of foo?", where you actually assign the value of foo the the string "foo", ambiguous
t.foo == t ['foo'] -- same thing, if you are coming from Python this is something completely different, but Lua treats them the same.

Also Python has real objects as in "classes" not as in "you can hack classes from that one general purpose container".
Lastly, I don't ever want to miss the way Python handles exceptions. try-except-statements are pretty damn useful and elegant. Also it throws exceptions if a value is not referenced before, unlike Lua, checking for nil values is just not funny anymore, declaring any variable as local, because that's what you usually use them for, is neither.

Pharap, on 16 August 2012 - 10:15 PM said:

craniumkid22, on 16 August 2012 - 04:03 PM said:

I like lua, only because I haven't had anything to compare it to. I might go into some other sort of coding. Anytone got suggestions as to which one I would try next as a beginner? Some tools to help learn would be nice too, like an emulator.

You mean an IDE, not an emulator.
I recommend C# if you are confident or VB if you are less confident.
Don't jump straight to C++ though, it's not really a beginner's language and it's likely to frustrate you easily.
If you go for VB or C#, you can download visual studio free from microsoft

Actually, I'd suggest not getting an IDE as a beginner. Just a plain text editor with syntax highlighting will do. Helps you to get the code hammered into your brain and let's you focus on the important things.
I started with Gedit and am currently using vim.
I don't know about the languages, too. I got to admit that I haven't tried either, but VB just seems irrelevant and what you here from C++ on the web it's just overly complicated without actual gain. I'd rather suggest to start off with one of the bigger scripting languages like Python, Ruby or Perl and then move onto plain C.

try {v+=1;}
catch {print("error, number has exceeded limit");}

if ((v+1) <= 255) {v+=1;}
else {print("number cannot go higher, more space must be assigned")}

craniumkid22, on 17 August 2012 - 01:01 AM said:

Just to go further, how about a full body suit, with VR interface, and haptic feedback? MASSIVE amounts of coding required(not to mention hardware), but there you go: problem solved.

nitrogenfingers, on 17 August 2012 - 12:28 AM said:

These are all excellent points, and for the large part I (and a good deal of the literature) agrees with you. My one big research "belief" is that the most dexterous and precise part of the human body are fingers, rather than hands and arms used more traditionally in hands-free interfaces. The old adage "the only thing separating a man from a beast is his tools" is excellent- human beings over centuries of selection and practice have refined themselves to master tools. To then take them away and say "work only in the air in front of cameras" is something most people will not immediately be able to do, if at all. Which is why gesture interfaces have consistently done poorly in the gaming realm. I've yet to find a Kinect game that I felt is served by the device over a standard controller and looking further back to say the "Sega Activator" we can see for a lot of applications it just doesn't seem to work. I'm imagining using a Kinect-like device to play an RTS- it's a hysterical picture. Fact of the matter is, we are no more precise than when we work with our fingers, especially when holding a device that has some sort of feedback like a controller with physical buttons or a keyboard and mouse- so it's likely even in the latest of futures these devices will still, in some form or another, exist. So that sounds like a bit of a grim indictment for gesture interfaces- if we can't be precise with them then why on earth should the exist? It's all to do with application and measure. Striking an non-existent button by holding your hand in the position where the interfaces says there's a button and pushing or something, that's not very intuitive and a bad application of the technology. What we can do with our arms that our hands can't do quite so well is regulation of speed over a surface- one of the only things I like about the Kinect's XBox interface is the ability to swipe from one screen to another by stretching to grab the edge and sweeping it to one side. I still have a lot more research, designing and experimentation to give any conclusive or meaningful argument for the use of such interfaces and I refuse to provide any provide any statement of fact without research to back it up, but I've got a good belief that applied in the right applications, replacing or used in conjunction with other physical interfaces, it can surpass using physical interfaces alone. I have seen some research that suggest users prefer it in terms of intuition and flexibility when operating in virtual 3D environments, especially with panoramic or "cave" displays, and that's something I'm looking at with a lot of interest. But this is all, academic. Bottom line, without going into too much detail, I don't think my work will influence the average gamer much, or even the average office worker much. It may be a dead end altogether as well, at this point I have no idea. But I'm really excited to find out. Oh and apologies BigShinyToys, really didn't mean to hijack the thread- but in spite of that it's fantastic to see so many people taking an interest. Thanks all :(/>/>

Pharap, on 17 August 2012 - 01:59 AM said:

Lol, a gadget geek's dream, but a bit OTT

I have to agree with the hand dexterity thing (I've tried playing games with my feet, it didn't go well D:)
One use I can definitely see for gesture technology is with presentations, controlling lighting and sound with gestures along with changing slides with a hand wave, it would leave the presenter a lot of freedom for movement and they wouldn't have to conceal any buttons or point any infra-red stuff.
It would also be good for some music games. Air Guitar Hero anyone? lol

The issue with the 3D environment though would be the motion and the turning. Walking on the spot would be easy enough to manage basic movement, but the moment the player needs to turn, the screen would have to move with them or they would be rather stuck.
Using gesture in conjunction with the solid-state interfaces I can see being more plausible.

I'd like for it to have it's applications, it seems a shame for such work to go to waste, but my gut instinct, my knowledge of psychology and my gamer's intuition all tell me it will have very limited applications because the public aren't going to snap it up due to it's making the natural unnatural.

Now If you could place you phone on a bench and type on the table in front on a projected keyboard .It detected this and translated it into a string. Then use a finger to scroll up down let right. then two fingers to zoom or out. clicking in mid air to goto links and swiping fast to open menu.With the system able to recognize the different between fingers allowing one for left click and one for right.

BigSHinyToys, on 17 August 2012 - 02:59 AM said:

PSP = Complete fail total and utter. nice screen but input system is total fail even the home brew apps

Now If you could place you phone on a bench and type on the table in front on a projected keyboard .It detected this and translated it into a string. Then use a finger to scroll up down let right. then two fingers to zoom or out. clicking in mid air to goto links and swiping fast to open menu.With the system able to recognize the different between fingers allowing one for left click and one for right.

Pharap, on 17 August 2012 - 05:22 AM said:

BigSHinyToys, on 17 August 2012 - 02:59 AM said:

PSP = Complete fail total and utter. nice screen but input system is total fail even the home brew apps

Now If you could place you phone on a bench and type on the table in front on a projected keyboard .It detected this and translated it into a string. Then use a finger to scroll up down let right. then two fingers to zoom or out. clicking in mid air to goto links and swiping fast to open menu.With the system able to recognize the different between fingers allowing one for left click and one for right.

Take it you're an xbox fan?

And can I just point out the fact that 'mobile' phone and the requirement of a surface to place the phone on are contradictory.

D3matt, on 17 August 2012 - 06:40 AM said:

The only major complaint I have about LUA is the way tables work. I just can't get used to it compared to C# to VB.

D3matt, on 17 August 2012 - 06:40 AM said:

The only major complaint I have about LUA is the way tables work. I just can't get used to it compared to C# to VB.

nitrogenfingers, on 17 August 2012 - 09:06 AM said:

Pharap, on 17 August 2012 - 05:22 AM said:

Take it you're an xbox fan?

And can I just point out the fact that 'mobile' phone and the requirement of a surface to place the phone on are contradictory.

Such keyboard systems do exist- they project a laser onto a surface and measure vibrations to determine keystrokes (tapping is necessary). This isn't restricted to tabletops though, I've seen it done on the back of someone's arm! I too share a distaste for touch interfaces.
I would disagree with the conjecture that a mobile device using a surface is contradictory- that's that draw between a "mobile" device and a "pervasive", or "ubiquitous" device. A little the same as phones now coming with projectors to place on a wall- it's not contradictory for the projector to require a wall to display on. Though using it on a table top of something similar would be required, it's more that the casual user doesn't have to go and boot up a computer or lug around an iPad- they can just sit down somewhere, at a coffee shop or something, put down a pocket-size device and have a keyboard appear in front of them- comfortable to use (if missing any form of responsive feedback) and available anywhere a horizontal surface is available. And if there's one thing humans love it's horizontal surfaces.

Also, (side point)

D3matt, on 17 August 2012 - 06:40 AM said:

The only major complaint I have about LUA is the way tables work. I just can't get used to it compared to C# to VB.

Really? Tables are one of my favourite features in Lua. They recognize Lua is a weakly-typed language and that just adds this… flexibility. You can use them to store anything from object-like data, to simple data structs, even commands on behaviours and so much more, all wrapped into this simple, elegant framework. I really think it's one of the strongest features of the language.

craniumkid22, on 17 August 2012 - 08:29 PM said:

I have one quick question, why is CC coded using LUA? Why not any other language?

Cloudy, on 17 August 2012 - 09:08 PM said:

Lua is not an acronym :(/>/>

nitrogenfingers, on 17 August 2012 - 09:06 AM said:

Really? Tables are one of my favourite features in Lua. They recognize Lua is a weakly-typed language and that just adds this… flexibility. You can use them to store anything from object-like data, to simple data structs, even commands on behaviours and so much more, all wrapped into this simple, elegant framework. I really think it's one of the strongest features of the language.

KaoS, on 17 August 2012 - 04:50 PM said:

I love the lua table system, there is so much more in it and you can do so much more, […]

Pharap, on 17 August 2012 - 01:29 AM said:

It's not just python that does classes and the try except, stuff like C# and C++ do it as well. I will admit it is a bit constricting, but the thing is, to catch exceptions, you can usually use if statements to test if something will error before it does. I honestly think that while the try-catch statement comes in handy, it does encourage laziness with some things. Like if you assigned a variable as a byte, to stop it going over the limt (255) you could use a try catch like so: (in C#)

 try {v+=1;} catch {print("error, number has exceeded limit");} 

which is a lazy way of doing:

 if ((v+1) <= 255) {v+=1;} else {print("number cannot go higher, more space must be assigned")} 

So it's not impossible to catch exceptions in lua, you just have to think about it and do it the way they did before the try catch/try except statement: predict possible errors and account for the possibility they might occur.

Pharap said:

I can't disagree with the object argument though, using tables as objects is awkward. Though it would probably make more sense if there was a decent explanation out there (that lua index that the wiki points to seems to be written to make things sound more complicated than simplifying it so people understand.) As for the local thing, that's common place in most languages. VB and C# have private, and C++ has it's equivalent. In fact most languages have more than just global and local, they have stuff like friend, protected, protected friend, public, private. The syntax changes but the concept remains. VB isn't irrelevant, it is actually used in the industry believe it or not. People hate on it because it's quite simplified and has pretty much no gaming applications, but it does have a lot of other uses like SQL compatibility and Database management (what it's generally designed for). I know that some banks use it to handle their customer databases, so it's far from irrelevant. As for which language to choose, it all depends on what you want to achieve.

Ponder, on 17 August 2012 - 11:26 PM said:

Pharap, on 17 August 2012 - 01:29 AM said:

It's not just python that does classes and the try except, stuff like C# and C++ do it as well. I will admit it is a bit constricting, but the thing is, to catch exceptions, you can usually use if statements to test if something will error before it does. I honestly think that while the try-catch statement comes in handy, it does encourage laziness with some things. Like if you assigned a variable as a byte, to stop it going over the limt (255) you could use a try catch like so: (in C#)

 try {v+=1;} catch {print("error, number has exceeded limit");} 

which is a lazy way of doing:

 if ((v+1) <= 255) {v+=1;} else {print("number cannot go higher, more space must be assigned")} 

So it's not impossible to catch exceptions in lua, you just have to think about it and do it the way they did before the try catch/try except statement: predict possible errors and account for the possibility they might occur.

Yeah, I know that other languages have this too, but I was comparing Python and Lua, should have pointed it out though.
I got to admit that I am a fan of "Crash Early, Crash Often". You cannot possibly think of all errors which might occur and even if you could catching them with if statements would add unneeded complexity to your code and obfuscates it. So why bother?

Pharap said:

I can't disagree with the object argument though, using tables as objects is awkward. Though it would probably make more sense if there was a decent explanation out there (that lua index that the wiki points to seems to be written to make things sound more complicated than simplifying it so people understand.) As for the local thing, that's common place in most languages. VB and C# have private, and C++ has it's equivalent. In fact most languages have more than just global and local, they have stuff like friend, protected, protected friend, public, private. The syntax changes but the concept remains. VB isn't irrelevant, it is actually used in the industry believe it or not. People hate on it because it's quite simplified and has pretty much no gaming applications, but it does have a lot of other uses like SQL compatibility and Database management (what it's generally designed for). I know that some banks use it to handle their customer databases, so it's far from irrelevant. As for which language to choose, it all depends on what you want to achieve.

Well, the other languages I know (C and Python) encapsulate variables very good from each other on different scopes and that's something I cannot reproduce in Lua even with the local statement.
As for VB, that does not seem to be something which cannot be accomplished in other languages (Python's sqlite module is quite nice as far as I can tell, have I mentioned that I'm a bit of a fan boy? ;P), but then again as don't know much about VB I don't want to judge that.

D3matt, on 18 August 2012 - 12:12 AM said:

Sometimes catching is just flat-out better than if statements, especially in network communications where there are some things you just can't control. It's easier to just try/catch an entire block of code than to put if/then statements for every possible error and hope nothing unforeseen comes up.

Lua, in addition to what cloudy said, also has a readily available java vm and is basically designed for applications such as this.

If you rely too heavily on the try statement, you get lazy. If you understand your code, you should be able to make predictions about what errors to expect. And if you find unpredicted errors, you can find out why and thus understand your program better. Besides, if you're using a decent IDE, you don't even need it for debugging since the IDE should tell you about any errors the code encounters through its own debug mode.
When I first started programming, our teacher didn't even teach us about the try-catch statement. I didn't even know it existed until our project was almost over.

You seem to be forgetting that lua is a basic scripting language. It's not designed for the heavy duty work of languages like Java and the Cs.
Object orientation is very limited and there are only strictly two variable ranges - local and global. Heavy duty languages have public, private, protected, friend, and many other variations or equivalents, as well as fully implemented object orientation, with properties given proper structure and allowing for more advanced methods of encapsulation.

function f (d)
  local value = d
  function g ()
	print (value)
  end
end
f (42) -- will print 42 even though value was never defined in the scope of g

Paraph]The more you learn your code said:

Using try-except does not necessarily mean you don't understand the way your code works. You should only use try-except for specific exceptions anyway. It just makes code more readable.

Every language as its use.

And then there is Brain Fuck? Or any other esoteric language for that matter? ;P

Anyway, enough ranting on languages, what was our topic again?

Ponder, on 18 August 2012 - 01:02 AM said:

If you rely too heavily on the try statement, you get lazy. If you understand your code, you should be able to make predictions about what errors to expect. And if you find unpredicted errors, you can find out why and thus understand your program better. Besides, if you're using a decent IDE, you don't even need it for debugging since the IDE should tell you about any errors the code encounters through its own debug mode.
When I first started programming, our teacher didn't even teach us about the try-catch statement. I didn't even know it existed until our project was almost over.

Point granted, if you only use try-except to catch everything something is wrong. But if you rely too heavily on your IDE to debug your code… Notice something?

You seem to be forgetting that lua is a basic scripting language. It's not designed for the heavy duty work of languages like Java and the Cs.
Object orientation is very limited and there are only strictly two variable ranges - local and global. Heavy duty languages have public, private, protected, friend, and many other variations or equivalents, as well as fully implemented object orientation, with properties given proper structure and allowing for more advanced methods of encapsulation.

Either I was not clear enough or you are missing my point. My point is not that there are only globals and locals, I am fine with that. It is that locals are not really local, e.g.

function f (d)
  local value = d
  function g ()
	print (value)
  end
end
f (42) -- will print 42 even though value was never defined in the scope of g

Paraph]The more you learn your code said:

Using try-except does not necessarily mean you don't understand the way your code works. You should only use try-except for specific exceptions anyway. It just makes code more readable.

Every language as its use.

And then there is Brain Fuck? Or any other esoteric language for that matter? ;P

Anyway, enough ranting on languages, what was our topic again?

Your IDE tells you where the error is and what it is, you still have to go there, understand what went wrong and correct it, thus learning what you did wrong. It's usually just typos anyway.

Technically the function g is local within the function f, thus value and f are in the same locality.

Esoteric languages have their use, just not in the industry. They are good for developing broad skills and for entertaining oneself. They are designed to be humorous and awkward to use, and they fit their purpose well. You wouldn't use Shakespeare to program something commercially but you would use it to test your skill and just to mess around. Programming isn't all serious work.

function tryCatchFinally(tryFunc, catchFunc, finallyFunc)
  local result = { pcall(tryFunc) }
  catchFunc( unpack(result) )
  finallyFunc()
end

-- usage
tryCatchFinally(
  function()
    error("lol test")
  end,
  function(...)
    print(...)
  end,
  function()
    print("statement finished")
  end
end)

Cloudy, on 18 August 2012 - 12:09 PM said:

Try-catch-finally (untested, wrote on my phone while on a beach :(/>/>).

function tryCatchFinally(tryFunc, catchFunc, finallyFunc)
  local result = { pcall(tryFunc) }
  catchFunc( unpack(result) )
  finallyFunc()
end

-- usage
tryCatchFinally(
  function()
	error("lol test")
  end,
  function(...)
	print(...)
  end,
  function()
	print("statement finished")
  end
end)

Could be done better ;-) - there are advanced usages of Lua which could make this neater - and try shoudn't execute regardless! But most of the functionality can be emulated in Lua - it is powerful enough. I will have to polish this tomorrow when I have access to a computer. I hope I made my point though :)/>/>

billysback, on 11 October 2012 - 05:58 PM said:

People here seem to be saying that they are masters of a programming language rather casually, I would consider myself intermediate at Java - I can create a 2D game with a reasonable engine which draws and updates the game efficiently enough with relative ease and speed, and I also consider the organisation of most of my code understandable and tidy;
"mastering" a programming language to me, is reaching a level such as Notch's (just as example); he can very easily create 3D games and advanced applications using nothing but his own code and can efficiently both organise and fix his code. This is master level, in my opinion saying you have "mastered" a programming language is an extremely bold claim and one usually made by someone other than yourself.

I'm not saying anyone who has made this claim is lying, I'm just saying that it is a very bold claim… Master suggests you have mastered it, so you know everything about it, or close to everything.

To "master" a language in under 3 weeks, in under a couple of months, seems impossible, I don't believe you can learn that many methods, class names, tricks etc. in that short of a time.

billysback, on 11 October 2012 - 05:58 PM said:

People here seem to be saying that they are masters of a programming language rather casually, I would consider myself intermediate at Java - I can create a 2D game with a reasonable engine which draws and updates the game efficiently enough with relative ease and speed, and I also consider the organisation of most of my code understandable and tidy;
"mastering" a programming language to me, is reaching a level such as Notch's (just as example); he can very easily create 3D games and advanced applications using nothing but his own code and can efficiently both organise and fix his code. This is master level, in my opinion saying you have "mastered" a programming language is an extremely bold claim and one usually made by someone other than yourself.

I'm not saying anyone who has made this claim is lying, I'm just saying that it is a very bold claim… Master suggests you have mastered it, so you know everything about it, or close to everything.

To "master" a language in under 3 weeks, in under a couple of months, seems impossible, I don't believe you can learn that many methods, class names, tricks etc. in that short of a time.

Taking that into account, I would describe my programming experience as poor and below-average. I can't create games in any other language than GML which is a really poor beginner's language and I fail to understand any concept of programming. However, I do think that programming is fun to do.

Oh yeah and I'm 14 years old and I've got about 1 to 2 years of programming experience which might be the cause of me failing.

Notch is not exactly "efficient", tbh, at least from what I've heard about the minecraft code…

D3matt, on 30 October 2012 - 04:47 PM said:

Notch is not exactly "efficient", tbh, at least from what I've heard about the minecraft code…

Jarle212, on 03 November 2012 - 11:42 AM said:

I am 16 and have been programming for about 6 years. I started with Qbasic and move on to Game Maker "programming". Then I started learning java(by reading: "Java for programmers") by Paul and Harvey deitel. Now I am making a game engine in Java after failing to make it in game maker(do not make an engine inside an engine), learning C++ and I made a poor 3D model viewer use openGL with lwjgl. and I started programming in lua when I found computer craft. Also a great page for bying books about programming is: www.informit.com

Encreedem, on 20 August 2013 - 02:19 PM said:

I started learning how to write programs in school when I was 14. We had to program a 2D hamster which could only make some very basic actions (acually it's almost like the CC Turtle). At that time I already realised that I really like programming and the fact that I'm thinking very logically made it even easier for me. During the past 4 years in school we mostly used C# and sometimes Java for our programs. C# is currently my favorite language by the way. I also made small games (mostly console applications) everytime I learned some new tricks and I usually put lots of time into them regardless of the fact that I was pretty mutch a noob (My first program was a chess game and I didn't even know how to read keys or use multidimensional arrays ^^). Regarding Website developement I also know a bit about HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP but I don't really do much with that knowledge. In the last two years I learned a lot about SQL and I also started playing around with Lua.
Python, Batch and AutoIt are some languages of which I know the basics.
Right now I'm playing around with Unity, trying to combine my programming skills with my 3D models.
In the near future I plan to learn the languages C++ and Russian.

Hmmm… I feel like I haven't bragged enough in this post. Let's see… Most classmates consider me to be one of the best programmers in my class and I dare to say that I'm generally good in programming. :D/>

SET /P name=name:
SET /P message=message:
NET SEND %name% %message%

• JavaScript (ick!)
• Some Python
• Ruby
• C
• C++
• D (Yes, it's a real language, and a very nice one at that.)
• Blitz Basic (A pretty good beginner's language)
• TI-Basic (TI-84 and Nspire variants; a great distraction at school)
• Lua, of course
• Some rudimentary Java
• ARM assembly

distantcam, on 13 October 2013 - 01:06 PM said:

I started programming as a kid in the 80's with Basic on an Amstrad CPC.

From there I went to uni and studied Computer Science.

Now I'm a Senior Software Engineer for a mining company who makes mine visualization and scheduling software. Since mine data is represented in blocks part of my job involves making a 3D voxel engine (aka Minecraft). In fact that's how I got into Minecraft, one of the mining engineers was playing with it and showed it around the office. I even made an importer for our software so it could import a Minecraft world and work out an optimal mining strategy for that world.

I've been working as a professional C# developer for 10 years so I'd say I'm a master of C#. In the past I've also worked with Java, C++, Haskel, Delphi, Pascal, VB, and many others. I primarily deal with front end systems (GUIs, client apps) but I have also done back end systems and web based applications (although I don't do websites, just web apis).

And now I'm learning Lua because ComputerCraft is amazing.