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The reason I ask is I'm working on a program in Visual Basic that may later need to interface with other programs in different languages. Considering the breadth of your knowledge in different languages, would you know how to get programs to talk to each other?
Budweiserbob!
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Typically a mixture of Java and Javascript, depending on where I were to host the game (as a desktop application or browser application).
If you can suspend all judgement for just a moment, here's what I'm trying to accomplish:
A small group of us are working on building a tickling machine. I won't go into the unnecessary details here but we're designing it to be fully modular and capable of being integrated into any software program built to operate it. Basically what we'd like to do in the long run is have games made that can tell the machine how to act in fairly simple terms. The game designer wouldn't really need to know anything about the robotics or programming behind the machine, just the commands to activate it.
I'm writing the programming for it in visual basic since it's easy to design user interfaces and it's the language I'm most familiar with. What I'd like to know is how difficult it would be to get a game to tell the machine to run commands.
And please, I don't need to be told how hard it's going to be building a machine like this because we already know. Let's just assume it will work for now.
A small group of us are working on building a tickling machine. I won't go into the unnecessary details here but we're designing it to be fully modular and capable of being integrated into any software program built to operate it. Basically what we'd like to do in the long run is have games made that can tell the machine how to act in fairly simple terms. The game designer wouldn't really need to know anything about the robotics or programming behind the machine, just the commands to activate it.
I'm writing the programming for it in visual basic since it's easy to design user interfaces and it's the language I'm most familiar with. What I'd like to know is how difficult it would be to get a game to tell the machine to run commands.
And please, I don't need to be told how hard it's going to be building a machine like this because we already know. Let's just assume it will work for now.
Budweiserbob!
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So why do you need this program to interface with different types of languages? In actuality, if you're making an actual machine then you should be more concerned with the different generations of language (Machine Code, Assembly Code etc.) as you're going to need to program the machine from scratch.
I know that you know that this will be hard to achieve... but you'll probably need the mind of someone who's doing "University Level Robotics" because that's the kind of standard it will take to achieve this. =/
I know that you know that this will be hard to achieve... but you'll probably need the mind of someone who's doing "University Level Robotics" because that's the kind of standard it will take to achieve this. =/
You don't need to break things down to machine language to use entry-level electronic controller boards. In fact they generally use C or something similar. There are open-source programs out there in Python that do all the software-hardware interfacing already. Besides, I'm not programming the machine itself. The machine will have control boards that receive simple commands to operate servos and electric motors. The programming all resides on the computer, so the "machine" part will just receive information about which mechanical components to activate in whatever way. This is the kind of stuff hobbyists do, only on a larger and more complex scale.
Believe me I've given a lot of thought to that aspect of the design and a lot more thought will be put into it down the track, but this thread is about third-party interfacing with the core programming of the machine. Until we've decided on the exact type of control board we'll be using I don't have any specific questions on that subject.
Believe me I've given a lot of thought to that aspect of the design and a lot more thought will be put into it down the track, but this thread is about third-party interfacing with the core programming of the machine. Until we've decided on the exact type of control board we'll be using I don't have any specific questions on that subject.
the_jimmy_james
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C and C++ are still the best for general-purpose coding. If you want to be rather platform-specific you could run managed code on Windows, code in C#, or go oldskool object-oriented and do Objective-C on OS X and iPhone OS 😛
C and its derivatives will give you the most robust piece of software. Java has too much overhead, IMO, to write a complicated game. VisualBasic is far too limited, but if you're wanting to design a wrapper app to run the game in, VB can do allright for that.
C and its derivatives will give you the most robust piece of software. Java has too much overhead, IMO, to write a complicated game. VisualBasic is far too limited, but if you're wanting to design a wrapper app to run the game in, VB can do allright for that.
TkBill696
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C++ is a good but dificoult language.Very easy to use is HTML for a browser game,an easy idea,if you are familliar with C and Java.The problem with c is that it is a lot of mess if you want grafics,something very easy with HTML...
Visual basic is just for the coding and user interface of the machine itself. I think we're getting a little off topic again; what I need to know now is how the coding for the machine will accept input from the game. It doesn't need to send anything back. I'm anticipating that people write games in all sorts of languages and specialized applications and it would be helpful to find out how different programs can communicate with each other this way.
I'm starting to get the feeling this is something I'll have to work out on my own again.
I'm starting to get the feeling this is something I'll have to work out on my own again.
Budweiserbob!
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Hmmmm...
Well, it would help if you gave the jist of what you're trying to achieve overall if you're searching for information relevant to what you're doing because... I'm still kinda confused about what you're attempting? Is this an automated tickle machine that you're designing to use on others or others to use on themselves? Or are you planning to make a game that has output device that tickles you as part of the game?
But you'd typically only see multi-language communication when your primary code can't handle a function on it's own (or there's a more effective language available). For example Java -> MySQL for querying, Java -> Javascript for browser based operations.
I'm not sure why you want to translate from VB into lots of other languages... if you could elaborate, that would be helpful. 🙂
Well, it would help if you gave the jist of what you're trying to achieve overall if you're searching for information relevant to what you're doing because... I'm still kinda confused about what you're attempting? Is this an automated tickle machine that you're designing to use on others or others to use on themselves? Or are you planning to make a game that has output device that tickles you as part of the game?
But you'd typically only see multi-language communication when your primary code can't handle a function on it's own (or there's a more effective language available). For example Java -> MySQL for querying, Java -> Javascript for browser based operations.
I'm not sure why you want to translate from VB into lots of other languages... if you could elaborate, that would be helpful. 🙂
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The programming will be free and the schematics will be free. You'll have to build it yourself though I'm afraid 🙂
I guess you'd call it semi-automated. At first I thought it would be enough for it to have an off-on switch but I've gotten a little more ambitious thinking how other programs could use the machine. I'll try to be as clear as possible.
The game essentially needs to tell the machine which modules (tickling devices) to activate and at which intensity levels. Because people make games in all sorts of languages I figured I'd need a translator. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not designing a game, just the tickle machine which can later be used by any game developer as an output.
The primary code still runs all the functions necessary for the tickle machine to work, it just needs to be told by the game when to run and it what way. Hope that clarifies things.
EDIT: Here's an example if it helps.
Player gets attacked by tickled monster > Monster initiates foot-tickle attack > Game tells machine to activate foot tickling modules at X intensity where X is level of monster > Machine does the rest
I guess you'd call it semi-automated. At first I thought it would be enough for it to have an off-on switch but I've gotten a little more ambitious thinking how other programs could use the machine. I'll try to be as clear as possible.
The game essentially needs to tell the machine which modules (tickling devices) to activate and at which intensity levels. Because people make games in all sorts of languages I figured I'd need a translator. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not designing a game, just the tickle machine which can later be used by any game developer as an output.
The primary code still runs all the functions necessary for the tickle machine to work, it just needs to be told by the game when to run and it what way. Hope that clarifies things.
EDIT: Here's an example if it helps.
Player gets attacked by tickled monster > Monster initiates foot-tickle attack > Game tells machine to activate foot tickling modules at X intensity where X is level of monster > Machine does the rest
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Budweiserbob!
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Ah, ok. So it's a computer game that not only uses an input device but an output device to tickle to user. Got it.
Well, you don't need to make a game in every language for it to be playable to everyone. As long as you inform the user to download the required packages needed to run the system or include the packages in the software then you should be fine. Sticking to a single language would be the easiest idea aswell... probably C++. It's one of the more robust languages out there, and the best one for your needs I feel.
Well, you don't need to make a game in every language for it to be playable to everyone. As long as you inform the user to download the required packages needed to run the system or include the packages in the software then you should be fine. Sticking to a single language would be the easiest idea aswell... probably C++. It's one of the more robust languages out there, and the best one for your needs I feel.
Now we're back where we started but at least we seem to be on the same page now.
I'm not the one making the game. I'm just writing the software for the machine. I want that software to be available to other game makers so they can use any language they please.
The game's programming is in VB.NET. It's more than capable of handling everything I need, it provides a good basis for a user interface and it's easily modified by the user if need be. C++ being more robust or powerful makes no difference to this decision.
Yes sticking to a single language would be easiest but unlikely. Visual Basic is great for windows applications but not so much for graphically intense games, C is a difficult language to learn so not everyone would want to use it and game-making applications like XP RPG Maker or Game Maker have their own limitations.
I want the software for the machine to run independently from the game, but to allow inputs from the game. Unless the game maker decides for whatever reason to write their game in Visual Basic the two will remain separate.
I'm not the one making the game. I'm just writing the software for the machine. I want that software to be available to other game makers so they can use any language they please.
The game's programming is in VB.NET. It's more than capable of handling everything I need, it provides a good basis for a user interface and it's easily modified by the user if need be. C++ being more robust or powerful makes no difference to this decision.
Yes sticking to a single language would be easiest but unlikely. Visual Basic is great for windows applications but not so much for graphically intense games, C is a difficult language to learn so not everyone would want to use it and game-making applications like XP RPG Maker or Game Maker have their own limitations.
I want the software for the machine to run independently from the game, but to allow inputs from the game. Unless the game maker decides for whatever reason to write their game in Visual Basic the two will remain separate.
Ok here's a really bad example of how I might achieve what I'm after.
The person developing the game happens to like using game maker. To send commands to the tickling machine it writes command strings to text files. There'll be a few text files that are used. The tickle machine is constantly reading these text files to see if a new command has been sent. If it has, it uses the string stored in the text file to formulate an actual piece of code to represent what it should be doing, then erases everything on the text file so it can be used again.
Awfully inefficient way to go about it but it's all I can think of without a way of directly sending strings of data from one to the other and it does illustrate how I'd want it to work. It would also work for any program that can write to text files since the string commands will be identical and Visual Basic can do the conversion itself.
The person developing the game happens to like using game maker. To send commands to the tickling machine it writes command strings to text files. There'll be a few text files that are used. The tickle machine is constantly reading these text files to see if a new command has been sent. If it has, it uses the string stored in the text file to formulate an actual piece of code to represent what it should be doing, then erases everything on the text file so it can be used again.
Awfully inefficient way to go about it but it's all I can think of without a way of directly sending strings of data from one to the other and it does illustrate how I'd want it to work. It would also work for any program that can write to text files since the string commands will be identical and Visual Basic can do the conversion itself.
RedMan01
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Indeed, but if you want to go for graphics it's DirectX or OpenGL, the latter not having as much popularity because people sell their souls to Microsoft and OpenGL 2 pretty much sucked
