Processing 1.0, the open source programming language and environment and others.

[tetrodozombie]

Google "Processing" and take a look at what I'm talkin' about.

Since I use OpenBSD on my laptop, and I don't want to run the Java Virtual Machine due to their policy and copyright issues. I'm curious if anyone else out there has found something similar that works well on OpenBSD.

I hear there's "impromptu", which is absolutely gorgeous and beautiful! It's going to bring Scheme back in a big way. Time get on that SmallTalk train! But, it's just for OS X from what I know.

I just wanted to bring this up if anyone's got any suggestions let me know. Things are going to get very interesting in the near future.

peace y'all!

[BSDfan666]

Believe me, I'm no avid supporter of Java, but what policy/copyright issues are you speaking about.. beyond the most obvious one (..GPL licencing), there aren't any others these days.

4.6 has 1.7 jdk/jre packages available now, no longer do you need to build it yourself.

As for recommendations for other technologies, I can't help you.. isn't my preferred area of interest.

[tetrodozombie]

First Java. I guess there's no reason not to use Java anymore, but I can't help being bitter about the way they handled things in the past. I spent many many long hours ( this is back when I was using FreeBSD ), hacking away trying to get Java to run on a FreeBSD box. Going to sun's site. Give me more time to get over it.

I'm trying to keep things simple as possible. My decision is to use Cairo to program graphics. I'm accustomed to Object Oriented programming and have never tried to use C's procedural programming to implement certain graphical effects like bouncing, 3D, etc.

I'm going to play with it a while and see how it goes.

I hear there's something else called SDL, too. I might look into that.

I want to program graphics on my OpenBSD box, but I don't have time to try everything, so I have to pick something that's got power in it. C is very fast and there is no VM, I like that!

[TerryP]

Any language that says 'It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within ...' instantly scares me, and reminds me both of what kind of code I've seen students produce, and that I have never seen a dialect of BASIC that doesn't make me twitch.


If you're serious about programming under a UNIX environment, you're best choices are C, Perl, C++, and Python. For graphics programming, as if you want to create a video game: the best access to libraries will be from C++. However, if you want to do it fairly portably.... with minimal pain on the *BSDs, then you'll need to go straight C or C++ with a lower level library. E.g. things such as OGRE or Unreal Engine can be ruled out.


In my experience the typical Object Oriented Programming model is only *well* suited to problems where the class hierarchy model is likewise well suited to expressing the solution, or you intend to have a lot of `objects` around at the same time with differing states. The only good things about Java is interfaces and having a drink while the code compiles :-P.


My familiarity is more with SDL and DirectX, but Cairo may well suit your (generally unspecified) needs. One perk of Cairo over SDL, you'll find a more natural C++ binding (cairomm) then you'll ever hope to find in SDL, in terms of OOP.

[phoenix]

If you're into OOP, and know anything about C++, look into QT instead. It's a real OO framework (not an Object-like setup using a non-OO language like C), and covers pretty much everything from networking, to database access, to multimedia, to graphics, to 3D, to whatever.

Plus, it's cross-platform (BSD, Linux, MacOS X, Windows, cell phones, etc).

[ephemera]

I second that. For Graphics/GUI programming Qt4 is great.
The API is sane, easy to use & well documented (Qt4 assistant).
Also, check out the Qt4 demo programs (source code included).

Qt4 also has a Python binding...worth checking out if you are into python.

[tetrodozombie]

I'm going to use Cairo/Gtk with C.
And, I'm going to use Qt with Python.

That's a lot of learning, but I've got a lot of time. I'm not afraid of taking on a challenge like this. Learning both, I'll understand which works better for certain needs I might have. And knowledge is as good as gold.

[Oliver_H]

@terryp Omicron basic on the AtariST. But my first languages were Fortran & Pascal.