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HIVE PICO-8 Tutorial

§5

5a: layers to understanding programming

HECTORING PEP-TALK: YOU ARE WISER NOW. Let's delve a little deeper into your BASIC PROBLEM SOLVING techniques

UNDERSTANDING comes in 3 layers:

0th level, THE FOUNDATIONS: what even is the realm of possibility?

• imagine programming is like MINECRAFT
  • THE FOUNDATIONS = the MINECRAFT WORLD
  • how do you interact with the world?
  • what exists in this world, and how do you access these things?
  • what do you do with these things?
  • the WORLD is DEEP, but it is not exactly necessary to know ALL THE DEEP to do stuff with things.
  • but, you must KNOW how to do the things, meaning:
  • understanding the lingo
  • how to correctly tell the computer to do the thing you want it to do
  • EXAMPLES:
    • how does the computer really imagine NUMBERS and how does it DO ARITHMETIC?
    • what does that mean for human-computer interactions?
    • COOL HINT: some understanding of BINARY and HEXIDECIMAL will really help with PICO-8ing.
    • how does the computer imagine the IMAGES we make using LINGO and the COORDINATE SYSTEM?
  • understanding these things to some degree will help OPTIMIZING and DEBUGGING a game. you may be baffled by an ERROR, but FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE may help you figure out stuff.
  • meaning, knowing general MATH and PHYSICS stuff will make you a stronger coder. with these FOUNDATIONS, you can BUILD stuff ON TOP
• DO NOT FRET OVER THE SINE & COSINE STUFF WE USED FOR ANGLES IN THE PRIOR VIDEO
  • AGAIN: you need to KNOW what to TELL the computer (inputs; example SINE & COSINE) so that the computer may DO (outputs; example circle patterns on coordinate plane)
  • knowing the math part is definitely helpful, but not the most important part you need to understand
  • SINE and COSINE are USEFUL for converting angles and you can't ESCAPE that!
• ↓↓↓↓ this brings us to the first above-ground level of understanding ↓↓↓↓

1st level, GROUND FLOOR: awareness of the things in PICO-8, like functions and the tools that are available

• this is where these videos start off
• we type the THINGS and the computer does SOMETHING
• back to our MINECRAFT analogy...
  • these VIDEOS thus far have taught you (MINECRAFT STEVE) to punch trees and dig a hole in the ground for night
  • we've hinted at how to make sticks, but now we're gonna make a WORK BENCH! and maybe even a WOOD AXE
• ↓↓↓↓ once you get a hang of your tools, we can take it up a notch and talk about the ↓↓↓↓

NEXT LEVEL: using the functions in different, but common ways to solve common problems, and also using these foundations and awareness to invent new behaviors in the game engine.

• in MINECRAFT terms,
  • anything is possible. if you can DREAM it, it can be CRAFTED
  • we're talking working with REDSTONE, baby
  • sometimes you won't remember how to CRAFT something specific, but you know that it can be CRAFTED. so you check the WIKI for formulas.
  • just like MINECRAFT though, you must CODE a LAME MUD HUT before you can do INSANE and AUTOMATED stuff with REDSTONE.
• you put IDEAS together, then you FIGURE OUT the CODE ARCHITECTURE to make this VISION a REALITY
  • realizing your VISION means there will be different PARTS, and it is important to SUBDIVIDE these PARTS so into smaller PROBLEMS that you can solve with CODE
  • here too falls the HONING of the CRAFT of PROGRAMMING
  • especially with VIDEO GAMES which are complicated and are constantly simulating frames in real time
• this where TOOLS for COMPLICATED PROBLEM SOLVING comes in:
  • methods for processing events
  • implementing state machines
  • tables and data and organization patterns
  • path-finding
  • ai
  • interfaces
  • etc.
• a lot of these PROBLEMS have been SOLVED though, because you are not the FIRST person to program EVER
  • BABY STEPS
  • you will always be COLLECTING KNOWLEDGE across ALL THREE LEVELS of UNDERSTANDING as you work
  • you can't READ all the THINGS EVER, programming is an ART!
  • and there are NECESSARY THINGS to know in ALL THREE LEVELS if you want to PRODUCE THINGS

RECAP:

• GROUND FLOOR:
  • following the tutorials and getting the hang of things
  • names of the functions and what they do
  • conditional statements, loops, etc.
  • understanding this stuff is easy and strightforward
  • COOL HINT: READ THE DOCUMENTATION
  • this will make it easier to UNDERSTAND what WEIRD CODE is DOING
• NEXT LEVEL and FOUNDATIONS
  • these LEVELS are more difficult to UNDERSTAND
  • COOL HINT: must keep WORKING!
  • WORKING will require you to SOLVE PROBLEMS!
  • PROBLEM SOLVING will make you THINK of COOLER and AMBITIOUS SYSTEMS to CREATE.
• GAMES ARE WEIRD
  • there are TWO WOLVES inside GAME DEVELOPMENT: the TECHNICAL and ARTISTIC sides
  • this requires turning on and off different parts of your brain
  • it is easy to get lost in ONE of the SIDES which makes it HARDER to PROBLEM SOLVE
• CODING IS COMPLEX
  • it requires:
  • one kind of FOCUS
  • one kind of ENGINEERING RIGOR (technical side)
  • while CONVERSATIONS about AESTHETICS, THEMES, IDEAS (artistic side) happen, requiring a whole different HEADSPACE
  • WHEN WE START TO TALK ABOUT HOW THE TECHINICAL CAN AFFECT THE ARTISTIC, the COMPLEXITY spreads squarely to both proverbial SIDES of the proverbial BRAIN

5b: dealing with errors & other flavors of problems

errors.p8 (right click + save as)

--[[ -- working version

x,y,oops,grit,grot=0,0,20,1,1
patt=▥

cls(14)
function _update()
 if btn(❎) then
   if oops > 0 then
   grit+=0.01
   grot=rnd(5)
   oops-=1
  end
  x+=cos(time()/grot)*grit
  else
   oops=20
   fillp(patt)
   rectfill(0,0,128,128,12)
   fillp()
   if flr(x)>0 then x-=.5
   elseif flr(x)<0 then x+=.5 end
  end
  if btn(🅾️) then
   patt=flr(rnd(0b1111111111111111))+0b0.1
   fillp(flr(patt))
   rectfill(0,0,128,128,0xec)
   fillp()
  end
  y+=sin(time()/2)*4
end

function _draw()
 --cls(8)
 spr(0,x+60,y+100)
end

--]]
-->8
--[ [ -- broken version

x,y,oops,grit,grot=0,0,20,1,1
patt=▥

cls(14)
fuction _updat()
 if btn(❎) then
   if oops > 0 then
   grit+=0.01
   grot=rnd(5)
   oops-=1

  x+=cos(time()/grot)*grit
  else
   oops="20"
   fillp(patt)
   rectfill(0,0,128,128,12)
   fillp()
   if flr(x)>0 then x-=.5
   elseif flr(x)<0 then x+=.5 end
  end
  if btn("🅾️") then
   patt=flr(rnd(0b1111111111111111))+0b0.1
   fillp(flr(patt))
   rectfill(0,0,128,128,0xec)
   fillp()
  end
  y+=sin(time()/2)*4
end

function _draw()
 --cls(8)
 spr(0,x+60,y+100)
end

--]]