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I Want to Make My Own Frontend, Help

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mhermann:
I just wanted to make it clear that the reason I suggested VB is because there are a ton of starter books on it and a ton of code examples all over the web more so then probably anything else (besides maybe C). And it is easy to learn although maybe not the easiest.

But someone made a good point that if you do anything in .NET your user base will be required to install the .NET Framework.


Lilwolf:
You could also consider java.  Mainly because the best java tools out there are all free (Eclipse).  So you can start without spending money.

They are all very very similar in how you do things.  You have to worry about different items in each language.

btw, Java isn't the best language for some things but great for others.  Like for instance, its a pain to deal with video, you can do it, but its not as easy (or more, you don't have as many options). 

But JFront is my frontend written in java and its opensource.  Not that you should start off looking at it (since it might effect how you do things... try it yourself first if its really just for fun).  But it can be done and it can be quick.

btw, I also have a full opengl 3d frontend in java and another frontend that I never released... got it working, and put it on my cab... but never got around to packaging it up.

thorus:
I'm also considering making my own FE the programming language I'm planning on using is Python not a far throw from VB but it is free and with PYGame a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done.  My friend who codes in it frequently got a FE up and running in about 2 hours.  And that one had a DB backend.

Howard_Casto:

--- Quote from: youki on May 04, 2006, 03:52:52 am ---Hi,

I think it is a good idea to start programming by trying to do a Front End.

Because a simple Front End is very easy to do . And it is something you can make evoluate easily.

Except Howard who seems to have great difficulty to make a Front end ...  ;)  it something very easy in comparaison of all thing you could do by programing.  (Howard don't be offense , it is just a joke  ;)).

Personnaly , i hate Visual Basic.   I had to deal with it in my professional life numerous times  on lot of project of all type. And for me it is a bad tool.  DELPHI is incredibly better and even more easier than Visual Basic.  That 's just my point of view based on my own experience.  Just a question of taste. I hate to be limited by a tool.



--- End quote ---


Yes a simple front end is quite easy to do.  A simple front-end is also quite useless. 

In order for a front-end to at least be functional it requires the loading of pngs, the parsing of mame's crazy, often illogical, list formats, hierarchial searching (for multiple rom paths and clone/parent relationships for artwork) and the good old "shellandwait" command. 

So you are suggesting that for a person with absolutely zero coding experience, learning how to use external dlls, the windows api and advanced text manipulation all in one project is a nice, simple first project?  I think someone has lost touch with the non-programmer.


For the record delphi and vb are virtually the same language.  If anything you can do more with vb than you can with delphi as delphi is a not offically a m$ language but that's just my opinion.   The problem with delphi is its' what I call a "false" language, as are many of the languages you guys have mentioned.  It doesn't use coding syntax, and rather relies on a bunch of pre-defined functions.  Which is great if you want to get things done, but bad if you are trying to teach yourself how to porgram as it's doing things automatically that will require a bit of heavy lifting in other languages.  Also there aren't as many delphi examples out there as one would like.  That goes for a lot of the languages mentioned so far. 

My suggestion is to stick to a "real" language that you can actually find some help for.   C++, Java, Vb... something like that.  Also steer clear of free ripoffs of real languages.  Some of the vb, knockoffs, for example, use widely different syntax then their m$ counterparts.  This isn't an issue until you try to do something and can't find an example because the language is so unpopular/new nobody has done it yet.

loadman:
I am just learning programming (if you don't count my Commodore 64 back in the 80's) and I am using VB .net.

The only reason I choose that is a few friends use it so I can bounce ideas of them.

I intend to make a very simple front-end for my own education...But not a good one to be any real use to me or anyone. Just for fun

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