why does programming nowadays have to suck?

Question

why? when i learnt qbasic some time ago, it was one language with one standardisation, no stupid libraries or header files or external crud, everything was in the language. But now programming requires like 10000000000 different programs linked in a fragile and error prone way, i use c++ now and do game programming, or at least try to do game programming, every time i download someone elses code it gives me tons of error messages, i need to set up system variables, i need to change a file path, everthing needs to painstakingly configured, nothing i have tried to do so far has worked, im serious. Its frustrating! i tried opengl, i was fine with the syntax, but it gave me like 1000 error messages, ON CODE I GOT FROM A TUTORIAL!! then i tried ogre3d, the setup was so confusing just quit, source sdk gave me thousands of errors, i have tried allegro, gen3d, sylphis, torque, crystal space, cube, darkgdk, and they all gave me too many error messages.

Answer 1

I know what you're saying.

Today there are so many support files, project files, project directories, environment variables and pathnames, and Development Environments to learn now.



C and C++ aren't completely standardized, you pointed out. At my school, C and C++ programs don't compile on some computers but compile and run fine on different computers. When they don't compile, the error messages are often different. Some students spend days debugging programs that work fine in different computer labs on campus. And the data types aren't standardized so they sometimes store different numbers.



I understand your frustration.

Answer 2

Here are two scenarios.



In one case, you will have no dependencies. You'll get no errors requiring you to include a library. All functionality you want from a program will require you to write it from scratch. You'll have to write a ton of code and test all of it. Even simple things will require you to write it yourself.



In another case, you'll have to include a few libraries. These libraries are written, tested, and optimized for you to be able to use as you need it. You will write less code. Most of the functionality you need is available for you. All you have to do is to write a few lines of code to use it. That's all you have to test.



Programming takes time and patience. If you have trouble with setup, don't give up. It might be as simple as forgetting to do one thing to make your programs work. Everytime you 'try' something new, you are starting over. Spend that time to try to get the first library working.



Errors also cascade. You have one error that causes a lot of other errors. Fix one will fix many others. Don't be discouraged by the number of errors.

Answer 3

It doesn't have to suck.

Avoid using other libraries and create the functions in the libraries yourself. That way you have full control over all of it, using the environment you like best.



FWIW, if libraries are written correctly (or the MAKE file is included to build the library), it would not cause such issues. Now we are having a merge between different OSs.

If you use a very good IDE it should be pretty seamless to interoperate between OSs.

Answer 4

Huh? pure programming = no functionality.



Would you rather compute binary or use a library to build a powerful application? I'd recommend you move into VB.NET. It's a simple language with no header files and is quite powerful.



Psh.

Answer 5

It's all about flexibility and having huge projects.



I used to program in QBASIC too and before that AMOS and Amstrad BASIC... now I program in visual C# which is still easy to use. C++ is a nightmare I don't touch it

Answer 6

go wit java