PSPkiller Wrote:

Mc Cabe Wrote:woot i understood that :P

I've  had a go at  the C++ video tut's on 3D Buzz. they sort of  made sense and were slightly funny and entertaining, but  by the 3rd video i was completely lost...

SchmilK Wrote:Awesome zinga!  

I am so upset with myself for not attending any classes in college. :(   Instead i paid people in beer to do my projects and i just skirted by with guesses on the tests :(  

(come to me for suggestions on how to earn a 0.8 GPA in college)

Stand up.
Walk towards ball.
Bend over.
Pick up ball.

(^ Above are "static" instructions - now we'll stick in a "control flow" statement)

If the ball is red,
   throw it at the nearest person.
Otherwise,
   drop it on the floor.

(note the use of full-stops in the above - these typically translate to the semicolons that typically end C statements (see first post) - also recall that the if statement doesn't have a semicolon after it (you don't stick a full stop after an if))

Note the "if" statement above - if the condition (ball is red) is true, the person will (or should) "execute" the next statement, "throw it at the nearest person", and then skip the statement defined in the "otherwise" clause.

Control flow is a very important concept in programming, as you typically write a program to adapt to different conditions.
(if you've ever tried making some games with Game Maker, or even something like Starcraft's Campaign Editor, you've probably come across conditionals; this is basically the same thing, though a little more formal)

The if statement is probably by far, the most widely used control flow statement.  Wee'll look at the while statement (this basically allows a set of instructions to keep being executed whilst the condition is true, aka a loop) later on, along with functions.


Variables
Probably the other fundamental component of programs, along with control flow, is variables.  I'm sure you've all experienced variables before, either in maths, or if you've tried making a game before - you'll typically want your program to, a) record information, and b) adjust to different inputs.

A programming variable isn't much different - all it really is, is just a bit of memory where you can store some info.  The variable can be changed and read from.


Wee'll focus on integer type variables mainly - it's the most widely used type anyway.  Integer variables can only be used to store integer number values.