so i figure...

May 2, 2009 at 3:42pm
so i was wondering if any of you had some suggestions about a program i could write. i am out of college for the summer and i want something to keep me busy for a long period of time that requires some skill. this hopefully it will help with getting me further along in my programming abilty.

any suggestion?
May 2, 2009 at 3:46pm
Make a little 2D game, like asteroids.
May 2, 2009 at 3:50pm
i have no idea how to even start something like that(but i like the idea). where can i find some sort of example? or could you give me an idea of what the program needs to do. that is going to be crazy long code isn't it.lol
May 2, 2009 at 10:56pm
Try learning some SDL. Its mainly used for making games. You can even incorporate some OpenGL into it if you want.
May 2, 2009 at 11:23pm
I second the SDL suggestion. Easy to pick up and use -- can make interesting things right away.
May 2, 2009 at 11:57pm
do you have to download any software for SDL or need prior experience with API programming?
May 3, 2009 at 12:15am
You need to download the library (and you should probably also download the docs). There are how-tos on SDL's site to get you up and running.

http://www.libsdl.org/

or need prior experience with API programming?


If you've used cout, you already have experience with API programming. =P

Anyway, SDL is very simple (the S in SDL even stands for Simple), so it's not hard to understand at all. If you have questions about it several of us here can answer them.
May 3, 2009 at 5:45pm
i opened download/updater and found an SDL group but not sure of libray name.

on the site there is win 32 - 1.2.13-win32.zip, is this it?
Last edited on May 3, 2009 at 5:52pm
May 10, 2009 at 9:39pm
so i have started on SDL programming and its kinda cool, but the '.exe' file wont run unless its opened by the compiler. is there any way to fix this?
May 10, 2009 at 10:01pm
what do you mean by "won't run"? Does it simply not open? Or do you get an error message? If so what is the error message?
May 10, 2009 at 10:01pm
Have you put a copy of SDL.dll into /windows/system32 ?
May 10, 2009 at 10:13pm
it opens with an error message says:

"This application has failed to start because SDL.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix the problem."

i have put the .dll file into system32 folder but then it doesn't compile.
this is really weird. lol
May 10, 2009 at 10:19pm
Hm...are you sure that your compiler is looking in the system32 directory? (It should by default look at the $PATH but...)
May 10, 2009 at 10:38pm
Try rebooting (it is windows, after all).
May 10, 2009 at 10:53pm
Don't forget Lazy Foo' Productions' tutorials, they're invaluable. (They include setup instructions.)
http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/index.php

Good luck!
May 10, 2009 at 11:09pm
Just to clarify, only SDL.dll should go in system32.
The other library files, listed below, should go in your compiler's lib directory:
1
2
3
  libSDL.dll.a
  libSDL.la
  libSDLmain.a
May 10, 2009 at 11:18pm
yep thats what i have
May 10, 2009 at 11:35pm
And you have these added to the linker?

1
2
3
-lmingw32
-lSDLmain
-lSDL


If so, then it should work. If it still doesn't then delete all the extra files in the project directory, including makefile.win and recompile.
May 11, 2009 at 12:46am
now the error says:
"The procedure entry SDL_strlcat could not be located in the dynamic link library SDL.dll."

this is after checking everything you guys mentioned and recompiling
May 11, 2009 at 1:35am
Now it sounds like a version conflict. Get the original compiler library files (and include files) and the original dll's and reinstall them to make sure you have matching versions.
Topic archived. No new replies allowed.