so i figure...

[kyle11778]

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?

[Hammurabi]

Make a little 2D game, like asteroids.

[kyle11778]

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

[GunnDawg09]

Try learning some SDL. Its mainly used for making games. You can even incorporate some OpenGL into it if you want.

[Disch]

I second the SDL suggestion. Easy to pick up and use -- can make interesting things right away.

[kyle11778]

do you have to download any software for SDL or need prior experience with API programming?

[Disch]

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.

[kyle11778]

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?

[kyle11778]

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?

[Disch]

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?

[Hammurabi]

Have you put a copy of SDL.dll into /windows/system32 ?

[kyle11778]

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

[firedraco]

Hm...are you sure that your compiler is looking in the system32 directory? (It should by default look at the $PATH but...)

[Hammurabi]

Try rebooting (it is windows, after all).

[Duthomhas]

Don't forget Lazy Foo' Productions' tutorials, they're invaluable. (They include setup instructions.)
http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/index.php

Good luck!

[Hammurabi]

Just to clarify, only SDL.dll should go in system32.
The other library files, listed below, should go in your compiler's lib directory:

  libSDL.dll.a
  libSDL.la
  libSDLmain.a

[kyle11778]

yep thats what i have

[Hammurabi]

And you have these added to the linker?

-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.

[kyle11778]

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

[Hammurabi]

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.