[SDL] Intermediate-level game development

[Jeff Post]

On Thursday 18 March 2010 14:36, Bob Pendleton wrote:
>
> Ten years. That is what it takes to become an expert in a subject.

From my own experience, it appears that in general anytime one enters a new 
profession, they are incompetent by definition. Reaching competence takes 
about five years, more or less, depending on the profession. Becoming really 
good in one's profession takes twice, sometimes three times that long.

And that's if you really work at it. As someone once said "Some people have 10 
years experience, others have one year of experience ten times."
>
> It really helps to learn calculus through at least integrals.

FWIW I would say up through basic multivariable calculus. (You don't need to 
know how to use Green's theorem, but you should know where to look it up and 
be able to understand it.)
>
> BTW, to really understand all this you need to learn about finite
> state machines.

I would add that to do any "real" programming, one also needs a working 
knowledge of finite automata.

Software engineering is applied math. If you can read Donald Knuth's "The Art 
of Computer Programming" without being totally bewildered, you've got a good 
start. (A more accessible version is Robert Sedgewick's "Algorithms in C" or 
"Algorithms in C++".)
>
> And, I can tell you that Donny and I do not always
> see eye to eye.
>
Yep, me too. But this time he hit the nail on the head.

None of what I've said (or what Donny said) should be construed as 
demotivating. Quite the contrary. We were all newbies at some point. I won't 
tell you about some of the silly things I did when I was a newbie. You can't 
become an expert until you've gone through the newbie and apprentice stages.

Jeff