No Programming Knowlegde

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1Mouse
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2010 9:27 pm

No Programming Knowlegde

Post by 1Mouse »

Hi all,

I have recently purchased Hollywood, Designer and Malibu.

I have no idea how to program but know what I want to create. Some elements I have created that I need to put in my program such as buttons saved as PDFs but no idea how to get them into my program.

I'd like it to retrieve ID3 tags from CDs but no idea if this is possible, also would like it to get coverart from internet, once again not sure if this is possible.

Are there any tutorials, videos or people out there that could point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance
1Mouse
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Tuxedo
Posts: 338
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 12:41 pm

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by Tuxedo »

Welcome!
For ID3Tag readyng look at the hollywood example with the media player to look how the dos librqry works :)
Then do some experience and look at the ID tags explanations on the web :)
I've made a routine tha reads the exif tags rom jpg files so doing a similar thing for the cd was really possible!

If you need some more help plz ask something exactly...

See you and GOOD WORK!
Simone"Tuxedo"Monsignori, Perugia, ITALY.
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Allanon
Posts: 732
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:53 pm
Location: Italy
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Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by Allanon »

Hi 1Mouse,
As I know IDtags are only on mp3 files and not on standard music cd but I may be wrong...
About extracting id3tags you should get familiar with Hollywood function related with the DOS library:
OpenFile, Seek and Read... functions are needed to parse correctly the ID3tags embedded in the mp3 files.

I've started to work on a library that do what you have asked, if I'll find time I'll clean up and make it public but actually it very dirty and I don't have time to do much stuff :)
If you do not want to wait you can start from the following link:
http://www.id3.org/

About cover art you cannot do it directly with Hollywood but from it you can launch WGet (using Run or Execute commands) and retrieve whatever you want form Internet ;)

Regards,
Fabio
Bugala
Posts: 1178
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by Bugala »

Hmm..
1Mouse wrote: I have no idea how to program but know what I want to create.

Do you mean that you dont know how to program on any language, or just dont know how to program on Hollywood?
User avatar
1Mouse
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2010 9:27 pm

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by 1Mouse »

I have no programming knowledge at all.

I just know that there's a program I know I want to write and I know what I want it to do and how it has to look.
Bugala
Posts: 1178
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by Bugala »

Ah, okay. I see now.

Then it might take a while before you get it done what ever it is that you are planning to do, since you need to learn some programming fundamentals first.

I dont think it would take long for you to learn those, since it seems you alredy have good idea about how computers work (ie. you mentioned ID3 Tags and stuff), but problem is that there isnt suitable "Beginners Guide" for Hollywood available.

However, I have been half seriously thinking of writing such, but since Im not that familiar with Hollywood programming yet, and Since Designer 3 havent came out yet, i had so far been thinking starting making it maybe after Designer 3 comes out.

But now that there would be good guineapig available to test that guide out, I might start making it sooner.

I dont promise yet, but after I get this project done im working on right now (which i think will be finished about in a week), I might give it a try and write first chapter of that guide and send it to you for test reading to see if its understandable or not.
jalih
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:08 pm
Location: Finland

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by jalih »

Fortunately Hollywood is really easy to learn! Just study the examples, play with them and start doing some stuff of your own.

By the way, I just ported some Wolfenstein 3D style raycasting stuff from C to Hollywood. It works but is very slow at the moment. I will try to add some lookup tables to the rescue and try to simplify some stuff to get more speed. Implemented are textured walls, floor and ceiling. Sorry no sprites yet, so you can't kill the nazi's. ;) I will probably put in an options to remove texturing from walls, floor or ceiling to get more speed. I will post it here as an example when it's "ready".
Bugala
Posts: 1178
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by Bugala »

That 3D stuff in Hollywood interests me a lot.

For i was actually just wondering that although Hollywood doesnt have any real support for 3D, i was thinking its proapbly not impossible to do some 3D stuff anyway. Like say have point n click games inventory items in 3D when all the rest is 2D.

Or maybe have the main character in 3D giving him much more movement possibilities. I dont think that is too heave stuff to do, especially now that you tell that you have Wolfenstein although the original 3D only working and slow.
jalih
Posts: 276
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:08 pm
Location: Finland

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by jalih »

Bugala wrote:I dont think that is too heave stuff to do, especially now that you tell that you have Wolfenstein although the original 3D only working and slow.
Raycasting stuff is simple compared to a real 3D environment. You need only basic math, like simple vector addition and basic trigonometry to handle rotation. On high resolution displays there is a really heavy amount of pixel blitting involved and that's what slows things down.

It's currently playable enough on my windows machine using 360x240 resolution and with textured walls, floor and ceiling enabled.

Image
gerograph
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:38 pm

Re: No Programming Knowlegde

Post by gerograph »

as far as I understood, 1mouse does not want to read out MP3Tags from MP3 files... he wants to query CD (Track) Infos via "freedb" ! As far as I know, there is no routine to 1) play the given CD Track 2) read out CD ID 3) query informations via internet from freedb....
This means, 1mouse has to heavily use dosscripting or ARexx in conjunction with cli based CD-Player etc...
Correct me if I am wrong... MP3 handling is far better in Hollywood !

greetings Gerograh
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