I am in need of help, need C++ guidance

Hello all, I'm new here, now down to business, XD

I am making a very difficult program, and i can't really find the types of info i need to continue, I need a mentor to help me, a mentor that is going to stay with me until i finish, if you are interested please email me at <<snipped by mod>>

If you can tell from my email, yeah, im gonna take a whack at AI, and i know how to do it too, so if you could help me out, that would be great.
*What I'll be using;
Text boxes
Submit buttons
most likely a server
C++
A 3D navigator(person DOING the AI commands)
and about a year of your help.

I have the executable's window up, but so far it is just gray, and i don't know what to do from here. so if i could get some help, it would be great, And i thank you 10000x in advance.

Remember, <<snipped by mod>>

It sounds as if you're fairly new to programming in general. if so, I would strongly suggest you put on hold your ideas on 3D applications, web servers, etc, and concern yourself with getting a firm grounding in a programming language (Which doesn't have to be C++)

If you're looking for a mentor, this might not be the best place - most people here just devote a little spare time every now and then to posting on this forum, and have other full-time occupations. Perhaps signing up to a college programming course or evening class would be more fruitful.

I see... Thank you for your reply, and even though you said i should look somewhere else, I will continue searching until i have a skilled mentor to help me. :\

Chess AI is complex. If you havent done any AI coding yet you would probably be best off starting with something simple like tic tac toe.

Theres some AI tutorials here:
http://www.aihorizon.com/

Anyway, have a go at something, and if you get stuck then post you code and explain what problems you are having with it. People here should help you out :)

[edit] If you really want to make a chess game, then make a 2 player game that works without AI. If you can't get that done then you are not going to be ready to do the AI for it. [/edit]

thank you for that, i will be sure to check that out.

ok, most of the things i needed were either deleted or just missing, what should i do now?

First make the AI logic, after that go for UI, etc. Do google search for AI and chess.

UI? what is it?

UI = User Interface.

--
Mats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UI

From his context, I'd say he probably meant User Interface.

Am I the only one that finds it hilarious and cruel that any of you are -trying- to advise him on UI and AI when he obviously may have very little experience at all programming...

Sometimes I wonder if you guys do it just to be sarcastic in some subtle way. (It happens a lot.)

Here's my advice, wiki! and google! A LOT!

google? i try searching for simple things on google such as a text box, i'll just post my questions here, alright?

ok then, i have many 8^)

1) Where can i find the C++ Color wheel? (such as in html, 000000 is black, FFFFFF is white)

2) I want to make a text box with a submit button, how?

3) I have a windows exe file already made, but it only has a gray screen when i double click on it to start it. If you have a prog called dev-cpp, then you should know what to look for. What i want to do is change that background to a picture called...."pic1"
can someone tell me how to call this picture as a background? it would be located at...lets say C:\pictures\pic1

4) I want to make a button that takes me to another place, first off, i want to click a button that says "Website" on it, and it takes me to an .html document. how do i do it?
another one will take me to the actual A.I. prog.
and I want to make an "About" button, it should open up a new window inside the program, (i also want to know how to put stuff inside this window) so i can drag it around and have a little "x" to close the window.
and finally, I want a button which will close the whole program, "Exit" will be on it.

5) Buttons. say i make the Website, exit, prog, and x button. I rename them pic "2, 3, 4, and 5"
How would i call these pics to be used in the program? is there an X Y axis that i can put them EXACTLY where i want the buttons to be?
i also want a mouse over and a button down pic to be called when i put my mouse over the button, and when i click down on the button.

6) People say that winRAR takes all of the files you need, and puts them into one .exe file, i tried looking, but i could not find it out. is there some sort of program that will let me pick the files i want to be installed? I do want an installer.

that is all for now, but there WILL be more. ;)

Thanks in advance.

Use C# and .Net. Or Java. Really.

Or take your time to really learn C++. But that means you're far away from where you want to go.

You have to start from the ground up, you're asking questions which the answers to will confuse you, one question will lead to another for all eternity. We can't sacrifice our lives for you. cprogramming.com start at the floor, work your way up.

I just want straight forward codes, just put the codes i need here, and i will figure out how they work, where they go, and what they do.

Yeah, and I want a deathray. You going to devote your life to making it for me? :rolleyes:

1) no such thing as a C++ Color wheel
2-5) sounds like you want some win32 programming: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383749.aspx http://cboard.cprogramming.com/showthread.php?t=79619
6) http://www.google.com/search?q=self-...ing+executable http://www.google.com/search?q=installer+programs

edit: I love how that link abbreviated ;)

skip GUI for now, I don't know what API are you using for your GUI, but most C++ GUI libraries require at least some understanding of OOP. Get a strong hold of C++ first.

Don't worry about an installer for now. Have something that works first.

Im sorry if i came on you guys too hard, but i AM pretty sure there is a c++ color wheel, if not, then what are these codes?

0xff and 0x00ff

thanks again, and please dont think im a harsh person, because im...not. <.<

Those are just numbers in hexadecimal format. They can be anything.

If you're assuming anything about colors, many systems that require a number to represent color use a 32-bit number where the first byte is red, the second is green, the third is blue, and the fourth is alpha or transparency. This might be called 24-bit color since 3 bytes are really being used to make the color. This is not always the case, however.

Some systems do not use this color format. I believe the SNES is a prime example. The convention adopted I believe is RBG instead of the more common standard RGB. Also, the sizes of the number used to count each individual primary color was most likely under a byte. I believe all three fit into 2 bytes, but I can't remember. It's been awhile since I last read about it.

Anyway, C++ is a somewhat abstract language when it comes to many details. Things like color are one of those things. They have nothing to do with the language. Operating systems may impose their own color system, which C++ can interact with, and so on and so forth, but it has nothing to do with the language.

Stop asking questions that indicate you have no desire to learn on your own. You can't just jump into writing random programs. You'll suck at it, and people will dislike you. I'd be more concerned with the first consequence and probably disregard the latter. Start at the basics and learn "Hello, world" using C++ first. Move from there.

Quote:

0xff and 0x00ff

those are simply numbers in hexidecimal (0x prefix denotes a hexidecimal number)

your post is saying something like this:

Code:

Im sorry if i came on you guys too hard, but i AM pretty sure there is a c++ color wheel, if not, then what are these codes? 4 and 7 thanks again, and please dont think im a harsh person, because im...not. <.<

Quote:

4 and 7?

Two numbers are the same. 255

well i was pointing out that they are just numbers

I can be (or give you) a mentor for 1 year and even longer time.
But first tell me how much can you pay? Can you pay me $50 per month?
Regards.

Private messages, gentleman (or ladies).

Yeah! But I am unable to PM him.
This is what I get when I try: Error Page

I presume we are talking Windows here, in which case there is a MACRO "RGB" that takes the level or Red, Green and Blue in values 0..255 (0x00..0xFF). If you want white, give it 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, if you want Red, something like 0xFF,0x00, 0x00 would do that - of course, all values for the first parameter 0x01..0xFF will give you "some level of red in the colour". Likewise for Green and Blue. A grey would be something that is halfway set on all colours, so for example 0x80, 0x80, 0x80.

The ultimate result of a RGB macro is a long integer with 24 bits set - and that's exactly the same values as the 0xFFFFFF and 0x000000 that you'd use in HTML.

As to a "colour-wheel", that is just a graphical representation of the colours available on the machine. You could make up a little .PHP, .JSP or .ASP web-page that asks for the levels of each colour and use that to see what it looks like, if you want to be able to experiment (not that I expect chess to need much other than black, white and a few different levels of grey.

--
Mats

All bits of a COLORREF are used, in fact. The highest sub-byte indicates the kind of colorref (RGB, palette index, etc.)

I wrote an algorithm to generate a "color wheel" based on the concept of HSB color space, during a time when I thought I could describe the HSB->RGB color space translation as a single formula, (I got decently close, still working on it, I found wiki's conditional based solution ... not very elegant.)

See my response here for the code:
http://cboard.cprogramming.com/showthread.php?t=92293

Being able to generate a range of all hue's was the easy part, and turned out to be very convenient to have in other applications.

@ MacGyver

Quote:

Stop asking questions that indicate you have no desire to learn on your own. You can't just jump into writing random programs. You'll suck at it, and people will dislike you. I'd be more concerned with the first consequence and probably disregard the latter. Start at the basics and learn "Hello, world" using C++ first. Move from there.

do you honestly think that i am some loser who DOES want everyone to do all my work for me? I am not trying to start the project quite yet, to clear things up, i am trying to gather as much info as i can before i start the project, mkay? :\
I admit, i am new to c++, i dont understand ANY of it atm, (obviously) But that is why i am doing a lot of work to go to other websites who do the same thing you guys do, im taking note of many things, and i am learning a bit more, so dont think i dont want to learn, because i do, and i AM capable.

@ cyberfish
Can you explain that more thoroughly? I don't understand :\
4 and 7? what are they supposed to mean?

@ msp
I am sorry, but i do not have any money :\
As of now, i am trying to find people who would give about an hour a week devoted to helping me, not that hard right? But as i promise all of my current...."employees", i WILL pay them their share if we do hit it big, understand? :)

@matsp
Yes, we are talking windows, a box computer in my room (offline), 512mB of ram, 80G of hd space, 64mB video card, not that slow, but not as fast as i would like ;)
I do want full color(ic) but i can start off in crappy 8-bit black and white....and gray. it will be easier, but i'll try to do something colorful for the menu....which is what i need to work on first. Any one want to assist me? :\

@cornedBee
@_@

@simpleid
What is HSB?? I'll check out the code, defiantly, i'll just figure out where it would go and how it works ;)
if i knew how to make a formula for making the html colors (000000-ffffff) I would.

@everyone
thanks for your replys, keep 'em comin :)

I didn't say you need to use 8-bit grayscale, simply that you probably don't really need the full "truecolour" spectrum to do a chess-game.

As to what HSB stands for, try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSB

In this instance, I think it's referring to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSV_color_space

The latter contains a conversion algorithm for HSV -> RGB conversion, so with that, you should be able to write a C/C++ program to draw a colourwheel (which, no offense, may be a better starting project for learning C/C++ and Windows programming than a chess-game - the latter is quite a complex subject!)

--
Mats

Here's a little information for you in detail:

0x00000000 -> 0xRRGGBBAA
(24 bit color, 32 with alpha, but there's always 32 bits you just don't access them.)

quick and dirty way to get all colors:

Code:

for (int r = 0; r<256; ++r) for (int g = 0; g<256; ++g) for (int b = 0; b<256; ++b) { cout << r << ":" << g << ":" << b <<endl; }

All pure tones always have one value at 255, and one at 0, and the other ranges... all pure tones are:

n = rising from 0 -> 255
x = falling from 255 -> 0

Action -> Result -> Next Step

255, n, 0 -> 255, 255, 0 ->
x, 255, 0 -> 0, 255, 0 ->
0, 255, n -> 0, 255, 255 ->
0, x, 255 -> 0, 0, 255 ->
n, 0, 255 -> 255, 0, 255 ->
255, x, 0 -> 255, 0, 0

that's the algorithm to generate pure tones, i developed a formula and application to execute this and store the values in an array, that is what you'll find i gave the code for on the thread i linked you to.

to go from here to HEX (0xRRGGBBAA) is described in the thread. in case you never made the connection:
HEX values are really stored in an INTEGER, hence an INT is 32 bits, and 32 bit for true color...
hence also 256 color values per color, 0->255 is how much space the binary equivalent of 0xFF allows for...

1111 1111
->
128 - 64 - 32 - 16 :: 8 - 4 - 2 - 1

256-1 (since we start from 0) = 256 values

just fyi, you can assign values like so if you wanted,

int i = 0xFF; // same as i = 256... heh

hex values are -just- numbers in a different base, so you can use decimal values to do all the work, don't get stuck on the HEX FORM of the number.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chessman.exe

@ MacGyver

do you honestly think that i am some loser who DOES want everyone to do all my work for me? I am not trying to start the project quite yet, to clear things up, i am trying to gather as much info as i can before i start the project, mkay? :\

I think you're rushing things way ahead of yourself and expecting a lot more help than you should get. A loser? No, hopefully not. More just someone who's so terribly impatient that he wants to keep asking questions he won't truly understand. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chessman.exe

I admit, i am new to c++, i dont understand ANY of it atm, (obviously) But that is why i am doing a lot of work to go to other websites who do the same thing you guys do, im taking note of many things, and i am learning a bit more, so dont think i dont want to learn, because i do, and i AM capable.

I think you're not interested in learning correctly. If at the end of the day you still don't know understand a thing because it's too complicated and you're taking a huge shortcut, then you're not really learning.

Take the time to start from scratch. Go write a "hello world" program. Eventually write a program to tell if a word is a palindrome. Eventually you'll see writing a chess game is no cakewalk if you've never written anything in C++ before. The logic of the game itself will be extremely difficult if you're still stuck on language details, not to mention the GUI, and then the AI.

We're telling you to put this project on hold, not because we hate chess, but because we know what it's like to want to make something that appears simple right before you start learning a language.

Quote:

I didn't say you need to use 8-bit grayscale, simply that you probably don't really need the full "truecolour" spectrum to do a chess-game.

:\
im not making a chess game, but im thinking it would be a bit easier to go with black and white.

@macgyver
still not making a chess game, i was just refering to the game....
You are right, i should take my time, but i really am excited to start this project, I really cant wait to start and finish, which is why i am not taking a lot of time to google search, i should, but i dont know what to look for when i do search.

http://www.wxwidgets.org/manuals/sta...wxcolourdialog

This is a prebuild control to choose colors that comes in a so called library. I think that is meant by "color wheel".
You need to download that library and to understand how to make a program what is capable to use its functions. It's all explained on that web site.
Try to show a window with it and place that colour chooser in it.

This is a very small step referring to the description of your project. But it will show you quite well how hard it can be without having the basics other people learn years for.

O.O cool, thanks a lot.

for what? YOU will have all the work figuring out how to get a silly colour control to finally show up ;)

Well, u can start right here at this website, just look on the tutorials. Thats where i started about 14 months ago, and i'm just starting to get a grips with graphics programming now.

eh, thanks for showing me the site, i'll try to figure out HOW it works <_< but i guess it isn't gonna be a snap, i actually just looked at some of the tutorials here, i forgot they were here, so yeah. I actually have a windows executable window showing up, and now i can not figure out how exactly to modify it, where to modify it, and...well, how to modify it, so i'll check that out in the tuts, thanks guys, im still open to suggestions and help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacGyver

Yeah, and I want a deathray. You going to devote your life to making it for me? :rolleyes:

A Deathray Engineer, who hasn't got his own deathray - nor made is own. That's ludicrous!

a deathray... - an engineer gone mad. i hesitate to wonder what you'd do with it. the coolest scrambled eggs ever?

Quote:

Originally Posted by zacs7

A Deathray Engineer, who hasn't got his own deathray - nor made is own. That's ludicrous!

But it won't work! Help me fix it!!!!!!!111111111oneoneoneone

;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by simpleid

a deathray... - an engineer gone mad. i hesitate to wonder what you'd do with it. the coolest scrambled eggs ever?

You think I'm crazy, huh? Is that it? Huh? You think I can't build a deathray? I'll show you. I'LL SHOW YOU ALL!!!!

*pulls at the hair from his toupe and orders his army of bots to continue work on the death ray*

;)

LOL.

We definitely don't want to encourage MacGyver in his plans, I think.

Thread has lost its purpose.

Edit: Reopened for on-topic discussion.

im trying to stay on topic soo...

i found a trial program where i can find the codes, i found out how to make a menu, but i need help. I kinda found out how to make buttons, but i will inquire about that later.

for now, i need to know something.

Can you just put "words here" in the place where i can see it in the windows app...ya know, so when i compile it into an executable or whatever, i will see a grey background, and the "words here" in the window.

also, where would i change the background?(color) thanks in advance.

Code:

#include <windows.h> /* Declare Windows procedure */ LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProcedure (HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM); /* Make the class name into a global variable */ char szClassName[ ] = "WindowsApp"; int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hThisInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpszArgument, int nFunsterStil) { HWND hwnd; /* This is the handle for our window */ MSG messages; /* Here messages to the application are saved */ WNDCLASSEX wincl; /* Data structure for the windowclass */ /* The Window structure */ wincl.hInstance = hThisInstance; wincl.lpszClassName = szClassName; wincl.lpfnWndProc = WindowProcedure; /* This function is called by windows */ wincl.style = CS_DBLCLKS; /* Catch double-clicks */ wincl.cbSize = sizeof (WNDCLASSEX); /* Use default icon and mouse-pointer */ wincl.hIcon = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION); wincl.hIconSm = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION); wincl.hCursor = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_ARROW); wincl.lpszMenuName = NULL; /* No menu */ wincl.cbClsExtra = 0; /* No extra bytes after the window class */ wincl.cbWndExtra = 0; /* structure or the window instance */ /* Use Windows's default color as the background of the window */ wincl.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) COLOR_BACKGROUND; /* Register the window class, and if it fails quit the program */ if (!RegisterClassEx (&wincl)) return 0; /* The class is registered, let's create the program*/ hwnd = CreateWindowEx ( 0, /* Extended possibilites for variation */ szClassName, /* Classname */ "Windows App", /* Title Text */ WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, /* default window */ CW_USEDEFAULT, /* Windows decides the position */ CW_USEDEFAULT, /* where the window ends up on the screen */ 544, /* The programs width */ 375, /* and height in pixels */ HWND_DESKTOP, /* The window is a child-window to desktop */ NULL, /* No menu */ hThisInstance, /* Program Instance handler */ NULL /* No Window Creation data */ ); /* Make the window visible on the screen */ ShowWindow (hwnd, nFunsterStil); /* Run the message loop. It will run until GetMessage() returns 0 */ while (GetMessage (&messages, NULL, 0, 0)) { /* Translate virtual-key messages into character messages */ TranslateMessage(&messages); /* Send message to WindowProcedure */ DispatchMessage(&messages); } /* The program return-value is 0 - The value that PostQuitMessage() gave */ return messages.wParam; } /* This function is called by the Windows function DispatchMessage() */ LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProcedure (HWND hwnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) { switch (message) /* handle the messages */ { case WM_DESTROY: PostQuitMessage (0); /* send a WM_QUIT to the message queue */ break; default: /* for messages that we don't deal with */ return DefWindowProc (hwnd, message, wParam, lParam); } return 0; }

All your answers are here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/

But only if you have the base knowledge.

Quote:

also, where would i change the background?(color) thanks in advance.

You might want to start by reading the notes in the code?

Quote:

/* Use Windows's default color as the background of the window */

wincl.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) COLOR_BACKGROUND;

how do i change that? just put in 0xffffff00?

"wincl.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) 0xffffff00;

Search for brushes and how they work.

brushes? dunno where or how or what exactly to search.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532564.aspx

The very first Google result when searching for "hbrush" is the page of Forger's Win32 tutorial that explains what brushes are and how to use them.

Since you are apparently unwilling to do even the slightest bit of research without having your hand held, we have decided to close this thread and not re-open it.

I'm going to say it one last time: learn the core language first. Get a good book (see the recommendations thread). When you know the language, then learn Win32 programming if that's what interests you.