JOG-AU

Has anyone ever thought that the world lacks really good space simulators? Where imagination, time and expansion is endless?

Star Citizen aims to do all of this. Before I bore you with more details hop straight in and watch the video! You'll be glued.



Star Citizen Crowdfund Pitch - 720p from Roberts Space Industries on Vimeo.

Of course Chris Roberts, the head of Robert Space Industries (RSI) believes in many excellent things that massive AAA game companies such as EA and Activision do not consider. AAA standard games almost exclude PC's nowadays as a target platform, the PC is a perfect platform! The PC can be tailored to the style of the user. This is a good start for me in symbolising that this game will be a bestseller that we all have been waiting for. No unfairnesses are included in their business model where the company considers profit over quality, no. In fact Roberts Space Industries is a completely crowd-funded project and has recently hit 10 million in funding (yes, ten million! The largest crowd-funded game I am aware of), funded on KickStarter the project is now at full swing and their frequent updates are very interesting.


An insight ...
The game includes complex mechanics in where your ship will have many endless possibilites in upgrades. In fact, RSI state there will be millions of possibilities for your ship. Get excited, its coming and with high expectations!

Check out their website here for updates and back the project on Paypal!

Functions in programming are program fragments used to segmentate programs ranging from simple spreadsheets/applications to complex multi-threaded programs and games. Functions allow you to compartmentalise and organise your programs logic. They enable you to split your the contents of your application into logical blocks that invoked in sequence.

A function is used to take an input, calculate on input and return a value that in large applications will usually be put forward to a larger function or be used multiple times depending on its role. The beauty of a function is the fact that it can be called an infinite times in your application to do x job at hand.

Functions have roots in lambda calculus and were introduced by Alonzo's Church's calculus in 1930. Lisp was the first programming language to debut functions in its design by John McCarthy in 1958.

Lets take a look at function prototypes. These examples are coded in C++
If calculating a circle...

double circumference(double InputRadius);

There are 3 logical parts to a function prototype the first is return the value which is the first double. The second is the function name to refer back which is circumference. The third is optional and is the function parameters comprised of type and optional name. When there are multiple parameters a comma is used to separate. A function can have multiple parameters but it can only have one return type.

After declaring the prototype you will declare a function definition which consists of a statement block. The function definition houses all calculations relevant to the problem the function is trying to solve. The statement block is identical to housing your first program in int main()
double circumference(double InputRadius)
{
       calculationHere;
}
Once you have stated the function definition you can make a function call. For example:
cout << "Circumference of circle is: " << circumference(Radius)<< endl;
When making a function call you are causing the program to jump to the function statement, calculate and then jump back to where the result will be printed via the cout statement. 

There are more features to functions but this extends the scope of this post.

Microsoft Windows vs. Mac for developers

I would bet near every developer has used or come into contact with OS X, the simple graphical interface advertises speed and initiative whilst you work. Windows, on the other hand is still the dominant operating system today. Microsoft is a much older and mature operating system and thus, owns 78% of the device market. Windows owns the feature of having a customizable workspace suiting the specific user more. OS X is so simple and straightforward to use, why need to customize your workspace? 

The former head of Windows Steven Sinofsky (Released Windows 8)

















 See the market share of all devices:
























So, Windows or OS X?

Sourced: http://www.pcworld.com/article/251340/windows_8_metro_ui_a_bold_new_face_for_windows.html

 Well firstly lets consider these points:

1. Windows is highly customizable, I can configure my workspace to jump right in and develop in Visual Studio, a very awesome program used by many developers worldwide, your freedom is massive. Each new version has many new features and quirks. Take a look at the colour Microsoft has integrated! (above)
2. Mac is very user friendly, sometimes too simple and its native Xcode program controls you.
   
   

Ok, that may seem a little biased but the truth is I use Mac everyday for a few reasons:

1. Quick, initiative browsers for developing web-based applications
2. Everything looks better on Macbook's displays, retina helps your eyes dramatically.
3. Unix Command Line (Terminal) is to die for.
4. Great UI (jump into your daily activities and work immediately)
5. Great app support, you cannot argue against the ability to drag-and-drop new applications to the /Applications folder!

But I draw the line when it comes to developing for Microsoft-stack technologies, it just doesn't feel right! Windows is becoming a system I use for developing, for anything else, OS X.

Who has friends who develop on OS X and do they only develop for Apple devices?