C Language

[momo125]

I am not a programmer and have no experience. What is the easiest way to get into hacking the code. I understand how to change the edit files, but not the exe or source code

[Nick]

It's best to have some game feature in mind when you start. Then if you search the source files for messages related to that, you can find where the relevant section of code is and start focusing on that. You will have to learn a bit of C at some point, but that will be easier if you have goals to understand specific bits of the game code.

[momo125]

I guess what I really need to know is what program to open the source.

[Nick]

If you look at the first post in this thread, it has reasonably thorough (and mildly humorous) instructions for how to set up a compile environment, download source and compile in Windows. If you use Windows, this is probably what you want. If you use linux, you can just open stuff in your favorite text editor. I'm not sure about OSX, but something called xcode rings a bell.

Hope this helps; I (and other people) can give more info as you need it.

[camlost]

C source code files are stored as ascii text. You can open them in wordpad or notepad, but a programming editor would be vastly better suited, as they have lots of nice features for programming (including automatic coloring and/or indenting).

Another source for learning how to compile the angband source can be found here:

http://www.thangorodrim.net/compiling.html

[Daven_26d1]

When I used to program on Windows, I was fond of a text editor called Editplus 2.

It did all those neat tricks like syntax highlighting, function folding and control structure auto-completion, that us modern programmers feel naked without.
I found it very easy to use, and the features didn't get in my way until I wanted to learn to use them. Beyond all this, it loaded in about 1/10 of the time that Word did.

Looking about the internet, a shareware version still appears to be available for download.

As for C programming advice, a very popular beginners guide can be found here:

http://beej.us/guide/bgc/

Not my cup of tea, personally; I'd rate it as OKish, but then I wasn't a beginner when I looked at it.
Too many of my peers (who did read it when they started out with C) have raved about its value for me to ignore its potential use to you.

To reiterate Nick's point - have a goal in mind when you start reading the sources.

[strangeintp]

I am not a programmer and have no experience. What is the easiest way to get into hacking the code. I understand how to change the edit files, but not the exe or source code

Step one: get a primer on C programming.
Step two: learn how to program.
Step three: hack Angband.

[priji]

I have no experience in the c language . i heard this language is one of the greatest computer languages. Its very powerful, simple to use and works lightning fast.C is an High level Programming language.

[s0be]

The angband source is a good place to start hacking C. The code is pretty clean, and doesn't use a lot of fancy hand waving tricks.

[K.I.L.E.R]

Does it need to? lol

[Pete Mack]

The angband source is a good place to start hacking C. The code is pretty clean, and doesn't use a lot of fancy hand waving tricks.

I confess, it uses more fancy tricks than it used to. I used C-style virtual functions to implement the event and menu UI.

(It's clean, but it may be a bit of a mystery for a beginning programmer.)


Some of the display code, and the macro code is also pretty hairy.

[s0be]

True, there is some hand waving magic in there (to the uninitiated), but the fortunate thing is, people who want to start hacking on the program usually don't want to hack the way the menuing works, nor do they want to revamp the event system.