What Computer Language is used Most?

[Zemke]

I have wondered many years about this. There is much discussion of what computer coding language is the best on several web sites, or what compiler or software tools are used, but the discussion always seems to focus on the 3D games out there, which have taken over the market as we all know. Does any one know what language was used to create War in the Pacific, or is being used to create War in the East? Also, what about older war games like HPS Panzer Campaigns or Operational Art of War?

I am no programmer, but I was curious as to what or how games like these are really made, without giving away the farm of course. From most of my reading it seems C++ came up a lot. I suspect it is more than that, perhaps a combination of programing and graphic tools. I have also noticed that, for example WitP:AE really causes my computer to work hard, which I think means my little processor is doing lots of computations. What say you real game programmers out there at Matrix on these questions?

[killroyishere]

For me BASIC is still the computer language of choice since it's the only one I know.

1. Get data
2. if x = {} then 3:end
3. goto 1

[:D]

[Arjuna]

We use C++ for all game coding. We used Basic for a quick and dirty front end to our in-house Estab editor, but otherwise it's C++. The reason being that in 1995 when we started work on this project, it was the best out there for power and speed. Today you could try C#. It has inbuilt persistence ( ie you don't need to write your own database classes, like we had to, and it has inbuilt garbage collection. But it lacks multiple inheritance and we really use that.

[Lützow]

C++ is the mother of modern computer languages. Whoever considers programming should start here, as it gives you a basic understanding about coding and afterwards every language else becomes easy to learn.

[IronManBeta]

Flashpoint Germany is in Delphi (object Pascal) by the company now called CodeGear.  It is awesome and I used it in my day job for 15 years or more too.  I know some of the other Matrix games are also done in Delphi but I'm not sure which now.

Flashpoint Middle East will also be in Delphi.  The third party components are outstanding and let you concentrate on making the game and less on reinventing the wheel.

Rob Crandall

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: Lützow

C++ is the mother of modern computer languages. Whoever considers programming should start here, as it gives you a basic understanding about coding and afterwards every language else becomes easy to learn.

IMHO Java is the better place to start, unless your only objective is PC game programming. It's more flexible, particularly in the vast range of platforms that will run your programs, and rather less cock-up prone.

[Peter Fisla]

I use C++ and MFC...that's my weapon of choice.

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: Lützow

C++ is the mother of modern computer languages. Whoever considers programming should start here, as it gives you a basic understanding about coding and afterwards every language else becomes easy to learn.

IMHO Java is the better place to start, unless your only objective is PC game programming. It's more flexible, particularly in the vast range of platforms that will run your programs, and rather less cock-up prone.

The problem with staring Java is that you are so far away from the OS level that you simply have no idea what's going on if something goes wrong. I don't believe that people should start with Java. At my work I have seen a 100MB of program (including VM of course) written in Java that all it does is ftp a file from one unix box to another. I mean talk about overkill...simply shell script in few lines of code would have taken care of it...or even say PERL. I believe people should start with either C or C++, use command line compiler/link and learn how to make MAKE files. Once that's understood yes Java is an option but the principles of programming and Objects should be thought with C++. My opinion only of course...

[pepsi]

In robotics, it's pretty common to write a customized embedded Operating system, and as such, to have a specialized high-level languages designed to utilize the (typically limited) hardware best, and handle the requirements of the device. Ace's answers contains a good example of one of these specialized high-level languages. It's probably most common for robots actual functionality to be programmed in languages like Basic or C. It is not uncommon, due to the light-weight and time-critical constraints in robotics, to find that it is quite worthwhile to write Assembly code instead.[/align]
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[yoshino]

I like C,C++ and Assembler [:D]
For starting,C language is best I think.

[JudgeDredd]

I'm a Visual Basic fan...have been since 98. But then I don't program games, only database front ends.

[milkweg]

Zeros and ones is all you need to know, all the rest are just interpreters and not programming. If you can't program in machine code then you are not a real programmer. <runs away>

[milkweg]

OK, I will accept assembler but the rest are for pussies.

[killroyishere]

ORIGINAL: milkweg

Zeros and ones is all you need to know, all the rest are just interpreters and not programming. If you can't program in machine code then you are not a real programmer. <runs away>

I have the tar who has the feathers?

[milkweg]

J/K of course/. I can't even program in Ruby. Started to teach myself assembler once and didn't get much past converting binary to hex and back. I have seen other programmers poo-poo people who only know C+ and no assembler though because C+ is not close enough to the "metal", as they say. I downloaded the free Ruby programming language and have it on a backup HDD still but never did much with that either. I'm not a fan of anything that uses numbers so that may be why, I prefer the romantic languages.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: Lützow

C++ is the mother of modern computer languages. Whoever considers programming should start here, as it gives you a basic understanding about coding and afterwards every language else becomes easy to learn.

IMHO Java is the better place to start, unless your only objective is PC game programming. It's more flexible, particularly in the vast range of platforms that will run your programs, and rather less cock-up prone.

I do quite like Java but I fear it's becoming old news these days, replaced by C#.

Java/C# are certainly much easier than C++. The keywords are less abstruse, things generally are a lot more readable than some of the C++ hieroglyphs. They are generally cleaner, too.

But I think C++, even if you don't use it, is a very useful thing to have knowledge of. Everything flows from C++. If you can code C++, you can code anything.

Regarding 100 megabye simple Java programs - there is good Java, and there is crap Java, just like anything else.

[Jevhaddah]

When I was Teaching programming at Uni it was all Pascal, C, C++ and... roll on da drums.. COBOL [:D]

For Games Dev I used Blitz Basic and Blitz 3D, by this time I was retired and programming was a hobby again. I have Dark basic Pro as well but the language is a bit to verbose for me... even worse than COBOL maybe.[X(]

Then all this Event driven Form filling voodoo appeared and I was totally lost [:D]

so now I hide in the corner and use Multimedia Fusion Dev 2...

Having said all this like JD most of my programming was boring business stuff back in the Stone age when a degree was required just to switch the computer (not pc [:'(]) on [:D]

Cheers

Jev

[milkweg]

I got credited in a campaign add-on mod to Fighting Steal for fixing a java error and I had never done any programming before in any language. The person who created the mod couldn't come up with a way to fix an error and when I looked in the java script file I saw what the fix was just from my knowledge of .bat files from my Dos days. He insisted on crediting me in the readme file for it so there I am. If even I can fix a java error then it must be fairly easy but I still don't have the motivation to learn it.

[rhias]

This question is too broad, and you would be getting many different answers from many different people from different parts of the world! This question also assumes that programming languages will not develop or evolve into different language as time fly. But to humor you, the most widely used programming AS OF NOW, is C and its derivatives like C++, C#, and Java.[/align]
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[ijontichy]

I expect C and its mutant offspring are used the most. These days Python and Ruby are getting quite popular. If I were doing a game then I would choose C, but I get the most enjoyment (and challenge) out of using Haskell, a functional language popular among academic types.