How should I educate myself in order to code for WineHQ?

[AlanJ]

My brain is like a rusty 80's computer I need procedural { $instructions = goals } in order to accomplish something relevant. Giving me a procedural strategy is very important too me so please try and be as procedural with your advices as can be. I don't mean explain to me what certain C-functions does I mean goals you set before sitting down and start reading and coding.

A lot of good advice has already been given in this thread but, and this is just my opinion, it is not up to those who know about wine, windows APIs, etc to structure their advice in steps, it is down to you as a learner to adapt to match the learning environment that exists with regards wine (it isn't really a learning environment but I can't think of a better phrase).

Procedural styles of working are fine in theory but ask anyone who works (or has worked) as a developer and they will tell you that only on rare occasions do your work patterns follow a procedural pattern. Call it multi-tasking, multi-threading or just plain heavy workload but you have to chop and change regularly, squeezing stuff in when you can.

[jingo811]

I understand what you mean by multi-tasking style of learning and agree to what you said too a certain degree. But..... schooling without a clear structure especially for a first-timer is a very crucial factor on how the outcome will be. Without structure people drop out more often from a class compared to a class with a certain amount of structure. With the newbie audience in mind.

Once you get past newbie level then you switch gears into multi-tasking style of learning. That I can agree with you. But not before that.
Like I said earlier when you drive a car you don't keep your focus 5 meters in front of the hood you keep your eyes 50 meters ahead of the road to avoid traffic jams and accidents.

[AlanJ]

Like I said earlier when you drive a car you don't keep your focus 5 meters in front of the hood you keep your eyes 50 meters ahead of the road to avoid traffic jams and accidents.

Except you don't (I hope), you have to check various other things while driving, such as what is around you (cars, pedestrians, etc). If you just look 50m ahead you aren't driving right.

[jingo811]

So now I have bought the K & R book it was expensive around 97$ US but that's because I was too impatient to order it through Amazon for half the price. Anyways I was suprised at how thin it was for a programming book I thought it would be thick like 3 bibles or something

So skimming through the Contents page and the various pages. I realize that maybe this isn't the right strategy after all if I want to become a newbie Wine coder some day.

Do you guys recommend that a person with no previous C experience should first spend some time on smaller C related open-source projects elsewhere, as a first project before jumping on the Wine project?
Or is it really doable to have Wine project as a newbies first open-source project?

[Dan Kegel]

On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 8:35 AM, jingo811 <[email protected]> wrote:

So now I have bought the K & R book it was expensive around 97$ US but that's because I was too impatient to order it through Amazon for half the price.

Amazon has them used for $20 including shipping. That's what I would have
paid, $97 is too much.

So skimming through the Contents page and the various pages. I realize that maybe this isn't the right strategy after all if I want to become a newbie Wine coder some day.

Do you guys recommend that a person with no previous C experience should first spend some time on smaller C related open-source projects elsewhere, as a first project before jumping on the Wine project?

Just start programming. You can only learn by doing.

Or is it really doable to have Wine project as a newbies first open-source project?

Perhaps not for you.
- Dan

[jingo811]

mmm perhaps. Can you recommend me some smaller scale open-source project where one can practice their C and maybe Win API skills. Something that isn't as big and complex as Wine.

[David Gerard]

On 29/03/2008, jingo811 <[email protected]> wrote:

mmm perhaps. Can you recommend me some smaller scale open-source project where one can practice their C and maybe Win API skills. Something that isn't as big and complex as Wine.

I entered "windows programming for beginners" into Google and got a
lot of interesting links, e.g.:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/start_here/
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile ... M/csp.aspx
(this one is C#, and .NET doesn't work that well in Wine yet, so may
not help here )

The main thing is to stop asking where to start, and just start


- d.

[jingo811]

roger.

[James McKenzie]

jingo811 wrote:

So now I have bought the K & R book it was expensive around 97$ US but that's because I was too impatient to order it through Amazon for half the price. Anyways I was suprised at how thin it was for a programming book I thought it would be thick like 3 bibles or something

USD 97? That is way too much for this book. I paid something like USD
10 for my first copy and NOTHING for my second (it was being thrown away
by a retiring programmer and I rescued it). If you were/are in the
United States I would have mailed it to you for the cost of postage and
handling (something like USD 2 or so.)

So skimming through the Contents page and the various pages. I realize that maybe this isn't the right strategy after all if I want to become a newbie Wine coder some day.

This book is "THE GUIDE" to programming in c. These two gentlemen
created it. So, what you have to do is find a copy of "The 'c' Puzzle
Book' and work through the puzzles. Then you will be ready for
programming in 'c'.

Do you guys recommend that a person with no previous C experience should first spend some time on smaller C related open-source projects elsewhere, as a first project before jumping on the Wine project?

See my comment above. You need to know how to use ANSI C in order to
program for this project. Also look for a best practices guide as well.

Or is it really doable to have Wine project as a newbies first open-source project?

It is definitely doable. You can start with something small, or pick up
a fix that was abandoned (like I did) and clean it up for inclusion
into the project.

James McKenzie