C/C++/SDL Workshop

Workshop #3: Basics of C/C++ with an introduction to SDL (Making a game from scratch)

Objectives

• Introduce the fundamentals of the C/C++
  • Environment setup
  • Variables, Pointers, Control Statements, Functions, Importing Libraries
• Application and use of Simple Directmedia Layer (SDL)
  • Create a window & load sprites
  • Keyboard input
  • Move sprites

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of programming logic (Maybe you've experimented with Python, Java, or some other programming language)
• Visual Studio Community 2010/2015/2017 Pre-installed (Download Here)
• Clone of this repository

The Basics of C/C++

Variables

Variables are created and stored like so:

int myInt = 5;

int stands for the variable type and myInt is the name of the variable. = is the assignment operator, used to assign values to variables. In this case, we are setting myInt to 5. Every statement in c/c++ ends in a semicolon ;.

After you create a variable for the first time, you don't have to include the typename again, like this:

myInt = 3;

Some primative (most basic basic) variable types:

• int Whole numbers ...-1, 0, 1, 2...
• float Decimal numbers 14.3325
• char Single Characters 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D'

Doing math

Pointers

Pointers are both a complex and powerful feature of C/C++. For this workshop, just know that a pointer points to a variable. It's like a bookmark for a website. You can use the bookmark across all your devices, and it will still go the same website. We will use pointers for window creation and rendering sprites later on.

Control Statements

Control statments are used to control the flow of code by testing conditions. The most basic type of control statement is the if/else. The if or if/else statement is used to test a condition for being true or false, then executing code for the right situation.

float pi = 3.14;
if (pi = 3.14) {
  printf("We have PI!");
}

In this case, our code would print "We have PI!"