I have heard time and time and time again that people don't want to teach COG and... it's very indepth. And I can see that. But aren't there any tutorials I can download for it? I mean... that'd save a lot of people time if there were some tutorials. Anyway I want to learn how to make my own programs... can someone please direct me to some noob friendly programming tutorials? Or specific classes I should take? I've heard COG is similar to C - but has some fundamental differences. So what programming languages should I take? I want to get into video game development so.. I've heard C, C++ & Java.. but those are the main languages.. and they take years to learn. So what should I take?

What languages were made for what? I mean there are Java games... they're more secure from what I've heard. But anyway there are Java applets - like for the massassi chatroom etc. I don't know a lot about what C and C++ is used for.. I guess just creating programs.. Well anyway... if this isn't in the right place, then please move it. My brain is really fried so sorry for some bad grammar and or punctuation. Please post links to tutorials and or suggestions for specific books that I could get started on. (I've never programmed really anything... I can make a basic batch file but that's about it. (So please post tutorials for beginners.. i don't really have a ton of experience.))

I know I have a lot of questions - but please do your best to answer them. I want to edit jk - and I have a rolling level (for the mod junkguy made) in my head... I just need to know how people made theirs - like how do you make the ramps.. what physics or whatever do I need to put in - because it's a rolling level... oh.. also IM me on AIM please if you have time and can answer some of this - that'd help a bit more than talking on a forum. Anyway that's it for now...

What I recommend is learning some basic C.

Then open up a few COGs in notepad, perferably some that you can see the effects of ingame easy (like weapons or force powers). Then compare what you see with the code so you can figure out what commands do what etc and how the layout works.

Then find the Jedi Knight Specs and look up the section on COGs, it has a nice reference that lists many of the COG functions.

Ty for the feedback, mega. Personally, I prefer wordpad.. because notepad has a tendency to not show everything on the screen and has a smaller word limit. But I will learn C if I can... I'll ask around.

Use editplus with the Cog definition files on the file page, it's the best way to cog.

Umm Cog is basically C-Basic....I learned it with only experience in html and it was really easy. I was 12 at the time

I would also like to learn html. If you can post some links to tutorials that've helped you then that'd be awesome. I'd love to learn html.

So editplus is on the downloads page of massassi? Sorry.. my connection is really slow and my brain is fried.. so please bear with me. It'd probably be faster for you to tell me than me finding the thing.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=de&q=editplus&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
http://www.google.com/search?hl=de&q=editplus+cog+files&btnG=Suche&lr=

I suggest to use the Datamaster as a reference.
http://www.geocities.com/sabersdomain
It also contains some tutorials. Read them, then open res2.gob and look at some of the original cog scripts and try to understand what's going on.

Wordpad sucks monkey balls. Use CogPad instead...

How I learned COG was by trial and error, looking at other's cogs and trying to tell what is happening, and your number one resource for learning COG should be DATAMASTER, which accurately and clearly explains flags, verbs, messages, etc etc <what zagibu said>
Actually, NOTEPAD will run cog files fine, but CogPad and other programs are probably better to use.
One more thing, get PARSEC (also on sabermaster's site), as it will tell you what is wrong with your cog.

Go to http://w3schools.com for all things related to HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, Flash, etc.

It is THE authority on all things related to Web Design, and will not let you down. It has helped me on innumerable occasions, mainly due to its thoroughly extensive reference section. I learn something new at this place every time I go there!

I can't tell you how much I've grown to love cogpad
Yes, parsec is a MUST... and one of the advantages of Cogpad is that parsec can be run as a sort of "plugin", allowing for quick parsing of cogs.

Cogpad renders Cogwriter obsolete in every way. It is superior to Notepad and Wordpad for cogging. I have no idea how it compares to Editplus b/c I never bothered to try it.

Speaking of Editplus...
it also has stuff like syntax highlighting, spell check, etc.

I've been COGing for like 7 years now and have just made due with NotePad (and WordPad for those COGs that grow over ~35 KB in size... I hate WordPad so much...). I'm not one to make syntax mistakes (on accident) or misspell verbs. Should I look into CogPad + Parsec or will it not provide an "old dog" like me any benefits?

QM

Well I dont have CogPad, but even though you're confident your cog is perfect, Parsec will tell you everything that 'doesn't make sense' and what line it is on. When you install it correctly, it becomes an option when you right click on a .cog file, so you can quickly run it. I believe anyone who cogs should have Parsec, it's great!

Thanks.


It doesnt matter how long youve been cogging - 5 minutes or 5 years, we all make (or made, as in my case... :() the same sort of silly mistakes; forgetting a semi-colon on line 100 of a 450 line cog, having only one "=" in a condition, etc. Its not a matter of skill, its simple forgetfulness. Parsec will catch such errors and kindly point out their location.


And CogPad, well, its just a beefed-up Notepad with an integrated Parsec and a few goodies to make cogging a little faster. ..like the "Symbol builder". Ever needed to build an array with 100 entires, all with different initial values, link IDs, etc? Pain in the ***, wasnt it? With the Symbol builder, you could have done it in less than a minute.

Give it a try, you might like it.