Where Should I Start?
25-Dec-94 07:46:21
Sb: #44880-Where Should I Start?
Fm: Jim Butterfield 73624,14
To: Craig C Randall 71712,2065
C or C++ is quite suitable for the navigation application you are thinking
of. Either compiles into relatively efficient code. Assembly Language (you
wouldn't really code machine language on the Amiga or PC) can always squeeze an
extra level of efficiency out of the code, but I doubt it's worth the extra
effort in this case, and would have far less compatibility across the Amiga and
PC platforms.
The calculations are quite portable across the range of machines you have in
mind. You would likely need to do a significant recut going from the Amiga to
one of the variety of PC platforms, if there was a graphics content. Amiga has
a fairly standard graphics interface across all models: PCs do not.
PC (or MS-DOS) is a somewhat general term; in writing a program for this
broad range of machines, you'd need to make some target decisions. If graphics
is an important part of the human interface you envision, you'll need to know a
good deal about the target computer. Under MS-DOS, you could meet machines
fitted with a wide variety of graphics interfaces, and your program should
either (a) choose one and run only on that style of display, or (b), test to
see what graphics is present and switch into whatever handler will be suitable
for that resolution/colour/system.
Beyond this, there are also intefaces to Windows and/or OS/2 facilities. But
I sense that you are talking about a beginning project, and wouldn't want to
get into that kind of thing yet.
Remember that compilers (such as C and C++) can give you quite a bit of help
in exploiting the resources of whatever system you are targeting. But they
can't make an Amiga into a PC, or (thank heavens) vice versa.
–Jim