03-20-2018, 03:56 PM
A few people have contacted me and asked this question, and I suppose it does deserve an answer.
And the honest answer is, its easier!
Sooooooo much easier!
If you chose to abandon Windows and have a desktop Linux system, then great, you got a free OS that does exactly what you want...but it does not do everything, it needs tweaking, and fiddling and installing odd tools to do something else...thats not ideal.
I'm not a Windows fan boy, by any means, it often has me swearing at it, but I just like to use simple professional tools in simple professional ways, Linux basically does not have them available. Mac does...kinda, but it also sucks the life out of you.
So like almost all pro game devs, my main work system is my home PC and work Laptop, I use my free copy of Visual Studio 2017, or my heavily discounted (educational) Visual Studio 2013 on my Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 systems, and everything works.
It just works, it does what I need it to do, largely without fuss or bother, and I use the tools all the pros use.
If you choose to use Desktop Linux, I have no issue with that, but I don't!
Now if that puts you off buying the book, I am sorry, but you also are missing out on a simple point, the code being built isn't actually specific to the dev system. It can be compiled on any machine, as long as you understand the build process and how to add files to a project.
So if you really want to use Linux, and one of its many IDE's you can, just create the projects in the manner required by your choice of IDE, and add the source files, take note of the libs and paths and you should be good to go. You can even use a Linux based PC with an IDE, to target your SBC just as I do with my windows system. But as I don't have Linux desktop, I can't really help with how, but I know it can be done. I hope others will post their experience of using a Linux dev system, to a Linux target,
Converting the projects won't be too hard, it'll take you an hour or 2 to get set up but, once you are, adding new files and libs won't be any greater a chore than it is for me on VS, with VGDB.
Lets all use the OS's we like, and focus on making the SBC's run our code, independent of their OS.
And the honest answer is, its easier!
Sooooooo much easier!
If you chose to abandon Windows and have a desktop Linux system, then great, you got a free OS that does exactly what you want...but it does not do everything, it needs tweaking, and fiddling and installing odd tools to do something else...thats not ideal.
I'm not a Windows fan boy, by any means, it often has me swearing at it, but I just like to use simple professional tools in simple professional ways, Linux basically does not have them available. Mac does...kinda, but it also sucks the life out of you.
So like almost all pro game devs, my main work system is my home PC and work Laptop, I use my free copy of Visual Studio 2017, or my heavily discounted (educational) Visual Studio 2013 on my Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 systems, and everything works.
It just works, it does what I need it to do, largely without fuss or bother, and I use the tools all the pros use.
If you choose to use Desktop Linux, I have no issue with that, but I don't!
Now if that puts you off buying the book, I am sorry, but you also are missing out on a simple point, the code being built isn't actually specific to the dev system. It can be compiled on any machine, as long as you understand the build process and how to add files to a project.
So if you really want to use Linux, and one of its many IDE's you can, just create the projects in the manner required by your choice of IDE, and add the source files, take note of the libs and paths and you should be good to go. You can even use a Linux based PC with an IDE, to target your SBC just as I do with my windows system. But as I don't have Linux desktop, I can't really help with how, but I know it can be done. I hope others will post their experience of using a Linux dev system, to a Linux target,
Converting the projects won't be too hard, it'll take you an hour or 2 to get set up but, once you are, adding new files and libs won't be any greater a chore than it is for me on VS, with VGDB.
Lets all use the OS's we like, and focus on making the SBC's run our code, independent of their OS.
Brian Beuken
Lecturer in Game Programming at Breda University of Applied Sciences.
Author of The Fundamentals of C/C++ Game Programming: Using Target-based Development on SBC's
Lecturer in Game Programming at Breda University of Applied Sciences.
Author of The Fundamentals of C/C++ Game Programming: Using Target-based Development on SBC's