If you look at the source code of this site and the collected notes, you may wonder why I write HTML in a weird mix of old and new.
I started making web pages at the age of 5, only using Notepad on a Windows XP. The early 2000s featured more limited HTML tags and JavaScript capabilities.
Also, I didn't really know what CSS was until the next decade. The first time I would actually try to use it was in 2017. Until then I would use weird roundabout ways to change color for the page. I learned a lot of these things from my dad.
I made a lot of litle joke sites for the amusement of my friends during elementary and high school. Some where more ambitious, such as making web sites for musical projects that only last a day. A lot were probably just me trying to make someone laugh with very simple elements. One I can remember is a page that only consisted of a red background with text saying:
Hi! My name is Eisenhower.
I like to EAT!!!!
My Windows XP later crashed and took a lot of the data, including the original Eisenhower page, with it back in 2008.
I learned how to really use JavaScript in 2024. However, I have been pretty aware of it's existance and dabbled in 2021. My main Windows 10 laptop is showing its age so my daily driver is a Wi-Fi-less Windows 7 (or a Linux laptop I later began to really use in April 2024). All that to say, how I choose to write mostly features pre-2017 ECMAScript conventions, such as creating classes via functions or using var in place of let or const.
The first C like language I encountered was the Game Maker Language as featured in Game Maker Studio's original freeware versions.
In the late 2000s, I was playing a Smash Bros. fan game called Super Smash Bros. Rumble. After beating the bulk of the game's content, I dug into the files a began explore and modify the assets. Though I original started with just adding and adjusting the music options, this config file was written with a C-like syntax. Later, I would adjust the character scripting. These scripts also featured a C-like syntax.
I attempted to learn C++ in 2018 but I wasn't knowledgable enough to get a compiler running.
I would later in early 2020 learn C++. You could probably guess what happened later.
The class ended up transitioning from an in person to online class over spring break.
The transition from in person to online was pretty mild for me. I had been out sick due to an emergency surgery the month prior and had done assignments while recovering.
Though, as I soon learned, graphics programming and collisions are some of my biggest hurdles. It helped when I would later explore libraries like SDL and Raylib, but...
One of the things neglected in the class was linking to libraries in C/C++. Though one project was already set up to use SDL.
Most stuff was pretty useful, focusing more on objects, classes, polymorphism and what not.
The first project I ever had finished without any errors was one for File Input/Output. I managed to compile and run perfectly the first time...and I still thought I must have done something wrong
Months later, when learning Java, I grew jealous of the simple import code used in Java. I would later get a handle on the more complex library importing in C++.
In 2004, I started to make game world maps.
In 2005, my older brother and I were reading a Game Informner together around the time Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks was coming out. That game was the reason we go it in the first place. I believe (I could be wrong) that we saw an advertisement for 3DS Max. He said to me that this was what people use to create games.
To Be Continued...