Absolute Beginner In Over His Head

Hello!

So I'm very new to low level programming and C/C++ programming in general but I've been very inspired by the community here at Handmade Network and want to dive in head first. I got just downloaded 4Coder but am unsure how to actually build and run it. I know, the very fact that I don't know how to do this probably means I have no business using it, but I want to! I'm using it on a MacBook Pro running OSX 10.9.5 and I tried just running the "buildsuper.sh" file, which ran fine, but when I run "4ed" it just opens a blank window that I can't do anything with.

I'm sure I'm missing some crucially simple step, and I feel fairly embarrassed even asking this but better that than not use 4Coder at all.

Either way, any help I could get would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Edited by Evan Hansen on Reason: Initial post
Welcome to the network, Evan. [Skip this spoiler, Allen →] It's been a while since I last used 4coder, but I also get a blank window on startup which apparently doesn't let me do anything. However, I can hit Ctrl-n to bring up the New file screen, then enter a file name and be delivered to an editable buffer. Hope this is possible for you. You can find the Ctrl-n thing in README.txt, if it still exists in the latest builds!

If that isn't possible, maybe it'd be worth posting the terminal output when launching 4ed on the command line.
Hey Evan!

I am glad to hear you want to get a handle of 4coder, and, although it might not be well tuned to beginners, that's not a deliberate design choice as much as a lack of time on my part to make properly helpful information and tutorials. I'll be happy to help you through it here or, if you ever want to share something you'd rather keep private, code that is causing a problem, computer specs, etc, you can also get my help at [email protected].

Now, please keep in mind that there is every possibility that I am the one who is screwing up here, and not you. It would be helpful to me if I knew what your blank screen looks like. Since you are on Mac I am nervous that you might be on a version of Mac where 4coder plainly doesn't work. I have refused to update since the deprecation of OpenGL, because I haven't had the time to write new renderers yet. However, it might be something else too... send me that screen shot of your blank screen and I will know more.

Edited by Allen Webster on
Thanks! I can email you more details.