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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / Awarded a $1000 grant for innovation in teaching using Dark Basic

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BCIT
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Posted: 17th Jun 2010 18:10
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I wanted to share this with everyone. I applied for the grant based on the use of Dark Basic in modeling physical systems. The money is being used to purchase 20 Dark Studio DVDs.

I also have money to purchase books. Does anyone have an idea what would be a good textbook to use with my high school students in learning DBPro. A book with review questions/quizzes would be great.

Thanks.
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KISTech
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Posted: 17th Jun 2010 18:12
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No suggestions on the book, but congrats! That's awesome to hear.

(dam, more competition on the way..)

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Hayer
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Posted: 17th Jun 2010 18:52
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sweet! what grade and school are you teaching at?

Some off-topic but its.. semi-related

It would be nice if there was a wiki, like wiki.thegamecreators.com
where forum members can edit the articles. Atleast I do;
If I can't find the answer in a book pretty quick, I go to the wiki(if the software has one) and uses that instead. And as a 3th solution I use forums like TGC, Stackoverflow etc

Just an idea..

Keep it simple.
Questions? Mail me
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Indicium
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Posted: 17th Jun 2010 20:28
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I'm sure these is a darkbasic wiki.

Rawwrr. Sig Fail.
Newcastle is awesome
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Kryogenik
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Posted: 17th Jun 2010 21:49
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I didn't know they had high school classes that taught DBPro, that's pretty neat. As for learning it, I got my grip on DBPro by looking at the DBC monster hunt tutorial, and then making little programs and looking at other people's source code. Some of the things are inconsistent between DBC and DBPro, but it helps a lot more than the DBPro ones do. The only thing it didn't teach was collision detection, forcing me to scour the forums for weeks until I found sparky's collision, now its all good That was back in 7th grade, now I'm a freshman Tell your students about these forums too, but don't let them ask too many questions My bad about not knowing any books to recommend.

Codesurge is so awesome, thanks Hyrichter.
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KISTech
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Posted: 17th Jun 2010 22:03 Edited at: 17th Jun 2010 22:06
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Actually, the only book I know of is,

Beginners Guide to DarkBASIC Game Programming. It touches on both DBC and DBPro. There might be something newer out there though.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Beginners+guide+to+darkbasic+programming&x=0&y=0

This one got better reviews. Both are kind of out of date, but they teach the basics, which is essentially what you're after.

http://www.amazon.com/DarkBASIC-Game-Programming-Jonathan-Harbour/dp/1598632876/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276800943&sr=8-4

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BCIT
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Posted: 18th Jun 2010 21:20
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Thanks all.

I teach high school, 9-12 grade Geospatial Technologies at BCIT in New Jersey. The course is geared toward studying earth systems. BASIC programming is required for many GIS certification programs and I already know DBPro. What more fun way to learn BASIC, apply mathematics, and reinforce spatial thinking than learning 3d game and simulation programming.
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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 18th Jun 2010 22:47 Edited at: 18th Jun 2010 22:49
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congrats and nice to hear! TGC has an program, although i don't believe it's appropriate. perhaps you could contact rick ( [email protected] ) and maybe get a few extra copies of DGS or a more suitable package for the money you're willing to spend? worth a shot, if you haven't already inquired.

ps, anyone know how to make the email tags work like the link tags? thanks

Virtual Nomad @ California, USA
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Phaelax
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Posted: 18th Jun 2010 22:49 Edited at: 19th Jun 2010 00:48
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Geospatial? It just sounds neat enough to take in school without knowing what it is! Unforunately, for me DB Classic wasn't released until I was a junior in HS, I had to learn turbo pascal

Not sure if you'd want to tackle this, but since you're a teacher it might be a good idea to write your own DB text book for schools. I'd be interested to know how many other schools offer DB-related courses.


Oh, and congrats on receiving the grant. You might want to contact TGC to see if they'd offer an educational discount for you.


I started looking around for possible books, and so far I've found the following resources:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/DarkBASIC_Programming
Beginner's Guide to DarkBASIC Game Programming
Hands on Dark Basic Pro
DarkBasic Programming for the Absolute Beginner
DarkBasic Pro Game Programming


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ~ Arthur C. Clarke
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BMacZero
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Posted: 20th Jun 2010 17:46
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There is a wiki, it's at the address Hayer pointed out, but it's pretty incomplete right now.

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Flatlander
FPSC Tool Maker
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Posted: 20th Jun 2010 18:55
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Quote: "A book with review questions/quizzes would be great."


Congratulations.

The only books that I know of that has review questions and quizzes are the Hands-on books volume 1 and 2. Volume 1 starts out with the basics of programming DBPro and Volume 2 concentrates on the graphics for both 2D and 3D.

Unfortunately these books are not distributed in the US. The only way you can get these books is through either TGC or the author. I had found one on ebay when I was looking; but they wanted the same price as I would have paid getting it from TGC that included postage.

I actually really do recommend these books for the classroom.

I also have the American published and Distributed book, DarkBasicPro Game Programming. It is a good book but I don't think it is suited as well for the classroom and doesn't go into much detail. Especially for a High School such as yours.

I purchased mine through the author because he didn't charge as much postage as TGC does.

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