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What is the best language to use for programming the Vita?

Open discussions on programming specifically for the PS Vita.
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grief3r
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by grief3r »

once you learn c you can learn anything
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MetalOctopus
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by MetalOctopus »

yifanlu wrote:My advice is that language does not matter. At a certain point you'll notice that most languages are similar and it'll take you a day max to learn a new language. The important thing is understanding how to think procedurally (the hardest part of learning to program) and know good design and architecture.
This is good advice. I used to work at a university doing a lot of behind the scenes programming for the online learning tools. All I knew when I showed up was some rusty Turbo Pascal from when I was in high school. The languages were all foreign to me but the concepts were the same. With the exception of regular expressions, which is the tongue of demons, you can pick up a language in no time. :)
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Netrix
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by Netrix »

yifanlu wrote:... Once you go into industry and start writing code on real consoles, you'll be using C/C++ along with proprietary APIs that you must pick up on; which should be easy if you have experience.
That is likely, but not necessarily the case. Unity in particular is becoming very popular, which you probably know, uses C# via Mono (also UnityScript and Boo, but who wants to use those?). Of course, it's never a bad idea to learn C/C++. It's the first language I learned in detail and it was fun experience.
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by yifanlu »

Netrix wrote:
yifanlu wrote:... Once you go into industry and start writing code on real consoles, you'll be using C/C++ along with proprietary APIs that you must pick up on; which should be easy if you have experience.
That is likely, but not necessarily the case. Unity in particular is becoming very popular, which you probably know, uses C# via Mono (also UnityScript and Boo, but who wants to use those?). Of course, it's never a bad idea to learn C/C++. It's the first language I learned in detail and it was fun experience.
For indie game companies sure. I'm imaging large studios where AAA titles are being made. You can't make Last of Us with unity and expect it to run just as well on ps3.
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by Acid_Snake »

Netrix wrote:
yifanlu wrote:... Once you go into industry and start writing code on real consoles, you'll be using C/C++ along with proprietary APIs that you must pick up on; which should be easy if you have experience.
That is likely, but not necessarily the case. Unity in particular is becoming very popular, which you probably know, uses C# via Mono (also UnityScript and Boo, but who wants to use those?). Of course, it's never a bad idea to learn C/C++. It's the first language I learned in detail and it was fun experience.
You can't take C# serious in any AAA game or big software that requires performance. It's not nearly fast and powerful enough as C/C++ and it's not nearly as useful and flexible as scripting languages (for what they are used in AAA titles).
hgoel0974
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by hgoel0974 »

Acid_Snake wrote: You can't take C# serious in any AAA game or big software that requires performance. It's not nearly fast and powerful enough as C/C++ and it's not nearly as useful and flexible as scripting languages (for what they are used in AAA titles).
Now why did I know what you were going to say... :lol:
I find the part about C# not being as useful and flexible as scripting languages totally irrelevant, C#, like C/C++ isn't even meant to be a scripting language.
Also, while it's true that C# might not be the best choice for things that require performance, it has been used for slightly less demanding titles like Star Wars The Force Unleashed. I'd say that sure C/C++ provides the most performance and you don't really find C# JIT's for all platforms, C# is slightly easier to get started with, for someone who just wants to see results fast, C# might be the better choice. In the end however, you only have a choice between C# (in PlayStation Mobile) or C/C++ in the official devkit
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Coldbird
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by Coldbird »

From the official side (Sony) all you are allowed to use is C# (in the PSM SDK) or C/C++ (in the official Sony SDKs, at least those are the compilers it ships with).

Using certain workarounds in combination with the official Sony SDK, you could in theory use any language that compiles into ARM ASM, and link the resulting libraries using the C/C++ compilers and linkers from the SDK into the actual build, but given your starting background I suppose that would be a bit over your head for now at least.

Another question here is what are your finances, as PSM costs 99$/€ a year (not including the free introduction year that is) it might be a more affordable price for you than the costs (of several thousand dollars) to become a certified Sony Licenser with Devkit + native SDK.

Another route you could take, if you don't mind the limitations implied by the Sony PSP Sandbox, is coding for PSP and just using those applications on Vita using a PSP exploit to launch it.

In that case, your choices of language are a bit bigger, ranging from C / C++ to a minimal subset of Java or even Python.
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wth
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by wth »

Indeed
hgoel0974
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by hgoel0974 »

Coldbird wrote:From the official side (Sony) all you are allowed to use is C# (in the PSM SDK) or C/C++ (in the official Sony SDKs, at least those are the compilers it ships with).

Using certain workarounds in combination with the official Sony SDK, you could in theory use any language that compiles into ARM ASM, and link the resulting libraries using the C/C++ compilers and linkers from the SDK into the actual build, but given your starting background I suppose that would be a bit over your head for now at least.

Another question here is what are your finances, as PSM costs 99$/€ a year (not including the free introduction year that is) it might be a more affordable price for you than the costs (of several thousand dollars) to become a certified Sony Licenser with Devkit + native SDK.

Another route you could take, if you don't mind the limitations implied by the Sony PSP Sandbox, is coding for PSP and just using those applications on Vita using a PSP exploit to launch it.

In that case, your choices of language are a bit bigger, ranging from C / C++ to a minimal subset of Java or even Python.
But ofc it would be a waste of money to get the full Sony DevKit and SDK at the OP's stage, since he's just learning right now.
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Infinite Chalupas
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Re: What is the best language to use for programming the Vit

Post by Infinite Chalupas »

Acid_Snake wrote:
Netrix wrote:
yifanlu wrote:... Once you go into industry and start writing code on real consoles, you'll be using C/C++ along with proprietary APIs that you must pick up on; which should be easy if you have experience.
That is likely, but not necessarily the case. Unity in particular is becoming very popular, which you probably know, uses C# via Mono (also UnityScript and Boo, but who wants to use those?). Of course, it's never a bad idea to learn C/C++. It's the first language I learned in detail and it was fun experience.
You can't take C# serious in any AAA game or big software that requires performance. It's not nearly fast and powerful enough as C/C++ and it's not nearly as useful and flexible as scripting languages (for what they are used in AAA titles).
Not true. C# compiles to native bytecode on the machine, and can actually be even faster in some cases as optimizations can be made through assumptions which are otherwise impossible for preassembled programs. The only drawbacks of C# are that it requires more memory in some cases and that the garbage collector doesn't like to dispose objects when you want them to be disposed.
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