@3DDoofus
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but programming rarely get any easier that what has been discussed above. I think you need to redefine what you put into the term "programming language".
To give an example; If you were to ask a couple of progammers what would be the easiest language to start with, chances are that they would tell you Visual Basic. But the thing is this, doing what you are asking (eg accept a number input) in Visual Basic isn't really easier than doing it in BlitzMax. The difference is that if you use Visual Basic you get an editor suite (Visual Studio) that hides a lot of the implementation in Controls. I.e. It's really easy to add a textbox to a widows form that lets you input your number. But if you were to look at the code behind the textbox Control, you'd pretty soon realize that it is far from simple. The difference is that someone has already done the work for you. That's all fine and dandy if you wan't to do it the way that someone at MS thinks you should do it. If you want to do it in another way, I'm sorry to tell you, it gets pretty complex pretty fast.
BlitzMax does not have a fancy editing suite (I think most users of this forum agree that the IDE is as 'barebone' as it gets). The main reason for this is that the focus of the BlitzMax is creation of games. It is not very likely that two different game devlopers want their textbox to look and act the same. Hence the 'if you want it, build it!' mentality often displayed in these forums.
The important thing is: You need to separate 'programming languges' from 'programming tools'. On that note I'd say that BlitzMax *is* an entry level programming language but it hasn't got a lot of tools (Actually, if you start looking around the site you'll realize that there actually are a lot of tools, in the form of code archives etc. They are just not as nicely presented as in some other products :) )
So I guess all you have to do now is decide what you want to do. Do you want to learn how to program? Well then it's time to roll up your sleves. Do you want to assemble applications from prefabricated bits? Then you probably should look at other products than BlitzMax.
So stop whining and join the fun!
//PetBom
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but programming rarely get any easier that what has been discussed above. I think you need to redefine what you put into the term "programming language".
To give an example; If you were to ask a couple of progammers what would be the easiest language to start with, chances are that they would tell you Visual Basic. But the thing is this, doing what you are asking (eg accept a number input) in Visual Basic isn't really easier than doing it in BlitzMax. The difference is that if you use Visual Basic you get an editor suite (Visual Studio) that hides a lot of the implementation in Controls. I.e. It's really easy to add a textbox to a widows form that lets you input your number. But if you were to look at the code behind the textbox Control, you'd pretty soon realize that it is far from simple. The difference is that someone has already done the work for you. That's all fine and dandy if you wan't to do it the way that someone at MS thinks you should do it. If you want to do it in another way, I'm sorry to tell you, it gets pretty complex pretty fast.
BlitzMax does not have a fancy editing suite (I think most users of this forum agree that the IDE is as 'barebone' as it gets). The main reason for this is that the focus of the BlitzMax is creation of games. It is not very likely that two different game devlopers want their textbox to look and act the same. Hence the 'if you want it, build it!' mentality often displayed in these forums.
The important thing is: You need to separate 'programming languges' from 'programming tools'. On that note I'd say that BlitzMax *is* an entry level programming language but it hasn't got a lot of tools (Actually, if you start looking around the site you'll realize that there actually are a lot of tools, in the form of code archives etc. They are just not as nicely presented as in some other products :) )
So I guess all you have to do now is decide what you want to do. Do you want to learn how to program? Well then it's time to roll up your sleves. Do you want to assemble applications from prefabricated bits? Then you probably should look at other products than BlitzMax.
So stop whining and join the fun!
//PetBom