Is learning TS useless?

[-Setro-]

Is TS very similar to C++ or another versatile coding language?
No point in learning it completely if not, I don't plan on using Torque as a game engine if I ever develop games.

[Ad Bot]

[Ipquarx]

It's only useful if you want to develop for blockland. Torque is an outdated engine really.

[-Setro-]

It's only useful if you want to develop for blockland. Torque is an outdated engine really.

yeah

on a side note, any good interactive tutorials for learning C++? I'd LOVE to learn that.

[TheBlackParrot]

I'd personally say no. I wanted to start learning PHP because I thought it'd be neat to do so.
TS is incredibly similar to PHP, you could use it as a stepping stone into something much more useful. It's a decent beginner language.

[Amade]

TorqueScript is very, very messy compared to most languages. If you learn programming in TS you're going to have to get a grip on things like typing and type conversion later. I wouldn't really recommend it as a starting point if you want to learn to program "properly".

A lot of TS's syntax (mostly excepting prefixing all variables with %) very closely resembles that of Java/C. Most importantly, however, is that it's still a programming language. The important thing is learning to program, not learning a language. If you can do X in TS, it won't take you long to figure out how to do X in some other language.

[Hawt]

this is the only game i play so for me its not useless :l

[otto-san]

it's a coding language and can help you get a better grasp on coding concepts. at the same time, any other language would do the same.

if you want to make mods for blockland obv it's not useless in that regard. even though it's not a widely-used language, the skills you learn working with it are very transferable to other languages. and working with blockland (assuming you're considering TS because of the potential for modding blockland) means you have an easy platform to develop off of from the start, and have a community that will be able to help and support your work. in addition, the blockland community is probably one of the absolute best places on the internet to work with torquescript because of how long a lot of the people here have been working with it.

i'd say that, even though ts isn't exactly the most useful language in the long run, if you're looking to get a start in coding, you'll probably have a lot of advantages going into torquescript that you wouldn't have if you started with something like c++. plus you get to help keep an awesome game alive probably if you mod blockland

[Johnny Blockhead]

My first language ended up being TS, and it very much did help me. It was an extremely easy transition into Java, and the like.

[Pecon]

My first language ended up being TS, and it very much did help me. It was an extremely easy transition into Java, and the like.

Yeah, just make sure you don't become dependent on some of TS's features like being case-insensitive. This will lead to lots and lots of pain.

[Truce]

Relevant post from two years ago:

Well, to be fair, I don't think any languages mentioned in this topic so far would be more beneficial to someone learning how to script than Torquescript. One thing about Torquescript is, as someone mentioned, is that it only has one variable type. However, it still uses normal conventions about adding, concatenating, local/global, and other things to make it close enough to a real language so that the transition to datatypes will be easygoing, but not overly demanding at early stages. It also still follows the standard brace syntax that will help when transitioning to common production languages like C and Java.

However, what I think is most beneficial to people learning how to code is that Torquescript is tangible. They can make a five line script and instantly see the results in a game environment that is familiar to them (moreso if they've actually played Blockland). Once they move on to more advanced code, it is still very easy to do tasks like creating 3d objects and even working with concepts such as networking due to all the prebuilt functionality Blockland provides.

It's great for learning.

[Advanced Bot]

Yeah, just make sure you don't become dependent on some of TS's features like being case-insensitive. This will lead to lots and lots of pain.

lol C# is sensitive with object names too

[Honorabl3]

on a side note, any good interactive tutorials for learning C++? I'd LOVE to learn that.

Sure, I used this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvC1WCdV1XU
He articulates, and gets the point across very easily.

[Cajetan²]

on a side note, any good interactive tutorials for learning C++? I'd LOVE to learn that.

Personally I hate video tutorials for C++. Each to their own, but I seriously hate it. Books ftw.
The problem we encounter here on books however is, that there are not many good C++ books. I often see books which advertise how good you can learn C++ with them just to be later disappointed again and you actually learned nothing about object-oriented programming because some authors are somehow C drug addicted and never made use of C++'s features.

I can recommend you a good one, which is C++ Primer 5th Edition here:
http://www.amazon.com/Primer-5th-Edition-Stanley-Lippman/dp/0321714113

I believe (in case you don't want to buy it) it's also somewhere freely available (although it's illegal, so I can't link it) on the Internet.

To your original question:
Learning TorqueScript is not useless if you want to make mods for Blockland (or eventually use the Torque3D engine for creating a game yourself, then it also might be good idea to know how to script). Also, it can improve your general knowledge about coding (like you get to know what loops, variables, methods, etc. are) and be a good "beginning step" to later start learning a real programming language and it may make it a bit easier for you.

Good luck.

[Advanced Bot]

TorqueScript basically is your learning programming language. As you want to learn something else, it should get easier.

I currently don't know much if C++/C#/C, but I can learn faster because I've been with TorqueScript for so long with lots of experience.

[Headcrab Zombie]

Most importantly, however, is that it's still a programming language. The important thing is learning to program, not learning a language.

I just want to repeat this point.
Once you've gotten a grasp on programming methodology and practices, problem solving and brown townytical thinking, etc, learning another language is just learning the syntax. After you've learned, for example, what a function is and how they work, learning another language is mostly learning the syntax you need to declare a function in that language.

I started a .NET dev position about 7 months ago, with no VB.NET experience (which was what my first project I was given was written in) and a tiny amount of C#  knowledge; just enough to make a very basic ASP.NET page function. The vast majority of my experience was in TorqueScript, with a small amount of PHP and a tiny amount of C++ thrown in, and I did just fine.