I would start off with windows rather than DOS, programming graphics with pure DOS is probably harder than windows at the moment lack of modern tutorials, peer advise, etc.

I would start off with DirectX, you can learn a skeleton Win interface and not worry about about WinAPI or the WinGDI. There is a lot (look at this site) of help out there for DX and you will find that books on DX are more readily availible than DOS.

,Jay

PS: Besides why would you want to learn something that will probably not be useful later.

Okay, last night I made a rough schedule (heheh. sorry to those of you who think i''m taking this too seriously - it means a lot to me )
Heres what i plan to do:

Finish basic C (finish this book i''m reading)

Learn basic C++

Learn advanced C++ (enough to make basic text based games)

Learn advanced programming topics, like algorithms and memory management (ongoing.. probably won''t get into this area extensivly, but still to have a general knowledge)

Learn basic windows programming

Adapt more advanced programming techniques to windows (if i can.. i dunno if i can or not)

Learn windows gamming

Learn DirectX (along with windows gamming)

PRACTICE!!

PRACTICE!!

PRACTICE!!

PRACTICE!!

Learn OpenGL (if i must)




hows that sound? i know you probably don''t care, but your helping me out a lot by giving your suggestions (and i thank you SO MUCH for them)

Thanks!
Fuzztrek

¬_¬

Yeah actually I think by learning anything graphical in DOS, you''re wasting your time(a little bit). I think that''s a good schedule. Spend a little time with a book that shows some GDI examples. When you''ve done GDI for a while, move up to DirectX. (I just started doing that.) Actually I knew very little about DirectX a few months ago, and a week ago I didnt know about DirectDraw. But, I copied, and cobbled some code from the samples in the DirectX SDK, and I am almost done with a simple game. (very simple) I think to be finished (polished even) It''ll take me another week(maybe optomism.) I think though, that if you do not know C in the first place, or do not know it well enough to know about classes, pointers, etc...it is in fact valuable to take a class(real life) in it. Even if it teaches stuff that seems dumb, its useful anyway. I even forgot how to do files. I used to know how to make binary files but since it was like 8 years ago, I''ve forgotten. Erm, yeah, anyway... yeah I like your plan, but if you don''t know C well enough to know pointers, structures, classes, etc, I''d reccommend a class. You''ll have many questions that can be answered in real time by a grizzled, hardened, down on his luck C++ teacher! (well ok maybe (s)he''ll be cheerful, happy, and doing well...) Here is also a very good place to get questions answered of course! =D

-=Lohrno