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StarCraft College Course


The Pezman
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Weird classes have been around for a long time. I have no clue where a credit like this would be useful.

Useful? Likely not. But who could resist having a degree that says "The trustees of UC - Berkeley, by virtue of the authority invested in it hereby confer upon **insert name** the degree of Associate of Zerg Rush with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto", with all its underlined areas being done with "^_____________________^"... and getting to join the Honor Society of ΚΣΚΣΚΣ?

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That's why I said programming as opposed to coding, and deep as opposed to complicated. The goal of programming languages and IDEs in my mind should be to free the programmer from syntax and formatting, to allow him to just build...and in this regard plain English would actually be the *ideal* programming language (or at least a modified version where the grammar and vocabulary are non-ambiguous).

And that's where the Campaign Editor succeeds IMO. It's high-level enough so anyone can get into it, but still powerful enough to do what you want it to. It has many of the features you'd expect in a "real" programming language like conditional loops, functions with parameters, and even objects with attributes. Hopefully modern IDEs will eventually get to the point (if they haven't already) where they can auto-complete keywords and code blocks to such an extent that it'll be just like making StarCraft triggers...point and click.

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And that's where the Campaign Editor succeeds IMO. It's high-level enough so anyone can get into it, but still powerful enough to do what you want it to. It has many of the features you'd expect in a "real" programming language like conditional loops, functions with parameters, and even objects with attributes.

Not to start an argument, but... Do we have the same Campaign Editor?? It's reasonable to call Warcraft 3's scripting interface "deep", but SC's was, er, a hassle to use, and not powerful at all.

but still powerful enough to do what you want it to.

Haha, perhaps we just differed in what we wanted it to do =p

You'd think someone with programming experience would have an easier time fliddling with the Campaign Editor's limited language, BUT NO!!

Hopefully modern IDEs will eventually get to the point (if they haven't already) where they can auto-complete keywords and code blocks to such an extent that it'll be just like making StarCraft triggers...point and click.

Hmm, I can say some IDEs are getting close to this (which is a good thing IMO), but frankly the phrase "it'll be just like making StarCraft triggers" makes me laugh... I have no idea how many hours I've spent reordering actions to get things to work properly, and wrestling with those darned scrollbars!! I eagerly await whatever editor StarCraft II has to offer.

In closing: I'm afraid SC map editor scripting has no real application other than making SC maps =]

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Not to start an argument, but... Do we have the same Campaign Editor?? It's reasonable to call Warcraft 3's scripting interface "deep", but SC's was, er, a hassle to use, and not powerful at all.

Haha, perhaps we just differed in what we wanted it to do =p

You'd think someone with programming experience would have an easier time fliddling with the Campaign Editor's limited language, BUT NO!!

I honestly haven't seen anything that couldn't be done (within reason of course). You should see some of the stuff the UMS community has come up with, it's pretty impressive.

Hmm, I can say some IDEs are getting close to this (which is a good thing IMO), but frankly the phrase "it'll be just like making StarCraft triggers" makes me laugh... I have no idea how many hours I've spent reordering actions to get things to work properly, and wrestling with those darned scrollbars!! I eagerly await whatever editor StarCraft II has to offer.

You might have run into a shortcoming of the language (or perhaps your own programming), but the interface was always really intuitive to me. And besides, you're going to spend hours debugging no matter what language you use. :P

In closing: I'm afraid SC map editor scripting has no real application other than making SC maps =]

Well what else would it do, vector calculus? :<

Actually if they added mathematical operators that might actually be possible...

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The goal of programming languages and IDEs in my mind should be to free the programmer from syntax and formatting, to allow him to just build...and in this regard plain English would actually be the *ideal* programming language (or at least a modified version where the grammar and vocabulary are non-ambiguous).

Not to derail the thread, but we had an interesting discussion about this subject during a lecture today. While some thought it would make things alot easier, it would also introduce a lot of new problems, and lack the structure required to debug properly. It would go from strict&structured to.. guesswork?

Back to topic. I wonder what an employer would say to an application showing a degree in Starcraft.

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Classes like this are called DeCals, and are student run classes with a faculty sponsor. I'm enrolled in a more serious one this semester about invasive species management, but they range from learning another language to teaching inmates at San Quentin prison.

If you'd like to see what classes are being offered this semester just check out the list: http://decal.org/courses/index.php

There's always some strange ones like this every semester, but its one of the things that makes Berkeley a fun school to go to. =)

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