One of my pet peeves has always been people who laugh at others for asking questions. I try not to do it. I think most people try not to do it too. Everyone knows that it's a bad thing to do. When people laugh at me for asking a question, I just ignore them, but it still pisses me off. I'll never stop asking questions, but lots of people do. I've been told before that “I ask too many questions“, something that usually gets told to a child, not an adult. I'm proud of that.
One thing that has always *mystified* me, is graphics programming. It's not something that I've done a lot of. Stuff like programming for a 3D card, writing display drivers, etc.
I was studying Procedural Programming (PP) at uni several years ago. This course was basically little more than an “Introduction to C”, and might as well have been called that as PP. I ended up getting a high-distinction in this course.
In the last class for the semester, the last one before the exams we were given an opportunity to ask any questions that we might have about the material, programming, 'life', etc.
Mostly everyone was silent. So I asked a question, something that had been on my mind for the entire course.
“How do you go from these console apps that we've been writing to graphics programming? How could I write a game in C for example?”
The whole class, and the lecturer just burst out in laughter. He didn't answer my question, he just tried to make some lame joke.
That still pisses me off to this day. It was a perfectly legitimate question.
At least now, I have a fair idea of how all the technology from 'C code' through to 'Doom' works. Probably a better idea than all the people who were laughing at my question I would imagine.
John.