Originally posted by MathosVisual impairment greatly widens the gap, if I dare say.
It's funny actually because I'm in a million minds about this. Well almost. On one hand I know many visually impaired programmers, and as you acknowledge that isn't the only limiting factor, but I am curious about how they can get it and I struggle so much. on the other you make a very valid point, and I won't pretend to have a stance on whether it makes a significant difference or not. I don't think you can definitely say one way or the other.
This wouldn't be so unnerving to me if such people were not musicians, but many of them are and could give me pretty good competition on my turf. I think where I might have them is, envisioning a sound and knowing roughly how to make it before I start.
QuotePrecisely, the thing that I believe make a syntax-based language harder for anyone struck with a condition similar to yours is that these languages usually profit of visual elements to make their comprehension easier.
Even for MML editing, I've seen people do this with Notepad++. They can visibly show similar repeated sections for looping purposes.
My problem is, if I don't see a loop on first or second pass, I am likely to miss it. If you ever got bored enough to look at my
Super Mario Nes Overworld port (which I did just for amusement and curiosity's sake), I still had to spend hours planning ahead for that to account for the fact that I'd miss stuff if I didn't. As it turns out, everything I wrote ended up in a label loop, of which there are 30 altogether IIRC. If I hadn't planned ahead, it's likely that I would've missed many opportunities to use loops. Sometimes I get tempted to have someone look at code, as though working eyesight is some magic spotter. Lol. Not quite sure the point of this story but I guess it shows my strait path approach or something.
QuoteAs a side note, since we're sort of) talking about gaming for blind people too, have you ever played or considered tabletop RPGs (aka stuff like Dungeons & Dragons) ?
It's funny, a lot of blind people like that sort of stuff, and some are big fans of text adventure games. They were never really my thing. There are actually audio games which use sound to communicate an environment. I tend to like fast arcade-type games, and a few adventures if they're not puzzle-heavy (I mostly enjoy atmosphere).
QuoteThis post of yours proved extremely interesting, and I am eager to have other discussions of this quality (or continue this one, even) some other time.
I am very eager to do the same! I always enjoy discussion like this and as you can tell I've gone out of my way to start one
Originally posted by KaijyuuAssembly might be more your thing if you want to keep trying programming. There are no classes, structs, if statements, or loops built-in. Instruction 0000 is followed by instruction 0001. There are branch statements, which break the linearity, but it's always choosing one of two options; no more. You don't have to mess with the fancy compiler stuff in ASAR nor with complicated stuff like indirect addressing if you don't want to.
The thought of assembly scared the crap out of me but only because I never knew about what you said. I don't know enough about it to figure out what can be done with it and what I'd be interested in trying to learn. Maybe I will look more into it at some point. Your words are encouraging!
QuoteI've always had trouble with music since there are too many options. Not only can any note be followed by any note, only some notes actually sound harmonious (most but not all the time!), and there are 8 channels! (more than 8 outside of SMW hacking, too!) If I can't keep every option in my head, I can't reasonably decide between them, and my heuristics for deciding with incomplete information don't often work well with music.
This comment has sparked a thought. I was contemplating making an AddmusicK tutorial, but realized that if you are as unsettled by complex musical things as I am by a programming language, for example, then a tutorial written by someone like me may only provide limited benefit. Besides, it wouldn't even address your main problem of not being able to process music concepts effectively. I obviously can't teach you music in a tutorial, all I could do is show you how to represent it. I'd still be interested to see how such a thing would work with an audience. Main reason it hasn't taken off really is because I'm not having much success getting input on the custom music forums, and it's not yet at a state worth posting. Only the basic section is done. I do plan to work on it as time permits and to get discussion on it at some point.
But back to your comment: I can totally relate to what you're saying, and that is how I feel about programming, or well let's face it,a ton of other things. Actually you mentioned that 8 channels seems easier than the more hypothetical channels that exist in music outside of SMW. For me 8 channels is still a bit restrictive... sometimes painfully so... but don't even get me started on 8 bit consoles where you only get half that, and the 4th is noise so you can't do anything melodic with it. I was never one to arrange discrete parts for each voice; I later learned part writing and what have you, but it was never really my thing. With that said, less channels, while frustrating for me, is interesting and stimulating at the same time, and I assume that more primitive programming architectures produce similar feelings in programmers, all be it in different contexts.
QuoteI also don't have a sense of absolute pitch (play me a note and I won't be able to tell you which note it is). I played an instrument in school so I can read music and understand it when it's set before me, but I can't transcribe it or compose it.
I started taking piano lessons when I was 4. My teacher taught me mostly jazz and rock stuff, he wasn't a professional or anything but he knew what he was talking about. I still learned a lot from him.
I do have absolute pitch but like many musicians who have it, I thought everyone did at first. It has helped me from transcribing to editing BRR samples for Snes (though for the latter I often do use external stuff to aid in that). While my absolute pitch allows me to just know the notes I hear, there's another part to it. Notes and sounds have an audible, as well as a discrete tactile shape for me, because I am a tactile person if I can put it that way. Some combinations are more vibrant than others too which makes it easier for them to stick. That tactile shape is also nothing more than a representation which changes depending on what I'm doing. If I'm playing piano, it's piano keys. If I'm writing MML or midi sequencing, it's numbers which at present feel like an added layer... like i have to actively decode the thing into numbers so it's not as immediate. I can't even describe how this inner sense works, it just guides me and it's so automatic. All I really know is if I can hear a musical thing clearly in my head, I can reproduce it by whatever method is needed. But the thing in my head has to have a super clear focus which I can slow down by insane amounts. If it isn't that clear, I can't work with it. The best I can do at that point is improvise, which I'm good at because I was brought up learning how to do as such. I'm no Mozart or anything, but with enough perseverance I can extract a lot of information from something... enough to make a product that's decent anyway.
Few, hopefully that wall of text won't get me killed or something! Lol
Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!