Check out the tutorials

[Josh]

I'm working on a template to display tutorials

 

Here's what the listing looks like:

http://leadwerks.com/werkspace/index.php?/page/resources/_/leadwerks/

 

Here's a lesson by Masterxilo I made a few formatting changes to:

http://leadwerks.com/werkspace/index.php?/page/resources/_/community/using-opengl-for-drawing-r19

 

This lesson talks about writing and formatting tutorials:

http://leadwerks.com/werkspace/index.php?/page/resources/_/community/tips-for-creating-tutorials-r13

 

There are still some limitations of the template and some things won't work right. Ratings and comments are missing. The lightbox display does not work. You also can't add attachments when editing. To get around the last problem, you can use this page as a temporary solution. This accesses the same data using a different wrapper, and the buttons to attach images and files will work:

http://leadwerks.com/werkspace/index.php?/page/edit_tutorials

[Pixel Perfect]

Looking good

[AggrorJorn]

That looks very good Josh. I really like the design.

 

Is it possible to add a "Change language button" in the video listing as wel?

[Pancakes]

tutorials buffet!

[CopperCircle]

Looks great, being a Newbie I am glad to see that you are working on making the documentation and tutorials more accessible.

[AggrorJorn]

Josh is it possible to divide the community resources in a grid list of categories?

I think there will be a lot more tutorials created by the community and the long list might get to long. Perhaps you can make categories like modeling related tutorials, Coding tutorials.

[Canardia]

Yeah a second Category level is needed for Tutorials.

At the moment it looks like this would be suitable:

• Tutorials
  
  • Official Tutorials
    
  • Community Tutorials
    
    • Guides
      
    • Modelling
      
    • Programming
      

[Masterxilo]

Cool!

[Josh]

I revised the main tutorials page the way I think everyone wants. I think I want the tutorials list view to be laid out like the main page, with two columns where your tutorials appear side by side.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

that really looks great!

 

but you forgot BLITZMAX PROGRAMMING !!!

 

take a look at the poll here and you see that about 35% of the coders here are using BlitzMax... but it seems as if you're doing everything to discourage this...

 

please add it to the list...

 

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

I wouldn't say C++ Programming and Script Programming, but Game Programming and Game Scripting.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

  On 6/27/2010 at 5:54 PM, Lumooja said:

I wouldn't say C++ Programming and Script Programming, but Game Programming and Game Scripting.

 

i wouldn't join all differrent programming languages into one topic... that'd result in a mess...

 

besides... Game Programming and Game Scripting... the Game part is pretty much a given... isn't it...

 

 

if anything... c++ Programming lua Scripting BlitzMax Programming C# Programming

 

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

Well then just Programming and Scripting.

I wouldn't seperate by language, because then there will be 300 different language sections all doing the same thing, in BlitzMax people just don't add the semicolon at the end of line (although they could), else it's identical with C++

[Guest Red Ocktober]

  Quote

BlitzMax people just don't add the semicolon at the end of line (although they could), else it's identical with C++

 

you really don't believe that that's the only difference... i'm sure you don't...

 

and me thinks there'll only be 3 or 4 language categories... defeinitely enough to support... as opposed to going to one central location and having to search through a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with what you may be looking for...

 

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

I would rather focus and categorize by the feature which a program shows, and not on the language itself. There can be a separate tutorial how to convert BlitzMax code to C++ and vice versa, then it doesn't matter in which language the example is written. And in most cases you don't copy the whole example anyway, but just a few lines which you need, and those few lines are almost always identical between languages if they use LE commands, and if few characters are different, it's a no-brainer to change them.

 

For example in a BlitzMax tutorial you see this code chunk to paint an entity:

PaintEntity(e,LoadMaterial("abstract::cobbestones.mat"));

Since the semicolon was already added in BlitzMax, the code is identical in C++.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

you're missing the point of the tuts... they're primarily meant for people who aren't up on the the same coding level as you are...

 

and as such, those folks probably would like a lil more guidance as opposed to just being thrown into the pit...

 

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

There can be a seperate newbie to pro language tutorial also, which can use LE elements to show the relevance to LE also, so the newbie would learn what is a language element and what is a LE element, after all the idea of an game engine is not to teach people the basics of programming. And/or there can be seperate Beginners and Advanced tutorials.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

or...

 

there can be a simple, straight forward page where a anyone could go straight to where they wanted to go...

 

i choose the straightforward way... as i think most people will...

 

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

But then the problem with people complaining that there are so cool tutorials in C++ or in BlitzMax, and not in the other language will never go away. And since it's possible to solve that problem I would put some efforts in it. The tutorials could be even written in a pseudo language, and then there would be a converter (it can be right on the website) which converts the pseudo language to the wanted target language. Or then the pseudo language is not even shown, but the user can select in which language he wants to view the tutorials and it would show them on the fly converted from the tutorial source pseudo language.

[Guest Red Ocktober]

  Quote

And since it's possible to solve that problem I would put some efforts in it.

by all means, do that... and let me be the first to applaud your altruism and sense of generosity...

 

 

but in the meantime, some people might just be looking for a tutorial on a particular topic, in a particular language... if they don't understand the particulars of the laguage they chose to code in, what are the odds that they'll understand your psuedo language...

 

sorry... me thinks the odds are low... and i still have to disagree with a one section for all approach...

 

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

They don't need to understand the pseudo language, since they can choose their own language to view it. The pseudo language is like HTML, and users don't always choose "View Source" on webpages either, but they read the webpage as it's presented, and can also often choose different languages like English and German (which are both generated by the same HTML source, just using dynamic fields to lookup the phrases from a database).

[Guest Red Ocktober]

  On 6/27/2010 at 6:58 PM, Lumooja said:

They don't need to understand the pseudo language, since they can choose their own language to view it.

 

and which laguage would the default selection be if the user didn't choose a particular one... would the psuedo language somehow know what the users predilections are and make the selection for the user... internet esp maybe...

 

if you could somehow do that, then fine... otherwise...

 

it's simpler and more intuitive to let em see the clear choices, and head straight to em...

 

but hey... that's just my opinion...

 

why complicate things...

 

 

 

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

The language selection is already implemented in the API documentation pages.

What's missing is only the feature to automatically convert from pseudo to target language, but it can be done manually also, like it is done now (tutorial authors can use an external tool if they want, to make their conversion work easier).

[Guest Red Ocktober]

you're not looking at it from the perspective of someone who needs help from a tutorial...

 

don't ya think that they'd rather go straight to c++ section, or straight to the BlitzMax section, and then select the tut they want...

 

don't ya think that this way would also involve less maintenance effort from the site admin as well...

 

--Mike

[Canardia]

There could be a preferred language option in each user's profile, which is then used to choose the documentation, API or tutorial according to his language. He can still switch to another language of course, it would be only the default choice for him. Then the tutorials don't need a seperate category for language, and it's less to click.