"Beginner" point of view (on the demo version)

[Olli]

Hello,

I would want to share this strange point of view, I get when I execute PureBasic Version Demo on... W10, imagining I discover PureBasic.

DPI awareness option

On Windows, I think the switch should be set on "on". The reason? All the 3D examples start through a pbi source file named "Screen3DRequester.pbi".

On the elder times, the setup window, that this included file opens, gave the feeling of a good product. But on the newer versions of Windows, the desktop dimensions standard has changed, and this setup window opened by the source file "Screen3DRequester.pbi" has becomed ugly if the DPI awareness switch is set off.

I know the 3D examples source files, I know this setup window I like, and I also knew the several on-line warning messages about the changes of the DPI awareness. So I know intantaneously where to go and what to set to retrieve this 3D setup window in the right stat where I know it.

But a beginner will loose a time to this, a time where he has discovered nothing, while all the PB Team and all its contributors have been allocated their own time to grow the pedagogic concept of PB.


The IDE cannot save this source file !

An other concept, after the displaying, is the file system. A directory should be decided and created to work. Actually, there is a directory which has been decided, but :

- a new source page has not the right current directory to read and write data files.
- the examples source files have not the right directory to be modified. I agree that it is not their goal, but with the... DPI awareness switch, the IDE wants to saves the source file meta datas ! And this error message appears...

For me, no problem, but a beginner can imagine this message belongs to the limits of the Demo version. And he can even imagine all the errors of the file system library functions belong to these limits.

Opengl subsystem : displaying cross platform and mouse

On W10, on screen library, mouse pointors on laptops are difficult to be right, in the main way a touch pad or a touch screen is built-in.
If we test the "opengl" subsystem, these features are totally disabled, plus the display dimensions are in the nuts.

For me, no problem, but for a beginner, I remember my first steps on 4.10 : all the message errors was purely due to my source code errors, what it means these error messages were some steps to learn.
Here, mainly since W10, all the error messages I discover are not due to the PureBasic language*, but they are due to adapt the compiling of a source code. These cause, are met everywhere, they did not exist before, before it was just [F5] to discover a new pedagogic error. Now, these "new" errors, we can meet them everywhere, in other languages, from old products or new products, absolutly not crossplatform for the main part.


To conclude

Wrong GUI displaying, due to the DPI awareness, error messages for every file treatment (source file, as data file).
And a mouse which seems buged : 3 walls a beginner could see on his first steps.

I add I am aware that the whole list of problems told here, have been near all decided by a commercial system of the author of a famous OS...
But the risk is, a beginner does not see the qualities of the language, its crossplatform characteristics, its 1600-functions domain which preserve to learn any external infinite-sized documentation.

Regards

PS: If you speek english since you are born, I am sorry for your eyes... Keep relativist : you did not listen to me, speeking you beautiful native language.

(*) : I am liing.

[pf shadoko]

+++
I think we could even delete the "examples" folder and put them all in the doc
for the 3d I also think we should delete "screen3drequester".
it's annoying to have to constantly re-choose your screen for each test
I don't see its interest

[Olli]

@Shadoko

I thank then the choice was saved, and just "[Ok]" had to be clicked all the other times... And its interest was here...

[Olli]

OpenScreen() help page : source code example

As ElapsedMilliseconds() returns 0 on its initial call, a division per zero error occurs in the example of the doc.

For me, no problem, I remove the error. But for a beginner, he/she watches nothing, excepted an error...

[#NULL]

OpenScreen() help page : source code example

As ElapsedMilliseconds() returns 0 on its initial call, a division per zero error occurs in the example of the doc.

For me, no problem, I remove the error. But for a beginner, he/she watches nothing, excepted an error...

I don't have an OpenScreen() example code in my linux pb help. Neither in the online help, and there is also no source in the example folders other than Sprite.pb and others using OpenScreen().

[Olli]

@#Null

https://www.purebasic.com/french/docume ... creen.html

[#NULL]

Ah it's in the french doc only, I see.

[Olli]

Normally, all the docs are synchronized. This could be considered as a documentation bug.