[Implemented] User Guide, User Guide, User Guide!

Amiga5k · Post by **Amiga5k** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 8:22 am

It's been mentioned a thousand times, I know, but this would go a LONG way to help newbies in PB (like me) get a grasp on PB's way of doing things. Not that it's bad, just really different from other basics...

Bl**z Plus's 'sprite' and image commands are, well, just a LOT easier to understand....Dare I say, intuitive? Mainly because of the many complete game examples that are included with the installation.

PB's commands certainly offer more flexibility, but a user guide would be REALLY helpful.

Thanks,
Russell

Shannara · Post by **Shannara** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 5:19 pm

Your right, it has been mentioned several times before, however, look at Fred's responses... AFAIK, there will be no changes in the current, docs.

nessie · Post by **nessie** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:47 am

If you're looking to get a grasp on PB then you should go to

Code: Select all

http://www.purearea.net

this is the most comprehensive list of examples you can get. Perhaps this could be included as part of the PB download, With AndrÃ©s permission of course

freedimension · Post by **freedimension** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:37 pm

nessie wrote:If you're looking to get a grasp on PB then you should go to
Code: Select all
http://www.purearea.net
this is the most comprehensive list of examples you can get. Perhaps this could be included as part of the PB download, With AndrÃ©s permission of course

You sure have broadband access, but there are still some people out there (like me) who have to use 56k modems. A plus of 2 MB on the PB Download would hinder many potential users from downloading it.

GedB · Post by **GedB** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:01 pm

Once you get familiar with the existing documentation, it is actually pretty good.

There are 2 main problems:

1) No 'Getting Started' guide. Something for the newbie to get to gribs with. The best example of a getting started guide I've ever encountered was with Visual Dialogscript. It was less than 10 pages that showed how to do a simple alarm clock. By the end I felt confident enough to use the language myself.

2) More indexing needed. At the moment only the main function names seem to be indexed. Sometimes the indexing is very strange. If I F1 on the keyword 'If' I go straight to the help page. However, looking up 'If' in the index gives me nothing.

Another example of the indexes failing is that neither the index or the search yields anything relevant for mod or modulus. The exact phrase Modulo is needed to find out about the % operator. Even then it is hidden under the heading 'Variables' and only available in search rather than index.

Amiga5k · Post by **Amiga5k** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:47 am

An interesting sidenote on the help file is that Microsoft's free "HTML Help Workshop", available from their site, can decompile the .chm file for you. I started to go through it to correct some spelling errors, etc and thought maybe I would add some of my own ideas. This proved to be quite an undertaking, although the spelling part is pretty easy.

.chm files are a typical example of a program written for professional programmers by preofessional programmers. Read: User-unfriendly...

Anyway, the "Getting Started" part would be nice

Russell

Amiga5k · Post by **Amiga5k** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:52 am

freedimension wrote:
nessie wrote:If you're looking to get a grasp on PB then you should go to
Code: Select all
http://www.purearea.net
this is the most comprehensive list of examples you can get. Perhaps this could be included as part of the PB download, With AndrÃ©s permission of course
You sure have broadband access, but there are still some people out there (like me) who have to use 56k modems. A plus of 2 MB on the PB Download would hinder many potential users from downloading it.

Two MB is no big deal for me. I have a 56k connection as well. Perhaps it could be linked in the help file so that a person can decide for themselves whether or not they want\need it.

Personally, I'd be ok with a 10MB file if the contents are worth the effort. I downloaded the entire DirectX SDK (128MB+) @ 56k.... You don't want to know how long THAT took!

Russell

Post by **Dare2** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 3:16 am

If the code archive was included in the download, it would become official and would need to be "supported" by PureBasic team.

Given that the archive uses 3rd party stuff (including unofficial libraries), has code that is out of date, and has a LOT of code that would need to be maintained, this may not be a good move for PB team.

Amiga5k · Post by **Amiga5k** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 3:41 am

Then how about a resource page with links in the help file? If they are 3rd party, and stated as such, then Fantaisie SOftware would not be obliged to support them, AFAIK.

Russell

freedimension · Post by **freedimension** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 11:06 am

Amiga5k wrote:Then how about a resource page with links in the help file? If they are 3rd party, and stated as such, then Fantaisie SOftware would not be obliged to support them, AFAIK.

Russell

I would support this solution