What Kind Of Help Are You Looking For?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Dear new guys and gals.  I sometime answer the questions you write here, and I think that sometimes I do a good job, but other times I do a bad job of it.  I’d like my answers to your questions to be better.  

Having said that, it is hard to know how to answer questions sometimes because an answer is based on two basic things:

  1. The question - i.e. What you asked (or think you asked).
  2. Your experience. - i.e. I have to answer in such a way that you’ll both understand the answer and hopefully the reasoning behind the answer.  The latter is actually more important than the prior.

So, this post is my attempt to extract (if you will) some details from you.  This is not me trying to out folks as new or inexperienced at all.  I sincerely want to know a little bit more about you.  To that end, I’m going to list a questionnaire below and some questions. 

You can answer the questions anonymously, but if you respond to the questions, of course we’ll know who you are.  That said, I think additional answers are awesome and I’m really looking forward to them.

Questionnaire (at the top I think; well see when I post)

Note: I’d have made more questions, but it seems there is a limit. :mellow:

Individual Questions (answer in future posts)

When Stuck - When you get stuck, how and where do you look for answers? ( Be explicit and give ‘for example’ cases if you can.)

Want To Make - What are you most interested in learning to make with Corona?  (Ordered lists are great.)

Want To Learn  - What are the top 3 to 5 game development topics you feel you know the least about and/or are most interested in learning more about.

What Kind(s) Of Help - If you could have anything you wanted, what kind or kinds of help, resources, assistance, would you like for their to be available.  (I’m not promising anything, but this would be nice to know.)

More questions to come.

PS - I hijacked another person’s post when answering and that hijack was tangentially related to this post, so I’m copying to the next entry below this first post.  Hijacking a post is a bad practice so, my apologies to ‘true’ and this is my attempt to correct that action.

-Ed

#2

Here is that hijack content I mentioned at the end of my post:

I believe, the real problem is many new developers here, do not have a good foundation in programming and game development.  I and others here have the benefit of years (decades) of programming experience, so there is a bit of a disconnect when trying to help the new folks.

I’m not saying these folks are doing anything wrong by jumping in with both feet.  In fact, I applaud their interest and in a sense bravery at doing so.

That said I see a decided and regular lack of understanding when it comes to these topics:

  • The danger of globals.
  • Scope and visibility basics.
  • Function versus method.
  • Concepts of display groups and display objects and how Corona and Lua work together to manage them, destroy them, etc.
  • Composer and its purpose, as well as the function of the different scene methods, when they are executed, and most important, the concept of the ‘scene group’.
  • Modules, including how to write them and use them.
  • How and where to get help and more info.
  • How to debug and self-help via forums, blogs, docs, others example…
  • The list could go on.

Not having a solid grasp of these topics really makes life hard for the new folks.  

So, our new compatriots dive in fearlessly and quickly get stuck.  Looking for help, they post whole files to the forums, but being new to this too, they don’t refine/post-format/correct the post or make the code legible.  They just mind dump in one fell swoop.

 
In turn, I (and maybe others) become exasperated at being faced with yet-another illegible code-dump of a tired topic.

So, we answer quickly after only briefly perusing the code.  I mean, it’s the same question we’ve seen over an over so we know the basic answer and we give it.  (Perhaps, I should go back to saying “I”, and only lambaste myself here.)
 
The point of this now long post, it that, I think we need to find a way to get the new folks to work their way up and understand the basics first.  I just don’t know how to encourage it in a wholly positive and supportive manner.  Instead, I think I sometimes come off as gruff and even scary.

So, if you’ve got solid ideas on how to encourage newbies to start with the basics first, please e-mail me or write a blog post… something.

Let’s find a way to get these guys and gals started well.

PS - Edit 1,231,123 … If you’re a new person and reading this and you’ve got ideas.  Create a new forum topic and share them, or e-mail your ideas to me. 

PPS - Please don’t spam me folks.  I’ll read all e-mails, but may only reply with a thanks as a I cogitate on what I hope is a lot of great input on the topic.

#3

Re; That last bit.  I know, blah blah blah blah blah… I’m leaving it because I think we should all own up to our posts, good and bad, and because I want it to be clear, while I’m sometimes vocal and thorny, I’m also very interested in finding a way to help folks and to pump things up around here.

I want to see more activity and success stories from the new and old members here (me included). 

#4

Here is that hijack content I mentioned at the end of my post:

I believe, the real problem is many new developers here, do not have a good foundation in programming and game development.  I and others here have the benefit of years (decades) of programming experience, so there is a bit of a disconnect when trying to help the new folks.

I’m not saying these folks are doing anything wrong by jumping in with both feet.  In fact, I applaud their interest and in a sense bravery at doing so.

That said I see a decided and regular lack of understanding when it comes to these topics:

  • The danger of globals.
  • Scope and visibility basics.
  • Function versus method.
  • Concepts of display groups and display objects and how Corona and Lua work together to manage them, destroy them, etc.
  • Composer and its purpose, as well as the function of the different scene methods, when they are executed, and most important, the concept of the ‘scene group’.
  • Modules, including how to write them and use them.
  • How and where to get help and more info.
  • How to debug and self-help via forums, blogs, docs, others example…
  • The list could go on.

Not having a solid grasp of these topics really makes life hard for the new folks.  

So, our new compatriots dive in fearlessly and quickly get stuck.  Looking for help, they post whole files to the forums, but being new to this too, they don’t refine/post-format/correct the post or make the code legible.  They just mind dump in one fell swoop.

 
In turn, I (and maybe others) become exasperated at being faced with yet-another illegible code-dump of a tired topic.

So, we answer quickly after only briefly perusing the code.  I mean, it’s the same question we’ve seen over an over so we know the basic answer and we give it.  (Perhaps, I should go back to saying “I”, and only lambaste myself here.)
 
The point of this now long post, it that, I think we need to find a way to get the new folks to work their way up and understand the basics first.  I just don’t know how to encourage it in a wholly positive and supportive manner.  Instead, I think I sometimes come off as gruff and even scary.

So, if you’ve got solid ideas on how to encourage newbies to start with the basics first, please e-mail me or write a blog post… something.

Let’s find a way to get these guys and gals started well.

PS - Edit 1,231,123 … If you’re a new person and reading this and you’ve got ideas.  Create a new forum topic and share them, or e-mail your ideas to me. 

PPS - Please don’t spam me folks.  I’ll read all e-mails, but may only reply with a thanks as a I cogitate on what I hope is a lot of great input on the topic.

#5

Re; That last bit.  I know, blah blah blah blah blah… I’m leaving it because I think we should all own up to our posts, good and bad, and because I want it to be clear, while I’m sometimes vocal and thorny, I’m also very interested in finding a way to help folks and to pump things up around here.

I want to see more activity and success stories from the new and old members here (me included).