Will there ever be a proper manual?
BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Beginners Area/Will there ever be a proper manual?
| ||
| I know that lots of people have already mentioned this a thousand times but I have just started to try to learn BMax again (I have been trying since it first came out but failed due to the lack of a decent manual) and although I am now starting to understand what I am doing, thanks to the great help on these forums, I keep getting caught up on silly things like FlushMem and many other small items that are mentioned in the manual but have since been removed from the program. The point I am trying to make is that although I have had the patience to learn the program many newcomers will not. First impresions count and I`m sure that I`m not the only one who wishes that something so simple could be given a few hours to sort out properly. BMax is a great program and I really enjoy using it but for other beginners like me it is a lot harder to learn than I think it needs to be. Please sort this out BRL or pay one of the many talented people on this forum to update the docs so that they reflect the true quality of Bmax. Jason. |
| ||
| The documentation is ropey, but there are very few things that I haven't been able to figure out by doing a forum search. Re what you said about newcomers not having patience to learn - if they seriously want to write games, they *will* learn. Although from a business point of view, that sentiment is madness. |
| ||
| Good old days... I loved the manual that came with b3d. :/ |
| ||
| Lack of documentation to the standard of blitzplus/blitz3d is one of the things that keeps me away from blitzmax. I've toyed with the demo a while ago and found them to be lacking. Query - Having registered blitz3d and blitzplus I can see the blitz3d and blitzplus manuals online at the top of the blitzbasic webpage - if I were to buy blitzmax would I be able to see a similar blitzmax manual online docs at the top of the page - what I am asking is - is it just hidden because I don't own blitzmax or is it just not there? |
| ||
| Good old days... I loved the manual that came with b3d. : It was OK, except that it was out of date within a few months. I guess that's why they don't waste time/money producing printed manuals any more. if I were to buy blitzmax would I be able to see a similar blitzmax manual online docs at the top of the page No. There isn't one. |
| ||
| Thanks for clearing that up GfK. |
| ||
| Is there a reason why there isn't an online rendition of the 'official' BMax commands like B3d/B+? The system already allows users to make comments, I always figured that'd be useful for people who like to point out quirks/misprints of the command's documentation after the fact. |
| ||
| Yeah, it has occurred to me that, while I had no trouble picking up BlitzMax, I was already very proficient at Blitz3D and thus familiar with the Blitz way of doing things (if you know what I mean.) I'm not sure what it would be like to encounter BlitzMax without any prior knowledge of Blitz programming. |
| ||
| An official wiki for BlitzMax would be a good idea, I think. The unofficial wiki that someone set up years back ended up getting spammed to hell and gone, so the only way to do it effectively would be to bridge the wiki software's login system with the official database of blitzmax users. Not that this should replace proper documentation, of course. It should be used to enhance it. |
| ||
| Assari started a good project were user examples were produced for each of the Bmax commands : Community Project: BlitzMax Examples in Helpfiles Brucey created a good way of getting these examples into the standard doc here but I am not sure if it still works. There is also hotdocs which is great for finding the methods and 'hidden' information. |
| ||
| Having knowledge in Blitz 3D / Plus is actually one of the worst bases to start of with BlitzMax I found whenever I've been talking to "new users" that claim that BM is bad because it does not work as stone agy and broken as the old blitzs with their integrated type list, no real references and the "possibility" to use delete. People with a general programming background and a basic OO background definitely have far less of a problem getting into BM than a regular Blitz user with a programming background of a 17 old after a semester course in informatics (basic programming) ie no background higher than commands and a totally wrong picture of how a professionally working language looks like. btw: If you used the BM demo, then we should point out that the docs system got a major overhaul with 1.26 and I think its far better now. As well until recently there has been hotdocs, a documentating system that was especially powerfull when you wanted to program on OO level as it documented everything not only the "officially" documented features (the rest is not meant to be used by 0815 users) |
   |