gotta say, definately enjoyed the classes and picked up quite a bit of stuff that i didn't get before
i know perhaps explicit details of some stuff might not have been gone into (such as the points Trimble raised) but then again, it's not like we're learning advanced courses here - for some people, these may be the first programming they've done - if you start blasting them with anonymous functions and syntactic sugar it might scare them away
i figured the idea of this round of classes was not to teach people the theory of programming or the deep understanding of the mechanics behind it all, but just to give people enough of an idea of what the code does so that they can go off and put out some code that'll work with Ace and get the ideas going
perhaps it'd be a good idea if we arrange a advanced class, where Trimble (or anyone else that wants to step up to the plate) can go over the more complex stuff so that if people feel they are ready for the next step they can take part - or can come back to them in a few weeks or months once they've got their first ace addons working
That was the last of my classes for a while, now. At least until my hiatus is over. If anyone else wants to give it a go, feel free. It was great though. I did feel that everyone learned something (including myself, Stylpe took my ParseByName and consided it by 65 per cent!) and that the whole proceedings were successful. I didn't really set out to be or feel like a teacher, I knew I could goad the knowledge out of them because it was already there. They knew how to code, pretty much. I think in a lot of cases, I just made them feel more sure about what they already knew.
So all in all, a success.
Quite fun at some points too, when everyone stopped to discuss the Revolution controller.
Revolution, the light-gun.
Revolution, the steering-wheel.
Revolution, the gamepad.
Revolution, the flaaamethrower!
Darn! I've missed Class #3 and it was the last class for some while. There's one thing for sure: Rowne, you did a damned good job and you have my full respects. Really, I've learned a lot of new things and I think everyone else did the same. Reading about Stylpe perfectionating your beloved ' ParsyeByName' is just the prove for all that.
See, english isn't my mother language nor is it Stylpe's and though you managed to teach us thinks. If that isn't great I don't know :) Thanks mate. I hope you'll continue after your hiatus.
Thanks for posting those Rowne, while they were a good read....appears way over my head :). I'm really interested in learning how to do some coding. When next semester starts, i'm gonna look into taking some basic coding classes.
In the meantime, anyone have any links to some basic starting guides? I'd like to get the ball rolling and maybe even a head start :)
P.S. Love all the Ace addons, nice and ligjtweight!
I'd like to apologize to Rowne. It was not my intention to insult or demean in any way.
Rowne, the fact that you picked up the torch and lead the class is undeniably a great thing that you have done, and I respect that. It takes guts to lead, and you have stepped up. I would try, but honestly, I don't understand ACE enough to have a clue what I'm talking about.
My comments really come from the fact that I tend to be sensitive to those around me who "don't get it". I have a ADHD child, and he has a hard time absorbing anything, so I tend to be very sensitive to noticing when he's saying he's not catching on. Perhaps this is why I'm driven to help people in the blizzard forums. I'm usually told that I explain things TOO SIMPLE for most people, just to make sure everyone understands everything.
I shouldn't have posted a critique on your teaching style - It's GOOD. PLEASE CONTINUE!!!! What I read was in real time, and you could not have known the questions in advance. Next time, Instead of snobishly reviewing a live transcript, I'll just try to be there in person to help in any way that I can :)
Rowne, I'm sorry. Next time I'll keep my mouth shut if I can't be there in person.
Yeah, way beyond me too. I'm just starting to get interested in coding. Ever since I started making ROC Maps on WC3 I have been interested. For some reason with no experience whatsoever I seemed to be able to figure out certain ways to do things that no one else could think of. So it's always kept me interested. My problem is though that that isn't really coding... It's just playing with an editor. If I were to look at even my own maps in pure coded form I wouldn't even understand them.
So yeah, when it comes to your classes.. Well, you're already teaching full conversations, while I'm still learning numbers :/ Even though I can somewhat comprehend the reasons for having tables, variables, linking/grabbing, etc... I have no idea what they are or where the hell you come up with the knowledge of knowing they can be there, let alone should be..
Heh, I'm actually ADHD too, funnily enough. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, yes? Never quite got over that. My mind is always all over the place which probably doesn't make me the best teacher either but ... I was just there to give it a shot. I was a little hurt that, just because even though I knew I wasn't the best man for the job, I thought I'd volunteer and spend my time at least trying to explain some of the stuff. I didn't do it to get anything out of it, nor did I expect to be a professional IT teacher but I figured I did kinda well and that they enjoyed it. I was really knocked for six by the post, I thought that I was never going to get flamed here and that's what it felt like. Just to stress; it felt like that because I didn't want to get anything out of the lessons, I wasn't looking to and I'd gladly hand the mantle over to someone else. It's just that illitrate was working on BoogieBoxInterface Ace(D) and struggling a bit and there were a few things about Ace that didn't make sense to a few of the folks in the IRC channel.
What it felt like to me was as if I'd volunteered to do a job, spent hours of my life doing it to the best of my ability and then a random stranger who I'd barely ever talked to before decided to just waltz up to me and slap me in the face because he thought I wasn't educated enough to do a good job of it. That's how I perceived it and that's why I was so hurt by it.
Still, apology accepted and my apologies too if I misunderstood.
Well Rowne i must say nice work! I read your "Classroom" Sessions and they were superb! I have no previous coding experiance, and they were a bit over my head, but they gave me an idea about what alot of these term and things meant. Ace was what gave me an intrest to even think about coding an AddOn. Well any ways do you plan on giving some more "Basic" classes? Like some that possibly would show what you need to create an AddOn? These kinda did that but as i stated before, "they were a bit over my head."
Well I've read some of the "helloworld" type AddOns and they just dont do enough to teach you much of anything. So if it would be a bit more advanced I would be very happy and thankful.
I've had this lying around for a while and I'm not sure whether it's very good. I think I've been too simple in some areas and too complex in others but rather than just leaving it lying around on my hard-drive, it'd be better if I shared it. Perhaps those just coming to ace could pick up a thing or two from it, I'm not sure.
I've had this lying around for a while and I'm not sure whether it's very good. I think I've been too simple in some areas and too complex in others but rather than just leaving it lying around on my hard-drive, it'd be better if I shared it. Perhaps those just coming to ace could pick up a thing or two from it, I'm not sure.
I've learned a lot thru the classroom logs, mostly lua and tables stuff. Thanks a lot Rowne! :D
I'm gonna go "Aceify" my addons now. If there are a couple of other tutorials, that will probably help me more.
I even learned the ~= symbol, I was always using "not x == y" since I didn't knew better...:oops:
:idea:
Just wanted to leave something to help others too (even if it's late in the thread). Perhaps nobody will see this, or it was solved before... Anyway...
In section [M], Rowne mentionned a trick about having "t = t<2 and t or 2" or stuff around it, but in the version of the text file I read, it's still in the normal form : "if t < 2 then t = 2 end"
I wanted to check if it's possible to use "ternaries" to solve this.
Here's an explanation from the lua doc how "and" & "or" works
X and Y -> if X is true (or any value away from 0/nil), return Y else return X (return false)
X or Y -> if X is true, return X else return Y
Also, the "and" is going before the "or"
now, for the math problem:
if t < 2 then t = 2 end
Can it be shortened to the form: t = t<2 and t or 2 (or something near this)?
Step 1:
t<2 and t
if t is bigger, it will give t
if t is lower, it will give true
Step 2:
t (true) or 2 -> will give t
true or 2 -> will give true... not what we want
The solution is: t = t>=2 and t or 2
Step 1:
t >= 2 and t
it will return t if it's bigger
it will return false if it's lower
Step 2:
t (true) or 2 -> will return t
false or 2 will return 2
Bonus:
if t is nil: t>=2 and t will return nil
nil or 2 will return 2
To use "and" & "or" on the same line, we need to be careful to check that the return value isn't always true, we must make it false to continue the chain.
i know perhaps explicit details of some stuff might not have been gone into (such as the points Trimble raised) but then again, it's not like we're learning advanced courses here - for some people, these may be the first programming they've done - if you start blasting them with anonymous functions and syntactic sugar it might scare them away
i figured the idea of this round of classes was not to teach people the theory of programming or the deep understanding of the mechanics behind it all, but just to give people enough of an idea of what the code does so that they can go off and put out some code that'll work with Ace and get the ideas going
perhaps it'd be a good idea if we arrange a advanced class, where Trimble (or anyone else that wants to step up to the plate) can go over the more complex stuff so that if people feel they are ready for the next step they can take part - or can come back to them in a few weeks or months once they've got their first ace addons working
*lol* Too funny.
Btw, Rowne is not the master of metaphors. He's the master of similes. :P
That was the last of my classes for a while, now. At least until my hiatus is over. If anyone else wants to give it a go, feel free. It was great though. I did feel that everyone learned something (including myself, Stylpe took my ParseByName and consided it by 65 per cent!) and that the whole proceedings were successful. I didn't really set out to be or feel like a teacher, I knew I could goad the knowledge out of them because it was already there. They knew how to code, pretty much. I think in a lot of cases, I just made them feel more sure about what they already knew.
So all in all, a success.
Quite fun at some points too, when everyone stopped to discuss the Revolution controller.
Revolution, the light-gun.
Revolution, the steering-wheel.
Revolution, the gamepad.
Revolution, the flaaamethrower!
See, english isn't my mother language nor is it Stylpe's and though you managed to teach us thinks. If that isn't great I don't know :) Thanks mate. I hope you'll continue after your hiatus.
In the meantime, anyone have any links to some basic starting guides? I'd like to get the ball rolling and maybe even a head start :)
P.S. Love all the Ace addons, nice and ligjtweight!
Chips!
*sneaks out again*
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Curse PremiumRowne, the fact that you picked up the torch and lead the class is undeniably a great thing that you have done, and I respect that. It takes guts to lead, and you have stepped up. I would try, but honestly, I don't understand ACE enough to have a clue what I'm talking about.
My comments really come from the fact that I tend to be sensitive to those around me who "don't get it". I have a ADHD child, and he has a hard time absorbing anything, so I tend to be very sensitive to noticing when he's saying he's not catching on. Perhaps this is why I'm driven to help people in the blizzard forums. I'm usually told that I explain things TOO SIMPLE for most people, just to make sure everyone understands everything.
I shouldn't have posted a critique on your teaching style - It's GOOD. PLEASE CONTINUE!!!! What I read was in real time, and you could not have known the questions in advance. Next time, Instead of snobishly reviewing a live transcript, I'll just try to be there in person to help in any way that I can :)
Rowne, I'm sorry. Next time I'll keep my mouth shut if I can't be there in person.
So yeah, when it comes to your classes.. Well, you're already teaching full conversations, while I'm still learning numbers :/ Even though I can somewhat comprehend the reasons for having tables, variables, linking/grabbing, etc... I have no idea what they are or where the hell you come up with the knowledge of knowing they can be there, let alone should be..
Heh, I'm actually ADHD too, funnily enough. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, yes? Never quite got over that. My mind is always all over the place which probably doesn't make me the best teacher either but ... I was just there to give it a shot. I was a little hurt that, just because even though I knew I wasn't the best man for the job, I thought I'd volunteer and spend my time at least trying to explain some of the stuff. I didn't do it to get anything out of it, nor did I expect to be a professional IT teacher but I figured I did kinda well and that they enjoyed it. I was really knocked for six by the post, I thought that I was never going to get flamed here and that's what it felt like. Just to stress; it felt like that because I didn't want to get anything out of the lessons, I wasn't looking to and I'd gladly hand the mantle over to someone else. It's just that illitrate was working on BoogieBoxInterface Ace(D) and struggling a bit and there were a few things about Ace that didn't make sense to a few of the folks in the IRC channel.
What it felt like to me was as if I'd volunteered to do a job, spent hours of my life doing it to the best of my ability and then a random stranger who I'd barely ever talked to before decided to just waltz up to me and slap me in the face because he thought I wasn't educated enough to do a good job of it. That's how I perceived it and that's why I was so hurt by it.
Still, apology accepted and my apologies too if I misunderstood.
Again...the classrooms were very well done.. :)
Works for me :?
I've had this lying around for a while and I'm not sure whether it's very good. I think I've been too simple in some areas and too complex in others but rather than just leaving it lying around on my hard-drive, it'd be better if I shared it. Perhaps those just coming to ace could pick up a thing or two from it, I'm not sure.
Still, it's here if you want it ...
http://mastaile.mine.nu/Touchdown-Commented.zip
http://mastaile.mine.nu/Touchdown-Uncommented.zip
Rowne... Just what I needed and exactly what you needed to leave on. Great work!
Thanks a lot Rowne! :D
I'm gonna go "Aceify" my addons now. If there are a couple of other tutorials, that will probably help me more.
I even learned the ~= symbol, I was always using "not x == y" since I didn't knew better...:oops:
:idea:
Just wanted to leave something to help others too (even if it's late in the thread). Perhaps nobody will see this, or it was solved before... Anyway...
In section [M], Rowne mentionned a trick about having "t = t<2 and t or 2" or stuff around it, but in the version of the text file I read, it's still in the normal form : "if t < 2 then t = 2 end"
I wanted to check if it's possible to use "ternaries" to solve this.
Here's an explanation from the lua doc how "and" & "or" works
X and Y -> if X is true (or any value away from 0/nil), return Y else return X (return false)
X or Y -> if X is true, return X else return Y
Also, the "and" is going before the "or"
now, for the math problem:
if t < 2 then t = 2 end
Can it be shortened to the form: t = t<2 and t or 2 (or something near this)?
Step 1:
t<2 and t
if t is bigger, it will give t
if t is lower, it will give true
Step 2:
t (true) or 2 -> will give t
true or 2 -> will give true... not what we want
The solution is: t = t>=2 and t or 2
Step 1:
t >= 2 and t
it will return t if it's bigger
it will return false if it's lower
Step 2:
t (true) or 2 -> will return t
false or 2 will return 2
Bonus:
if t is nil: t>=2 and t will return nil
nil or 2 will return 2
To use "and" & "or" on the same line, we need to be careful to check that the return value isn't always true, we must make it false to continue the chain.
- Kira