Lengthy post ahead.
Hi everyone I am new on the forum but you will be seeing much more of me to come. I have been developing a game for around a month so far while giving DM a second go (tried years ago and gave up too quick). I have made the most progress I have ever made at making a game this time.
One thing you might notice if you scroll through my post history is that, besides my account being new, I have not asked a single coding question. How can this be? Well first and foremost the compiler is amazing and the reference, filled with excellent examples, are treasures in their own rights.
However there is one resource that has helped me more than anything. Google. I have found that by googling "byond [my problem here phrase differently until I find what I need]" has been the tremendously helpful.
"KickingKangaroo that is cool you like to google but what is your point?"
Well hang onto your horses, let me tell you about a trend I have found. 90% (Really not an exaggeration and I google for help around ~10 times a day at this point) of the question posts where I find the solution to my struggle have responses filled with "Did you even search?" or "This has been asked a million times". Only you know what? Those posts/search results that everyone is yelling at the person about did not come up in my results. It is all about wording.
Moral of the story: You may think another spam post "geez guys look at this undefined variable" is not worth your time but that person may have phrased the question differently so others who search for that problem may now get the chance to find an answer without having to bug you. Thank you for considering this.
P.S: I do have to say sometimes though people are just whining for the better coders to code something for them. Also, another random thought, I have found the best answers to questions are actually those that avoid writing out code, unless the situation really calls for it, and instead focus on the concepts behind what the user is trying to do.
ID:1491239
 Feb 7 2014, 10:03 am (Edited on Feb 7 2014, 10:16 am)
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Feb 7 2014, 10:24 am
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Albro1
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At least someone understands and appreciates not spoon-feeding.
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Albro1 you are one of those people whose replies to other peoples questions have helped me more than you could imagine. Thank you!
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I agree.
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Yeh. You're welcome. I know my posts have inspired you in many a way.
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"One thing you might notice if you scroll through my post history is that, besides my account being new, I have not asked a single coding question. How can this be? Well first and foremost the compiler is amazing and the reference, filled with excellent examples, are treasures in their own rights."
Why I love programming on BYOND in a nutshell. The examples are amazing. And even when there isn't a very detailed example, the community explains how it functions without any "issues." | |
I've never understood why people complain about a lack of documentation for BYOND. If you read the DM guide, it goes over everything you need to know, and if you still don't understand something or need a quick refresher the reference guide is always a great resource. Failing everything else, the community will always try to help you as long as you try to do it on your own first.
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The DM guide is very old and is missing a lot of newer stuff, but it's still good for learning syntax and concepts. The rest is up to the Reference and forum tutorials.
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The only things I can think of off the top of my head that the guide doesn't go over are 1) skins (which, like you mentioned, have a very good forum guide written by Lummox himself), 2) pixel movement (which come with their options already defined, which makes it easy to look up in the reference), and 3) the new animation procs. Although it'd be nice to have a new series of guides, I think that's really something that's up to the community at this point. Tom and Lummox have enough on their plate as it is.
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