A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

The place for any Hollywood tutorials
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Yasu
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:12 pm

A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Yasu »

I like the simpleness of Hollywood, but I can never find enough time to dig into how it works. Simply because when I sit in front of a computer I find too much other stuff to do. So it's when I'm at work I can find the 5 minutes here and there to read a book or a homepage with my phone.

That gave me the idea of asking if any of you guys wants to write a tutourial, geared to beginners of programming, for the magazine Amiga Forum which I'm the editor of. It's a printed magzine I've been doing for more than 2 years now for the Swedish Amiga community (http://www.amigaforum.se).

The idea would be that you can write it in English and then I will get it translated into Swedish and printed as a regular (the magazine is in Swedish but my guess is that most people here can't speak it). I think that would make more people start program with this language in Sweden.

Anyone who thinks this is a good and fun idea wants to step up? I can't offer anything except a free copy of the magazine.

You can write back here or to my e-mail: johannesgenberg [the letter before b with a tail] gmail . you know what.

/ Johannes Genberg
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airsoftsoftwair
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Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by airsoftsoftwair »

Sounds like a good idea and can maybe attract some more users to Hollywood :)
Yasu
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:12 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Yasu »

It's also for my own sake. I want to learn Hollywood, but I need a better beginners guide to get started, like I mentioned in another thread. Just understanding "Hello world" isn't enough when you need to in step 2 start to guess what stuff does by looking at code.

An ideal toutorial would explain how to make this and that kind of program in a series: "How to make a picture viewer", "How to make a video player", "How to make a snake game clone" etc etc with explanation of what the different part of the code actually does. Learning by coding, with explanations on the side.

We have just started an assembler school in the magazine. So a Hollywood school sounds like a good complement :)
Bugala
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Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Bugala »

If no one else is interested, then I could give it a try.

However, in my opinion, it would be better if it be someone else, since I have some big gaps in my programming knowledge and technics, since I am not so interested in becoming a good, or expert coder, but I have only been interested in getting things done.
Yasu
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:12 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Yasu »

Well, it's no really hurry yet since the next issue will be in December. But since I always have to work like a madman when time is due I thought about being a little ahead this time :)

Maybe you who are interested can write a dummy here on this thread so we can all give input and such? Help each other make the best beginners guide there is ;)
Bugala
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Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Bugala »

Couple of questions. If i understood correctly, you are planning to have it in a magazine, which brings the question of how much (about) space is there. target Words or characters amount?

Then comes the question of how exactly should it be done. There is the traditional way of teaching basics like practically all the programming books do, which is what i used in this for example:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=907

However, you were also suggesting using (complete) example programs and teaching it that way, which could be one way, just have to think it a bit.

But in both cases there comes the question of what should be the readers starting level?

1. They dont know even how to program at all.
2. They either understand a bit about programming, or are smart enough to learn with only very little explanation (basically the approach I have had on that linked guide)
3. They know programming, but want to know how to do it with Hollywood.

Then the next question is the question of how thorough guide should it be. In that links guide my approach was somewhat fast, although i still supposed that someone might need to learn the basics (coming from some Basic language to C-type language for first time)

Basically, should it be slower (have more examples of each things and explain them in more detail), same, or even faster (There could be less explanation and less examples of different possibilities).


If doing through game examples, as you were suggesting, i would say then the thoroughness of the guide can still be decided, but at least number 1 approach would seem very difficult to reach through complete game examples and hence it should be at least minimum of number 2 group.

I guess making simple PONG-game could be one example.
Yasu
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:12 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Yasu »

Unless it becomes a REALLY long article we rarerly don't bother with word count or the such. The magazine is in A5 format so up to 6 such pages would be no problem at all. And that is a lot of text.

I think Hollywood would be a good language to start if you never programmed before (which is what I've heard and is the main reason I bought it). So I think it should be directed to those with no experience at all. We have also started an Assembler school in the last issue and that is a good complement I think. It was also a very praised article.

I don't think the guide need to explain the different parts what they actually do. When I read programming books, they have lenghty explenations of the theory behind "IF" for example, but you rarely get any examples of what it does when you write "A" instead of "B" or "C". I don't think the theory is as important as what it actually does in the code. I also think that you can make the examples shorter by adding several examples into one code base.

I also believe that you learn more by coding yourself. So giving the reader several similar examples with different outcomes might be a good idea. That way, the reader can later themself experiment around and memorise what the codes does, and learn something new too.

Yes, a Pong game migth be a good idea. I just assumed that a "worm"/"snake" game (eat "apples", grow larger, don't crash into yourself or the wall) would be rather simple.
Bugala
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Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Bugala »

Seems my tutorail became much longer than i meant. But is this still acceptable etc?
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=925
Bugala
Posts: 1168
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:11 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Bugala »

One thought, looking it 24 hours later, that came to my mind, would be to instead of doing such thorough explanation, to perhaps trust the reader understands how things works alrady from examples.

I could perhaps try make the teaching part so that I would first for example explain IF - THEN, and after that just put all the different examples of IF codes, each after other, and then just briefly explain the difference between them, instead of talking about them all for so long.
Yasu
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:12 pm

Re: A beginners guide for Amiga Forum?

Post by Yasu »

This is really impressive. I have to get back to you when I have thuroughly read everything. Nice job! :)
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