The starts of a beginner guide written

While the current jMEProgrammersGuide.pdf seems to focus more on wordage, I’ve started writting one that focuses more on the code. Check out the following link and use the download button to view it. Let me know what you think. It’s only on chapter 3, but I plan to keep writting until I plain don’t know anymore, if it looks usefull. Any input on corrections or directions it should take would be welcome.



edit- updated link -edit

Suggest you right click-save as, and view off line

http://www.mojomonkeycoding.com/beginner/Starter.pdf



The source programs are currently on my computer. I envision links to jnpl for each program when it’s done, as well as a HTML version and downloadable source code links.

Very nice. I wouldn’t mind getting that in the wiki either at some point.

I like! This is just the kind of thing we need to get in front of new users.

If people could volunteer to write sections they know a lot about, that would be very cool. You could just write some in text, and I’ll pretty format it for you into the documentation. For example, renanse you know about your render Queueing so you could write a tiny thing about that. And someone that knows about using AWT with jME could write something about that. Some parts of jME I don’t know enough about to write.

Would you be interested in a description of AbstractGame and its subclasses? It would include what each abstract method (ie update(), render(), etc.) is supposed to do, the order in which they’re called, and the relative merits/negatives of each game structure. It’s one of the few sections of jME that I’m truly intimately familiar with.



(I can’t guarantee a timeframe, but “before the end of the summer” is definite.)

Would be great. It doesn’t have to be as pretty as what I’ve done, just give me some text and doc’d code, I’ll do the rest. I’m trying to focus more on example by code, rather than talking.



PS: You can link it through the wiki via CVS. It’ll always be as updated as posible that way. Something like this may even be important enough to link at the end of the Getting Started guide as well. It’s intended to be step two after that.

For the user guide, can anyone explane on the forum what the minFilter and magFilter options do for TextureManager

It’s starting to sound like these guides (Beginner’s and User’s) should be merged into one. Which I’m not opposed to. We should just get everything into a central spot so we don’t write the same thing. I think making everything pure wiki would work well.

Well at least I’ll need a way to put pictures on the wiki I suppose

I can create a wiki image folder and give FTP access to people.

Like I don’t know if it’s just me, but the PDF looks way more professional and neater. I don’t see how I could create the same thing on wiki, without 10x the pain.



It also seems that this type of document is very key to getting people comfortable with jME. The developer lifecycle I envision is something like


  1. Read the install guide (Basic installation)
  2. Read my starter guide (Just the code& minor explanations. Little depth or theory)
  3. Read the programmer’s guide (Theory, ideas, concepts, deeper meanings)
  4. Read the javadoc (How to use the function, but not a full explanation of what it does)
  5. Read the wiki (Exact details on how a thing works)
  6. Visit the forums (obscure questions)



    What I’m writting is to be the very first thing someone reads after installing jME correctly, and is easy to get ahold of. Easy on the eyes and easy on the brain is key. Pretty is necissary.



    What do people think? I think the wiki should be very exact, technical and more for people that are familiar with jME basics but need more information on one of the topics. As an example, I know jME well but I’ld like to be able to goto the wiki and learn about all of those 30 Texture.* functions. The starter-guide should be for someone that knows java but doens’t know jME at all. Not intimidating in the least, very simple, easy, not much detail. Enough to wet the appitite and give a developer a feel for how jME will work with real examples.





    So while the wiki may have tutoriols for people that are familiar with jME (Like in depth HUD or maybe in depth “how to create your own export script”, jME needs an easy and pretty intro doc.



    My vote is to keep it in PDF form as well as some day translate it into HTML. Link to it at the bottom of the getting started guide, and give it its own link in JME documentation subbar on the left. Have the link point to the most recent CVS document (or its location on some FTP account) so people can continue to update/add to it without having to but mojo to update the website.

Like I said before, I don’t mind them being seperate articles, but we are already in the position that documentation is spread out across the site, in various formats and it’s just a huge mess. The point of the wiki is anyone can work on it, that’s the only reason I put it up, the hopes that the community would write the documentation for me. Although that didn’t quite work out the way I wanted… :stuck_out_tongue:



I agree, wiki’s look like total shit. But it’s the content they are after.



What does everyone want? Would you like things in PDF, HTML, wiki? Let me know, as I don’t mind which we choose, but it has to be the same format in the same location.

As someone that knows a lot about jME, I don’t mind navigating to get what I want. I don’t care about pretty at all, just facts. I don’t care about pictures either too much. Formalities are a luxuary. Wiki is the easiest way to do that, and encourage others to help.



As a noob, I want something very pretty to read and easy to understand. I want it in one place. I want a single document I can just send to the printer and read while I’m on the john or the bus. I want lots of pictures and really dumb explanations. I want easy to understand grammar and diagrams. I want step by step. A one official PDF/HTML is the best way to do that.



Target audience of the Installation guide and starter PDF would be people that know java



Target audience of the wiki would be people that know jME, and have already read the above.



MHO :slight_smile:

Change the "Getting started" link to a page that links

  1. Installation guide link (Pretty HTML)
  2. Starter guide link (Pretty HTML or pdf)



    Change the "Documentation" link to link directly to the wiki.



    Move everythign currently under documentation to the wiki under "The Articles" or "The tutorials" (whichever one each fits). Add a sidebar to the wiki called "Getting started" to link to the above getting started in case soemone goes to the wiki by accident.



    Organizes all the documentation into two levels
  3. Noob
  4. intermidiate



    and puts it all in one place for each and gives each the format they are looking for.

Chapter 7 done. Just keep checking the link if you’re interested in reviewing it.

I think that a guide like cep21’s will help people start Using JME but I also think that we need to advertise JME’s existence to get more people to see the guide such as getting on gamedev.net news section.

I sent news submissions to gamedev.net 2 times, (for release 0.5, and 0.6) each time it was regected. Not sure why.

Has there ever been thought of trying to switch to a forum at javagaming.org ? Is it not worth the loss of control? Do they refuse? They host xith3d forums. With all the recent improvments to jME, there’s no reason to not host it there. A forum at javagaming.org would probably tripple jME’s user base the first week. If they complain about documentation my user guide is growing about 15 pages every day.

Well, I never had any desire to have the boards on JGO, personally. Lack of control, the forum software sucks and I personally think it’s a step backward to move off a dedicated site. If jME is to be a nice 3rd Party API, it should be a seperate entity than JGO.

I totally agree these forums >>>> their forums. And I kind of like the “homey” feel here. It’s just sad how so many people don’t even see jME, they just see what’s on javagaming. I started with Xith3d before moving to jME only because it was all I knew about. Who’s got marketing experience? :slight_smile: