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Traveler
06-04-2005, 09:19 PM
The latest competition gave us all a couple nice games to learn from. Although i myself haven't actually taken the time to browse through the code, I'm sure many will find them a valueable source to learn new things from.

It did got me to think though. As quite a few of us, myself included, have websites with tutorials on them, I ask myself, what exactly is the added value of a tutorial?

I often visit sites, looking for something to learn. And when I do come across something, I most of the time, think 'yeah yeah, I'll read that stuff later, now where's the source/demo. I know, it does sound greedy, but I know for a fact, I'm not alone in that. Tell me, how many of you have actually read NeHe's tutorials? And how many of you have just downloaded the code?

So if that is the case then why do we bother spending many evenings to writing a tutorial if the only thing people want is your code, images or whatever it is you're teaching in your tutorial?
Can't we just suffice with a here_is_the_complete_source_of_my_game.zip?

Looking forward to opinions.

Harry Hunt
06-04-2005, 09:44 PM
I'm actually quite the opposite. When there's a complex topic that I would like to learn more about, I usually prefer to read books or tutorials. I don't even mind if they don't supply any source code at all, as long as they explain the basic process.
I often find reading other people's code to be quite difficult, especially when it's highly optimized. And even when people try to comment their code and make it easy to read, it's not always what I'm looking for. I've seen too many cases of "over commenting" like the example below


const
// A constant that defines the width of the playfield
PlayFieldWidth = 200;

cairnswm
07-04-2005, 04:32 AM
I also tend to read tutorials and never read the associated code. I find an explanation of how to do something more valuable than the code showing how.

For example, code showing me how to make an isometric engine is not very useful, I would rather have the explanation along with an executable that shows the final result.

The exception is when I want a specific command in delphi, such as using word automation to set the title property of a word document - then I want the code.

My biggest issue with writing articles is that you never get any feedback on tutorials. Have all my GLXtreem articles helped anyone? I have no idea. I have decided to write tutorials now for my own work - so my S2DL libraries will now get a set of tutorials.

PerIvar
11-04-2005, 10:34 AM
I think the value of a good tutorial is priceless compared to only having sourcecode.
Specially if your new to the things you try to learn.

Reading code can be quite hard to do if your not to experienced with what your trying to learn.
To have a tutorial that gives you good description of what is happening and how the workflow of your program, it can help out many more people than what only the sourcecode could.

For me tutorials makes it easier to learn things good enough so I can make my own programs easier. You kinda learn things better, and you know you learn it the "right" way. You get the confidence to start something on your own.

I also think its easier to look up codes your wondering about in an tutorial, instead of have to scroll through lines and lines of code to get to the correct reference.

As to all of you Tutorial Writers!
Keep doing the good work you are doing! Even though we give way to little feedback on your efforts, ill bet that all the work is more than appreciated by the community!

Sorry for my bad english :) Hope its readable!

Sly
11-04-2005, 11:48 AM
I love tutorials. That is one reason I buy so many books. The Game Programming Gems series of books (and their siblings the AI Programming Wisdom books) and essentially thick hard-cover books chock full of tutorials with some related code on the CD. I have volumes 2-5 of the Gems book and both volumes of the AI books and they are the best game programming books that I have bought. I have not even looked at all the CDs yet, but I have read at least a bit of each and every article in each book.

marmin
14-04-2005, 11:12 PM
I learned most of the DirectX API by reading tuts.. :D