Questions about the state of TGB

#1 I must admit that the latest TXB has some really good documentation within the program (help).. good tutorials (that work) and helpful stuff. Of course, I still complain that the documentation for the methods don't provide any examples!! It is not really that helpful to list the Mount method and then just give a description.. used for mounting an object to another..... like DUH!!

How about an small example function to go along with the method and a description that shows why/how you would use it... now that's documentation and something that I should not have to wait for a book in the bookstore to tell me.

The rest of the documentation/support... non-existant so you will be on you own there. TDN is a mess and not worth visiting - especially for TXB. TGB is a bit better but most of the content is out of date. And with a new 1.6 version out, it will be even more out of date.

Good Luck..

#2 The documentation and example tutorials for TGB are very good. The new version is 1.6 and was released yesterday. I'd recommend downloading the demo and taking it for a test-drive. I believe it comes with the documentation as well. And while TDN has old information for TGB, it is far from useless. Especially if you want to look at some of the grittier internals of scripting.

#3 I'll have to disagree with you David, the documentation is in my opinion not very good. I just checked the 1.6 documentation and it still lacks examples and a lot of functions don't have a description. Besides that I don't find it really userfriendly, but that could be just me..

#4 I have found this page to be one of my better favored set of API documentation. Although I'm not sure if it's completely up to date. In any case, I have found much better details on this page whereas other docs say nothing about many of these same calls.

I feel it does take some hunting to figure things out, but I have typically been able to figure out most of my questions through researching docs and TDN. It just takes a bit more effort and time than I would have expected.

#5 This has been my complaint over 2 years ago.. GG admins/employees are all thinking the docs are just fine... the users are saying something completely opposite. Mind you - I just think the documentation needs to be reorganized, put in a better format, and provide specific example code for BEGINNERS to follow.

In addition, I think the whole of TDN needs to be revamped.... what good are grittier internals if they are not able to be used in the current version? That's like reading a tutorial on Photoshop CS while you are using CS3.. it just might not work in the newer version. I find that many of the tools have changed between 1.0 and 1.6 and so the tutorials are quite hard to follow and learn from.

#6 Well if your going to get it for leapord, I would wait until they make it compatable.

#7 TGB is a strong product. There are the forums that make up for a lack of documentation. I agree that the documentation has holes and GG does it's best to update tutorials, fill out reference material and everything else that every developer thinks is the most important part. The forums are busy and most issues can be resolved fairly quickly.

#8

Quote:GG admins/employees are all thinking the docs are just fine...

I know I personally have stated in multiple cases that our docs could use a lot of work... We are moving in that direction. For example, if you look at the release notes for the latest release (just a few days ago), TGB 1.6 here. Note the following:

Quote:Documentation Changes

* Descriptions have been modified for certain entries in the "TGB Reference"
o behaviorComponent
o behaviorTemplate
o behaviorInstance
o t2dTileMap
o t2dStaticSprite
o t2dAnimatedSprite

* Syntax examples have been added to all functions/methods in t2dSceneObject in the "TGB Reference"

* All Tutorials have had a compatability pass done on them and should work with this latest release, including:
o Fish Demo
o Fish Game
o Checkers
o Wack-A-Mole
o All Feature tutorials

It's not the be all end all, but it is a step in the right direction. So though I'll admit that documentation is far from perfect, I will have to disagree that we are fighting the community on this.

#9

Quote:I just think the documentation needs to be reorganized, put in a better format, and provide specific example code for BEGINNERS to follow.

Great suggestions, I am more than open to hearing more details in how you would like this... for example, reorganization, would you rather sections of tutorials be changed to "Getting Started", "Advanced Concepts", "Editor Features", etc... I sympathize with your statement, though something that general really doesn't help us.

#10 I want to thank Matthew for the work he has put into documentation. With TGB and TGE constantly under development, he has to follow a moving target. TDN, the forums, the HTML included with the engine, all good. There are always going to be bits missing.