5 replies to this topic

[tangibleLime]

Welcome to the Programming and Mathematics board!  This post is meant to clear up some apparent confusion and clarify exactly what this board is for, and how it should be used.

As many of you embark on your journey through the world of computer science, it will become increasingly apparently that good programming practices hold true across all languages, not just GML.  In fact, if you pursue a degree in a computer science field, you will find that (generally) only the first few classes actually teach you a programming language - the rest is theory and general programming knowledge that will help you regardless of what language you are programming in.  We at the GMC feel that it is important to understand these programming techniques, although they are not specific to GameMaker.

With that said, it should be noted that this board is not for specific discussion of other, non-GML programming languages.  For example, you are still not allowed to post a topic asking a question specifically about C++, PHP, or Java.

This board is meant for the discussion of programming techniques, abstracted to the point that they are not specific to a single language.  Common examples of this would be discussions about programming efficiency (don't use bubble sort), graph traversal algorithms (A*, BFS, DFS), and other mathematical processes that have a direct correlation with good programming techniques.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of our staff.

[chance]

This post is meant to clear up some apparent confusion and clarify exactly what this board is for, and how it should be used.

How so? You've just "restated" the existing guidelines (but with extraneous details). The existing guidelines are clear enough:

...general programming techniques, mathematics, and physics related to game making...

...abstract ideas about programming, programming efficiency, or mathematics related to programming.

If members won't follow these clearly stated rules, adding another pinned topic to say the same thing won't help. If you want to make the rules more clear, and more likely to be followed, then combine them into ONE simple easy-to-read post.

Stacking multiple pinned topics together is the wrong approach.

.

Edited by chance, 02 July 2012 - 12:44 PM.

[tangibleLime]

I thought the rules were perfectly clear. Apparently others did not , therefore, topic. I'll get around to rewriting the main pinned topic at some point. There was confusion among staff and members about whether or not posts in this board had to be limited to discussion of GameMaker.

[Mnementh]

Maybe after you update the rules you could merge the two topics, with the rules as the first reply? I like the idea of being more explicit about what we hope to accomplish with a forum, but like chance says, another pinned topic is just another topic that probably won't be read by anyone who didn't already know the rules.

[tangibleLime]

Right, good idea. When I find some time tomorrow I'll add it as a reply with some shorter text. (Or if someone finds the sudden influx of inspiration, by all means).

[chance]

I thought the rules were perfectly clear. Apparently others did not , therefore, topic. I'll get around to rewriting the main pinned topic at some point. There was confusion among staff and members about whether or not posts in this board had to be limited to discussion of GameMaker.

I thought they were clear too, but I noticed you added a bullet to xot's list: " -- Discussion is not limited to GameMaker." That seems like a good idea.

Maybe some confusion also comes from the header description:

Discussion topics should involve Game Maker, general programming techniques, mathematics, and physics related to game making.

Reading that quickly might sound like they must involve GameMaker, instead of game making or programming in general. So maybe just removing "Game Maker" [sic] from the beginning would be enough to clarify.

Edited by chance, 03 July 2012 - 10:43 AM.