Scripting - Getting Started – ArmA: Armed Assault Talk

I wrote "the second says in what kind the text will be displayed." instead of "the second says in what position on the screen the text will be displayed." because "Black Out" isn't only for positioning the text --T_D 14:04, 24 July 2006 (CEST)

About SQS: This is article for beginners and I think better is to speak about functions only (or most of time) and don't mention of exceeded sqs scripts. Many thanks for corrections to everybody. --Djura 19:06, 24 July 2006 (CEST)

Is this an appropriate article for Types? hoz 19:12, 24 July 2006 (CEST)

OK, but after A bit of math chapter ;-). --Djura 15:49, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

What's so bad on sqs, Djura? You still need them for cam scenes and lots of other stuff, also they are easier to understand for newbies (as functions are more like "real" programming). --raedor 00:27, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

Ask ArmA autors ;-) I think everithing you can do with sctipts allow functions too. --Djura 15:49, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

As this is a "Getting started" page we should start with the easy and basic things, and that's what you need as usual mission maker. Functions and stuff are for more advanced scripters... --raedor 15:59, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

But BI stated that it is better to chose function based syntax whenever it is possible, so it would be better to start with function syntax, wouldn't it? --Whisper 16:05, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

It might be better in terms of performance, but that's nothing a novice scripter is concerned about. Keep it as simple as possible for this subject. Only give as much information as absolutely neccessary (even to the point of oversimplifying), or you will end up talking over the heads of your 'audience' anyway (no matter how true it might be what you're saying). --Kronzky 16:36, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

IMHO there is not much more difficulty in using function syntax over OFP-script syntax --Whisper 16:58, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

I don't care anyway, I understand both, as I'm long enough into scripting now... I asked someone at BI, they are also still using sqs. Don't ask me why, they just do it. And the difficulty difference is quite enormous imo, as you can't use labels, ?: etc in functions, which definitely leads to better programming style in functions, but for people who just want to get their mission working, this is a step too far. Anyway, just write the article, it's better than none ;) --raedor 18:38, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

I don't understand why everyone think that everything for beginners must be easy. Important is only rate (quantity of information / length of article. For begginers (its my own experience) isn't problem to read long, STRUCTURED text where are information meastured, and new are reffering to previous. OK, I'll try to write it more simply. --Djura 17:41, 31 July 2006 (CEST)

A good introduction into writing tutorials can be found here: http://www.kirupa.com/developer/tutorials.htm --Kronzky 22:05, 31 July 2006 (CEST)

Well, my knowledge of OFP scripting is at mediocre level, but I suppose I will have to learn new syntax for ArmA, IMO, I'm not too worried, only thing is, I will have to re-learn everything again. --Sniperwolf572 22:21, 31 July 2006 (CEST)

In my opinion is this syntax (isn't new, you can use it in OFP as well) more natural for people using others languages. For me is GoTo spaghetti code horrible trial. --Djura 22:03, 1 August 2006 (CEST)

WIP Template needed?

Perhaps we need a WIP template. Maybe thats the definition of a stub? Not sure.hoz 16:55, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

A [stub] means that the article is just a bare-bones version of what it should look like finally (with very brief content paragraphs, that act more like place-holders). It doesn't mean an article that's still in the early editing stages, and is full of bugs (that's what the sandbox is for).--Kronzky 17:05, 25 July 2006 (CEST)

?WIP?

I think WIP tamplate isn't good idea. If you (I) want to publish self-contained article, you should paste it to wiki when is complete. My first idea about writing this Getting Start was to motivate other (better in scripting and writing in english than me) to updating this. I haven't written this here - sorry, my mistake.

Template Road Map (or TODO) should be more useful than WIP (work in progress - I didn't know this acronym before).
Djura 14:02, 30 July 2006 (CEST)

Wrong Category

I think this article should rather be classified under the "Everything I can think of that has to do with computers, computer languages and programming" category...;) --Kronzky 18:28, 4 August 2006 (CEST)

I think it's rather wrong named ;-). --Djura 20:15, 5 August 2006 (CEST)

this is the most dreadfull, specious piece of rubbish I've had to read in ages. For god's sake, delete the damn thing, or move it to somewhere no poor bugger will read it. If you want to put anyone off even trying to get their heads around scriptung, this nonsense will do it for you, bigtime.

this is basicaly only rewrited Czech book about programming, when I was 13, I thought almost everything (in book) is explained clearly and begginer isn't confused (typical beginners feeling after/during reading lots of short tutorials and HOWTOs can be described as 'I can draw a box, but I don't understand computer graphic'). Self-contained explanation is benefical.

A bit of professionalism, please. --ook? 15:55, 6 August 2006 (CEST)

If you think the present state isn't professional, USE EDIT BUTTON. Don't understand that principe of editation isn't to take off information, but append some another to article. --Djura 21:02, 7 August 2006 (CEST)

Salvage

I have been trying to salvage this article, with some difficulty. Don't know if it can be done. Should really be in the litter, I mean, sand box, until it is closer to finished form. --Mr.Peanut 19:50, 1 September 2006 (CEST)

Frankly, imho what's being attempted here his to write the equivelent of "The C Programming Language" or at least the introductory chapters. As such, this shouldn't be constrained to a single page, but rather should be a whole section of the site comprising multiple parts including logic design, message handling, and so forth. Shinraiden 22:26, 1 September 2006 (CEST)

This page is an example of how not to teach something i.e. by starting with a lot of confusing mumbojumbo and scattered examples. If it is a getting started page for absolute beginners it should work through a couple example problems of the simplest kind. After the beginner has played around a little, then it is time for a few definitions. Is it true that ArmA will deprecate scripts in favour of functions?--Mr.Peanut 16:29, 5 September 2006 (CEST)

I agree the page is disoriented and chaotic. I am not sure if it is neccessary to delete it, but I would definitely not link it on any prominent page as a recomended starting point. As for deprecation, check http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Functions_-_SQF - SQS scripts still work, but are not recomended, due to worse performance and inferior style. SQS will almost certainly be discontinued in future products. --Suma 16:41, 5 September 2006 (CEST)

A possible replacement at My Sandbox - and I suppose destubbing ArmA: Introduction to Scripting might help. But I do have my little pet project, ArmA++, that I might get serious about instead. (see My user page)

Script hello.sqf not found

Hi, I'm new to scripting and for a month now haven't been able to work out what folder to put the scripts in. I continuously get the same "not found" error for the small test scripts I've written. Can someone help me out? Praetorian