Hello Everyone,
I would like to gain a better understanding what are important items to have documented in an in-depth manner? This information would help direct the focus of future documentation efforts.
Setup and Installation (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, etcā¦)
Editors and tools (Studio and any future tools )
More content for developing (more on Sprite, Physics. 3D, whateverā¦)
One thing I would like to add here, since one can select only request doesnāt mean that others donāt hold much of importance. It is just that others may be less important but important nevertheless. For e.g. I also wanted to pick second point.
Iād really like info about how the whole cross-platform build system works. Iām trying to figure out how to regenerate project files and I have no idea where to look. It looks like the CMake system is involved, but changing CMakeLists doesnāt seem to do anything. Some people are mentioning create_project.py, but I donāt seem to have that file. A tutorial on adding new files to all projects at the same time would be really helpful!
We also need more Game Tutorials, linked from the main site. I understand that most of the features are in the Tests folders, however in order to attract freshers/newbies, full-game tutorials are the best.
Maybe you should add āCompile projectā to āSetup and Installation (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, etcā¦)ā
Because,some times compile project for android is terribleļ¼ļ¼
How to, and where to, edit target APIās before compiling against Android. As I learned through trial and error two files NEED to be modified for this, and both files have a
# Do not modify this file ā YOUR CHANGES WILL BE ERASED!
line in them. Namely in: proj.android\project.properties and \cocos2d\cocos\platform\android\java\project.properties. Adding āpa android-18 flag seemed useless to me as these project.properties files were not modified. Can these files and the target API levels be adjusted with a single modification in an ant.properties file? As it is suggested actually in those project.properties files:
# To customize properties used by the Ant build system edit
# āant.propertiesā, and override values to adapt the script to your
# project structure.)
Some more clarification on how to edit these files (or how to avoid editing these files) and how the --pa android-xx flag works (and doesnāt work) would be great. Plus how does this flag work with the additional --android-studio flag; where to add the setting to modify proj.android-studioās parameters in its \app subdirectory to adjust its build.gradle and proj.properties files for the appropriate target APIās?
I love cocos2d-x and i am still learning from whatever resource i can, but things have been like this for far too long.
I know this is a about the documentation but erā¦ I am looking forward to seeing a better lead and organisation over all.
Everything is scattered and most is trash from older versions, zero consistency, things change instead of stabilizing.
github issues reaches 800 (not all bugs but stillā¦) I think whats already in the engine should work properly than get new features every now and then.
So merely 0.252 percentā¦ Wowā¦
You need to offer sweets for participation
Yeah, thatās very unfortunate.
The important threads about documentation, polls and tech talk have a very low view count and participation.
It just seem there is a higher interest in using the engine, than in discussing various things about it.
Regarding the poll, if I could I would have voted on all of them, meaning it would be great to see improvements on all those areas. However most importantly having a more descriptive API reference, especially about the core/base concepts of the engine, would have the power to really propel developers on their way of learning this framework. It would be I think relatively easy to do so for someone who understands the engine.
The API reference should point out which are the deprecated modules and functions (like DrawPrimitives or selectors in Scheduler) and emphasize the freshest methodologies.
The wiki/tutorial segment really needs a rework in certain areas. Scheduler is for example one of the most important concepts and what is being described there doesnāt reflect it, it just compares it to a deprecated feature and references one function of the API. Threading doesnāt inform anyone what the pitfalls of communicating with the Cocos ui thread are or what the threading model is based around. Asset manager makes no mention of CSLoader, neither does the API reference, which makes a trivial and essential task hard to be acquainted with. HOW TO USE CCLOG is advocating the usage of a deprecated functionality as does many other sections.
When Iāll be more familiar with the framework Iād like to actually help with these too but that will take time.
Furthermore there are a LOT of wrongly written English words and statements undermining the integrity of the Docs that must have been in existence for years, why these are ignored is a mystery to me.
A few things. We are re-organizing the docs at this time. I am in charge of that and I am making a unified docs system that is going to be deployed in stages soon. This will include Cocos, Cocos Creator, Studio, Wiki, PG, API ref.
For CCLOG, I covered modern ways in the latest draft version of the Programmers Guide, that is not yet deployed to production: http://slackmoehrle.github.io/index.html
Editor and tools, because thereās nothing about them. You have to google this forum and stackoverflow to any pieces of informations (+ luckily tutorials from sonarsystems). Also you should remove completely or add a visible warning on the beginning of every outdated post in your documentation. Also in docs, many methods and classes needs explanation of their purpose. Also simple examples of use would be perfect.
For me Iād love to read about advanced consepts
Improved docs: The official cocos2dx page is full of outdated docs, misleading information and overall not really user/beginner friendly. A well structured documentation is the foundation for everyone to build upon! Let me browse concise examples, search the docs about keywords/topics, describe best practices and donāt spread outdated informations!
API stability: Maybe itās only my impression but it seems that cocos is adding new features / products faster than light but the quality is ā¦ uhm ā¦ not always as good as it could be. Donāt get me wrong! Iām really impressed and grateful for everyone contributing to such a amazing engine! But the sheer amount of open issues on github? Warnings poppin up in xcode? Itās a bit frightening. Or that the online API docs & c++ version constant wasnāt updated with the v3.9 release? Step off the gas pedal for a brief moment, donāt rush every new feature and ensure that cocos2d-x is a) rock solid, b) easy to use and c) includes every feature a game-dev could dream of