Not complaining, but I do think that in the end, these forums function as "the manual" for me.
Example:
I just wrote a quick program over the weekend and for the first time I needed all the routines that slice and dice strings. I knew it could be done and easily, but didn't know how. What I needed was mid$, left$, right$, instr$, String.find, and a couple of others. I haven't bumped into them in tutorials so far. I looked up "strings" in the docs but didn't find references to those functions and how they are used. I think that section of the help docs only talks about string objects, type casting and what-not. Then I searched here but I couldn't use the names of the functions in the search because I didn't know what they were. I eventually found a bunch of discussions that were very relevant (a beginner asking the question and getting a series of responses). Then I did some seaching for the specific function names in the docs (the CHM, the HTML docs, the web, and the forums again) and I learned enough to figure it all out.
My program works great, but I lost an hour trying to discover what I needed to learn first. That's where, in the past, manuals have always help me out.
I don't think that more/better tutorials would help with that cycle, but a solid wiki might.
Anyway, if there's a way I can help contribute, I hope that I can.
-pmc
Example:
I just wrote a quick program over the weekend and for the first time I needed all the routines that slice and dice strings. I knew it could be done and easily, but didn't know how. What I needed was mid$, left$, right$, instr$, String.find, and a couple of others. I haven't bumped into them in tutorials so far. I looked up "strings" in the docs but didn't find references to those functions and how they are used. I think that section of the help docs only talks about string objects, type casting and what-not. Then I searched here but I couldn't use the names of the functions in the search because I didn't know what they were. I eventually found a bunch of discussions that were very relevant (a beginner asking the question and getting a series of responses). Then I did some seaching for the specific function names in the docs (the CHM, the HTML docs, the web, and the forums again) and I learned enough to figure it all out.
My program works great, but I lost an hour trying to discover what I needed to learn first. That's where, in the past, manuals have always help me out.
I don't think that more/better tutorials would help with that cycle, but a solid wiki might.
Anyway, if there's a way I can help contribute, I hope that I can.
-pmc