Re: [Vala] just a suggestion

[Frederik <scumm_fredo gmx net>]

Karl Lattimer wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-01-20 at 10:44 +0000, Alberto Ruiz wrote:
> > 2009/1/20 Karl Lattimer <karl qdh org uk>:
> > > On Tue, 2009-01-20 at 09:44 +0700, Hans Baier wrote:
> > > > > I still have a long way to learn Vala.
> > > > > Since someone is successfully using Vala in a number
> > > > > of projects I think they already have a good knowledge
> > > > > of common pitfalls, best practices and the like.
> > > > Writing a book is one of the most efficient ways to
> > > > learn. Believe me, that is how I learnt linux.
> > > > Just start, it doesnt have to be perfact in the beginning.
> > > > It can grow over time.
> > > >
> > > > That is how open source happens....
> > > I've actually been thinking about this. I've discovered an awful lot
> > > since I've been writing in vala and meandered my way through a tonne of
> > > vapi.
> > >
> > > If someone wants to help build a draft and table of contents with me we
> > > could start a joint effort and try and get it published at some point.
> > Count on me as well to write some content.
> >
> > I actually think, that it would be really nice to do a good GNOME (as
> > in the platform) Tutorial based in Vala. Teaching how to create a
> > GNOME app from the ground up (using GtkBuilder, database access,
> > creating .desktop files, HAL...). Note that with Vala you don't have
> > to care about a lot of stuff, which leave us some room to teach good
> > GNOME development practices.
> >
> > Also, we could take the chance to do proper ilustration, I miss that a
> > lot in the rest of the GNOME docs. The main loop, events, signals, and
> > DBus could be explained much better with proper ilustration. I can
> > help a bit here, but I'm sure others in the GNOME artist community
> > could help with this.
> >
> > Most GNOME docs sucks big time, the Gtk+ Tutorial for example, is more
> > a widget-by-widget manual rather than a proper tutorial on how to
> > create an app.
> >
> > Luca, count on me to write some stuff and help with the content index
> > if someone else (you?) leads the effort (meaning, doing brown
> > dispatching and reminding people to complete their parts of the book
> > ;-).
>
> If we're going to do this as a team I suggest that we outline a strategy
> before we begin.
>
> Here are some chapters we'd want to consider, I'm starting off with ones
> which I'd be happy to write;
>
>  * Custom Widgets
>  * Cairo & Pango
>  * GTK Applications
>
>  * File handling
>  * Database applications
>  * Language introduction & reference
>  * DBus
>  * Common pitfalls and caveats (reserved words and similar)
>  * GObject from a vala perspective 
>  * Nicely formatted API reference for all available vapi
>  * Translation
>
> Please append to this list ;)

:) My outline proposal:

    * GNOME Platform Overview
    * The Vala Programming Language
    * Quick Introduction to Vala for C# and Java Programmers
    * A Simple Console Application
    * Strings and Regular Expressions
    * Collections, Lists, Maps and Sets
    * Parsing Command Line Parameters
    * Reading and Writing Data, File Management
    * A First GUI Application
    * Signals and Properties
    * Layout Management
    * Dialogs
    * Rapid GUI Development with Glade
    * Model-View-Controller
    * 2D Vector Graphics
    * Creating Custom Widgets
    * Animations and Effects with Clutter
    * 3D with OpenGL
    * Multimedia: Audio and Video
    * Reading and Writing Application Configurations
    * Embedding the Browser Engine WebKit
    * Displaying PDF Documents
    * Inter-Process Communication
    * Network Communication
    * Database Access and Data Widgets
    * Threads
    * Scripting (Lua, JavaScript)
    * Setting Up a Build System
    * Internationalization
    * Creating Your Own Library