Re: Iczelion's tutorials revisited.


randyhyde@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Betov wrote:
Betov wrote:
>> "JGCASEY" <jgkjca...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> écrivait news:1125313208.846362.289800
>> @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
>
>> > This is a reasonable comment. You've made me realise I
>> > have been ranting away without really giving it a fair
>> > go. Partly I guess I have been expressing my frustration
>> > at getting started and deciding the best way to go about
>> > it while feeling there must be an easier way.
>
>
>> _My_ problem is that i fail to imagine what could be made
>> easier and how...
>
>
> Actually, there are lots of things that could be done
> to make the whole learning process easier. First of all,
> and probably most important, the Iczelion tutorials are
> a disconnected bunch of examples that demonstrate how to
> make certain Win32API calls. The one thing they don't
> particularly do is answer *why* you would want to make
> these calls. That is, they are focused on demonstrating
> particular API calls rather than on demonstrating how
> you solve real application problems. This is *exactly*
> the same problem one has, for example, when trying to
> learn assembly by reading only the Intel Reference
> manuals (as Wolfgang suggests) or trying to learn
> assembly language by reading an assembler's manual.
>
>
>> > The Iczelion tuts are written for MASM so I figured
>> > that I should use MASM.
>
>
>> I warned you that MASM was the worst of the available
>> Assemblers, and that Iczelion Tutorials had been ported
>> to almost all of the good Assemblers around.
>
>
> I didn't realize John was complaining about the quality
> of the MASM code, only that the FASM and MASM versions
> were different. Indeed, from what I infered from John's
> remarks, it was *exactly* using these other assemblers
> that caused the problems, not using MASM.
>
> [...]
>
>
> How about decent tutorials that teach you how to solve
> problems rather than simply teach you what API functions
> do?


You have read me correctly Randy.

While perusing your "Windows Programming in Assembly
Language" I read,
"Petzold estimates this (mastering the Win32 API set)
at six months for an established C programmer" my
heart sank and I thought, oh sh*t, I wonder how many
hours per day that would be. And how long for an
unestablished C programmer.

Of course I may not need to *master* the Win32 API
set only figure out how to use the ones relevant
to my limited needs. I am not out to write large
Window assembler programs. I am happy to use Java.

---------------------------------
At the Win32ASM Community messageboard in Win32ASM Main
a post from Bronty on Multiple Webcams

http://www.scrontsoft.com/win32asm/webcamapp.zip

How easy would that be to convert to a "readable"
HLA source code?

---------------------------------

This is the kind of stuff I would like to be able
to understand and modify (or even write) for my own
projects. I see myself writing some kind of generic
shell in which I can develop a library of modules
tailored to my personal interests.

I am not sure what skill level I must reach to
do this. There are many things you can do in
Windows that don't interest me. I just want to
write small stand alone code, like the example
above, that makes use of things like a webcam
and the GUI image display. The rest of the code
doesn't need any other Window stuff and could
just as easily run in DOS. Indeed if you don't
want the GUI you don't even need Windows. When
a computer is used to run a single application
with text i/o DOS is good enough... until you
need to hook up to hardware, or other software,
that only supports Windows!

I noticed that here, in Australia, that many of
the retail outlets have what appears to me to
be DOS text displays. Of course the supermarkets
have the fancy graphic displays which they use
to advertise products at the checkout.

I call it all dross and gloss :)

Cheers,
John Casey

.

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