When I started coding, I knew the ultimate issue for me would be the API. You know, the keywords, operators, symbols, etc. I knew I would have to learn it bit by bit referencing the API / library as I developed more functions that need it. But looking up obscured keywords, etc. in the vast documentation manually can take away a lot of time. I know the IntelliSense feature helps a lot in that process. But I always thought that IntelliSense could use a partner to make all that even easier and faster.
The partner would be like IntelliSense, but having all the needed keywords, operators, symbols, etc. all cleverly organized and sorted and accessible in it’s navigation interface. It would be like a game/level maker where you just throw objects and scripts or triggers together. Only here, you are throwing codes as deep as you can get directly from the API, all sorted intelligently for you, that even a complete beginner can understand and use. A beginner coder would have the same power and access to the API, just as any programmer who has familiarized themselves greatly with the API do. I am not sure how this feature would retrieve the all the info but once a structural design is setup for it to retrieve the desired info, then it wouldn’t be a problem, one could design the document to work well with it in the first place. Being able to access the the whole API / library directly in this manner where it is organized in an easy to understand interface will help tremendously in the learning process and time needed to get familiar with API. You can always go directly to the documentation itself if you need to know more what exactly something can do.
This is a good example [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok6LbV6bqaE]
Skip to 6:30. And no i did not copy his idea. I always had this idea but when I saw him actually demonstrating it. I was like, ‘oh that’s pretty cool!’
And posting it on unity, I was hoping maybe this would be a good feature the unity developers could add into unity - somehow. Or possibly to general IDE’s for unity. And off course this would work well for programing in general too.
You know sir, I have no idea what your talking about, but that’s probably just because I’m retarded. I sense potential here. Unity, please implement this just so I can have an idea of what the heck he’s talking about here.
Sadly, the developer stopped supporting it. It is now removed from the Asset Store so you can’t buy it. But apparently, you can still download the trial package from the “Boldai” website.
Your next best bet is to use PlayMaker
There is also uScript
…and Antares Universe
But if you want Unity to have built in Visual Scripting Tool - I think you are going to be waiting for a long time. Visual Scripting is one of the most top most voted feature on Unity Feedback since Unity 2.x, and it is still no where on Unity’s priority list.
The thing is that once you’ve got a little experience you shouldn’t be learning APIs function by function or class by class in the first place.
You need to learn to understand functions and classes in general, not learn about individual ones on a case by case basis. API references should be used as a constant reference, not as something that you learn from and never look at again, and that’s why things like IntelliSense exist - they essentially do a smart lookup of the appropriate documentation as you go so that you don’t have to stop coding to do it yourself. Sometimes you’ll need more information (eg: “Does this function need input in degrees or radians?”) and you’ll go for the reference material, but those are not generally things that you should attempt to keep in your head all the time - there’s simply too much.
As you gain experience with the fundamentals of programming you’ll find that picking up new functions, APIs and even whole new languages gets easier and faster. If you find that your 50th function is no easier to learn to use than your 1st then chances are you’ve missed some piece of critical learning early on (which most likely isn’t your fault - many learning materials are less than satisfactory in this regard) which is holding you up.
rab236 - I guess it is, I didn’t know about those things.
Also angrypenguin, This feature is not meant to replace looking up the API reference or any other learning process in programming. It is just there to help you like IntelliSense. I am also not trying to know exactly what every function or class does and what parameters it can take and remember it completely individually. Nor am I having a hard time learning how to program at all. I just think that this feature would make programming altogether so much easier, especially for beginners.
For me programming is not hard to grasp. Its the scavenging through the API / library that takes away most of the time. Iv gone through c++, visual basic, action script, python, etc. and though I know how to program and understand the structure of programming in general, its always the API that I have to relearn by manually looking through the docs each time and this takes up a lot of time.
I am da bawss - Im glad to hear that this feature it is already a long requested feature.
