I’ve noticed you popping in and out and adding tags - it’s something that would really help searching in each post and thanks for that - I have taken note!
2 Likes
Still checking this forum almost everyday, but less active because I don’t have much to contribute to these topics.
Most of the time people give all the answers before I even have time to hit the reply button.
And when I say people, I mean Jeffe. 
12 Likes
Shoot those are mostly for me! Trying to make the “Tag” page a little more useful. There were/are so many it didn’t really do anything other than the gallery’s
2 Likes
One minor issue that comes from having an entry-level product: sometimes the users aren’t familiar enough with the symptoms to “properly” describe/define them. “It doesn’t cut straight” can mean a lot of different things, which can lead to wildly different diagnoses (beyond the ubiquitous grub screws). On that note, I will say that this has consistently been one of the most polite forums I’ve had the privilege of belonging to when it comes to handling CNPs (clueless newbie problems), and patiently teasing out the needed diagnostic data without being dismissive or condescending.
9 Likes
12 Likes
And then the poster posts: “nevermind, I figured it out!” but doesn’t tell you how. 
10 Likes
Reminds me of those times I find myself in hours of agony trying to solve a not so well documented tech problem. I think everyone here knows the feeling… reading about and trying to repeat everyone else’s shot in the dark… start from most likely/least invasive solution, to what else are you gonna try now before you nuke it solutions… sometimes peppering some random keystrokes and radio buttons along the way lol. Then you find that one final post… often it’s a full on necro, but it’s golden… the person has no idea how/what/why, but they just deleted some integration and readding it fixed the problem. Yes, the other settings, configs, radio buttons discussed earlier still apply, but the lingering problem nobody added up and shared, was some corrupt database that repair/restores when you simply flip flop install the addon. That fact didn’t matter to DenverCoder9 or those that necro post helps.
“Thank you DenverCoder9… you are my hero!!!” LOL… funny when you get a post reply like that, decades since you’ve tossed the related hardware in the bin.
5 Likes
Been feeling this a lot recently. But that’s because I’ve had to shift gears from Java to C++, and jump over to Visual Studio (and set up WSL integration to cross-compile for Linux). Nothing is as frustrating as Googling for answers in a well-established language, while simultaneously trying to use nearly cutting-edge features of technology.
Oh, and CMake has confoundingly obtuse documentation for moderately competent learners. It may be great for experts, and/or rank beginners, but it just annoys the hell out of me.
1 Like
Welcome to the dark side. C++ in Linux is the ultimate freedom. Freedom enough to make horrible mistakes. I have been using that toolchain almost exclusively since 2006.
1 Like
It doesn’t help that I got used to the crutch of decent IDE support from NetBeans for Java. Intellisense for C++ doesn’t help nearly as much when looking at things like needed constructors, etc. It barely has a grip on scoping…
Plus, I keep running into things that I can only make guesses at. e.g.: In the Crow docs, they have this piece of code: crow::json::wvalue wval (rval); which I assume decrypts to crow::json::wvalue wval = wvalue(rval); as in it’s using an implied constructor for type wvalue. Silly things like that, that are probably old hat to anyone who’s been working with the language for more than a week (OK, I’ve been at it for two weeks, but I’ve also been fighting with CMake, so give me a break)… But I’m just venting and procrastinating, since my next task is some (hopefully) straightforward, yet tedious, data extraction and remarshalling.
1 Like
Yeah. That constructor thing is a good source of problems.
If you do this:
crow::json::wvalue wval ();
It doesn’t construct a wvalue, it thinks you just declared a function (that takes a void and returns a wvalue), even in the body of another function (which is super rare in C/C++, outside of lambdas).
If you actually did this:
crow::json::wvalue wval = wvalue(rval);
The compiler might make a temporary wvalue. And then call the copy constructor instead! Hopefully not, because modern compilers are pretty optimised. But maybe!
I have worked with a lot of people who have written C++ and came from java backgrounds. You are going to write a lot of bad code. You’re going to make a bunch of mistakes. If you have a mentor or reviewer helping you, be very nice to them and try to absorb as much as you can. You may be an expert in java, and they look a lot alike. But you are a novice in C++, so please be ready to accept mistakes and try to think of it as a new skill.
Off of the top of my head: Don’t use any raw pointers. Ideally, don’t use new (because you will forget the delete, or use the wrong one). If you do use new, use it to make a smart pointer (hopefully you are using C++11 or 14 at least). Trust stl, and use it as much as you can. Do use references, but don’t keep them longer than you have to (or they become pointers to nothing). Avoid being too generic (don’t use templates or even polymorphism until you know you have to).
That should solve most of the common java programmer problems. I’ll stop with the u solicited advice now.
I use vim and I don’t even use code completion. I do have some word completion, but it doesn’t look anywhere but the keywords of the currently open files. Some of my coworkers use vscode with some ros plugin to get code completion. It looked like too much work to set up.
To be completely fair. I write abhorrent java code, and I don’t ever want to write code for windows again. It is just a completely different skill set.
2 Likes
Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, Rimworld… Wait what free time?!
Heh… Yeah I love me some management/colony/building/timesink games haha
1 Like
39 hrs… So, you either played the pre-Steam version, or you’re starting to run into the overhang at the top of the vertical learning curve… 
I chuckled out loud reading this.
1 Like
Maybe a FAQ of common issues would help for that, clear literal/non technical questions with answers could reduce forum sollicitation on most repetive issues.
1 Like
What fun is that if i cant say or read where somebody got to say check your grub screws 
5 Likes
We have a FAQ and a troubleshooting section, the troubleshooting sections says “have you checked your grubscrews?”.
The FAQ is out of date and did not really help. The FAQ’s actually change as we go, new software, or new project trends.
What I found best is to update the instructions with any FAQ not make a page full of random answers. So for me so far is keep an eye on the questions and either fix the problem or update the instructions.
And for typical troubleshooting a flow chart is in the works to narrow it down a bit to make a question here get you to an answer faster.
2 Likes
What seems to be working the best is having several fairly well-versed folk with reasonable patience who can tag-team support duties. If someone gets burned out dealing with FAQs or newbie problems, someone else will step in to pick up while others recharge their batteries. That, and we have enough off-the-rails threads to keep the more disruptive elements from derailing real support threads. (Don’t give me that look, I really try to wait until after an answer has been given and acknowledged before shaking the chaos tree…)
8 Likes