[Pipmak-Users] Basic Mac help

[Liam S. <Li...@fr...>]

As it seems Pipmak is aimed at people who are not serious game  
coders, is there any chance that someone could create some kind of  
documentation, even if it was just a page long, to tell people how to  
do basic stuff, like open the Pipmak Demo and see/use the code, for  
people who do not have a background in programming.

 From looking at the Pipmak numbered files, and reading the  
discussion of how the program works, it seems like there would be a  
relatively short learning curve in order to start breaking into  
Pipmak. Of course, real expertise and artful use would take longer  
and require more learning.

But as it is, for someone without a basic understanding of how to get  
started, one can't do anything. And none of the Lua sites (that I can  
find anyway) give a basic overview of any of this. All of them are  
aimed at people who are already programmers and are new to Lua only.

What is needed is a basic step by step process that introduces first  
the new paradigm of writing programs on a mac and goes from there.  
ie. Does one have to install Lua for Mac on your machine first? If so  
how is that done? How does one see/work on/ "compile" (hard as it may  
seem to understand, to many many people, compiling is not a concept  
many people have any idea of) files? What is the "Console" program  
and how does it work - again there is no reference material on any of  
this anywhere I can find.

As it is, all the documentation assumes a level of programming  
understanding beyond what I would assume many of the possible users  
of Pipmak have.

I only share this as I have talked to many people who might use  
Pipmak and become loyal users/developers/community members, if only  
they could find a little help with understanding what is basically a  
new paradigm. In general, most such people come from other  
disciplines, graphic experts/3d modellers, interactive fiction  
writers, etc.

If the goal is not for Pipmak to become a kind of middleware for a  
larger user base then I would understand not wanting to offer this  
help - though it would seem that is self-defeating, as those who  
already understand programming are inherently a group less in need of  
the program.

Good luck.

Liam

Liam Shannon
Creative Director
Fresh Cut Grass Advertising

22 Everett Street
Sherborn, MA 01770
(508)545-2125