koobas.hobune.stream
Good scripting community/forums?
I am learning to use javascript as I work in Unity. Because a lot of the walls I hit are due to lack of general coding knowledge, I don't feel right posting here. Can anyone recommend a good community for engineering students or general n00bs?
I am a total sponge for information and I'm trying to find efficient knowledge-delivery methods. If anyone can recommend any other resources, (books, tutors, etc) please do!
The main problem with Unity's JavaScript and "general JavaScript" forums is that Unity's JavaScript is a dialect that is a little different from "browser JavaScript" in quite a few respects. So, when you go to a scripting forum that is in no way related to Unity, you might get confused or you may confuse other people ;-)
One solution is switching to C# - because there's a lot of C# info out there, and C# in Unity is almost exactly the same as everywhere else (exception being that not all current language features of C# are supported in Unity - but that's just a matter of time: in Unity 3 the Mono version will be updated and then it'll be exactly the same). The only thing you might want to avoid with C# tutorials is ASP.NET which, while quite useful and interesting in general won't help you much with Unity. Also, Winforms-stuff is not relevant for Unity, either. But any beginner's C# tutorial should be just fine, as long as it's related to C# 2.0 (and not C# 3.5). For the different versions of C# and links to specifications, see Wikipedia. See this article for the features of C# that are currently not available in Unity (but will be not too far in the future).
In any case, one good starting point to get into scripting (both C# and JavaScript) in a Unity-specific way is the Programming section in the Unifycommunity Wiki. This has a recent C# tutorial, an older JavaScript tutorial, and a "Unity JavaScript specification"; and some other really interesting information.
To get a basic programming foundation, I'd really recommend going through one of the tutorials there.
And of course, as Cyclops said: Feel free to ask questions here (for questions that basically just need an answer) and on the Unity forums (for issues you'd like to discuss).
It's perfectly fine to be a noob, we all started there (except Eric5h5 :) And it's okay to ask basic questions here - with a few caveats. :) First, read the FAQ, so you'll know what to avoid. Don't do things like duplicating the exact same question, if you don't like the first Answer, and everything will be fine. :)
Second, here's one of the best Q/A yet on how to Learn Unity Fast. It's got everything - video tutorials, articles, blogs, demo projects, you name it. Check out whatever sections in it, seem of interest to you and you'll learn a lot. (I highly recommend both Will Goldstone's book, and the Buzz tutorials).
