New Tips and Tricks forum

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nnnik
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New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 11:49

Hello everyone,
we recently had the suggestion in the staff forums to split up the tutorials forum in 2 pieces.
The old Tutorial forum will remain. However it will get a new subforum named "Tips and Tricks".
In this new forums you can share simple instructions or small pieces of information regarding AutoHotkey, but nothing that has enough text to be counted as a tutorial.
We will start moving old topics that belong there in the following days. If you still find topics that you feel belong there afterwards you can help us by reporting them.

I'd like to hear your opinions on the matter.
Thank you for your attention :)
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jeeswg
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 13:17

- The idea seems OK. It would help to clear out the one-paragraph mini-tutorials.
- You can move my benchmark tests thread to that forum or a different forum if you want, hopefully in the same forum as the one I continued/forked it from (that is also currently in Tutorials).
- IIRC all of my other threads should stay in the Tutorials forum proper. Some of my tutorials are short at present, but I will come back to them.
- Btw what about the 'relevant to AutoHotkey' subforum for Offtopic, if they want to discuss that in the staff forums. Cheers.
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joefiesta
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 13:19

I would like to see a requirement that all code in "tips and tricks" be documented, both as to what it does and, if there are any, an explanation of it's parameters. Note that I'm not asking an author documents HOW the code works, but rather, just what it accomplishes (although, personally, I think convoluted or even simple REGEX commands would benefit from an explanation of what is going on).
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nnnik
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 14:16

@joefiesta if you look at the tips and tricks forum you will find that there is barely any topic that only deals with a single piece of code.
Pushing for that standard would have no meaning at all.
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joefiesta
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 15:38

I didn't realize there already was such a forum. Okay, I went out and looked at a few things.

Let me say first that I do not want to offend anyone. I understand than many AHK users have never been programmers and many are ahk novices.

The fact of the matter is, however, that many people are going to find my words offensive. Sorry. Stop reading right now then.


The first example I looked at I found ridiculous. https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic ... 74&t=44882
Not sure what the author is trying to do, and it certainly is primitive at best. Looks like it should get deleted!

So what? Well, by having some "rules", you insure that a forum is proliferated with useless and cryptic stuff.

The second example was the opposite. It was so long and complicated that it would take me an hour to figure it out and gather all the pieces together. But, don't get me wrong. MANY people liked it and found it useful. The problem I had with that example is all the discussion. There are 5 pages of responses. If I wanted to use it, it would take me hours to wade through all the discussion. However, I must admit that it was about 15 minutes to get the example to work. That example is: https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=4588 Additionally, I have to go out to github to learn more about it.

The third example was in between. It was fairly short, and seems useful by it's description. It is: HTTPS://AUTOHOTKEY.COM/BOARDS/VIEWTOPIC ... 74&T=38109 But, the code is not even correct! And, it gives me NO IDEA how to use it. Basically, I have to read all the code to discover what it does. And, what is it's point? Why is it any different than STRINGUPPER? And, as is typical, there are pages of variations and alterations offered by other readers. Where is the final, finished well-honed end product?

So, essentially, I found these 3 a waste of my time (the 2nd, however, was just something I have no use for). Sorry, but that's how I see it. I think rules could fix these problems.
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nnnik
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 16:47

Regarding the first one thats actually what the Tips and Tricks forum is for.
Small Tips and Tricks with quite possibly no description.
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joefiesta
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 17:18

I entirely agree. But, did you try the add time routine? and what does it really do?

Here's an idea. How about either (1) not letting people post in the Tips forum. But rather, have people vote or decide if an entry in the ask for help or somewhere is WORTHY of being a tip or (2) Have people decide if a tip is worth STAYING in the TIPS forum? Maybe make it two forums. A subforum of things people SUGGEST to be tips, and the forum itself of actual good and hashed over tips.

This would, for example, mean getting rids of the TONS of garbage (a.k.a. discussion) in the Tip about using HTML. Would leave the "add time" tip and the "stringupper" tip in the suggestion box (or, better yet, removed after being decided unworthy of TIP status).
joefiesta
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 17:20

about the string upper tip: It appears to have some merit. People found it useful. But it is ridiculously clumsy (using the clipboard and pasting things) and needs to be documented (a case of I have to read to code to find out what it does and how to use it).
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jeeswg
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

11 Mar 2018, 17:53

OK, the tutorial moving has been pretty fair, all of my 'list' tutorials and my CRC-32 hash tutorial have been moved, which is pretty fair. I would suggest two swaps:

[to Tips and Tricks]
[the more tutorial-like content will be repeated in a DllCall tutorial]
[all of my other 'list' tutorials have been move to Tips and Tricks]
list of structs with parameters (sizes and types) - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=30497

[to Tutorials proper]
[I'm going to add more content and pad this out, including explanations for/improvements to content in the links, and amongst other things, an advanced fully-explained address space example]
[Media Player Classic is one of most powerful media players out there, and plays very nicely with AutoHotkey for automation, anybody who uses a media player or AutoHotkey should try it out]
jeeswg's Media Player Classic tutorial - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic ... 74&t=41683
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derz00
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

12 Mar 2018, 08:20

So why haven't other forum ideas ever come together this fast? Such as "AHK Discussion" separate from off-topic? :D :P
try it and see
...
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joedf
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

12 Mar 2018, 08:24

Okay, I currently hold no position on this. As I have been away for the most part of the conversation. However, i believe we let things play first for a while before we start splitting or unsplitting anything else such as offtopic. :)
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jeeswg
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

16 Mar 2018, 19:35

- Hello, please could a mod move the two threads as outlined, thanks.
New Tips and Tricks forum - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic ... 07#p205507
- Yes derz00, well said. A tips/tricks subforum for Tutorials, an AutoHotkey-related subforum for Offtopic, a failed bug reports subforum for Bug Reports (instead of moving out posts to Ask For Help, although that one would need special approval from the main devs).
- The Offtopic subforum idea, it's pretty uncontroversial and basically everyone agrees with it.
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nnnik
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

17 Mar 2018, 04:00

And it essentially makes 0 sense. Something can't be both offtopic and relate to AutoHotkey at the same time.
Rather than a failed Bug Reports section I would add a actual Bug Reports section and move all actual bugs there.
Then I would add another subforum that collects all problems with/wishes for the AutoHotkey help file.
Many bug reports would get moved there.
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jeeswg
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

17 Mar 2018, 04:56

- Re.
And it essentially makes 0 sense. Something can't be both offtopic and relate to AutoHotkey at the same time.
That's what we've got at the moment. I'd be happy with 'General AutoHotkey' or whatever, as a subforum of Offtopic or somewhere else.
- The debate about Bug Reports was had elsewhere, I'd be happy with either your suggestion, my suggestion, or perhaps something else, or nothing for the time being, whatever suits the main devs, and whatever's most practical.
- To replace this thread ('Suggestions on documentation improvements') with a subforum, hmm, I'm currently neutral on that, but the idea sounds reasonably good.
Suggestions on documentation improvements - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1434
- Could someone please move the two threads. I'd move them myself if I could. Thanks.
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tidbit
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

19 Mar 2018, 11:14

"That's what we've got at the moment. I'd be happy with 'General AutoHotkey' or whatever, as a subforum of Offtopic or somewhere else."

which is what I've been asking for for **years**. a 'General Chat' (General discussion, AHK chat, etc. whatever name it could go by) forum inside the 'AutoHotkey' section. Because a large percent of the topics in Offtopic are infact AHK related, NOT offtopic.
*shrug*
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Masonjar13
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Re: New Tips and Tricks forum

19 Mar 2018, 11:58

tidbit wrote:"That's what we've got at the moment. I'd be happy with 'General AutoHotkey' or whatever, as a subforum of Offtopic or somewhere else."

which is what I've been asking for for **years**. a 'General Chat' (General discussion, AHK chat, etc. whatever name it could go by) forum inside the 'AutoHotkey' section. Because a large percent of the topics in Offtopic are infact AHK related, NOT offtopic.
*shrug*
I'd say, just go make it. Planning on a (hopefully better) AHKathon and it'd be much better suited in a "General" forum. Though, I'm certainly not going to partake in looking for and moving threads from Offtopic to General. People can report their topics to get them moved if necessary.
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