[chuck-users] Begin the beguine

[Kassen]

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 03:06:59PM +0200, Alberto Alassio wrote:
> Hi guys this is my first thread because I've download Chuck just yesterday
> night and I'm trying to make something with this today (yes we can!).

Of course you can! Most people turn language into sound and meaning
from a very young age. Can't be that hard ;-)


> Really nice world!  I read something from the manual ( the beginning
> tutorial) and also downloaded chuck pages where objects and other things
> about language are written. The question is : how can I understand every
> single line of Chuck? 

That's a rather broad question, great.

My take;

Start with the examples that came with your download, I particularly
like the "otf...." series of examples in the "examples" dir. Together
they form a techno song with a implied invitation to remix. Change
stuff, the worst that can happen is that it crashes. If you make a
mess; re-download and make a backup this time. Those cover a wide
range of topics in a deceptively fun way,

Many things can be understood through practical experimentation. Then
there is the website that has documentation and the manual pdf that
has explanations on the way it works and very useful appendices. Those
can serve to explain bits that appear tricky or as a way to look for
new interesting things as you start to elaborate on the given
material on your own.

This is, of course, a somewhat scattershot -if fun- method, and it
could be that you'd like a higher-scope look at the how and why. For
that I recommend this; http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~gewang/thesis.html
That's Ge's Thesis and explains the method behind the madness.

All of those will at some point fail to satisfy, maybe some bit of
info got misplaced, maybe you overlooked something that seemed like a
detail at first. Then you send a mail to this list, explaining where
and how you ran into a issue. Preferably you'd paste the most simple
code that causes the issue and explain clearly what you were hoping
for or expecting. Then we (you get a free scene with your free
software) try to figure out what the issue is. Everyone who could
answer a question like this got to that point by experimenting and by
asking questions; don't be shy, if you tried to look on your own and
couldn't find it it's worth a mail.

Most importantly; have fun, that's what it's there for, as far as I'm
concerned.

Yours,
Kas.