User-submitted tutorials / How-To's

[Omni]

He has already begun adding the that gumby.

http://sierrahelp.com/SCI/Wiki/index.php?title=SCI_Studio_Tutorial

And to be able to edit the side bar he would have to assign special permissions to individual accounts.

[MusicallyInspired]

No, that's the tutorial. I was talking about the actual SCI Studio help file which is loaded with information on the SCI scripting language and isn't available anywhere else.

[Omni]

Ahh, I see now.

Edit: It might just be me but I do not think the reference page is set up.

To easily find the problem just click on the reference at the bottom to take you to the reference

http://sierrahelp.com/SCI/Wiki/index.php?title=The_Sound_subsystem


This is the page I used used to make sure I was doing it correctly, it has been awhile since I have done any wiki editing...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28footnotes%29/Cite_link_labels

[Collector]

The SCI Studio Help files could be done, but it is a lot of work. I have started on Brian's tutorial and am getting to a burnout point. I'll have to look into one of the HTML to WikiMedia converters.

It took me a while to figure out how to modify the navigation pane. You have to get to it much the same way that you get to the Chrome file for Firefox and it is only accessible with an admin login. Just let me know when you want something added to it. I have enabled uploads, but because of the security risk regular users do not have permissions. I could try to create a new permissions mask for a trusted group of regular contributors. Please bear with me, as I am new to administering a Wiki.

I am starting to see the Wiki as a valuable tool that many will want to have opened along side Studio or Companion to have all the SCI info we have right at hand. I have thought of a couple of GUI changes that would be nice for Studio once it gets to a point of being as usable as Companion. Have the New Game drop a dosbox.conf in the game's folder and the Run Game launch DOSBox, using that config file. A link to the Wiki and this forum in the Help Menu or on the Toolbar would be great. For NSIS I use NIS Edit. It is an older editor that is becoming dated, but I feel more comfortable with it. A link to the NSIS Wiki and the NSIS forum are right in Help Menu. This is extremely convenient when I am having trouble with something or I get stumped on how to do something new.

Edit: It might just be me but I do not think the reference page is set up.

To easily find the problem just click on the reference at the bottom to take you to the reference

http://sierrahelp.com/SCI/Wiki/index.php?title=The_Sound_subsystem


This is the page I used used to make sure I was doing it correctly, it has been awhile since I have done any wiki editing...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28footnotes%29/Cite_link_labels

Thanks for the link. As I said in earlier posts I had not figured out the footnotes or citations. I'll try to look into tomorrow.

[gumby]

The SCI Studio Help files could be done, but it is a lot of work. I have started on Brian's tutorial and am getting to a burnout point. I'll have to look into one of the HTML to WikiMedia converters.

Yeah, I can imagine the burnout.  You've been at a breakneck pace at this from what I can see.  Thanks for laying a foundation that we can build from.

It took me a while to figure out how to modify the navigation pane. You have to get to it much the same way that you get to the Chrome file for Firefox and it is only accessible with an admin login. Just let me know when you want something added to it. I have enabled uploads, but because of the security risk regular users do not have permissions. I could try to create a new permissions mask for a trusted group of regular contributors. Please bear with me, as I am new to administering a Wiki.

If you can't find anything on an HTML converter, just throw in a link in the nav pane for the 'SCI Studio Help Files' and I'll give it a go (by hand).

[Collector]

I've been looking into the help files and have decided that a different approach is necessary. The HTML is very sloppy and crude. It would need to be drastically redone before conversion. Even then I'm not sure how to keep the easy navigation within a Wiki. I have a couple of ideas about it. Give me some time to see what I can come up with.

I've sorted out the problem with the citations. Oddly, the default install of the Wiki does not include what is required for citations. I had installed the Cite.php extension right after I installed the Wiki. It was already functional, but had not looked into how to use it. The problem with the foot note link is that it doesn't like links in the footnote itself. For footnotes that require a link we will probably need to manually work with named anchors.

[Collector]

It's going to take a fair bit to redo the help file, but I think that it will be worth it. I don't think that it will work out to incorporate it into the Wiki as is, but perhaps just extracting the general SCI information in it and inserting it where appropriate in the Wiki. I could link back each other, though, making either one click away from the other.

I noticed that the table of contents is long and cumbersome, so I started to experiment with the table of contents. Keep in mind that this is just the beginnings and is incomplete. 

http://sierrahelp.com/SCI/SCIStudio3Help/

[MusicallyInspired]

That's pretty neat!

[gumby]

It's going to take a fair bit to redo the help file, but I think that it will be worth it. I don't think that it will work out to incorporate it into the Wiki as is, but perhaps just extracting the general SCI information in it and inserting it where appropriate in the Wiki. I could link back each other, though, making either one click away from the other.

I noticed that the table of contents is long and cumbersome, so I started to experiment with the table of contents. Keep in mind that this is just the beginnings and is incomplete. 

http://sierrahelp.com/SCI/SCIStudio3Help/

Yeah, I think that this will work well.  I like the expand/collapse nav pane - easier on the eyes.

[Collector]

I have also added a link to the Wiki at the top of the navigation pane and a link to the help file in the navigation box of the Wiki. It makes it as convenient as if the help file was in the Wiki, but keep its navigation and format.

[Collector]

I have all of the links and footnotes done with the SCI Specifications. I still need to go through it to find any formatting errors. I'm still plugging away at the help file.

[Cloudee1]

Man, you have been busy. I've got about 1 more week of hell and then I should be good to participate in whatever way necesary. Good work though.

[Collector]

Thanks. I started the tutorial, but got distracted by cleaning up the Studio help files.

[Collector]

I have mostly finished cleaning up the help files. They were a real mess. I am assuming the Brian used some kind of WYSIWYG editor from back then that generated junk code, though not nearly as badly as Word would have done. It was done using nested tables, many depreciated attributes, redundant and unclosed tags. I re did it in XHTML, W3C compliant code. The old is over a MB in size and the new is a little over 700 KB, including the original images. It loads a lot faster now and has greater style consistency (due to the use of CSS). I also matched the syntax highlighting with that of SCI Studio.

http://sierrahelp.com/SCI/SCIStudio3Help/

One thing that I found is that there are a couple of missing pages that are also missing from the CHM. vocabresources.overview.html and vocabresources.creatingandediting.html. I copied and modified one of the other resource's overview and creatingandediting pages to stub it out, but this is right up Gumby's alley. Perhaps you could flesh the vocabresources.overview.html?

Next, back to the tutorial.

[gumby]

One thing that I found is that there are a couple of missing pages that are also missing from the CHM. vocabresources.overview.html and vocabresources.creatingandediting.html. I copied and modified one of the other resource's overview and creatingandediting pages to stub it out, but this is right up Gumby's alley. Perhaps you could flesh the vocabresources.overview.html?

Sure - I looked for the stubs you are referring to, but couldn't seem to find them in navigation pane.  Also, not sure how I can submit the info - I don't think I can modify the help files directly (like the wiki) right?