Buzzword column

519

May 7, 2004 at 6:14 PM

i was wondering if in the new forums there will be something similar to the Game Dictionary page here. I am thinking something like a quick language buzzword page. I remember when I first came here and had question about how programs work and this piece of code wouldn''t work, people would immediately throw around words (with great validity, of course) like translation unit (?). And at the time, I would be like... huh? If a list of buzzwords such as the one above could be listed, short summary though. or even FAQs such as static or extern work in C++, Java, C. so that when we beginners or even intermediates are busting our heads over why code doesn''t work. we can quickly refer to this page and go, "Oh Yeah!". I hope what I said made sense. It was hard for me to explain clearly.

276

May 7, 2004 at 6:50 PM

Are you asking if the game dictionary will still exist when the new forums come out? Yes, it will.

Are you asking if the new forums will integrate better with the game dictionary? Not as far as I know, but it''s worth exploring.

Perhaps you''re thinking something like a [dict] tag that you wrap around words - i.e. [dict]Unicode[/dict] automatically becoming Unicode?

Indeterminatus

May 10, 2004 at 5:27 PM

Yeah, I like that idea! I''m taking the idea even one step further. Automatically link items found in a normal post (existing at the time the message was posted...because else it would exceed the server''s limit, I guess).

To put it in a nutshell: get rid of the [reference]-tags as proposed by Anonymous Poster...

Sounds like a great idea!

Indeterminatus

--si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses--

Mushu

163

Mushu

May 11, 2004 at 2:47 AM

This sounds like a great idea!

well what are you waiting for?!?

Yes... VB6 is here to steal your minds fps. Very slowly. Call .optimize(you.sig)

276

May 11, 2004 at 5:30 AM

The biggest problem I could see with doing it automatically would be it happening when you don''t intend it to. For example: there might be a definition for "perspective" in the dictionary (something like "a form of 3D rendering where distant objects are scaled down in size"), but you wouldn''t want that in the phrase "To put things into perspective, you should realize that blah blah..."

There''s also the server load issue, this is true. Given that we intend to expand and extend the dictionary quite significantly in the future, the number of terms we end up having to search for becomes pretty huge.

I''ll pass on the basic [dict] tag idea to the new forum devs, but I don''t think people will go for autolinking like that.

Author

519

May 16, 2004 at 4:20 PM

something like that.
as i said i wasn''t very clear.
but the dictionary tags are a good idea.
hope that works out.

maybe oluseyi could make a wiki about such things as well.

ex:
(newb) How does the #define work in C?
(pro) Well it works through the C [wiki/dict]preprocessor[/wiki/dict].

then if the newb doesn''t know what a preprocessor is or how it works, then all he has to do is click on the link. and the info is there.

156

May 16, 2004 at 4:41 PM

quote:
maybe oluseyi could make a wiki about such things as well.

ex:
(newb) How does the #define work in C?
(pro) Well it works through the C [wiki/dict]preprocessor[/wiki/dict].

I believe Oluseyi is working on something like that, what he calls a "PowerIndex".

Muhammad Haggag,
Optimize

276

May 17, 2004 at 11:53 AM

quote:
Original post by Coder
I believe Oluseyi is working on something like that, what he calls a "PowerIndex".

Is that what he''s calling it this week? Previously it was "HyperFAQ."

156