New Tutorial Series

[N36fSL3A]

Starting a tutorial for beginners, a bit of stuttering though. D;

Anyway,

C++ Tutorial 1 - Hello World:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwQW57X589E&feature=youtu.be

C++ Tutorial 2 - Variables:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd5-eIXWIvs&feature=youtu.be

Constructive Criticism would be nice.

More videos coming soon.

[Thumper]

(I am not trying to sound hostile at all here. You asked for constructive criticism. You will get it. :P)

I'm more confused about C++ than I have ever before been.

It was impossible to follow your train of thought here, as well as there being some inaccurate information.
When you put a pound symbol in front of a using declaration and take four minutes to figure out the problem (and never actually figure out the problem in the video, you switch to std::cout instead of realizing your mistake), that's usually a good sign to re-record the video before uploading it as a C++ tutorial.
Try writing a script for your video before you record. (You said "We should get started now" like four times).

And again, i'm not trying to sound hostile, but if I were a beginner C++ user searching through youtube videos for tutorials to help me learn the language, I would watch 10 seconds of yours and then start looking for a new one.

I do look forward to seeing more videos from you, though. But I want to see them improve every time! Sometimes this isn't always about providing the best tutorial in the world, rather, solidifying your own knowledge on the subject, or improving your verbal communication abilities (the stuttering). I will gladly provide more feedback on your future material, and I hope to see you improve in your endeavors.

EDIT: spelling

[N36fSL3A]

I'm gonna redo them, I just wanted to know what was wrong. I know C++ but I had a HUGE brainfart when I was doing it. Redoing it in maybe 30 mins or so.

[Script Coder]

Just a question why are you wanting to make these tutorials? Does it help you cement your knowledge or do you just want to give back?

[Thumper]

Don't be so nervous. You have nothing to worry about. Worst case scenario you re-record the thing.
Also, i pronounce it "min-gee-double-you"

[N36fSL3A]

Script Coder I just want to give back. I know how hard it was when I first started :P

I usually pronounced it mingoo.

Anyway thanks Thumper. Would you recommend me recording in clips, then putting them together?

About to start writing the script.

[Paoletti301]

a script you could read from would make a huge difference, that way everything would move more smoothly. besides that, good job :D

[Thumper]

Fredbill30 wrote:

Would you recommend me recording in clips, then putting them together?

You could do that, or read from a script like Paoletti mentioned. It doesn't even need to be an exact script, just write general points down so if you lose your train of thought you can look at the paper and get it back.

[devonrevenge]

I want to help other beginners when they got stuck in the same way i did, I never found enough of linking libraries and gcc.rahrah compilers and enviroment variables, that side of things is totaly lost on me

[o1vk4iN6]

For a hello world tutorial program you made a pretty obvious mistake that you spend almost half the video trying to figure out yourself.

The preprocessor does a very specific task and that's for the most part just text substitution. Trying to use the "using" feature of c++ within the preprocessor is an obvious mistake at least I think.

[Lachlan Easton]

Trust me, you're already presenting things a lot better than I ever could. Pro tip: Never record my voice for anything.

[N36fSL3A]

=P forgot about it. About to record once everyone is sleeping. It's not like I don't know it, it's just that I was nervous and when I get nervous it's like I know nothing on what I'm trying to do, but I know everything about everything else. Anyway I think I'm just going to tackle it head on and redo it if something messes up. I'll most likely be up all night for this one.

[abhishekm71]

Couple of suggestions from my side (I am an avid learner from youtube tutorials).

Keep the tutorials as short as possible, maybe one tutorial just focussing on one particular aspect.

In the beginning tell the audience exactly what they are going to learn in that particular tutorial (maybe in just one simple line) so that they know what to expect.

[Disch]

Manual compiling?

No debugger?!?!?

ack!

;P


EDIT:

In all seriousness... debuggers should be introduced ASAP especially for people who have no background in programming. Stepping through the code line by line and observing what it's doing goes a long way in understanding basic programming concepts.


EDIT 2:

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox.

[N36fSL3A]

Well I didn't want to pull out vc++ right away, as it takes forever to load compared to the two I use and it's a bit of overkill :P

[BHX]

Could just use Geany, then all you have to do is a few steps.

1) Enter code
2) Save as .cpp file
3) Press F8 (or click Build then Compile)
4) Press F9 (or click Build then Build)
5) Press F5 (or click Build then Execute)

Way more simple and no need to mess with terminal/console. Not to mention Geany has an output message window that will tell you the errors. Best of all it is free and cross paltform.

http://geany.org/

[Manga]

Hey go ahead and use VC++. Many beginners start right with it. But if I was just starting out today and wanted a great tutorial I would want to see the prelude steps. Like start with clicking on your internet browser, goto site to download compiler. Show how to install. (this is where I would be taking new notes) Open software and make first program. Break it up into different lessons. One lesson should be like 5 minutes or less.

[BHX]

The IDE shouldn't matter and should never be part of the tutorial series. A series should focus on teaching C++ and not IDE. If you are going to focus on an IDE you should try to pick one that is cross-platform so all OS users are able to benefit from your tutorials. That is why I recommended Geany as I believe it is available for Windows/Linux/Mac and as far as I know the menus are the same so you would be able to do one video for the IDE then go into C++ on the second video.


I also agree with all the comments here. Use a script to help keep from repeating things and to help (hopefully) prevent the "ummms". Make a list of what you want to teach each lesson. Wouldn't even hurt to post the list and your lesson 'speeches' here to get criticism and advice (and it will help to make sure your facts are right so you avoid #using std::cout like mistakes).

[N36fSL3A]

I'm just so used to doing stuff like std::cout << "My text\n";, That I've forgotten how to do that, lol.

Well I had a thunderstorm last night while trying to upload and it messed up.

Also, after going over the video, it's not really learning material. I didn't stutter as much, but I did not explain very well.

[Disch]

BHXSpecter wrote:

The IDE shouldn't matter and should never be part of the tutorial series. A series should focus on teaching C++ and not IDE.

I stand by a previous point I made (possibly in another thread, I can't remember) where teaching how to use a debugger can greatly enhance and speed up the concepts involved with learning how to program... and should be introduced ASAP.

IMO, the first thing after a hello world program should be something with basic variable manipulation. And immediately after that you should teach the user how to step through the code with a debugger so they can see line-by-line what the program is actually doing.

That's much easier to do with an IDE.



Besides... it's impractical to just teach C++. At a minimum you have to also teach how to compile a C++ program. If that does not involve a specific IDE, it involves a specific compiler... so either way you're going to have to pick and choose the toolset you want to introduce to the user... and you're going to have to teach something that isn't directly related to the language.