Noob Coders Challenge?

[leefish]

Just today I got a lot of help from Zinga and Rateu on a plug in I wanted for my forum. I was looking at the codes as posted and provided by Zinga and Rateu and I think I worked out what most of it was doing (I am getting the idea now). I was going to post in the thread to ask a few more questions, when I thought of this idea.

Why not have a challenge to to some of us new guys to make a plugin that can be used with myBB and ideally with Xthreads?

The thing is, I can think of lots of things I want, but they are often too big for me to do with my noob skills. So, how about Zinga or Rateu setting us a challenge to make a plugin to perform a certain task? I think that they are able to find us something that is not too hard, but still a challenge. That way we can have a go at a specific thing, learn as we go from each other, and we will wind up with a new plug in.

What do you think of the idea?

[RateU]

Ugh... Wait for Yumi to reply. I'm a noob too

[ZiNgA BuRgA]

^ Don't say that

That's an interesting idea leefish, but I'm not sure exactly what you expect.  I mean, do you just want one of us to post a thread about it?  Should incentives be provided?
I'm sure the MyBB community forums have plenty of ideas in the requests forum.  I think, ultimately, you would need to pick something that interests you, to act as a personal incentive not to give up, rather than get others pick a particular thing that you must adhere to.
I can give ideas on how to approach something, as well as provide criticism on code and so forth (though I'm a bit apprehensive about actually writing code for others, since I prefer people to actually understand enough to be able to write something themselves).

[leefish]

(06-06-2010 12:24 PM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  That's an interesting idea leefish, but I'm not sure exactly what you expect.  I mean, do you just want one of us to post a thread about it?  Should incentives be provided?

The incentive would be to make a working plugin - surely that is reward enough?

(06-06-2010 12:24 PM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  I'm sure the MyBB community forums have plenty of ideas in the requests forum.  I think, ultimately, you would need to pick something that interests you, to act as a personal incentive not to give up, rather than get others pick a particular thing that you must adhere to.

Well, I look at the requests  and development forums on MyBB and its kind of the same thing - it all looks super hard. I struggle to find a simple thing that is actually within my capabilities. But many of the easy plugins have been done. I see what you mean about it being something we want rather than something we are challenged to do though.

(06-06-2010 12:24 PM)ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:  I can give ideas on how to approach something, as well as provide criticism on code and so forth (though I'm a bit apprehensive about actually writing code for others, since I prefer people to actually understand enough to be able to write something themselves).

My intention was not to get you and/or Rateu to write the code - it was more that if we had a few of us who are not very experienced coders working on the same thing that we could learn from each other. Indeed, that is exactly what I want - to make something so I can learn and understand what the code is doing - though I learnt a lot today looking through those plugins.

[ZiNgA BuRgA]

Oh okay, I see where you are.

How about this - you suggest an idea that interests you, and I can break it down into components which can be worked on (as long as it isn't _too_ large).  This will also give you a bit of a feel of what developing a larger system is like.

[leefish]

Ok, I will go make a spec for what I am hoping to do - I think its a biggish project, but hopefully I can make it sort of modular.