I am currently stuck on the 'poem' bit of this training series.
I can't understand, at all, what is going on.
Is there somewhere I can get a breakdown of each of these lines of code? And what I need to add? I can't figure what's missing and I don't know how to learn anything from the PoetryLine.gd script.
I'm very sorry about this. I must have missed something, so even pointing me in the direction of the 'duh' bit of the documentation that tells me what to do, but otherwise I am wholly dumbfounded... again. This is like attempt number 25 to learn a language.
Don't be sorry. It's ok to feel stuck. This lesson is also a big step up from the previous one, so your feeling is not unusual.
Here are a few general pointers when you feel this way, in this tutorial or any other:
You'll notice that both pieces of advice have you repeat; that's the critical part: repetition. Learning a programming language is a bit like learning a human language. You have to fill pages and pages of "Mamma eats the apple" before stepping up to the next small simple sentence. And before that, you have to write pages and pages of letters.
Programming is similarly a practice. Understanding comes second to writing, so when you do not understand something... Do more of it. Repeat it, or repeat something similar to it.
I feel like you're maybe a bit too anxious. You may expect to "get" it after an explanation, like you can get how a machine works, but programming isn't like that. You don't "get" it. You "train" into getting slowly better at it. Not getting it has nothing to do with intelligence, no more than not understanding a language you don't speak means you're unintelligent: it just means you lack practice.
With this in mind, regarding your current issue, I would gladly help you, but I am not sure a line-by-line breakdown is what you need. Instead, I invite you to ask about the specific parts you feel stuck on.
Note that if you deem a breakdown still needed, we can do that; Would that be the files related to the practice "The Poem"?
Wow, sound advice. I can appreciate everything you've said here. I did go back over previous material (some, not all), but wanted to actually run through this course one end to the other a few times, make something I like (and a number of 'doodles' I don't care about) and then go in for the next level. So winding up frustrated on my second solo exercise was a little disheartening (I figured out the inventory grid after about a day of bouncing off of it).
Anyway, on topic: No, maybe it isn't what I need; I think that's what I've been leaning on and giving up on with previous tutorials and attempts: get to the end, hit a knee-high wall, fluff it off until the next thing. But I've been at this for years and I've got a monkey-see-monkey-do level of understanding, which is why this course appealed to me so much.
Yup, it's the poem. What I'm having difficulty with is knowing what tool to apply here, then how to implement. It's a grammar issue (syntax) rather than a vocabulary issue: to my eyeballs, this already says 'construct yon poem.' I've been fiddling with it but no dice as of yet; it also doesn't help that I don't know how to read all of the error messages yet.
mmichaelvb a hint: you need just one line of code in this practice. As mentioned in the practice description, the technique you need to use here is calling a function on a scene instance.
We've done that in the lesson when calling functions on the ScoreRow instances:
row.set_player_name(player_name)
This function, set_player_name(), is defined in the script attached to the ScoreRow node: ScoreRow.gd.
In the function add_poetry_line(), we create an instance of the PoetryLine scene and add it as a child, but there's no code to change its text. You need to add that line of code. And that line of code should call a function defined on the PoetryLine instance.
These are some pointers to help you narrow down the possibilities without spoiling the solution. In short, the technique to solve this practice is the same we used when adding score rows to the scoreboard.
I'll let you try to figure it out, but we're here to help if you need more hints.
Wow, this advice, all of it, was perfect. I took a step back, did something else, came back to it with a fresh look.
And this second bit here wasn't just a screenshot or otherwise, it was enough information to tell me where to look, and HOW to look, to resolve my problem. This is a valuable lesson, so I'll always have my 'dictionary' when I'm coding later. And figuring it out was a tiny little triumph.
Mr. Novato thank you! I will be a more diligent student from here forthwith! Haha, but really: The attention of you and your instructors is awesome and the content itself is great. Thank you very much for putting this here.
And thank you so much, again.
Cool thing: I just knuckle-thumped my way through the next bit, the to-do list, referring back to previous lessons. It took about a dozen tries but I figured it out and typed the code and it ran, and I could see it work in real-time, and even fiddled with adding things like 'blink' and 'finish the tutorial.' My two lines of code did the trick! I really am sort of happy with this bit of progress.
I'm at the stage where I can see what I wrote, and understand what it's doing, but I'm still a little mystified about all the little working bits. Is that alright with where I'm at? Through further experience will come clarity and whatnot?
I'm at the stage where I can see what I wrote, and understand what it's doing, but I'm still a little mystified about all the little working bits. Is that alright with where I'm at? Through further experience will come clarity and whatnot?
It is normal, yes, as you are learning and going through many concepts. It takes quite a lot of practice for everything to come together.
I have the same feeling with the author of this post when learn this section. I lost my motivation and feel a bit boring.
Although this course suggests learning in order, I jumped from this section to the top-down movement section. I don't know why, it's so easy to understand and very exited to solve the practices in the new section. I think now I need to go back to current section.
That's also normal, when getting stuck on a part it's a good idea to either go back and see if you missed anything or just move on and try something fresh. They're both solid solutions.
And as you mentioned, the learning order is just a suggestion and not a requirement by any means.
Do it as your pace, jumping to different sections or not, we're here to help you if you get stuck.
Did you manage to finish the poem practice after reading the discussion or do you still need some suggestions? Let us know.