Your experience with Lua. - Developers

Hi, so I'm struggling keeping my interest up on learning lua, which I find very annoying, as I want to learn. Therefore I would like to ask you experienced coders: 1) How long time have you been coding lua? 2) What did you make in the very start? 3) Any suggestions on a way to learn and keep interest? 4) Do you loose interest now and then? - You don't have to answer, but I'm quite sure all new coders would find this very interesting.

1) I have been on and off since probably August last year 2) TTT server 3) Work for a community, constant ideas 4) Yes I'm not very good Lua coder, but yeah

1) Started January 2009, had some pauses tho. 2) Just like anybody else - I made my own hack and kept adding features one by one. 3) Start some big project (gamemode preferably) then add features to it from time to time and do NOT join a community, otherwise you'll spend more time fixing bugs/adding new stuff to your existant scripts rather than doing anything new. 4) A little bit, but then I get a notification that someone bought my script.

Awesome, however I'm kinda screwed over.. [QUOTE]do NOT join a community[/QUOTE] .. I have my own community.

[QUOTE=The Beta;43659311]Awesome, however I'm kinda screwed over.. .. I have my own community.[/QUOTE] That's different. If you have own community, there is nobody that can force you to work.

[QUOTE=Netheous;43659393]That's different. If you have own community, there is nobody that can force you to work.[/QUOTE] I see your point, but the player amount will drop if I stop working on the servers, so I still feel kinda forced.. And that can be the minus of having a community, the addiction. It's not that I'm saying it's annoying, because I can do whatever I want to, when I want to. But it would be nice to not have the responsible for everything, but the coding.

[QUOTE=The Beta;43659110]1) How long time have you been coding lua? 2) What did you make in the very start? 3) Any suggestions on a way to learn and keep interest? 4) Do you loose interest now and then? [/QUOTE] 1. January 2013, although for a long time it was more of just doing very simple tasks instead of proper learning. 2. I wanted a Fretta Minigames server, GMOD13 had recently came out and fretta seemed dead. I started off by fixing gamemodes and then making my own basic team deathmatch. I realized there wasn't many people available to help me, so I decided to learn how to do it myself. 3. Do stuff that's relevant to your interests. Like, if you want money, go to coderhire, if you want to run a TTT, do that, etc. 4. In the past, yeah. For a very long time, lua was something I seeemed to dip in and out of. Now that I'm on my feet and I have a direct I want to go in, I've been completely interested in learning lua.

dude. if you don't wanna script, don't. take a break, you'll come back from it.

1. February 2013 - I had a TTT server and figured it should have more stuff. 2. The very first things I made were vgui changes to TTT, I then discovered Im awful at vgui and better at the serverside of things. 3. My way of learning is tossing myself at a problem until a solution is found, so I just kept going. The language and extent to which you can create means you should never really get bored 4. But sometimes if you're really trying to push out content, it'll seem like a chore. Don't do that. If you get frustrated or something, just go for a walk or take a shower All up, just keep at it. Being able to bring ideas to life is incredibly rewarding. It should be a hobby, not a job

1) ~2 years 2) Coding servers for my friend and making a lua hack (coolest thing on the old gmod wiki amiright?) 3) Code custom stuff for ttt/darkrp 4) Sometimes I take breaks and go play CS:S

1. November 2011, so a little over 2 years, although I'm not too active on the forums. 2. I literally went through and read up on everything on the old wiki as well as did all the tutorials([URL]http://maurits.tv/data/garrysmod/wiki/wiki.garrysmod.com/index7a06.html[/URL]). After that it really expands your horizon and you can start to experiment with things, look up other people public work and learn from it, use any kind of documentation you can to learn, etc. 3. As I said before on the learning, but as far as keeping interested, you really just have to find something you want to make and try to grind at it and just work at it until you accomplish it. Once you finally finished something its actually really fulfilling knowing you put in work to make what you wanted a reality. 4. Everyone loses interest here and there, just take a break for a bit. If you really want to code and you enjoy it, you'll eventually come back to it.

Thank you guys, it's really interesting, ( for me atleast ) to read your stories :eng101:

1) Around September 2005, when someone created this little thing for a graphical calculator I had: [img]http://orwell01.free.fr/Release/CPLua/cplua1.PNG[/img] 2) I made a lot of small games back then so I don't even remember what the first one was, but I think it was a very simple breakout game. 3) Get out of your comfort zone and try to push your limits and the limits of whatever engine you're working with by making the craziest thing you can think of. Every time you get stuck, look for documentation or code that does something vaguely similar to what you want to do. You'll learn a lot from doing that. 4) Everyone has their ups and downs. Whenever I feel uninspired it's hard to get back to coding and I end up playing video games for hours straight instead. Sometimes I need to slap myself (metaphorically :v:) and force myself to code something. That may sound a bit extreme but if I don't do that I usually end up in a vicious circle where I don't want to get anything done anymore, and it gets really hard to break out of it.

1) Over 5 years 2) A Note STool for GMod, if we are talking GMod. You can still find it in gmod.org or gamebana, it's total shit though. 3) Trial and Error, Google and GMod Wiki are your best friends. Keep interest? If you like making mods - You will do it anyway, if you don't - you won't. Taking breaks to play other games ( for inspiration for example ) or coding for other games / on other languages is a good idea too. 4) Yes, but I believe this happens to everyone, you can't just do the same thing for a long time.

1) Just over a year. 2) Some ULX plugins for my server. 3) Stop asking people for help, figure shit out yourself. It's more rewarding and you don't look like a total tool. 4) I can lose motivation or simply be frustrated about deciding which solution to a problem is best (I can spend days, if not weeks, just thinking about that).

1) How long time have you been coding lua? - A few months 2) What did you make in the very start? - Editing a basewars gamemode, still doing it now. New VGUI And a New HUD: [url]http://puu.sh/6xxWz.jpg[/url] 3) Any suggestions on a way to learn and keep interest- Find a project to work on 4) Do you loose interest now and then - If i cant fix something then yeah (Money cap)

[QUOTE=Hydreh;43665246]1) How long time have you been coding lua? - A few months 2) What did you make in the very start? - Editing a basewars gamemode, still doing it now. New VGUI And a New HUD: [url]http://puu.sh/6xxWz.jpg[/url] 3) Any suggestions on a way to learn and keep interest- Find a project to work on 4) Do you loose interest now and then - If i cant fix something then yeah (Money cap)[/QUOTE] Please change the hud font its really hard to read. Add the steam player picture, name, and what faction you are. Also the blue f4 menu is not very appealing.

[QUOTE=Moose2g;43666545]Please change the hud font its really hard to read. Add the steam player picture, name, and what faction you are. Also the blue f4 menu is not very appealing.[/QUOTE] This is not the place to discuss his creation. Stay on topic please.

1) Around March 2012, when I created a FP account - Had alot of pauses. 2) Started modifying DarkRP. 3) Read the GMod wiki, it gives alot of information on different things, there are some old tutorials on the old wiki, they have some good examples tho its outdated. I learned from published gamemodes and scripts, it gives a view on how other do their codes. 4) I do sometimes, but I get back the interest when a good idea pops into my head.

[QUOTE=AnonTakesOver;43659141]1) I have been on and off since probably August last year 2) TTT server 3) Work for a community, constant ideas 4) Yes I'm not very good Lua coder, but yeah[/QUOTE] Pretty much this :D

1) I've been coding lua since 2008, with some breaks in between where i programmed in other languages such as C++, php, python and Java 2) I think the first think i made was a pan and egg entity that could make scrambled eggs when combined 3) Try to work stuff out on your own but if you get stuck or feel there could be a better way ask some of the more experienced coders, there are often tricks that are hard to figure out with just the wiki. Also look a lot at other people's sources and try to find something that does something similar to what you want. In GLua there are many tricks that you can use. This is especially the way to go if you want to work on derma, it's very important to read some of garry's lua (in garrysmod/lua), too, it's the only way to see how derma was ment to be worked with. Most importantly don't try to optimize your code, make it readable and easy to understand. Almost all optimizations that people do in lua have little to no impact and make maintaining code a lot more difficult. Even seen attempts to optimize that were actually slower and made everything incredibly hard to read. 4) Of course, everybody does. When i do i usually browse waywo a bit and when seeing what kind of awesome things others create and usually i get interested again.

1) About a year and a half. 2) I started making small, useless scripts, which made me build on ideas. Lua can make you a thinker. 3) Do it as you wish, it can be fun in small or large amounts depending on the type of person you are. (That may sound a bit nasty.) 4) Of course, I take it as a hobby though. I've been doing it for a year and a half but I'm still not amazing at it. It can take time due to losing interest.

1) 3 months 2) Modifying DarkRP for my own server 3) Gmod wiki and tutorials is good for learning. Keeping interest browse WAYYO 4) Yes ofc. I usually not code for days-weeks then (even though I am horrible at it compared to other)

1) About year or two ago. 2) Simple HUDs, base RP gamemode and porting addons and gamemodes from GMod 12 to 13 3) I'm reading WIKI when im coding and im every day checking WAYWO. 4) Actually, no. I do what i like.

1) Since I first bought Gmod. Back then more Embedded C/C++ and E2 than LUA, Processing some plants and such. 2) A simple Thinking SEnt, porting my old Gmod 12 addons to Gmod 13 ( ProbuilderPack ) 3) This is a fair start ( [url]http://tylerneylon.com/a/learn-lua/[/url] ) 4) Yes, but i Do C++ to compensate it :)

What is "WAYWO"? I managed to Google my way to "What are you working on", however I don't understand the concept eh..

[QUOTE=The Beta;43689411]What is "WAYWO"? I managed to Google my way to "What are you working on", however I don't understand the concept eh..[/QUOTE] [url]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1341204[/url] show off your latest work in a thread

1) Around 2 years ago I picked up a Bukkit server with some friends. ComputerCraft was where I started with on that 2) Made a program that grabs the server's local time, than can send the packet to nearby computers using a wireless connection. 3) Lurk >.> 4) I stare directly into code a lot, so not really. If anything I prefer doing other activities at times