"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

> Yep, *that* by itself makes sense; good idea. The docs still need some
> overhauling.

Yes, and I understand, from experience, how difficult a job it is to document
something, well, and keep it updated.

I think that having a few lines of working SDL to demonstrate how something
works is worth pages of documentation and dozens of (often redundant) forum
question and answer threads.

I really liked the following excerpt from Graphics Gems 3:

https://doc.lagout.org/Others/Game%20Development/Programming/Graphics%20Gems%203.pdf

Since the first volume of Graphics Gems was published, I have spoken to many
readers
and discovered that these books have helped people learn graphics by starting
with

with the codes
so freely, but I think I now see why this helps. It is often exciting to start
learning a new
medium by simply messing around in it, and understanding how it flows. My piano
teacher
encourages new students to begin by spending time playing freely at the
keyboard: keep a
few scales or chord progressions in mind, but otherwise explore the spaces of
melody,
harmony, and rhythm. When I started to learn new mediums in art classes, I often
spent
time simply playing with the medium: squishing clay into odd shapes or brushing
paint on
paper in free and unplanned motions. Of course one often moves on to develop
control

springs
from such uncontrolled and spirited play.
It is difficult for the novice to play at programming. There is little room for
simple
expression or error. A simple program does not communicate with the same range
and
strength as a masterfully simple line drawing or haunting melody. A programmer
cannot
hit a few wrong notes, or tolerate an undesired ripple in a line. If the syntax


anything
interesting. There are exceptions to the latter statement, but they are notable
because of

got to do some
things completely right, and everything else almost perfectly. That can be an
intimidating
realization particularly for the beginner: if a newly constructed program

problem could be in a million places, anywhere from the architecture to data
structures,

algorithms, or coding errors. The chance to start with something that already
works
removes the barrier to exploration: your program already works. If you want to
change it,

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