Hey James,

The idea of a book is a great idea, but the issue that you will have is that the information in the book would need to be updated quite often as new features are added to ARC very regularly. I face the same thing with my EZ-AI app and find that it is much easier to try to provide instructions on a webpage, and then videos to demonstrate how a feature is used.

I think you would find that most active people on this forum learn better with written materials. I just don't know how feasible it would be to keep them up to date with all of the improvements that are made very regularly.

I cant wait to see the robotic head. Please post about it when you are ready. We all love to see what others are doing.

Hmm...I could see that. The iPhone books I wrote a few years ago were both outdated within a month after release. Of course, publishers like that....but you can get some interesting hate mail when somebody buys your book a year after publication and find it outdated. ;-)

But a more general coding book/documentation/tutorial would IMHO help get college buy in, as the point-here-click-there controls isn't going to fly. I know my professor was interested when I showed him ARC. But he was leery, if there were some written code documentation, that would have addressed his concerns I'm sure (especially if it was Python or C++).

Don't take any of this as criticism btw, I realize the goal is to make it all easy. And I might find my gut impression wrong as I delve into thescripting, the C++ and the Python (wish there was a Java API) more. But my initial reaction thus far is its great, but I'd like to skip the controls and jump right into code/script....but the documentation doesn't seem to support diving in like that. Of course the controls are fun and really work well, so not complaining.

James A. Brannan

I have been a programmer for about 20 years and understand what you are saying. What I do is use the controls for what they do. When something isn't there that I want, I code it and interface it to ARC. It is simple to pass information too and from ARC and let it do what it does very well. This let's me program what I want to program and leave the other stuff that I don't care about programming to ARC. It works well.

I think the book would be outdated by the time you got through the first few chapters. Honestly, new features are added multiple times a month. The idea has been mentioned multiple times, but nobody has figured out how to get past this issue.

Every scripting control has the entire manual of every command displayed in the right pane. Simply scroll or use the search feature to find your command. The documentation of every command is very well written with syntax examples.

If there is something you are looking for, ask here and someone will answer your question. Sure, you can find documented commands but we have a community which is more helpful than anywhere else. Additionally EZ-Robot invests financially in paying our community to help the community, which you will by find anywhere else.

The learn section is full of tutorials that are written as well. Every control has a ? (Question mark) that when pressed brings you to the appropriate help page with written text explaining the control.

If you're looking for specific help, our initiative is to encourage you to ask on the forum - which helps others in a public manner.

There is also a search feature on the forum and learn section that can help you find what you're looking for.

Hope that helps!

James, download the sdk. There are a lot of examples that will get you going. I think you will see that the SDK is great and easy to work with.

I've toyed with the idea of an unofficial book many times. Every time it's not been feasible for one reason or another (the main reason being everything you need is already right here, in text).

Practically everything you need to know, and more is posted in the forum, learn section or manuals. So much so that I've found that currently I do not even need to check the forum as there are many others who know where to look now but more importantly, there are much less real questions (as opposed to users just not really taking the time to look or users not understanding properly).

The forum is also full of user tutorials for various third party devices etc. You need to know how to do something different with a H-Bridge or just how they work, boom there's a tutorial. Or you need to get a relay to switch with the EZ-B, it's there. How to ramp speeds, how to flicker LEDs, how to fetch external data, it's all there.

The forum is, in essence, a living instruction manual and will always be better than any book anyone out there could put together.

This is my 2 cents @James, I say go for it. I'm planning to write a book. I'm acknowledging in the book that the interfaces and graphics may change, but the core functions should stay about the same. The book should be somewhat relevant as long as their are v4s in the world.

I would disagree with Rich's opinion because I don't think everything you need is right here. You can always dive deeper into a subject. If we were to take the collection of all of Rich's posts it would not equal a book in quality. It would not share with readers how to build a robot like Rich and it would not articulate fully why Rich chose to do what he did to develop what he did. We get snapshots and glimpses in the forum, but it's not the same as a book.

But I do agree with Rich that the forum is a living instruction manual and archive of knowledge. The forum with its members and the hard work of the EZ-Robot staff to develop the Learn Section and the commitment of Dj and team to embed help information in ARC is absolutely wonderful and critical the success of any project.

But all of that is still not the same as a book. My advice to anyone who enjoys writing and feels they have something to share in a book I say go for it!

P.S. And assuming you will be creating and providing .ezb project files to accompany the book and that you would host them online for download, as long as you keep those updated readers should not have an issue overcoming any changes made to ARC.

A couple of years ago, when all of the tutorials were video based and there were a lot less forum discussions to use as a resource, several of us discussed setting up a WIKI where we could collect the correct answers derived from forum topics, delve deeper into some of hte features than the existing documentation provides, and add tutorials and articles. None of us participating at the time had enough free time or wanted to take away from our own robot building to make it happen. Since EZ-Robot added the tutorial section with written instructions, it also reduced (although I wouldn't say eliminated) the need for better organized and deeper documentation, but I at least still don't have the time to make it happen.

I still think there would be some value to that, or a book, but I think a WIKI would be easier to keep up to date as new features are developed, things are changed, or new topics arise that would benefit from having easy to find answers.

Alan