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TNet 3 Support / Re: TNet is very troubling (furious)
« on: August 14, 2015, 01:42:56 PM »
I have to agree that the general idea behind this thread is an issue I have with TNet as well.
I bought TNet about 2.5 years ago (February or March, 2013, IIRC) when it was fairly new. It looked useful. It looked very powerful. But there was virtually no documentation for it. Yes, the source code is there for me to peruse, but it's a massive library and really overwhelming. Point is, I bought TNet so I wouldn't have to learn or understand how the networking works behind the scenes. I just needed an API to let me interface with the networking, and I needed documentation to teach me about the API.
But going by the quality of NGUI, and the large amount of tutorial videos for it, I figured TNet was just young and the documentation and tutorials would come in time.
I was wrong.
2.5 years later, this single page of documentation is still practically the only thing we have explaining how TNet works. There's also a video tutorial, but TNet has changed quite a bit over the years and the video quickly became outdated.
As was pointed out by Shifty Geezer, to use TNet, you have to do things the TNet way. The problem is that the TNet way isn't really, thoroughly explained. That's my major (and perhaps only) complaint about TNet. I can tell that it's a really powerful and useful system. But the parts that it is made from aren't really explained, nor is the general concept behind the whole thing.
And looking at the source code doesn't help a whole lot at understanding the overall theory/concept of TNet. Just look at the many threads here where people don't understand the relationship between Server, Host, and Client. Imagine all the threads that would never exist (freeing up Aren's time) if there was some documentation that explains these concepts? That's just one example! What about explaining what channels are and how they work and how they should be used? The documentation page doesn't even mention DataNode, which devomage said is the best part of TNet.
In summary: I bought TNet when it was young, because I had no doubt in Aren's ability to make a great product. And when I found there was little helpful documentation, I decided to set TNet aside for a while and give Aren some time to "finish" the documentation. As I patiently waited for this, weeks became months, then months became years, and I'm still not using TNet in any projects.
Please document TNet. Explain the general concepts. Code examples are useful, but English sentences describing the overall process and the TNet way (ideal usage of TNet) would be so much more helpful.
And just to be clear: This isn't meant to be taken as derogatory toward TNet's capabilities or functionality. I'm just trying to say that TNet is a good (great?) project held back by the lack of documentation that would make it accessible to people who want to use it, and in some (many?) cases have even paid for it. I also believe it could greatly reduce the amount of time Aren has to spend providing support, as most noob questions would be explained in the documentation.
I bought TNet about 2.5 years ago (February or March, 2013, IIRC) when it was fairly new. It looked useful. It looked very powerful. But there was virtually no documentation for it. Yes, the source code is there for me to peruse, but it's a massive library and really overwhelming. Point is, I bought TNet so I wouldn't have to learn or understand how the networking works behind the scenes. I just needed an API to let me interface with the networking, and I needed documentation to teach me about the API.
But going by the quality of NGUI, and the large amount of tutorial videos for it, I figured TNet was just young and the documentation and tutorials would come in time.
I was wrong.
2.5 years later, this single page of documentation is still practically the only thing we have explaining how TNet works. There's also a video tutorial, but TNet has changed quite a bit over the years and the video quickly became outdated.
I've learnt that TNet is meant to be used the TNet way. When you understand how it works (which granted isn't anywhere near as well explained as the package is written!) it works very well and provides a very easy framework for network play.
As was pointed out by Shifty Geezer, to use TNet, you have to do things the TNet way. The problem is that the TNet way isn't really, thoroughly explained. That's my major (and perhaps only) complaint about TNet. I can tell that it's a really powerful and useful system. But the parts that it is made from aren't really explained, nor is the general concept behind the whole thing.
And looking at the source code doesn't help a whole lot at understanding the overall theory/concept of TNet. Just look at the many threads here where people don't understand the relationship between Server, Host, and Client. Imagine all the threads that would never exist (freeing up Aren's time) if there was some documentation that explains these concepts? That's just one example! What about explaining what channels are and how they work and how they should be used? The documentation page doesn't even mention DataNode, which devomage said is the best part of TNet.
TNet is an awesome package. the DataNode class alone is worth the license cost.
In summary: I bought TNet when it was young, because I had no doubt in Aren's ability to make a great product. And when I found there was little helpful documentation, I decided to set TNet aside for a while and give Aren some time to "finish" the documentation. As I patiently waited for this, weeks became months, then months became years, and I'm still not using TNet in any projects.
Please document TNet. Explain the general concepts. Code examples are useful, but English sentences describing the overall process and the TNet way (ideal usage of TNet) would be so much more helpful.
And just to be clear: This isn't meant to be taken as derogatory toward TNet's capabilities or functionality. I'm just trying to say that TNet is a good (great?) project held back by the lack of documentation that would make it accessible to people who want to use it, and in some (many?) cases have even paid for it. I also believe it could greatly reduce the amount of time Aren has to spend providing support, as most noob questions would be explained in the documentation.