New Discord for AM developers and users

General company announcements

Moderators: russ, Ralph

Message
Author
User avatar
jph
Posts: 2846
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:50 pm
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow..

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#31 Post by jph »

Keith Baxter wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:44 pm Joe,

It is an open chat. You chat to an open audience. text, voice, video, stream, podcast.
So if you are chatting about switches on a arduino board then all participants are invited to chime in. Like a conference where anyone is invited.

You can share your screen and show code, diagrams and what you are doing.

Only members of the discord can participate. And moderation may and can be implemented.

Register, go to a chat room and give it a try. I will be around for the next 2-3 hour or so.

Keith
Hi Keith, ah, ok, I understand it a bit more now.
Thanks ever so much for the invite, it really means a lot to me.
But, this is simply not my scene. (Which dates me haha)
Anything that needs to be discussed can be done via email for me. ;)
Sincerely, best of luck and I wish you and the project well.
Joe
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

User avatar
Keith Baxter
Posts: 4671
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:00 am
Location: Botswana

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#32 Post by Keith Baxter »

Joe,

I think you are old enough to remember when the transistor first started to become popular. Peeps were wondering how this could possibly take over the valve.

To pass over something because it is out of you comfort zone has it's pros and cons.

I can assure you my email is "Dead Fred" and only used to validate subscriptions. An annoying requirement these days.

Venture out of the box you created. You might find more open communication in the latter part of life. You will never know.

Just look at Adam. :lol:

Keith
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

User avatar
Keith Baxter
Posts: 4671
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:00 am
Location: Botswana

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#33 Post by Keith Baxter »

Hi ,

For those skeptical. Look at the possibility.
A clip from zibo discord to demonstrate.




Keith
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

User avatar
jph
Posts: 2846
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:50 pm
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow..

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#34 Post by jph »

Hi Keith ;)
Doesn't do anything for me unfortunately - although that video was probably not a good example - a bit like slow motion twitch. I DO sometimes watch iRacing on twitch when Lando Norris is on (I am an F1 fan) that's about it. I have absolutely no desire to USE twitch.
I understand that the discord thing may offer more, as you said. But it still is not a format I would want to use.
As for 'comfort zone', well :D , it has absolutely nothing to do with a 'comfort zone'. My limits on what to use are purely by personal choice gleaned from experience. They are not limits that I 'reach', they are limits that I choose to deliberately impose.
I dont posses a microphone and have no desire to buy one. I don't possess a web cam and have no desire to buy one as I have no use for either. Oh, I tell a lie !.. yes actually I DO have a couple of web cams, the SONY PS3 EYE units, both with the UV filter removed to use as head trackers with FaceTrackNoIR. In fact I think I have around 10 :lol: . I bought them in a job lot as the ones I got were the ones that were capable of having the UV filter removed and a small piece of floppy disk material added as a visible light blocker. (not all the PS3 EYE units were capable of having the UV filter removed.) I also have trackIR of course, but the home brew version is good fun to play around with. but, that's a bit OT .
Whilst at work I had enough video conferencing and audio conference calls to last a lifetime. Yes, again, I know this is not 'quite' the same.... but the same reasons apply.
I CAN see that it will certainly appeal to some users of course and that is great and I am sure it will and does offer them a great experience.
As for transistors, well, yes of course I certainly remember the change over period from tubes to transistors - way before readily available IC's. However the use of tubes / valves etc was still beneficial in a lot of a areas - such as HF amplifier stages in Amateur radio. getting your hands on a few BC108s in the early 70's at a reasonable price was amazing. AND they are still available today from many suppliers - including mainstream such as farnel. Yet they were originally released in the middle to late 1960's. Valves were also common place up to the 80's until the solid state TVs etc were replacing the Valve or hybrid sets.
So there is no direct obsolescence correlation in another form of internet 'interaction' to hardware tech. I know more people that would never use any 'social media' platform than I do that do use it or would use it. (BBS / Forums not included). Same as twitter and instagram, tiktok etc etc etc and all the other similar things, yet I can - sort of - understand why some may want to. It is not the 'future' Keith, It is simply part of it and will not make standard comms methods obsolete. But it is certainly another option, just not necessarily a 'better' option overall.
As for 'Adam' well, that's another fictitious being who was pissed off living in a bloody garden with no tee shirts and shorts. So he went scrumping and finally escaped. Seems like a good ending to me ? Plus he then had the pick of the gals and not the boring one with the damn fig leaves. Win Win .. :mrgreen: :lol: :lol: ;)
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

FarmerTom
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 8:00 am

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#35 Post by FarmerTom »

Hello Everyone!

As a beginner I like this forums. Currently I am still studying and have nothing useful to contribute here, but it is the primary source for information on AirManager, Instrument Development, Arduino and so on.
My second source is the wiki.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but with this Discord I have a fear that knowledge is becoming more and more fragmented. Or am I wrong? As a support tool, is Discord the future for information? Is the forum still being maintained or will it be mandatory to register on the Discord if you need information about the development of instruments?

This is not supposed to be an attack on this Discord. It just makes collecting information more complicated for me.

Thank you very much and greetings from Germany!
Tom

User avatar
Keith Baxter
Posts: 4671
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:00 am
Location: Botswana

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#36 Post by Keith Baxter »

Hi,


The forum is the primary source of information. It has it's limitations though

I do not foresee the discord taking over. It is an avenue to chat and share ideas.

The chat rooms are the biggest attraction. Members can share screens and work on code in real time. Others can join in and learn, assist, and make comment.

@stickandrudder and I had a session yesterday. We discussed scaling of maps for about an hour. Code styles were shared via screen sharing, something not possible here. Kristoffer learnt quit a lot in that hour and found out many things that he did not realize could be done.

It is true that what was discussed is not recorded and that information lost. But something I will look into. I will be doing scheduled streams and those will be recorded and available on the Air Man youtube channel

Having said that the wiki is the most important aspect of Air Manager and the forum/support ticket will not become redundant.

Keith
AMD RYZEN 9 5950X CPU, Corsair H80I cooler, ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD Ryzen Mother Board,  32Gb ram Corsair Vengeance 3000Mh, MSI GTX960 4G graphics card 

User avatar
jph
Posts: 2846
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:50 pm
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow..

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#37 Post by jph »

edit - I overlapped Keith there - but no worries. - I do agree with most of what Keith has written.

HI Tom, no need to worry at all.

The discord is a completely separate thing setup by a couple of former members as an additional option for those who want to use it. It is nothing at all to do with Sim Inno although the guys at sim inno may well drop in from time to time
As a support tool, no, I don't believe for one minute that discord is the 'future' for support information for a product of this nature or ever will be. it is simply another option that some have chosen to experiment with.
There is nothing now or in the foreseeable future that can ever be a replacement for written information that can be searched and read at your own time and pace. That will always remain the main support. Without the things being recorded in written format, then you are correct, it becomes entirely fragmented. Whilst it may be very useful for a user to talk to people in a ;live; situation for advise, that is only useful to that user(s) at the time. When a question is asked and answered on these written forums, then the thread etc is available for anyone to read at any time. Same with the wiki. That can always be expanded and remains a searchable and written database. Even recorded and saved 'video' or chat from discord have very very limited value due to the lack of ability to get to the point that you are interested in, however, we can and should wait and see how it develops.

If a couple of users, or a single user, wants to setup a 'discord' or a 'twitch' channel, or any other from of 'media' then that is entirely up to them.
Youtube videos, for example - amateur or professional - can be useful in some limited occasions.
Have no worries.
The best things that could happen to improve support would be, imho-
-- People properly commenting their code in publicly downloadable content. This is severely lacking to almost non existent.
-- Improvements to the wiki pages and downloadable, off line easy to access AM API and function list.

Also, something completely out of SI hands, but there needs to be a decent on line LUA programming resource. The 'official' LUA org pages are simply terrible the worst I have ever seen.. There isn't even, afaik, a decent book on LUA. All the information on the main LUA language, which AM builds on, that I have found on line really seems to be written by someone who does not understand how to pass information on to others. It must qualify as one of THE WORST documented programming languages in the world.
all imho of course. ;)
Joe
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

FarmerTom
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 8:00 am

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#38 Post by FarmerTom »

Hi Joe an Keith!

Thanks a lot for the Info. The mainreason i was asking is, that Ralph wants to make an announcement on Discord regarding the further Development (or Release?) of AM4, which i am very interested in on Saturday. https://siminnovations.com/forums/viewt ... f=5&t=4429
I understand that the Discord Channel is a community platform and has no connection to Siminnovations, except the Discussion about Air Manager. :-)
Ralphs announcement made me a bit nervous, because announcing release dates or development states (or anything else he wants to tell us) are Infos, that i would expect to be in this Forum's "Announcements" Section where i wasnt able to find it.
After Keiths and Joes explanations, i am shure this was just my "german Angst"... Sorry... :-)

@jph: downloadable Code is another source of Info for me too. You are absolutely right... I gathered most of my (AM) LUA knowledge from downloaded Instruments, the WIKI, this forum and a Kindle Book in german language. It is also available in english Language, if you want to check it out. (Amazon search string: DE: "Lua Programmierung: Der ultimative Anfänger-Leitfaden, um Lua Schritt für Schritt zu lernen" EN: "Lua Programming: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Learn Lua Step by Step")... although this book has almost no information about advanced scripting techniques or how to transfer that knowledge to AM...

Thanks again and kind regards,
Tom

User avatar
jph
Posts: 2846
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:50 pm
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow..

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#39 Post by jph »

Hi Tom,
Yes, all agreed,
I must confess,
the use of the 'discord' thing for Ralph to detail info about AM 4 and answer questions is a classic example of a GOOD use of this platform. This is an example of where a 'video' would be a useful contribution to all and far easier to say the things in depth as opposed to him having to write them. Also, appropriate questions in such a conversation (although more of an announcement that may become a conversation) may be beneficial.
That is one area that it may be useful as it is of interest to all. Not essential by any means, but certainly of interest and potentially useful.
One would hope that if this occurs, then it would be available via a simple link to a web page with no 'discord' subscribed service. It would only then be of interest to me..
If it meant having to 'join' or create an 'account' with 'discord' to even 'view' the content, then absolutely no way would it ever come near my PC.
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

User avatar
Ralph
Posts: 7867
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 7:02 pm
Location: De Steeg
Contact:

Re: New Discord for AM developers and users

#40 Post by Ralph »

Corjan is worried that people might think that it is our (Sim Innovations) Discord, it is not, it's a community project.
It is not our intention to bring our updates / news to Discord, it is just my intention to support this initiative by joining in. It is not something we are gonna do on a regular basis, so don't be afraid that you're missing out if you're not on Discord.

Post Reply