The Idiot's Guide to Jass, Does it Exist?

Just wondering if there was a tutorial out there that can teach someone to program in JASS. Also, was wondeirng, how did everyone else learn to program in JASS? I assume you already knew some other programming language and picking up JASS was easy, was just wondering though. Thx for any help, sorry if this question has already been asked.

I started learning JASS specifically for AI about a week ago

I found the JASS Reference Manual very useful. (use google to find Jass Manual if you don't already have it). The JASS syntax checker was also invaluable (same page)

The FAQ on this forum was also useful and is growing.

The most useful of all was posting here because several people answered my questions very very well.

Most notably AIAndy has helped me the most due to my perusing of code he has had a big part in writing - i.e. AMAI/Commander

I suppose the other thing that always helps me when I need to pick up a new language is the tool I use to edit with. I use UltraEdit and for me, creating wordfiles and taglists is a great lesson in what the language fundamentals are. It's annoying that there is an expression "and" as well as a function "And" (not to mention Sleep vs SLEEP) but these are the small lessons that once learned you never need worry about again really.

It helps if you have some experience in a language like java or vb or even javascript (ok or vbscript) although java is best because then in theory you may have had some exposure to callbacks.

Oh, I almost forgot...Do not underestimate the power of the trigger editor for teaching you too. Create a simple on action command in there and convert to custom text. Then bring it into your script, change the var names to more manageable (logical) names and there you go.

The only reason that those of us new to JASS can pick it up in a week without too much hassle is thanks to the huge efforts that people went to before us to expose the API.

You won;t generally find much in tutorials on programming because programming != syntax. Someone who knows how to program will be able to adapt to new syntax painlessly. And therefor these people need very little in the way of tutorials. Someone who knows not how to program, will gain little from a tutorial in my opinion... What's better than a tutorial is sample code which you will find here in various forum topics (good idea to do a search for any topic AIAndy has replied to...hehe)

Hope it helps..

Thxs alot. I will defintely pursue some of your ideas!

Stuff like JASS is a lot easier to learn if you have previous experience in other languages/scripts.

But even if you don't, that won't stop you from learning it.

I haven't taken the time to learn it myself yet but I might give it a try.