Unhelpful Tutorial

[Eilessa]

First of all, thank you for your tutorials. They are amazing!

However, there is one I find I am not helped by at all. the http://www.sfml-dev.org/tutorials/2.1/compile-with-cmake.php. It says with windows, I need not install anything, but I cannot get it to work. Am I supposed to install CMake? I am not an unintelligent person so this is something you really should look into clarifying. If you clearly write nothing needs to be installed, then it should be specified if there is indeed something that needs to be installed.

[zsbzsb]

What is not clear? Clearly the sentence is referring to the previously mentioned things (dependencies).

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context_%28language%29

On Windows and Mac OS X, all the needed dependencies are provided directly with SFML, so you don't have to download/install anything.

Of course you need to either install CMake or download the standalone version of it. By stating that it isn't clear that CMake is required we might as well say you don't even need a C++ compiler to use SFML. Sometimes things are clearly implied (like all the screenshots of CMake which can't happen unless you install/run it).

[Eilessa]

As you yourself quotes: "all the needed dependencies are provided directly with SFML", which is very easily assumed to include CMake. If the tutorial was truly meant to be helpful, and for beginners, this would be clarified. All that is needed is a parenthesis saying "(except for CMake)". If that is clear to you, great. But it is very arrogant and unhelpful to refuse it and treat all who do not immediately see it as idiots.

Thank you but no thank you for your help

[zsbzsb]

The thing is, CMake is not a dependency. Dependencies are other libraries that SFML requires to be used with. And you can very well use SFML and not have to touch CMake unlike the real dependencies SFML uses. As I said before, CMake can be grouped in closer to the actual compiler because it is not a dependency, simply a build system.

[eXpl0it3r]

SFML requires a certain amount of knowledge in different areas. We don't try to explain all the development tools, we just want to make it easier to understand how to use the common tools with SFML.

In general when talking about dependencies of an application or library, every C++ developer should know that this means other libraries which depend on said application or library and not tools used to build the given application or library. This is general C++/programming knowledge and nothing SFML should need to explain in its tutorials.

As for CMake, you might want to look closer at what exactly this tool does, that way you might start to understand that CMake as much of a "dependency" as your compiler is.

[Eilessa]

I group this tutorial in the same category as the tutorials helping you set up SFML with for instance Visual Studio. Then it could be argued that in fact they DO instruct the user with regards to the compiler.

Regardless... ALL I'M SAYING IS: It would be helpful and much clearer to a lot of beginners who may never have heard of CMake before (like me) to add that short text, less than a sentence. You may not agree, but if it indeed is helpful to people - why do you keep opposing it so much. Because I refuse to believe you think these people should just get out and not use SFML.

Bottom line - the other tutorials have impressed me to no end with the information and how helpful they are to beginners. This one didn't. I have a solution, do what you want with it. Use it (or modify it) and improve the tutorial, or ignore it, arguing that you yourselves already know the information so it needn't be included.

[Laurent]

Yes, we can replace "dependencies" with "libraries" if it makes things clearer for beginners. And explicitly mention that CMake must be installed in any case, if it makes things even clearer.

However I don't think it's fair to say that the tutorial is unhelpful, and didn't help you at all, if it was just one sentence (even one word) that was not clear. Or did you really mean that the entire tutorial is unclear?

Thanks for the feedback anyway

[Eilessa]

I think that would be clearer and very helpful 

You're right - it's unfair to call the entire tutorial unhelpful because of this one thing. However it was for me as this stumped me and prevented me from doing any of it. That's why all of it was unhelpful to me specifically.