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What do you guys like better, Text or video tutorials? I was trying to record a video tutorial, but then it suddenly cut on me 5 minutes through :( There are no good Mac screen recording software that I know of that is free.

Depends on what you’re teaching… if you are showing how to do something, then video works nice, but if you are explaining or discussing the why’s of doing something, then text maybe better. Definitely if you are expecting the audience to follow along with code, then text is needed.

In general, video tutorials are nice if done well. That means having text appear at high speed, no mistakes, no ‘er’ and ‘ums’ in the narration. And all that requires some screen recorder that can be just run and then edited down later, preferably with the possibility of adding voice over.

Whatever you do, it’s quite a bit of work, and kudos to you if you do it… 😊

Video Screencasts with text whenever necessary 😉

I don’t mind a screencast but keep in mind that he who views it needs to have time to adapt the code to his/her application so include the code with it or still a text underneath. screencasts are particular nice when underway and having nothing to then to listen and see with an ipod - iphone - itouch or psp.

I don’t mind it but for me personally i like a text tutorial because it’s easier to do when really doing something of coding.

I’m new to CI (and I like!), but been developing websites with php for quite a while.

What would be good is a few ‘cheatsheets’, nice and simple with a directory structure on the left (i.e. folder diagram) and boxes on the right with controller/model/view code samples pointing to the appropiate directories.

This would not be a substitute for tutorials, but would get the coder to see quickly ‘where’ and ‘what’ the components are, and act as a quick reference.

Maybe this has already been done ?

If not I’m planning to do something like this for my own benefit in a few days time as a reminder of the structure and coding for CI.

showman

What would be good is a few ‘cheatsheets’, nice and simple with a directory structure on the left (i.e. folder diagram) and boxes on the right with controller/model/view code samples pointing to the appropiate directories….

I agree with showman, I’ve read some of the CI books that are published and they are either with topics that cover how to implement certain helpers or developing a certain application (and if you try to stray from it, you get very lost)

I’m also new to CI, but have been developing basics sites for a while, and I have a hard time trying to develop something from scratch.

I’m a big fan of something animated, but sometimes if the video is too long, or covering too much in one sitting, I get antsy and want to quit.

Perhaps making a video with “bite-sized” chunks, and throwing it into a video NLE editor to cut out the fat.

D

I prefer text

Hi,
I have just released Code Igniter 1.7.1 Quick Reference Cheatsheet as printable pdf at http://www.designfellow.com

I first created this for my reference & i wanted to share with CI geeks.

So,please have a look & spread the word grin

Thanks smile

DesignFellow

Jing

I prefer video over text, because I like to see mistakes made on-the-fly and how they are fixed. It’s always interesting to see how others use logic and other tools at-hand to overcome a problem.

Jing

According to the OP it sounded like they want something free that doesn’t cut out after 5 minutes like Jing does.

What I will add, however, is that it’s not necessarily a terrible idea to do a series of quick, 5-minute videos. It forces you to get to the point and allows viewers to easily go back and review specific topics without scrolling through an hour-long video to find what they’re looking for. It also gives you quick access to sites like YouTube without having to chop longer videos up. Jing is great for this.