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alredha
04-14-2008, 12:01 AM
hello everyone,

i'm sorry if this is not the proper section.

Thanks god for this community, it's really a great place that without many people end struggling to find solutions.

mel is everywhere, the API is almost nowhere, as i don't have a programming background i'm hoping to get there from my scripting experience, it doesn't matter how long it will take or how much difficult it will be. what's matter is finding a starting point and going on that way. i'm quite sure this is the case of many.

it would be cool if we find anything that put us on the rail, i little push with practice then the one will be autonomous. so any help, any step by step tutorial, or at least someone tell us the environment and tools that we need to start...

what shall i do?
~NoMaD~
04-14-2008, 04:23 AM
Hey Redha,

If you already have a good knowledge of MEL scripting, you have a good starting point with c++. I'd suggest getting a book on c++ to brush up on the basics of programming with Visual Studio and compiling (debug mode etc.)... Another one to try (although not the most complete) is the David Gould "Complete Maya Programming" book, which has a walkthrough of creating plugins...

http://www.davidgould.com/

Remember that Python is rapidly becoming the way to go if you want to program for Maya since maya can run the scripts in uncompiled mode...

Hope the tips help...

Cheers,

Chris
alredha
04-15-2008, 12:51 AM
i should say i'm stuck ! :blush:

i have the two books of complete maya programming, it's really nice.

but i have difficulties with the classes concept, my mind used to think procedurally, and now i need to switch !, i understand the principle but still not clear...

do you know any tutorial for novice!, there should be something alike stuck here in the Mel/API section, a beginner guide.
alredha
04-15-2008, 10:59 AM
oppsss!:surprised

this is only me? or you have noticed it too?
this section has changed the name today from "maya mel" into "maya programming"! or it was like this before?

am i for something?

c++ is explicitly indicated, no execuses are allowed now :), let's drop the load of C++ tutorials over here, come on people :wavey:
_stev_
04-16-2008, 12:56 AM
I found this to be very helpful for C++ basics:

http://newdata.box.sk/bx/c/index.htm
NPuetz
04-16-2008, 10:17 AM
If your going the python route for Maya Programming, a couple of things that i foudn helpful at first were MAYA Help Docs of Course, maya comes with scripted plugins that anyone can open and look at ( C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2008\devkit\plug-ins\scripted ), and also Jason Osipia posted a scripted plugin on Highend3D Jason Osipia (http://highend3d.com/maya/downloads/plugins/polygon/oeRay-py-5167.html) in which he extensively commented on the script bit by bit explaining exactly why he wrote the code that he did. Also, the Maya Programming books that you have are very helpful too, converting the C++ examples they have in there to Python could teach you a lot. Anyways, I would reccommend picking up Python if you are going from MEL to the API with no previous programming experience. Hope this helps, CHEERS!
alredha
04-19-2008, 11:15 PM
in case beginners are intrested!

http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

http://www.siteduzero.com/ (in french, which means SiteFromScratch, very intuitive)
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