So last night I found myself totally energized and enthused, ready to start the process of demystifying the innards of DirectX 10. Of course it is now late into the evening, I’m sitting in my totally tricked out leather chair that is hugging me the way a momma bear hugs her cubs. A Detroit Lions night-light is cascading a soft blue hue off of the wall behind me, indicating that this is my time, the part of the evening which I do with as I please.
After a few hours, I began to grow tired of catching up with friends via social media and perusing my favorite technology bookmarks. Admittedly, I’m super tired by now as the past events of the day and homework have done me in, the cool air from the A/C is making me want to shut everything down and crash for the night. However, I have commitments to keep, goals to attain and a self-imposed mountain of documentation to wade through…it is obvious that I am stalling.
Anyway, I begin to realize that the initial tutorials in the DirectX samples were at best grossly beginner level. Seriously, very beginner and it was this realization that started to make me even sleepier.
Usually, when I start to cover material or attempt to review documentation I know well enough, my eyes will instantly start to glaze over the information, my brain begins to sound the alarm and fights the idea of attempting to retain any of it.
For example, the creation of a Win32 window was tutorial #0…OMG, where is the hot fork with the blunt tips so I can jab my eyes out in order to stay awake? Likewise, the next couple of tutorials were similar in comparison, but I digress and realized the need for them…I was tired.
Furthermore, I found myself getting side tracked, drifting mentally and thinking of other ways to approach my goals, the highlighter markers strewn about my desk were beginning to become interesting. In other words, I was slipping into a state where I was going back to the initial planning phase for achieving the mission. Granted, I already have a plan in place, but I continued to wrestle with why should I crawl before walking. In the end the answer was simple, because I said I would.
At this point I’m trying to come up with a presentation format that will prove beneficial to a newbie who is venturing out for the first time with DirectX. My goal definitely is not to write a set of DirectX tutorials, but to highlight the salient points that 1.) A newbie necessarily would not know to focus on. and 2.) The “lazy coder” wants made available to him/her without having to actually hunt for it. In short, identifying an audience to address will help determine the blue print necessary to present my findings.
I’m sure that this post highlights the fact I am ready to jump head first into all the cool features of the API. With my hair on fire, I am fighting the urge to get immersed into reverse engineering the tutorials out-of-order just to suit my desires.
Consequently, I don’t want to miss the forest for trees – I have plenty of time before I graduate from DeVry, so much to learn and lots of room for personal growth. Having said all that I have, my knee burns will reveal that I am crawling, so if you happen to see my mom, please remind her that my bottle is on the table…I cant reach it.
