I've been trying to figure out Fantom for the past day and I haven't been able to get my head around it. All of the guides I've found are not complete guides and usually don't start from the most basic things. So I was just wondering if anyone knows about a good (extremely) beginner friendly guide to Fantom.
SlimerDudeSat 17 May 2014
Hi Insanity!
I'm struggling to think of links for a beginner...
Your best bet is probably playing with Fanzy - Fantom online! It has a Tour which gives you a whistle stop tour of Fantom features and lets you try out snippets of code for each.
The official Fantom documentation is really good, but mostly as a reference guide. Meaning you have to know what you're looking for.
tomclSat 17 May 2014
Insanity,
You are right there is a gap. I think it depends what is your background. If you are reasonably familiar with Java or the OO aspects of C++ I think the gap is not too great. Otherwise there is all the syntax of of C++/Java and all the concepts related to OO programming.
Now those can be learnt from any language and I'd argue Fantom is a good place to start. Unfortunately no-one has written a "learn OO programming" tutorial yet using Fantom for examples. Hertz book is an attempt to do this, but not yet complete enough to be very helpful. https://www.penflip.com/Hertz/programming-language-fantom-1-0
I'd be motivated to add to my tutorial - I'm aware it needs many more examples - if you could say what is the sort of stuff you need help with. But my tutorial is never going to be a "learn OO programming using Fantom" guide.
There is one thing might help. When studying the language a lot of what you need for basic computing is hidden in methods of the standard Classes: Int, Float, Num, List, Map etc. You can find these under the class name, itself under the sys pod. I agree it is not great if you have no idea what these are.
InsanityWed 21 May 2014
Thanks Tomcl and SlimerDude for your recommendations, I will definitely look into them. I have some experience with Java and C++ but am really just a novice. I haven't really decided on a first language to really learn completely but I am familiar with the basics of OOP in Java and C++. So yeah I've been trying lots of different languages and not really mastering any. However Fantom has caught my eye ;) Now if only there was Qt for Fantom somehow...
Insanity Sat 17 May 2014
I've been trying to figure out Fantom for the past day and I haven't been able to get my head around it. All of the guides I've found are not complete guides and usually don't start from the most basic things. So I was just wondering if anyone knows about a good (extremely) beginner friendly guide to Fantom.
SlimerDude Sat 17 May 2014
Hi Insanity!
I'm struggling to think of links for a beginner...
I've written articles on How to Install Fantom and then How to run a script which gets you to a "Hello World" stage, but not much more beyond that.
Tom's Short Introduction to Fantom is excellent, but may be too academic for a beginner.
Your best bet is probably playing with Fanzy - Fantom online! It has a
Tourwhich gives you a whistle stop tour of Fantom features and lets you try out snippets of code for each.The official Fantom documentation is really good, but mostly as a reference guide. Meaning you have to know what you're looking for.
tomcl Sat 17 May 2014
Insanity,
You are right there is a gap. I think it depends what is your background. If you are reasonably familiar with Java or the OO aspects of C++ I think the gap is not too great. Otherwise there is all the syntax of of C++/Java and all the concepts related to OO programming.
Now those can be learnt from any language and I'd argue Fantom is a good place to start. Unfortunately no-one has written a "learn OO programming" tutorial yet using Fantom for examples. Hertz book is an attempt to do this, but not yet complete enough to be very helpful. https://www.penflip.com/Hertz/programming-language-fantom-1-0
I'd be motivated to add to my tutorial - I'm aware it needs many more examples - if you could say what is the sort of stuff you need help with. But my tutorial is never going to be a "learn OO programming using Fantom" guide.
There is one thing might help. When studying the language a lot of what you need for basic computing is hidden in methods of the standard Classes: Int, Float, Num, List, Map etc. You can find these under the class name, itself under the sys pod. I agree it is not great if you have no idea what these are.
Insanity Wed 21 May 2014
Thanks Tomcl and SlimerDude for your recommendations, I will definitely look into them. I have some experience with Java and C++ but am really just a novice. I haven't really decided on a first language to really learn completely but I am familiar with the basics of OOP in Java and C++. So yeah I've been trying lots of different languages and not really mastering any. However Fantom has caught my eye ;) Now if only there was Qt for Fantom somehow...