Article suggestions / requests

[Nepomuk]

Hi there!
Ever so often, I have an idea for an article that would be great to have - but I may not have the time or the knowledge (maybe even neither) to write it myself. On the other hand, I'm sure there are people around that would like to write an article, but just don't know, what to write about. So I thought, we'll collect suggestions and requests here. Please use the following format:

Area: Possible title

Description:
bla bla bla

Where "Area" should be the language or similar and the "Title" should be a short (possible) title for the article. Then please describe what you imagine the article to be about in more detail in the description.

Then, when someone is prepared to write a certain article, please reply to that post here and I (or some other moderator or editor) will mark the suggestion as taken by you. Here's an example:

Misc: How to build a computer from scratch (28th August 2008: being written by Nepomuk)

Description:
This article should explain, which parts of hardware you need in a standard computer (e.g. mainboard, CPU, hard drive, optical drive, graphics card...), how to put them together, what to take care of (static electricity for example) and what to do, when something doesn't quite work as it should.

Everyone is welcome to post suggestions and also everyone is welcome to use one of the suggestions.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[Nepomuk]

Linux: An Introduction to Ubuntu

Description:
Ubuntu is a very popular Linux distribution, which makes great efforts to be easy to understand even for Linux newbies. This Article should describe, why the author thinks that Ubuntu is such a good distribution and how to install and use it.



Linux: An Introduction to openSUSE

Description:
openSUSE is another very popular Linux distribution, which makes great efforts to be easy to understand even for Linux newbies. This Article should describe, why openSUSE is such a good distribution in his opinion and how to install and use it.

[Nepomuk]

.NET : C# - A quick introduction (6. October 2008: insertAlias will try to get something together)

Description:
This Howto should explain the basics of how to write programs in C# for beginners. Syntax, Keywords, common datatypes, etc. should be introduced with examples. I'd say it should not focus on Windows.Forms, as that can have a own Howto.



.NET - Using System.Windows. Forms

Description:
The graphical library System.Windows. Forms should be introduced and a few examples (in various languages?) should be shown. (e.g. "Hello World" programs, Text fields, buttons,...)

[asedt]

Excel macron - Beginners guide to Excel macron

Description:
Introduction to the VBE, how to start the editor, run macros, add module, add sub (macro), use "record macro" to investigate what you can do, use Range/and access sheet objects(rows, colums, sheets), while loop over each row in a sheet, copy sheets from Access or other Excel sheet. Help resources on net, VBA, references or other help pages. ++Common stuff you do.



Excel macron - Intermediate guide to Excel macron

Description:
User forms/ class modules, Object browser, Immediate window, Locals window, Watch window and some more. ADVANCED STUFF!!!111+++? :P

[Curtis Rutland]

.NET : C# - A quick introduction

Description:
This Howto should explain the basics of how to write programs in C# for beginners. Syntax, Keywords, common datatypes, etc. should be introduced with examples. I'd say it should not focus on Windows.Forms, as that can have a own Howto.



.NET - Using System.Windows. Forms

Description:
The graphical library System.Windows. Forms should be introduced and a few examples (in various languages?) should be shown. (e.g. "Hello World" programs, Text fields, buttons,...)

That's a pretty hefty request, but I'll see what I can do about writing some beginner .NET articles after I finish with my Silverlight one.

[Nepomuk]

This isn't something I'd call an article, but you can help anyway:

Linux Tips and Tricks (Open for anyone to participate)

Description:
I've already started collecting some nice Linux Tips and Tricks here, but of course everyone is welcome to participate. Most entries there (so far) are about how to use and adjust the command line. They are all simple tricks that aren't worth an own article really in my opinion, but should be available here. So, if there's anything you think is worth sharing, feel free to tell us about it!

[mldisibio]

.NET : C# - A quick introduction (6. October 2008: insertAlias will try to get something together)

Description:
This Howto should explain the basics of how to write programs in C# for beginners. Syntax, Keywords, common datatypes, etc. should be introduced with examples. I'd say it should not focus on Windows.Forms, as that can have a own Howto..

That's a pretty hefty request, but I'll see what I can do about writing some beginner .NET articles after I finish with my Silverlight one.

I just found this thread after replying to the little conversation about "sarcasm" because I thought "what this site needs is some beginner tutorials".

Here is a thought. In my latest employment I am one of a two-man dev team trying to get an application to market. So I really have little time for any big undertaking. That said, I have experience giving tutorial-like classes to my peers, and I tend to keep the material that I either formally prepare or snippets I have worked out for myself.

insertAlias, if you could organize the topics and simply choose one or two very specific topics you would like help with, I would be glad to write short, focused tutorials, which I actually enjoy doing. I can't promise how fast they will get done, and I really don't have the bandwidth to think through an overall plan, but if someone gives me a specific topic, I would enjoy helping out on this.

Mike

[Curtis Rutland]

Great idea Mike. Give me a few days to come up with some ideas, and I'll put together another thread in the expert's area, and you can pick whichever you like.

[balabaster]

Given my current time constraints, I can't offer much, but I'd like to help out on this one too. Let me know if there's anything I can do.

[Curtis Rutland]

For any Experts, here's the thread:

http://bytes.com/staff/experts/857744-net-beginner-articles

If you aren't a .NET expert and still wish to help, let me know.

[Nepomuk]

Misc: Using the Google search engine efficiently

Description:
A lot of questions that come up here can be answered by a simple search with one of the mayor search engines. As the most popular one nowadays is clearly Google, an article about the various syntactic tricks and keywords and about finding good search terms.

This article was originally suggested by DonRayner, although he apparently meant it ironically:

So, who's going to write the article on "Getting the most out of Google" ;)

I think however, that it would be a good idea and would of course be happy to help writing it.

[Niheel]

Nepomuk, that would be a good article, i followed it from the thread in the experts panel.

[Dormilich]

how to display special characters

when you write an article, you may find yourself in need of some special characters you won’t find on your keyboard (like mathematical operators (≡ or ⊄)).

all you need to insert these into the article is their Unicode number (code point). just type the numerical (decimal) entity, and the character will be converted upon submitting the form.

so ⊂ becomes ⊂ (subset of)

in case you want to display these entities as such, you have to escape the ampersand.

Happy writing!