Feedback for my incomplete (and from a beginner) guide for a school project

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SNESLad
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Joined: Sun May 07, 2023 11:44 pm

Feedback for my incomplete (and from a beginner) guide for a school project

Post by SNESLad »

Hello again nesDev,
I would like to gain some feedback on my incomplete beginner's guide (from one beginner to another, using and showing the knowledge I have learnt) that I am making for my school research project.

From what is completed:
1. What areas do you think I should improve in order for an audience of beginners to the SNES and low-level languages who are good at high-level languages like Python and have good technology skills to better understand the topics and concepts shown in the guide?

2. Do you think the resources in the guide are appropriate to the skill level of such a beginner and useful for further learning?

3. Do you think that the explanations are clear, consise, and give enough information for a beginner to understand?

4. Should certain parts be changed around, added, removed, or given a bigger emphasis?

5. For any creators of tutorials, how do you believe they should be structured in order for the topics to be clear, understandable, and make the reader not quit quickly? Also, what audience do you aim to educate and why? What motivates your audience and how do you help foster this motivation? What is the power of a good tutorial on someone and their willingness to continue learning a topic?

6. Any other advice or issues that should be fixed?

Thanks again!
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dougeff
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Re: Feedback for my incomplete (and from a beginner) guide for a school project

Post by dougeff »

Here's my input.

The z flag comments have the wrong branch opcodes. Should be BEQ and BNE

The v overflow flag description is poor. What you have better describes the carry flag. The v flag is used (rarely) for signed math. It is set if a positive added to a positive results in a negative, or if a negative plus a negative results in a positive. (also could be used for a BIT test operation result)

Don't use the phrase "p flag"

I would put "Processor Status Flags" (plural) or "P Register"

P flag makes me think of the Parity Flag that some other unrelated CPUs have. 65816 doesn't have a parity flag.

And, to be honest, SNES programming is not for beginners. If that's your target, the entire thing is going to be WAY over their heads. I don't care how good they are at Python, almost none of that knowledge is going to transfer to assembly programming.

...

edit, and I don't like the description of the Stack. The main function of the stack is to hold return addresses from JSR / JSL calls and interrupts. When you use a JSR the CPU puts a return address on the stack (it grows down) and the RTS pops the address off the stack to return to the main function. There are other uses, such as temporary storage of data, or for passing values.
nesdoug.com -- blog/tutorial on programming for the NES
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SNESLad
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Re: Feedback for my incomplete (and from a beginner) guide for a school project

Post by SNESLad »

Thanks for your feedback dougeff, I really appreciate it! And thank you for your previous response to my first post too!
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