Start here

Just to make sure everyone on the same page. So here is a short info Q/A - feel free to add anything or to ask questions

Getting Started

If you are interested in contributing to this project , here's how you can do that:

1. First read through project wiki pages and posts on FB group. Develop an understanding about the project.

2. Start participating in discussions and design decisions. Suggest ideas and solutions.

3. Install git or github(windows) or github(general), python 3.2 and the corresponding Pygame to prepare your system for developing.

4. Create a Fork from project repo's currently active branch(?) to get the source code currently the alpha branch and clone this fork in your system. (?) Remember to make an upstream remote for your local repo. (?)

5. Every time you make changes in your local repo, commit and push these changes to your fork and create a pull request. (?)

6. Every time you see changes in the Main repo(SGover's), pull main repo to your local repo by using upstream remote. This will merge your local repo with main repo. (?) NOTE: When using pull and push remember to select the right branch and remote!

7. Keep up to date by joining FB group and keeping an eye out for updates on github.

8. Have questions? Read through FAQs or ask in the FB group.

FAQs

1. Q: The first project is Monopoly - why Monopoly? A: Because we wanted to start with small project - to get used to work together and to get familiar with the different platforms that we are going to use. Once we will finish this project - we will start more serious project (probably it will be more action-type game)

2. Q: What is the deadline for the Monopoly? A: We didn't talk about deadlines yes - but its make sense to finish it around the end of the course (9 of December) - so around this time - lots of people in the course will start asking "whats now/ what should I do now?" we can then suggest them to join our group and by showing them the project that we have already done - will demonstrate high value... So bottom line the soft-deadline for this project is 9 of December.

3. Q: Whats going on here? where is the code? A: Facebook is currently our main way to communicate. We store the code and all the documents related to this project in GitHub. https://github.com/SGover/monopoly

4. Q: What is GitHUB? A: If you are new to GitHUB - in the mean time think about GitHUB as a web-based platform for collaboration in developing software. The platform gives us way to work together on documents/files... Play with the platform (don't worry Shahar is backing up everything so don't worry about breaking stuff).

5. Q: What is your background in coding? I am new to code, can I still help? For example I don’t even know what class is. A: We are all coming from different background, for some of us all our coding background is coming from the “introduction to interactive Programming in Python” . To understand my personal feeling about coding please read this great post from Peter Norvig – director at Google. Learn to program in 10 years - http://norvig.com/21-days.html . Regarding “Class” - this terminology is coming from object oriented – Python is hybrid language you can write in both functional design and OO (==object oriented) design. Python is not fully OO as it doesn’t implement some of the concepts of OO however it’s a good way to start getting into OO. The course is going to cover Classes – and you can find lots of material about it – I will try to post later on link with free books on python.

6. Q: Can I bring friends to this project? A: Of course – if you have friends interesting in coding and in python – feel free to invite them to the group (Assuming they are not trolls/bots – Shahar will approve them) . One of the sources to bring people over here is by pitching this group in the discussion boards in the Coursera – whenever you see post that someone looking for another way to improve his knowledge – direct him to this group.

7. Q: OK – what’s going on right now? Which phase are we at the moment? A: At this moment (4 of November) we are writing the documents required for this project (design, what to do,etc…) We haven’t talked about deadline but from how things going on – I believe that we will start writing code not before end of this week (8/9 of November) . This is excellent news for you as we are only in the beginning of the project…

8. Q: I don’t have a lot of time to contribute – I have full time job, family to feed and I am doing the Coursera python course in parallel – can I still join? A: Yes of course, at this point there is no minimum requirement from anyone, try to contribute as much as possible. On a personal note – if you don’t have time to both contribute to the project and to finish the python course – my suggestion is to finish the course first and then joining us. The python course is a great (free) way to get started with python and with coding.

9. Q: What is in it for me? Why should I join to the group? A: 1.Fun – if you always wanted to build games, this is the place. 2. for learning reasons – if you ever wanted to learn how to code and to participate in developing something “big”. 3. Experience – assuming that eventually we will build something – the fact that you participate in such project will add to your experience and this is something that you can mention in interviews… ( For example yahoo receives every week more than 12K resumes, joining to such group/project will only help you to get notice by Yahoo engineers )

10. Q: what version of Python are we using? A: We are using Python 3.2.5 (python.org) and the corresponding Pygame (pygame.org)

11. Q: any good book reference?

A: Yes, here is a free ebook that explain all the basic concepts of python - it was design for high school students - so it should be relative easy for everyone - http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/