Hi all,
As you know, the MAXScript Help in Max underwent a complete conversion from MS World to HTML to XML in the last two years. Esp. the last step introduced a vast amount of misformatting errors that affect both the code examples and feature descriptions.
Despite my best efforts to fix them before release, a lot of them are still there.
On the positive side, the last version of the help provides a link at the bottom of the page for reporting problems to Autodesk. I get to read all these reports and am going through the help, fixing the reported issues. But I suspect that a lot of you have found broken code or wrong text (esp. missing or additional spaces) but have not reported them.
Please consider reporting any problems you find while using the Help in the next 3-4 months.
Now, to lighten up the mood, go to the following page and have a laugh:
#viewportChange: undefined
Sent every time the viewport parameters change, including panning, zooming and or biting the viewport or changing the active viewport.Currently, there is no notification for viewport layout change.
(Somehow, an extra space was inserted during the conversion process exactly in the “right” place in the word “orbiting”.)
It’s great to have communities to do work for free, innit
Here’s one I came across recently: http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/index.html?url=files/GUID-C1F6495F-5831-4FC8-A00C-667C5F2EAE3-2063.htm,topicNumber=d28e694276,hash=WS3ED54CBA79FF2E3D-7A802F912B7835E9A3-4C45
In the last example, there’s a quote character that should not be there (msZip.unloadPackage’)
Actually the one you are referring to is at the bottom of the page here. One major downside to the new help, is you can’t copy the link from the browser as the help uses a lot of css and javascript redirecting without changing the actual URL. So you need to actually copy the URL from a link to the page in question from another page (the search links won’t work either).
-Eric
Thanks, fixed together with all other misformatted examples on that page!
Ah yeah that link ended up being rather incorrect…
Another thing that I would like to see improved is the index function. That’s the main thing I use in the chm version of the documentation. It’s very useful when you want to quickly look up some specifics about a function or definition. In the new version however, it is rather useless…
I hear you.
Unfortunately, I have no control over the underlying technology.
Fortunately, I was told things will be improving in the near future.
Everybody, keep on asking/voting for a CHM version of the help (it exists, it is just not posted anywhere)
Here’s another I came across recently: http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-79537E16-FE25-4567-BEA6-06F39E0A5C1-607.htm
<ReferenceTarget>LayerManager.getLayerObject {… should be ILayerManager.getLayerObject.
Good catch! That one is sneaky, since ILayerManager is not even documented, except for the example.
layerManager
--> <Interface:LayerManager>
ilayerManager
--> #Struct:ILayerManager(
getLayerObject:<fn>; Public)
Hey Bobo,
here is my report (see the pictures), its not just about concrete page but the css style formating at all as this affect all pages. Thanks.
Yes, I found that in many places and I am fixing it by just avoiding super-long lines.
Unfortunately, I have no access over the CSS as it is shared with the main Max Help.
I personally don’t like that specific feature (I would rather have it wrap around).
Someone should come up with a grease monkey script or something, for me the online help seems to work relatively fast, and I like it that I can have multiple tabs open. But the css is horrible, and these little overflow issues are annoying.
Some issues
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-461915FA-31A2-49CE-84AF-2544B782ACA-1832.htm
Halfway some paragraphs where the dot(.) is placed after a space.
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-DAB53D18-EE71-4624-8796-87C74C9261E-1623.htm
The first example has too many spaces in the optional params
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-A2579383-CAA2-446B-8034-0502DDBBAAD-1626.htm
Example at 2/3 of the page is obviously missing parentheses, don’t know if it more is missing.
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-695C13A5-B461-4520-8540-47D18CA23AB-1627.htm
First paragraph dots(.)
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-3CF6FA6C-4CEA-4CC4-BACF-B2E40EF28C5-1732.htm
I think the first code block is wrong
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-9AA3FE8F-1B39-42FE-BC4F-C915EDE1B34-1733.htm
Same as above
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-B0AE3E3F-140A-49A2-844B-3C398BA9756-1355.htm
At 4/5 there’s a rather large unformatted piece of tekst below an example.
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-71299FC9-9EE4-45EB-AF7D-146F31EB6AC-1356.htm
Spaces between hashtag and property names.
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-3DD33E61-FD77-4492-9A8A-4ABBCDB3CC0-1367.htm
Spaces after dot in property names
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/14/ENU/MAXScript%20Help%202012/files/GUID-ED23BCBD-2344-4DFB-BA5A-ABAF0495116-1372.htm
Error in first line of first example > =float_list > missing variable
That’s it for now
-Johan
Ok, for firefox and chrome users I have a decent solution for coloring the online helpfile.
- Get the Stylish extension (FF or Chrome)
FF > https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/?src=external-userstyleshome
Chrome > https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe - Take a moment to understand how it works.
- Add the stylesheet. > http://scripts.subd.nl/?f=docs_stylished.css
- Goto the help website, now it should look like
Note the icon in the lower left.
For all you hackers,
Additions and tweaks to the stylesheets are much appreciated offcourse, some visual errors remain, because some elements are not named and use the same css classes. No way around as far as I can tell.
-Johan