Links to more info on deprecation, history, best practices?

As a TD learner, I would love it if the wiki had more information on its pages, hopefully near the top of each page:

  • DEPRECATED if the current OP or method has fallen out of favor due to platform changes, best practices, etc.

  • ALTERNATIVE if there’s another way to accomplish something, or a similar feature/

  • search-bait text for things that have unexpected names, or common names in other systems (e.g. ‘slew’ for the Lag CHOP).

  • links to supporting research papers (or examples/demos), esp. for features that require a deeper understanding

All of these changes would make for a gentler learning curve.

Thanks for your feedback.
We do add ‘Deprecated’ warnings at the top of pages when OPs are deprecated, and in cases where there are major changes to an operators documentation, you will find “TouchDesigner Build” tags at the bottom of each article if you are using an older version.

Another thing to use in conjunction with the documentation is the Operator Snippets which can be launch from any operator or the OP Create Menu. Here’s you’ll find a bunch of examples of how to use different features of operators. Its not exhaustive, as there are 100s of ways to apply each operator, but they usually show a wide variety of techinques you can adapt to your projects.

Yes, the operator snippets are very helpful!

What I think is missing (for a new user) is context and background information. It reminds me of my time using Zope/Plone. At the time, its official documentation was sparse, but there was a lot of third-party and community support. It was a community of practice moreso than a fully documented system. Which is certainly a valid way of working, but it’s pretty intimidating for a new user, and some folks gave up before “hanging around” long enough to learn the ropes.

TD and its operators are wonderful because they’re so abstract. I think a more “enriched” wiki (as described above) could introduce users to a rich history of research and practice, which would clear up some mysteries and inspire them to stick with it. Let me know if I can help!