[raphlinus]

I understand where you're coming from. Unfortunately, the academic literature on OT is really difficult. A lot of the papers are flat-out wrong, and even the ones that aren't have tons of confusing notation and terminology. It's a specialized area, so I don't have hopes there will be an easy-to-follow tutorial any time soon.

[sounds]

The linked article here is surprisingly accessible!

I would add just one small tidbit of advice that might help interested people get up to speed: skim the paper, then look at the implementation.

Being able to work with actual code can make a lot of things easier.

(This article comes with working code! Try it out!)