Learning RR's Transcipt

[Ken Norris]

**********
Welcome, Michael...

> From: "Michaeldb B" <mdavidb at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Learning RR's Transcipt
> Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 14:47:12 +0100
> 
> Richard Gaskin wrote:
> 
>> Many if not most of the readers here exhibit unusually high intelligence..
>> Most of the folks on this list have experience in other languages..
> 
> I'm sure those points are generally true, but I don't think they apply, to
> this particular reader, for one. I'll explain why..
> 
> I had a "Sinclair Spectrum" in the 80's and learned to program, a little, in
> its Basic language.
----------snip
Wow! I had one of those things, too. Little black thing that plugged into a
B&W TV, with a pressure sensitive flat keyboard, used a standard portable
tape recorder for storage, right? I went from there to AtariBASIC, then to
HyperCard, now I'm here (but still use HC).
----------
> Then there was a long gap, before I got a (Windows) PC -
> 5 years ago. I was frustrated to find, no easy way to programme, in Windows.
----------
Check out VisualBASIC (oops...is that a no-no here?), although it's not as
easy to write scripts for. I think you're in the right place now.
----------
> I searched - for a Language (or tool) I could cope with. In those searches,
> I never came across any of the "Card" programming tools.(Maybe I didn't
> realise what they were about).
----------
MetaCard for PC's (cross-platform).
----------snip
> So, I started trying to learn Transcript. (As a newbie) I go through the
> extensive documentation. But, probably because I am...let's say
> "intellectually challenged", I don't find it easy to learn.
----------
Did you build the "Hello" stack? Give yourself plenty of lattitude, space
things out to avoid frustration and burnout, breath deep and practice
patience ;-)
----------
> I've had RR for about 10 weeks now. At 66 yrs, this is a hobby pursuit. I'm
> attempting to build a "Horserace Selection" stack. (What else?).
----------
Good grief!, You're about as bad as me in that respect. Nothing like picking
a challenge from the git-go to make yourself learn. The first actual program
I ever wrote was in AtariBASIC (on an original Atari 400 no less), for
spread-betting on football.
----------
> At first, I
> found it slow going. But, now I'm making progress. The link, to earlier
> Hypertalk stuff, helps. I've sent for a Hypertalk book. What I find myself
> yearning for..are more extensive script examples than are found in the docs.
----------
I agree. One of my ideas for beginners is an opensource side-by-side
instructional stack. With some animation that leads you step-by-step, i.e.,
you watch the instructional stack, then try the same actions yourself in
your own stack. You should be able to open the editor and study its scripts,
too, which would be a big help to educators (or anyone) wishing to develop a
course on programming using similar methods.

A progressive set of these things (Beginners, Calculations, DB's,
Communications, Graphics, etc.) could be developed one at a time and placed
on the web for download. Some are already there, i.e., I recommend looking
at the list of User Contributions at RR's website:
<http://www.runrev.com/Revolution1/developercentral/usercontributions.html>

Most of those are opensourced scripts so you can look at how things were
done.
----------
> It's like owning a Ferrari and not knowing how to drive.
----------
Heh, heh. Congratulations...I've never seen it put better!
----------snip 
> One problem I have is - how to deal with the fractions -13/8, 100/30 etc -
> used in betting markets.
----------
You cannot deal with fractions as fractions. Something like x = 13/8 will
always return a FPN (floating point number) in the container (variable), in
this case x = 1.625. To check out such things, you should rely a great deal
on the Message Box (keyboard equivalent 'cmd/M'), but I assume you already
know that.
----------
> I was dissapointed to find, are no books on RR.
----------
You can order a paper manual, but it probably won't include the new things
in the latest version (someone yell at me if I'm wrong, please) and the note
says they're temporarily out of stock, but here's the URL anyway (watchout
for wraparounds):
<http://secure.runrev.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mvc+Screen=CTGY&St
ore_Code=RROS&Category_Code=RM>
----------
> So I looked for books on
> Hypertalk. Although, there are tons of Hypertalk books, available in the
> U.S. There are hardly any available locally in the U.K. where I live. I've
> ordered one from the U.S.
----------
Which one? I recommend "HYPERTALK 2.2, The Book" (Second Edition) Winkler,
Kamins, DeVoto. Jeanne Devoto is on staff at RR, an expert programmer, and a
frequent contributor to this group list. Ordinarily, I'd say that even that
comprehensive book is hopelessly outdated for RR, but that's because, like
many others here, I came over from HyperCard. In your case however, it may
be a good ticket for understanding general xTalk syntax. I still use it
occasionally.
----------
> I have no idea, as yet,  if it will offer answers
> to the questions I have. Dealing with maths/numbers especially.
> Is it my lack of knowledge, or is there a lack of specific commands, for
> manipulating numbers in RR?.
----------
Well, RR is not specifically geared toward engineering, but I haven't run
across a need it couldn't fullfil. Checkout the Development Guide under
'Math, Logic, & Dates'

HTH,
Ken N.