Documentation & Books & related

[Ken Ray]

Dan,

I couldn't have said it better myself. :-)

Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com
Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/


> -----Original Message-----
> From: use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com 
> [mailto:use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com] On Behalf Of 
> Dan Shafer
> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 11:16 PM
> To: How to use Revolution
> Subject: Re: Documentation & Books & related 
> 
> 
> Wow. I have now read every single post in this thread and spent a lot 
> of time thinking about what is  being said vs. what is being 
> left sort 
> of unstated or assumed. While I would never claim my summary/analysis 
> here to be authoritative, here's what one user/writer has 
> gleaned from 
> the conversation.
> 
> 1. Revolution as currently constituted does not have a friendly 
> out-of-the-box experience for the complete newbie. This is partly due 
> to the organization of the docs (which appear to become progressively 
> easier to use as you immerse yourself in the environment and its 
> terminology) and partly because Revolution, unlike HyperCard, greets 
> the newbie with a blank screen that basically dares him or her to 
> figure out how to do something  useful.
> 
> 2. RunRev is a small company and perhaps shouldn't even *try* 
> to be all 
> things to all people. Focusing its attention, as it has to now, on 
> people with either some programming background or at least a strong 
> interest in/inclination toward programming as an art/skill has the 
> unfortunate side effect of leaving newcomers feeling unwelcome but it 
> may not be feasible to be both a powerful development tool for people 
> who have the mindset or skill set or interest to be 
> programmers *and* a 
> tool for newbies who "just want to make something useful happen."
> 
> 3. As Chipp Walters has said a couple of times, nobody said 
> this would 
> be easy. But there *is* a sort of implication that it at 
> least won't be 
> terribly hard. Rev does not deliver against that implied promise, as 
> described in item #1, above. Still, there *is* a course of action, 
> outlined by Chipp, that will lead at least many people to become 
> productive in Rev.
> 
> 4. RunRev is working hard on new docs and a new out-of-the-box 
> experience for the next release of the product.
> 
> 5. Meanwhile, there's a clear need for lots of step-by-step examples. 
> The issue is what topics need this kind of coverage and are not yet 
> covered in Rev docs. I'll start another thread to gather 
> input on that 
> topic as soon as I post this.
> 
> At the end of it all, one undeniable fact persists. Many hundreds of 
> people, mostly probably from *some* programming or scripting 
> background, *have* managed to find their way through the docs, this 
> list, and the absolutely essential trial-and-error that is part of 
> learning any practical skill and have become proficient enough to 
> produce satisfying and satisfactory solutions. So while 
> improvement is 
> definitely called for, we are equally definitely starting from a very 
> high plateau of a beginning.
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dan Shafer, Revolutionary
> Author of  "Revolution: Software at the Speed of Thought" 
> http://www.revolutionpros.com for more info Available at 
> Runtime Revolution Store (http://www.runrev.com/RevPress)
> 
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