Documentation & Books+sorry!+conlcusion (?OT)

[Richard Gaskin]

Wolfgang M.Bereuter wrote:

>> Novice programmers can't be expected to 'dig for diamonds' because they
>> (a) don't know how to dig, (b) don't know what to dig with or for, and 
>> (c)
>> don't know how to ask relevant questions.
>>
> One of so many great postings about this theme!

Feel free to add more -- Judy and others are continuing the discussion 
on docs in the new RevDocs group:

<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RevDocs/>


> This following example shows exactly the difference:
>  From Richard and from Marian.
> Richard´s Array description: My impression (feelings): a professional 
> description, but I did not understand it!
> Marian´s Array description: A (maybee for a scripter not so professional 
> description) but I understood it in a few seconds.

There is a more salient difference between the two posts -- take a look 
at them again:

Richard's:
<http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-revolution/2004-July/039018.html>

Marian's:
<http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-revolution/2004-July/039021.html>

Marian's post describes arrays in the abstract mathematical sense, and 
explicitely notes that there may be little relationship between her 
generalized description and how it applies to using arrays in Rev.

My post gives specific Transcript examples, explaining each line in  in 
the context of solving a specific problem.

Rev's arrays are associative arrays, and are very different from arrays 
used in math.  While Marian's post did a great job of explaining what 
arrays are in the math sense, her own post made it clear that there was 
little relationship to her description and Rev's associative arrays.

This is not a "battle of the posts"; on the contrary, for what she was 
attempting to describe Marian described it well.

But the main difference is that mine offered specific, practical advice 
on using arrays in Rev.

My post tells a story: it begins with things the reader understands 
(Judy is very familiar with working with delimited lists) and branches 
out to how associative arrays can be used to solve related problems with 
much greater flexibility and, in many cases, ease.

It describes what an array is, then proceeds to explain how to assign 
values to an array element, how to retrieve that value, how to get a 
list of keys, how to delete a key, and since all the previous examples 
had used a literal string as the element name it concludes with an 
example of how to use a variable in place of a literal to access array 
elements.

But the usefulness of my post does indeed come with one limitation:  you 
must not only read the code given there, but to have a good 
understanding of it you should put together an experiment stack and 
actually try it out.

If you do that you will be well on your way to getting an understanding 
of working with Rev's associative arrays in under 20 minutes.  If you 
continue that experimentation (coupled with reviewing the tokens noted 
there in the Dictionary and asking follow-up questions here if needed) 
you can copletely master them in an hour, or maybe two at the outside.

As with learning math, car repair, or any other skill, the best learning 
of programming concepts comes from not only reading, but also doing.

If you choose to try this and still have difficulty grasping arrays, 
please let me know which specific portions of the post were not clear 
and I'll be happy to expand on those aspects.  The post was written 
off-the-cuff in a few minutes and by no means represents a comprehensive 
effort to teaching everything there is to know about arrays; it was 
written for a reader at Judy's skill level to get an understanding of 
the basics of arrays.  With your specific guidance it could, however, be 
filled out to serve a larger goal of being a tutorial.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________
  Rev tools and more:  http://www.fourthworld.com/rev