documentation organizational problems

[Jeanne A. E. DeVoto]

At 3:24 PM -0400 6/1/2005, Jon wrote:
>Unlike programming languages like Delphi, C, or Java, methods are 
>not explicitly associated with objects in Revolution.  This means 
>that it is very difficult to use the Rev documentation to find all 
>of the methods (commands) for images, or for string manipulation.

I don't think that's a documentation issue (to the extent that it's 
an "issue", rather than a difference of approach) so much as a 
language issue; some commands do operate on specific objects, but 
most don't.

Properties and messages, on the other hand, do apply to specific 
object types. You can find these lists in the documentation: click 
the Objects icon, then click Objects in the list, then the object 
type you're interested in. (For example, to list the messages that 
can be sent to a field, click the Objects icon, then click Objects, 
then Field, then Message.)

>Am I the only one who finds this to be awkward, time consuming, and 
>frustrating?  Are there any discussions about how to manipulate 
>strings, with functions similar to (or better than!) traditional 
>Pascal routines like Extract, SubString, Copy, Insert, Delete, Pos, 
>etc?

You might find "About chunk expressions" enlightening - it's a whole 
different approach but it becomes very natural very quickly, even for 
people who are more used to traditional string manipulation. Click 
the Topics icon in the documentation, then click "Text and Data 
Processing", then click "Chunk expressions", to read it.
-- 
jeanne a. e. devoto ~ revolution at jaedworks.com
http://www.jaedworks.com