Constant 'Nonsense' about RR documentation

[Dennis Brown]

Richmond,

While I agree with your sentiment (I learned programming the same  
way, though a few years earlier), I don't see Transcript  
documentation as something to compare to other languages from the  
point of view of whose documentation is the worst.

I see what the documentation could be --as a competitive advantage to  
other languages by lowering the barrier to entry and mastery.   
Transcript is different enough from other popular languages, uses  
different terms and metaphors, and is so rich and complex in its  
capabilities that it takes understanding beyond the deceptively  
simple surface to get an idea of what one can really accomplish with  
it.  Spend a year monitoring this list and you start to get the sense  
of it.  However, as you pointed out, rather than just getting you  
feet wet, there is nothing like diving in and thrashing about a good  
while to figure it out.  I am of that school of thought also.

However, I also know how frustrating it can be when stuff does not  
work the way you thought, or you don't even know how to ask the  
questions about what you want to accomplish.  I continue to be amazed  
at the questions from newbies on this list.  Most of the time I can't  
even figure out what they are asking,  then along comes three answers  
from the ranks of experience that understand what the person was  
really asking in spite of what they said.

That was my dilemma about the documentation --how to provide an  
answer when the person does not even know how to ask the question.   
That is why I keep poking at the concept of documentation that can be  
indexed into by an outline from general to specific topics with more  
than one path to the specific information --and I am not talking  
about just the standard docs, but the wisdom of this list also.

Dennis


On Nov 27, 2005, at 7:33 AM, Mathewson wrote:

> I learnt Hypercard without a book,
> and I extended my knowledge, as RR extended xTalk, in the
> same way:
>
> by doing!
>
> Ludwig Wittgenstein said that too many people Philosophise
> and not enough DO PHILOSOPHY.
>
> Now if we all DID Runtime Revolution:
>
> i.e. got in there, got our feet wet, realised that (despite
> a few itches) it really is just about the best
> cross-platform RAD out there, and used the built-in
> documentation as well as we are able to . . .
>
> We would probably shut-up about the 'awful this and the
> awful that'.
>
> Although I am a mere 43 (I have a feeling Dan Shafer is
> older) I started computer programming with FORTRAN 4 in
> 1975 - then BASIC, then PASCAL, ZILOG . . . those who moan
> (I don't mean the odd 'twitch') and continue to moan about
> RR's documentation and "lack-of-ease-of-use" ought to try
> programming with one of those horrible Hollerith card
> punchers: