Constant 'Nonsense' about RR documentation

[Stgoldberg at aol.com]

Different people learn in different ways.   In my own case, it is 
indispensable to read through entire manuals first in a systematic way.   That's the way 
I learned Hypercard (Danny Goodman's and Dan Shafer's books), Supercard, 
mTropolis, Revolution (including Dan Shafer's book), Photoshop, Illustrator, Bryce, 
Vue,   and a whole host of other programs.   I agree that once having gone 
through a manual, practice, repetition, and experimenting are vital to mastery 
of a system.   Reading the manual first, though (at the very least an excellent 
Getting Started manual), gives the reader an idea of the sort of things that 
a program is capable of doing, which then allows the programmer to plan doable 
things.   Not reading the manual results in a lot of gaps in understanding 
what a program can and cannot do.   Thus, proper documentation is very 
important.   The problem is not that Revolution is a bad program.   To the contrary, it 
is a superb program, which is why I've   switched to Revolution as a 
replacement for the now-defunct mTropolis.   The problem is that it is very difficult 
for a novice, who has not already learned a related language (like HyperCard) 
to get into using Revolution without good documentation.   And even with a 
scripting background, Revolution still needs a better description of its basic 
features.   I've read the entire User manual.   Can someone tell me, for 
instance, where there is any basic organized documention as to   the key features of 
the Property Inspector, which is central to the development process?   In 
order to survive, Revolution will need to attract new users.   Proper 
documentation is very important to attracting new users.

Steve Goldberg