Dependence on Programming Experts

GregSmith brucegregory at earthlink.net
Wed Jul 5 18:45:12 EDT 2006


Dan & Malte:

O.K., you asked for it.  First, though, let me explain my own personal
dilemma.  I would have to agree with many of you out there, that there are
limitations that come bundled with whatever single use tool you commit
yourself to.  None ever provides everything you wish they did.  Though a
product like Keynote does many  of the things I need, it doesn't do them all
and leaves me wishing and waiting for a time when it might.  Or might not. 
User requests for new features only go so far.  And moving a megaladon like
Apple could prove to be next to impossible.

So, you're right.  Revolutioon offers an environment that seems very
appealing from that point of view, alone.  Make something that does
precisely what you want it to do, the way you want it to do it.  Expand such
a creation at any point in the future.  It does, indeed, seem limitless with
regard to creative possibilities.  So, yes, I'm sold on that aspect of the
Revolution offering.

But, English-like, or not, I just don't take to programming like ducks do to
water.  The very nature of performing all the teeny tiny little steps that
you must perform to get even the most basic things done is an exercise in
patience that may go beyond my capability to endure.  I wish it were not so. 
I wish I were smarter and had the patience of Yoda.  Maybe, someday I'll
attain to it, but, today, I lack.

And, yet, still, I am not averse to trying.  I may.  But, what, with regard
to the available teachers and tutors?  Nearly all have been programming so
long, that they forget how little the non-programmer understands.  You guys
and gals out here all speak with the same insider lingo.  You don't even
know you are doing it, the terminology is so rooted and engraved upon your
psyche.  You speak in abbreviations and acronyms as often and as
unconsciously as the turtledove sings her song.  It saves time.  And I can
understand why you need to save time,  observing how long it takes to author
applications in any language.  If you want US to learn you must have mercy. 
Don't assume anything, with regard to our background or computer saviness. 
We are, with respect to the deep waters of programming, essentially morons. 
But, even morons deserve some kindness and tenderness and longsuffering.  Do
YOU have that?

Understanding some of the phraseology of Transcript still doesn't equip a
potential Revolution author with a general framework of how to proceed in
any particular direction.  What if the application he envisions is not
composed of standard application functionality, such as windows, pop-ups,
roll-overs, drop down menus, fields dialogs and the like?  What if his dream
application is composed of visual elements that both need to look and behave
like something much different than the above mentioned items?  What if his
imagined application contains functionality and visual appeal that combine
the aesthetics, logic and interaction of a game, a database, a shopping
system and a lego set?  How would this aspiring programmer even determine if
such an ambitious project were within his practical set of abilities?  How
can he know?   Where would he begin, and most of all, where would he find
the set of documents that would serve as his knowledgebase for his
particular, specialized set of functions and goals.  It appears one would
have to be operating at the genius level and beyond to cobble together such
a system from the vast library of GENERIC transcript actions and functions
that are listed and available.

Like all programming API's,  the Transcript listing is mainly a set of
instructions telling the user, "what" each function is, (all in that
wonderful programmer's lingo), only sometimes "what" it does, and almost
never "why" it does what it does and "when" you would need to use it and for
what you would want to use it.  All of this leaves the novice still flailing
in the dark, not knowing where to turn next.  So, inevitably, he will have
to post something like "Stupid newbee question" on a forum like this one,
irritating the heck out of you experts out there.  See, this is where
everyone that approaches an application like Revolution will eventually end
up.

I have had this very same discussion over at the Unity forums, where one
must master the foggy, poorly documented, illogical language called
JavaScript, (script, my eye!), to make even the simplest, game-like
behaviors occur.  And the experts can't help but think to themselves, "what
a moron," whenever I open my mouth with uninsightful questions.  Programming
to them, at least at the time they read my ignorant questionings, has become
somewhat second nature, and they can't understand why it is so hard to
understand.  . . .    Know-wuddi-mean?

Greg Smith


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