Dependence on Programming Experts

[Garrett Hylltun]

GregSmith wrote:
> I'll just repeat what I initially stated:
> 
> I think multimedia authoring software should be intuitive enough, and well
> documented enough to allow a fairly non-technical user to do amazing things
> without constantly needing to ask assistance from local forum gurus.
> 
> The foundational educational material for learning Revolution from the
> standpoint of a total non-programmer seems to be missing.  That's the gist
> of my own personal dilemma.
> 
> I do appreciate most of your replies, but having to go through this kind of
> verbal ordeal in order to learn a thing is precisely the reason I don't want
> to use a forum as a learning tool or depend upon the reactions of the local
> gurus.  I want to learn alone.  The resources which would allow me to do
> this from the ground up, using Transcript and Revolution, as a single tool,
> do not exist.

You had the answers to your questions within a few of the users replies, 
but you persisted and of course, got more replies.  No person here 
verbally abused you at all.

Simple media presentation tools are what you want them to be, and Rev is 
not a simple media presentation tool, it's the bridge between that and 
full programming tool.

A simple media presentation tool as you want will not accomplish what 
you want.  If you want to do what you want to do, then you're going to 
have to get over your misconceptions and get dirty with learning a 
programming language.

These things will never be so simple that anyone can use them, it's just 
impossible.  Even though the car you spoke of only had 300 parts, that 
doesn't mean that the average Joe is capable of replicating it or 
working on it, unless they got dirty and learned how to do it.  And I 
can bet you there was no tutorials or forums to help out.

Nothing will ever be intuitive enough for every single person to do 
amazing things.  The only way amazing things will happen is if you take 
the time to learn something and then use your knowledge to create that 
something amazing.

If you are not able to begin learning to use Rev with what is already 
available for tutorials and such, then programming and or creating media 
presentation type projects is just not going to be your cup of tea at 
all.  There is no magical spell that will allow anyone to learn without 
digging in and getting dirty.

When you were a child, was riding a bicycle so intuitive that you did 
not need to learn how to ride it?  When you began to use a computer, was 
it so intuitive that you did not have to ask for help?  When you began 
to learn to read and write, was it so intuitive that you didn't have to 
go to school to learn how read and write?

There's a price to pay for everything in life and if you're not willing 
to pay that price then you're just not going to get what you want at 
all.  There's no amount of conjecture or debates that will change that.

If you do find what you are looking for, I can assure you that you will 
never create anything amazing with it.

Maybe you should look around the VPL development tools, or maybe try 
Flash or shockwave or something like that.  Maybe those will be more 
intuitive.

I think I can understand why the other forums were abrupt with you or 
just ignored you.  You weren't willing to really learn at all, instead, 
you probably complained about how impossible it is to learn and it 
should be more intuitive so that a three-leg cross-eyed weener dog with 
brain damage could just start using it with no learning curve at all.

Honestly, you've really kind of pissed me off on this completely.  There 
should be no reason at all that you can't learn to use Rev!  I have a 
hard time just living life itself because of my disabilities, but yet, I 
was able to learn to use Rev!  And I bet you that I could put any one of 
my three teens at the computer with Rev and they'd learn and understand 
it within a few months, and not one of them knows jack about programming!

My suggestions is go find something else to do and stay away from 
programming completely, don't even think about scripting, coding, batch, 
automation, nothing related to any of it.  Take up coloring books!  Oh 
Wait!, that might not be intuitive enough and you'd want the pictures to 
color themselves!

Ok, I'm obviously off the deep end now, so take care and good luck on 
whatever you decided to do.

-Garrett