Documentation and Parental Cruelty

[Joe Lewis Wilkins]

Hi Judy,

Those of us who enjoy writing about things usually get around to  
wondering about this very issue. At one point, these are things that  
I was hoping to accomplish when I was doing the "University of  
HyperCard" series for Macinstruct.com back about 1999; but then Apple  
nixed HC development and there was really no point. At that time I  
was somewhat retired from Architecture, but since have been lured  
back into it and no longer have the "free" time to use writing about  
much of anything. My point, Judy, is that I suspect you're going to  
have to do this yourself.

LOL,

Joe Wilkins

On Jun 23, 2007, at 11:53 AM, Judy Perry wrote:

> Well, and then there is the separate issue of documentation that is  
> good
> and meaningful for a child and that which is good/meaningful for an  
> adult.
>
> And, of course, this in turn is separate from documentation that's  
> good
> for an adult new to programming and one which is aimed for a seasoned
> programmer coming from entirely different languages.
>
> Has anyone seen a good set of docs for which one size fits all?   
> (Other
> than Danny Goodman's books, that is) ;-)
>
> Judy
>
> On Sat, 23 Jun 2007, Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>
>> Eric Chatonet wrote:
>>
>> "Fortunately, you have a father able to help you"
>>
>> As little as possible:
>>
>> What I like about the whole x-Talk family of RADs is
>> that new users can get-up-and-running with little or
>> no external help.
>>
>> If one spoon-feeds a child information one ends up
>> with a parrot whose natural creativity has been
>> stifled.
>>
>> So:
>>
>> 1. Started off Andro with a calculator - no reference
>> to the Documentation.
>>
>> 1.5. Moving buttons and random numbers.
>>
>> 2. The "corny" movie-player (playback speed, pause,
>> play backwards, etc.): everytime Andro asks a question
>> I have said "look in the Documentation".
>>
>> Now, while part of this is out of my innate sadism;
>> another part is because I am extremely curious how a
>> child with no programming experience will interact
>> with the help-system. His blanket comment: that the
>> help system is crap: is next to useless itself. I am
>> now trying to get him to explain exactly what his
>> problems are with it - that might prove useful.
>>
>> 3. revSpeak and user-feedback: completely relying on
>> documentation.
>>
>> sincerely, Richmond Mathewson
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>>
>> A Thorn in the flesh is better than a failed Systems Development  
>> Life Cycle.
>> ____________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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