The Documentation

[Kay C Lan]

On 10/25/07, Timothy Miller <gandalf at doctortimothymiller.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Oct 24, 2007, at 12:12 PM, Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>
> > I learnt RR by trial and error, old HC knowledge
> > (founded on Danny goodman's EXCELLENT book...)
>
> Me too. However, in my case, my understanding and skill have not
> grown much beyond that point.


cut...

 But it seems like there
> are millions of mildly geekish potential RR users out there. If they
> find the docs approachable and digestible, they might discover RR and
> become enthusiastic. Otherwise, it just isn't going to happen.


True, but I think what everyone needs to appreciate is that Apple had a LOT
more resources, both personnel and monetary, than Rev has and still people
flocked to third party authors to get to grips with HC. People seem to be
expecting from Rev what Apple itself couldn't achieve.

Jim Ault wrote:
>
> > Moving off topic a bit..  the sample stack library, much like Rev User
> > Spaces.  Again, Beginner, Adv, Expert ratings.
> > Showing a working example is worth a 1000 visits to the
> > Dictionary.  I might
> > be exaggerating, but not by much.
>
> Sample stacks don't consistently work well for me, especially if they
> are sample "projects." Buttons, fields and graphics are easy. Scripts
> are hard. The projects themselves rarely interest me.
>
> Sample lines of script in the docs work great for me.
>
> If the docs, in their current form, had five or ten times as many
> sample lines of transcript for every command, property, function,
> etc., and, sometimes, possibly, very short working scripts, I would
> almost always be able to answer my own questions. The large number of
> samples would reflect various contexts and purposes, varying degrees
> of difficulty, and so on.


I'm 110% with you here. It's why I believe BvG Docu + WebNotes Plus (other's
contributions)
has so much potential. You and I will never have the authoring skills of the
like of Danny, Dan, David or DeVoto (is it because we don't have a D in our
initials?) but I have no doubt that even you, after struggling to understand
some terse example and finally having the 'penny drop' would pen an
inclusion aimed at newbies giving a fuller layman's explanation of what it
all means and how you make it work.

In the mean time, we continue to go around and around in circles.