Why Rev needs a cookbook (newb questions)

[Richmond Mathewson]

Well, I don't know, but most of my programming ideas come
as intuitive flashes:

"learning becomes a Zen like experience"

when all the reasoning has fled and my mind runs screaming
through the halls of . . . Oh, sorry, I didn't know we had to
pretend that computer programming was a logical 'science'
that could be learnt by ostension.  :)

A cookbook would be a jolly good idea (may be  Jilly Cooper
could be hired . . .), but, as with any other manual of any type,
would only get the learner to a certain stage: of course if that
stage is the one where the learner begins to intuit what is
needed then the cookbook will have done a far better job
than most manuals.

The only problem about 'systematic' is whose 'systematic' do
you mean; taxonomy has always been notoriously
subjective.

Of course if any one wants to go to work on my moribund
RunRev learning wiki . . .

Peter Alcibiades wrote:
> I said this before, but its why Rev needs a cookbook on the lines of Carla 
> Schroder's great  "Linux Cookbook"
>
> Steven Cox's queries illustrate the problem very clearly. Imagine a kitchen 
> with lots of pots and pans and ingredients in it.  It comes with a 400 
> page guide detailing the function of every one.
>
> We now have an intelligent Martian who has just been employed as a cook.  
> His first assignment is spaghetti carbonara, or cassoulet.  Where does he 
> start?
>
> What he has is a superb kitchen manual.  What he wants is a cookbook, with 
> a systematic set of entries like this (from the Rev for C programmers 
> page):
>
> "To filter a handler so that it only responds to certain objects, rather 
> than every object below it in the hierarchy, use the target function to 
> determine which object originally received the message being handled.
>
> "To create a code library, place the handlers you want to re-use in any 
> object that’s available in your a stack, then use the insert script 
> command to add that object to the hierarchy."
>
> So what Steven is looking for is a cookbook with entries like "to empty a 
> field......"    "to check for a variable.....".  "to make elements in a 
> list field clickable...."  "to change the mouse to a hand while 
> hovering..."
>
> Without this, learning becomes a Zen like experience.  You know the story 
> of the young man wanting to learn swordsmanship?  He enrols with a master, 
> and the first day when expecting to meet for a lesson, is astonished to be 
> hit violently over the head with a stick.  His master has sneaked up on 
> him.  As time goes by the attacks continue and become more and more 
> devious.  One day he is about to enter a room and something makes him 
> pause.  His master emerges from behind the door and bows deeply.
>
> Its OK.... but a recipe book is easier.
>
> Peter
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