A note about fillGradient and Co.

[Richmond Mathewson]

Mark Wieder wrote:
> Richmond-
>
> Sunday, September 27, 2009, 12:41:06 PM, you wrote:
>
>   
>>> All those, with the exception of "ramp" where you specified the value
>>> rather than the name, are very well documented. In the docs. 
>>>       
Any bright ideas what "ramp" could be ?
>> Not in the built-in documentation in my version of Studio dp-4.
>>     
The others are less well documented:

opacity
blend mode
color
filter
spread
size
distance
angle
source

try "spread" in the built-in docs.
>> Possibly in the PDF; but, frankly, that is a pain in what my Granny called
>> the 'BTM" to look at whilst programming.
>>     
>
> Being *reasonably* sure that you and I both picked up the same build
> of 4.0 at the conference, I fired my Studio copy up again and I can
> still type "fillgradient" in the search box and have it come up. Do
> you have "All" (or "Object" or "Language") selected for the
> documentation section (at the left of the docs pane) rather than
> something under "Library"?
>   
Yups, I stand corrected.
> I admit to not having opened the pdf docs before, but now that I have
> I don't think the Users Guide is actually going to be a substitute for
> the Dictionary.
>
>   
Personally, I think the PDF is for those people who have perfect recall, can
sit down and digest a whole document at one sitting, and then, while
trying to actually program something can bring up the relevant section of
the PDF in their mind's eye.

"Clever" though I may be (??????), this trick is way beyond me. Also,
given the luxury of time to read I will always reach for something by
Smollett or Fielding, or Kipling, Carlyle or Stevenson rather than some
deadly computer manual.
> But you gotta love a document with a section titled "Delivering a
> Message in the Future". I bet Jacque had a hand in writing that one.
>   
Wow! Surely "Delivering a Message TO the Future" would be even
better.