Newbie Q: LiveCode Forum

[Richard Gaskin]

Calvin Waterbury wrote:

> I was wondering who here frequents the LC forum?
>
> I'm curious because I have tried to keep up with this list.  It reminds
> me of 1982 when I tried to read every article in the "Wall Street
> Journal!"  Whoosh!  I never made through one issue and once, I started
> "stacking up for the weekend," it was all over!  :)

I used to have that feeling with Harper's and Wired.  Had to stop 
reading them both.  I find myself reading Linux Journal cover to cover, 
but thankfully the articles are shorter so I can also get some work done. :)

> Anyway, I'm just wondering if I might get the same help on the forum?

A good many of us frequent the forums. But because this list predates 
the forums by several years, I find a lot of the people who've been 
using LiveCode the longest are here rather than there.

This list can indeed be overwhelming, but using GMane as Mark Wieder 
suggested is a good option, or switching your subscription to digest 
mode can also be helpful (mine is set for digest).

The forum is good too.  In fact, it has one feature not available on 
this list:  Bernd's attachments.   Like many here and there, Bernd is a 
very helpful fella who's quick to offer code examples to answer 
questions.   But since the forum allows attachments, while most of us 
merely post a relevant line or two of a code example, Bernd often goes 
the extra mile to put his helpful tips into a fully functional demo 
stack and attaching it to his reply.  He's been amazingly generous with 
his time, and it's much appreciated by all the forum members there.


Since you're learning LC as a second language, I hope the readers here 
will indulge another copy of what I've found, after teaching this tool 
and related dialects for so long, to be the progression through the 
learning curve for getting started with this weird beast:

    Day one:     "What the hell is going on?  Why doesn't anything work
                  like I expect?  I hate this damn thing."

    Two days:    "Omigawd, the potential is incredible! If only I knew
                  how to use it all..."

    Two weeks:    "After reading the language guide and trying some
                  things out, I'm able to do truly productive work."

    One month:    "Now I can do productive work efficiently."

    Three months: "With the flexibility of the language and the handy
                   tools in LiveCode, I'm seeing slightly greater
                   productivity than in my formerly-favorite tool I'd
                   used for years."

    Six months:   "I love this thing."

    One year:     "I love this thing like no other."


:)

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv