me - the potential buyer

[John Tenny]

Am I one of those that RR is interested in? I'd played a bit with HC 
and liked it; never had a useful product in mind so went on to other, 
non-programming tasks (like getting a PhD and running a graduate 
teacher education program for 15 years).

Now I do have a product in mind and a ready, if small market. It has to 
be cross platform to be a success (success = breaking even, not 
producing uncommitted cash)- a hobby with income. I stumbled across RR 
and thought I'd found the right tool.

The new pricing doesn't bother me at all - I was ready to pay the full 
price for the SBE (which was less than the Studio after the intro offer 
is finished) -- if it did the job I needed.

What has stopped me dead in my tracks is that I can't seem to learn the 
program. As a newcomer, I can tell you that the online help system 
stinks - not enough examples, not enough detail in the 
vocabulary/syntax areas, and a vaporware manual. Try finding how to use 
the debug feature of the program. This may sound silly to you 
experienced folks, but I'm an intelligent and capable learner, really 
working to learn the product, and it's a quagmire.

The free version let me play forever to try to get a handle on how 
things works; because I know so little, I was not clever enough to make 
things work within the 10 line limit, so was considering the SBE -- 
JUST TO LEARN ON.

I been reading this list (the most active I've ever seen) religiously, 
and can honestly say I have not found one single thing that has been at 
the level I need. This is a wonderful, supportive club of talented 
folks all at the same, more advanced level, and I can see that it's of 
real use to all of you. It's not to me at all. It's ok to be a printed 
manual person, and I'm one, although the idea of a 3000 page manual 
sounds ridiculous ( and I'd be happy to grade all the database access 
for just one of the manual sections). Put the manual online as a pdf

So RR has now (for a short time) a reasonable entry price tag ($199 for 
what I need); it's cross platform (although the list points out 
numerous problems). But I think the learning curve is just too much  
and no manual and no tech support and no list that doesn't intimidate 
me. I'd love for RR to be a success, but if they're after people like 
me, they're doing something wrong.

Peace,

     John

Technology Integration Mentor
OTEN PT3 Grant