Another Area For Document Development

[Richard Gaskin]

Judy Perry wrote:

> FWIW, this is one of the areas I'm trying to tackle in my project.  The
> solution I'm considering currently (which is geared strictly towards
> nonprogrammers) is to provide sample stacks with sample scripted goodies
> (ala Hypercard's 'Sample buttons' & 'Sample fields' stacks).  I'm leaning
> towards this method for the following reasons:
> 
> 1.  People hate reading manuals/documentation (it can be confusing and
> frustrating for the very reasons you outlined even IF typing in 'tab
> buttons' revealed anything).
> 
> 2.  The documentation isn't visual, so even providing a cookbook script
> doesn't tell you how to go about implementing it in a meaningful way
> (especially if you are a nonprogrammer).
> 
> 3.  Sample stacks put the items in both a visual and  contextual frame of
> reference.  People can look at the item, look at the script, and observe
> the output without having to look at a page of code and then try
> copy-pasting or typing things in and hoping one got everything together
> where it was supposed to be).
> 
> 4.  Sample stacks provide for code reuse and modification -- the latter
> encourages the new programmer to experiment with the scaffolding of
> keeping the original goodie intact.
> 
> Thoughts?

Maybe there are few sample stacks because are just less interesting to 
make.  If RevNet is any index of this, note that the Tutorials category 
in the Stacks section is by far the most sparsely populated.

In contrast, there are a lot of libraries and tools available through 
RevNet.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com