Documentation & Books

[Marian Petrides]

Actually, as soon as I sent my reply to this, I was presented with a 
perfect example of how you can get lost in the dox.

I had been looking for the method to extract eight characters from a 25 
char string, starting at char 5.

In answering, Jacque suggested that I could have found the answer by 
looking up "character" in the transcript dictionary and asked if I had 
tried that.  I had looked up "string" and I had also used the SEARCH 
DOCUMENTATION box entering "find character in a string" and "extract 
character from a string."  This is an example of someone knowing that 
the other search box exists and, as we were discussing, that it should 
yield the most hits and using it--wrongly it would appear.

M
:::following my breadcrumb trail, or attempting to::::




On Jul 7, 2004, at 6:01 PM, Ken Ray wrote:

> Amen, Chipp...
>
> <irked>
> Sorry, but it is difficult for me to believe that some one who opens 
> the
> documentation for the first time (seeing the Roadmap page) where there 
> is a
> "Search the Documentation..." link would think they would get *more* 
> results
> by clicking on an *item* in the list ("Transcript Language 
> Dictionary") and
> then executing a search. Sorry, but the first page says "About the
> Documentation", then "All Documentation by Category", then "Search the
> Documentation". It isn't hard to make the cognitive "leap" that 
> searching
> the documentation means searching ALL of the documentation. Come on, 
> people!
> </irked>
>
> That said (and my blood pressure reduced), I *can* imagine that 
> someone who
> is looking for the right token to work with arrays would go to the TLD 
> and
> search for "array". However you'll note that the only time you get 
> nothing
> as a result is when the popup to the left of the field says "Filter 
> with:"
> or "Scroll to:"; if you actually pick "Search for:", looking for 
> "array"
> provides a lot of items (although granted, many of them are not 
> applicable).
>
> Perhaps it has more to do with the arrangement of the documentation 
> than the
> docs itself - perhaps the "Search the Documentation" link should be 
> more
> prominent, or that the results are weighted, or some combination. For
> example, when I search the docs on "array", I see "How to create an 
> array
> variable" pretty quickly in the list.
>
> However IMHO the point is moot, as 2.3 will have a revised interface 
> for
> getting through the docs, so I'd suggest taking a look at that *first* 
> and
> then making suggestions later after we've all had a chance to digest 
> it and
> work with it.
>
> And with that, I take my leave of this subject until the new docs are 
> out...
>
> :-)
>
> Ken Ray
> Sons of Thunder Software
> Email: kray at sonsothunder.com
> Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com
>> [mailto:use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com] On Behalf Of
>> Chipp Walters
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 4:41 PM
>> To: How to use Revolution
>> Subject: Re: Documentation & Books
>>
>>
>> Aw c'mon, it's not as hard as digging for diamonds. Just look
>> under the
>> "HELP" menu (funny it should be *there*) ;-)
>>
>>
>> Marian Petrides wrote:
>>
>>> The point being that the cognoscenti know to use the Search
>>> Documentation tool, but a rank beginner would not.
>>
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