What About Newbies

[J. Landman Gay]

On 7/9/05 9:05 PM, Tom McDonald wrote:

> I've been running tutorials and whatever else is available to a
> newcomer to Revolution but have become frustrated because it is all
> beyond me The daily material is all about technical stuff between
> gurus. There is nothing for the newbie. The videos are smoothly
> presented and the diction is impressive but it's all above me.
> There's a group of advanced users swapping esoteric fixes.

I know what you mean. I think this list can be intimidating for 
newcomers. It is a wealth of information and the best resource there is, 
but if you don't know what question to ask, the chatter can be meaningless.

I think the only way to change that is to have brave new people ask a 
lot of questions. Then other new people will follow suit. I am always 
glad to see basic questions show up on the list. It keeps us from 
getting too snobby and it gives the intermediate newcomers a chance to 
contribute back. ;)

> 
> I need a video turorial that simply explains how to create a data
> base of many text screens that can be called up as needed or on a
> random basis.

There are lots of ways to do this, it depends on how many screens you 
want to display. If it is under 2-3 thousand or so, then a drop-dead 
simple way is to make a shared background group that appears on each 
card. In that group is a text field. A shared text field can have 
different text on every card, so put each text block into that field on 
each card. Give each card a distinctive name.

Then, to display the text on demand, just go to the card that has the 
text. If you show a list of card names in a list, the user can click on 
the list to go to the card. For specifics on how to do that, just ask.

If you don't want to use a field, you can store each text block in a 
file on disk and load them into a display field on demand. This also 
works very well. Your data is separate from your stack in this case, 
which can be an advantage.

If you have a lot of data, you can store it in a database like mySQL or 
Valentina. Then you would use database calls to set and retrieve your data.

Decide which system would work best and we can help you from there.

> 
> How about a basic explanation of an If/Then and a Do While algorithm?

There's a pretty good one in the dictionary, under "if". The "do while" 
in Transcript is really a "repeat while". The dictionary entry for 
"repeat" is pretty extensive.

> 
> 
> Perhaps an explanation of how and where to locate plug-ins and how to
> use them.

There used to be one, but I can't find it now. I agree this would be a 
good addition.

> 
> Perhaps a kindergarten section in the daily blurbs would assist
> people like me.

I like this idea a lot, actually. I just don't know anyone with time to 
compile such a thing. I wish, though.

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Tom McDonald
> 

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com