[noob again]static text

Richard Gaskin ambassador at fourthworld.com
Mon Mar 7 20:23:57 EST 2005


Mikey wrote:
> In the case of a tool like RR, the docs need to be better because the
> paradigm is very different and often it's difficult to match the
> vocabulary, even for people familiar with cousins of it.

I agree.  While I feel Rev offers an unusually strong ROI over the long 
term, that ROI is the result of an unusual paradigm, requiring special 
care in guiding the new user beyond what would be needed for a 
non-proprietary language/object model such as C++ or Python.

What languages/tools have you worked with before?  Perhaps we can better 
tailor responses to where you're coming from.

> Come to think of it, the docs on how to use the docs aren't complete
> either, leaving me with the question of "What would have led me to
> search for what you were searching for to get the answer to the
> question I was rasing?".  I'm afraid the answer is "Nothing".

This is a topic of eager interest to me, as I'm working on some 
indexing/data mining tools and find the cognitive side of searching 
interesting.

With more than 3,000 pages' worth of material I'm fairly confident that 
what you need is there.  But I agree the search index is weak so finding 
things can be difficult.

I came in late here -- could I trouble you to remind me what it was you 
were looking for, and what terms you used to find it?  That would be 
very helpful for the team, who I believe are revising the indexing 
scheme as I write this.

In the meantime, here's a tip:  What the docs call "FAQ" isn't the sort 
of "miscellaneous bin" FAQ you find with most products; with Rev it's 
really the topical guide you're looking for.  Pretend that "FAQ" is 
labeled "User Guide" and you may find what you need more easily, often 
without needing to use the search feature at all.

Also, given the very unusual nature of Transcript I can't recommend 
stongly enough the value of learning by doing something very small at 
first.  Getting the lay of the land with a very small task can make 
moving on to bigger things much easier.


Earlier you had written:
> Since we're in the mode of trying to decide if we're going to shell
> out for one or several corporate licenses, or put RR in the "wait and
> see" category and continue with the plan to convert our existing
> stacks to other environments, which sort of reduces the future value
> of RR to us, the little things such as this make a difference.  It's a
> much more awkward sell.

That would be unfortunate, as I believe that once you get past this 
initial orientation you'll be quite happy with the results.  But having 
worked in a few other languages myself I'm also keenly sensitive to your 
position, and have been lobbying for the return of some materials that 
were in an earlier version of Help which were aimed at programmers with 
different levels of experience with different specific tools.

In lieu of that, for now you have us here on this list. :)

FWIW, after teaching Transcript as a second language for some years now 
I've found the following pattern to be fairly consistent with most 
newcomers:

   Two days into the product: "What the hell is going on?  I can't
            figure this thing out!  Damn, what were they thinking?"

   One week: "Wow.  I've reviewed the language dictionary and I'm
            very intrigued by what's there.  If only I could put
            all the parts together to make something useful."

   Two weeks: "I just finished my first project. It was a bit of
            a challenge but I think I'm getting the hang of this."

   One month: "Cool.  I'm feeling confident with this.  I can do
            most of what I need, and although I'm still looking
            up a lot of terms in the Dictionary I'm beginning to
            feel really good about this."

   Six months: "I love this thing.  I'm at least as productive with
            Rev as I had been with the other tool I'd been using
            for years, maybe more so."

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


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


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